Don´t really know where to put this and i couldn´t really find any better place for it...so i will put this here... Today it was announced, HJK Helsinki will host Liverpool Saturday August 1 @ Helsinki. Link from liverpools website: http://www.lfctour.com/news/latest-news/liverpool-announce-friendly-with-hjk-helsinki HJK´s announcement of the match (in Finnish): http://www.hjk.fi/uutiset/Miehet-2536 Before i start my rant. I want everybody to know, that my aggression is not aimed Liverpool or any of its fans or people buying tickets to these type of maches... I want to emphasise, that i have nothing against liverpool and im not here to cause hate. In fact, i watch a lot of premier league and Liverpool games. Liverpool has a big tradition in Finland with Sami Hyypiä and Jari Litmanen. On the other hand, the topic of Premier League clubs (or any other big "world" clubs) playing these type of matches is something that is always up for a debate and i wont go into it here, since this is probably not the time or the place to have that argument... But what i will say is that im fine with these type of matches, when the big clubs use their "power" for something good and the money is going to the right causes instead of the pockets of businesmen... Like i stated ahead, HJK will host liverpool in August and i don´t have an issue with that. I don´t really even care about the whole thing and most likely will not be attending the match. What rubs me the wrong way is not the event itself, not Liverpool, but the management in my own club. In normal League schedule HJK would play away in Marienhamn, the capital of Åland, an a group of islands of the coast of Finland. The Islands are geograpically located closer to Sweden than Finland (and the spoken language there is Swedish), so its almost like going abroad... Only way to get to Marienhamn is by plane or boat, so in order to get there the ultras have to start organising the trip really early, almost as soon as the new league schedule is announced. The problem is that organising fligths for hundreds of people is pretty difficult and since the islands don´t have the capasity of that kind of air travel (or the few airlines that actually fly there), the only way to get there is by boat. Only two boats are going there that day. Other would conviniently leave from Helsinki, but it´s cruise schedule doesn´t match with the programme (the booze-cruise to Åland takes about 12 hours). Only other option to get there in time is from Turku, wich is a city about three hours away from Helsinki. So now we also had to organise a trip to Tur*u as well... Getting the boat is also not that simple, since the shipping company has to make some special arrangements just for us. Now that the trip is finally arranged, hundreds have already paid, loads of others signed up and made their initial arrangements... What does the clubs office fat cats do? Casually announce on twitter that the match is canlled and the new date will be set sometime in the future ... Will the cruise company refund the money? Nope. Will club pay us back the money (several hundred euros per person) or give us free tickets or something in that nature as a refund? No, since in their point of view its our own fault that ultras started organising it so soon. They say they were very open about their plans... Wich they of course mean, that they secretly made a deal with the other team and Finnish FA to move the game. After all, its mighty LIVERPOOL they are facing and there is money to be made, so screw the ultras who put their own money, effort and passion to follow them to some s*itty island in middle of the sea (or anywhere really). Sorry for the non-relativity to anything... I just had to get this out of my chest...
I found this news about Togolese player. I scanned it so you can see. Is there any rumours in Finland? Anyone?
Rops, which finnished last season in the second place is from Rovaniemi, which is in really north. But I was wondering if there was a club, which has played in top divisions and is even further up north. I found few clubs, which are located north of Rovaniemi, but it doesen't seem these have never played in the top leagues. http://www.kolarinkontio.com/kolarinkontio.htm http://pellonpallo.org/ http://www.sodankylanpallo.fi/
http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/teams/cosmos2.php?article_id=46751#.WGkLmBskVi4.facebook Lucky Mkosana has become the third former Cosmos player to sign with another team. The Zimbabwean native has agreed to play with Finland champion IFK Mariehamn. According to club officials, the contract is for one year, plus a one year option. Mkosana joins midfielder Danny Szetela (San Francisco Deltas, North American Soccer League) and Jairo Arrieta (Heredia, Costa Ricaa) as ex-Cosmos players who have moved onto new teams after the NASL champs ceased operations last year.
Hello. I like to see a match when I travel. I'll be in Helsinki in May and looks like I might be there for the Helsinki derby between HIFK and HJK. Are tickets hard to come by? I see that they played for the first time in a long time in 2015 and that sold out. HJK has an English language website but doesn't have a ticket link, so I'm guessing HIFK (which appears to be only in Finnish) is the home team for it.
It's a bit of a dead thread, but if you're in the United States, you can watch Veikkausliiga games at flofc.