Let’s not get carried away by the shock of the match-fixing scandal. A cap on foreign players in Veikkausliiga isn’t the answer.»crosslinked«Tweet
Continue reading...18. September 2010
Are you ready? The teams that shall stay in the smoldering remains of Ykkönen are bracing for nuclear winter, Palloliitto style. No division will be hit harder in the much-debated league revamp announced by the FFA last spring. I don’t know who’d want to play there next year. You know how every time a natural [...]
Continue reading...1. August 2010
One of the many loveable idiosyncrasies of Finnish football is the relaxed attitude to registrations taken by the authorities here. Players can switch clubs with bewildering regularity, via an intricate network of co-operation agreements between clubs at all levels of the game. Promising young defender Johannes Mononen has played for all three of Tampere’s top [...]
Continue reading...23. May 2010
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this football season. Pub Harald have expanded their beer-selling operations from Ilves to TPV matches, ensuring that pretty much every game taking place at Tammela can now be enjoyed with alcoholic enhancement. And Finnish football, much as I love it, does often need alcoholic enhancement.Tweet
Continue reading...25. January 2010
Photo by Tiina Pirilä Finland has often debated whether to lengthen the season by starting early. As climate change accelerated in recent years, the discussion has intensified and the late-starting schedule has come under fire, but this year things are a little different. Temperatures have barely struggled above -10 across large parts of Finland since [...]
Continue reading...11. December 2009
The Weekly knows it has been bunking off recently and has not been fulfilling its obligations to write a few lines roughly once a week about close to none-existent transfers in Finnish football. And the Weekly used to be a right perky worker. In terms of work ethic, everything changed after Antti Muurinen, the Weekly’s [...]
Continue reading...10. December 2009
ALGERIAN football is on something of a roll right now. The national team has triumphed over adversity, rock-throwing Egyptian fans in Cairo and a tricky play-off in Khartoum to secure qualification for their first World Cup since 1986, and the Algerian diaspora has reacted appropriately. Wild celebrations took place in Paris and in Algerian communities [...]
Continue reading...5. August 2009
A goalfest is not really needed, I would happily settle for 3 goals in this derby between FC Viikingit – PK35 tonight in the ‘rough’ Eastern suburbs of Helsinki. Like all of my picks, this one is based on a combination of performances on the pitch and statistics. I have seen both teams play, improve, [...]
Continue reading...28. July 2009
Like Saturday’s pick, this is not the most obvious of choices. The club is bottom of the table, they have been in turmoil for years for different reasons. Almost nobody likes them that much, and even their home support is non-existent if we leave out the few soccer-moms and the friends of the players. This [...]
Continue reading...13. May 2009
ATLANTIS are not the most glamorous of teams to play for, but Helsinki football has been a revelation for their Antiguan striker since he signed for the Ykkönen side. Having played part time in his homeland, making ends meet by working as a journalist, the opportunity to play professionally arrived late for Skepple. The German [...]
Continue reading...16. April 2009
Tampere city council’s finest sport facilities maintenance minds were hard at work today, trying to decide how to ensure Tampere’s most successful club could fulfil it’s fixtures that Bruce Springsteen’s concert at Ratina Stadium on 2 June can go ahead without fans risking the horror of muddy shoes. Present at the meeting were Esa Auvinen [...]
Continue reading...20. January 2009
PS Kemi 1 TP-47 0 17 July 2008 This fixture drew an attendance of 1,660 people, a big crowd for the Finnish First Division and an all-time record for PS Kemi. The Sauvosaari ground in the centre of Kemi once saw a crowd of over 4,000, for a promotion play-off between Into Kemi and Ponnistus [...]
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30. March 2011
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