Nordic Football News

ÅLAND‘S archipelago is a beautiful place in summer, a holidaying hotspot and a major attraction for visitors to Finland. You can cycle across the islands, swim in the Gulf of Bothnia, or stay at any one of numerous campsites in Finland’s autonomous province, but it’s safe to say that Atlético Madrid will be doing none of those things during their visit.

Atléti are there to play an end of season friendly against IFK Mariehamn, Veikkausliiga’s outpost in the far south west of the country. After their La Liga finale against Almeriá, when they could secure a Champions League position if they win, they will fly to Åland for a friendly against Åland’s finest.

Why? Well, the story goes back a few years, but an edited version looks something like this. Åland’s gambling company, PAF, used to sponsor IFK but had to stop once the club entered Veikkausliiga. Veikkaus, of course, is the monopoly provider of betting opportunities on the Finnish mainland, and they will not accept the advertisement of competitors. Especially not in a league they sponsor.

So PAF stopped sponsoring IFK and looked around for other opportunities to spread their brand, and burgeoning online business. Eventually they settled on Atlético Madrid, nine times the champions of Spain and happily unencumbered by a gambling monopoly.

“This means that PAF’s customers in Scandinavia and Spain can play at paf.com to win a trip to see a top match, and maybe even meet one of the star players,” PAF’s press officer Krille Matsson told Nya Åland when the match was announced.

Those star players include Sergio Agüero and Diego Forlan, both former Independiente strikers, Luis García, who won the 2005 Champions League with Liverpool, and Maniche, who did the same in 2004 with FC Porto. How many of them will actually play in Mariehamn is unclear, but PAF’s contract with Atléti says they should bring their best available squad.

Ticket sales have been buoyant, in any case, with a sell-out crowd expected at the Wiklof Holding Arena on Tuesday night. Former IFK players Daniel Sjölund and Tommy Wirtanen are in the Mariehamn squad for the game, although Sjölund is not expected to play a big role with World Cup qualifiers on his horizon. Finland take on Leichtenstein on 6 June and Russia four days later, both games will be played in Helsinki.

Sjölund and Wirtanen are able to play as their Allsvenskan clubs – Djurgården and Örebro, respectively – are on a break in June for the Under 21 European Champuinships. Finland announced their under-21 squad this week, with the main omission being Tampere United’s Tomi Petrescu, who is injured, and the moderately surprising addition to the squad that qualified is Sevilla’s 19 year old striker Teemu Pukki.

Coach Markku Kanerva named 22 players and will add one more before 1 June. A strong candidate is Dynamo Kiev’s midfielder Roman Eremenko, who was playing for the senior team during the qualifiers and was therefore not part of the under 21 group, but is still eligible and will play if he is in shape and not at risk of burnout after a long season with the Uefa Cup semi finalists.

Sweden also announced their squad for the Championships, which start on 15 June.