I’ll be honest, I actually have no idea but thought I’d best look into it for myself and of course you. I do remember there was a discussion about it six or seven years ago about how to improve European international football but then hadn’t heard much since. They have now come up with something I guess, […]
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Because they have become the smallest nation ever to reach the World Cup finals. That’s right Iceland will be in Russia next June as they now await the draw in December to see who’ll they face, but which other Nordic nations will be joining them? Below is our quick Nordic review of the recent final […]
Continue Reading ...Ask any Finnish football fan how to improve the game here, and the chances are they will at some point mention young players. You may well be told that they need to be given more playing time at earlier ages, to have better and more professional coaches and that they could, if the conditions are […]
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Finland is waking up after the long, cold and miserable winter, and that means three things: melting snow, lifting winter gloom and the start of the football season. There may be more attention than usual this year thanks to the ‘miracle of Gijon’, in which the national team snatched a 1-1 draw with Spain last […]
Continue Reading ...Finland’s football community is frequently engaged in an agitated discussion about about whether its culture is sufficiently impressive to nurture any kind of football worthy of respect. The presence or absence of something called ‘football culture’ might, to the casual observer, seem like a function of the league system (if there are football matches, bingo!) […]
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After half a decade spent going through the motions and hoping for a miracle with quick fix coaching appointments, the Finnish Football Association finally took the inevitable leap of faith in 2011 and set forth on a long-term project with the national team. The first step was taken in March with the appointment of Mixu […]
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The Åland Islands is an autonomous and predominantly Swedish-speaking archipelago in Finland, made up of over 6,500 islands and skerries. The total population is barely 29,000, with 11,000 of those living in the capital, Mariehamn. The Åland Islands also happens to be the home of the newly-crowned Veikkausliiga champions, IFK Mariehamn. It was a title that few […]
Continue Reading ...The old cliché that football and politics should not mix has taken a bit of a beating in the UK this weekend. It’s quite exceptional that a former Prime Minister is granted a ceremonial funeral without a commemoration from football, but no English club has risked inviting derision with a mark of respect for Margaret […]
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Finnish football players often earn small, irregularly paid salaries. They live in such such poverty that they cannot afford to buy houses, that they need to take second jobs, that they sometimes have to apply to state-run insurance to get their salaries paid. The idea of ‘player power’ and ‘contract rebels’ is a bit of […]
Continue Reading ...The Finnish FA reorganised the league structure last season, taking the opportunity presented by Tampere United and AC Oulu’s licensing difficulties to reduce the top league by two clubs and introduce a 33-game system. Twelve clubs now play each other club three times, squeezing an additional seven games into the short Finnish season. The idea was […]
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