Helsinki Times: Young players and Webster

I’ve decided two things. Firstly, I should write more football articles for Helsinki Times. And secondly, I’m going to start putting those HT football articles here. I’ll format them like they will appear in the paper, just for some local flavour from these crazy Finns. The first one is from this week’s edition:
Youngsters move abroad [...]

Ääritalo and Hämäläinen staying

The next post I’m gonna write won’t be about TPS, I promise, so hopefully you won’t get too bored. (I’m actually planning to write a “who’s who” of Turku football, but let’s see what that will develop into).
TPS today announced that Algerian playmaker Hamza Aït Ouamar has signed a contract until the end of season [...]

Japanese Non-league Football Yearbook 2008

Over at Japanese Non-league Football News, they’ve been very busy indeed. Feverishly working away between Omiya Ardija games, they have managed to produce the excellent Japanese Non-league Football Yearbook 2008.
It’s available to print or download free of charge, is 138 pages long and contains over 100 pictures. Very highly recommended, hearty congratulations to all involved [...]

TPS going international with their tickets

I’m new to the blog. I live in Turku, so I will probably be writing about what’s happening around here. Of course I’m interested in the national team as well as the domestic leagues, so it’s not going to be just Turku I’m writing about. Anyway, feedback is very much appreciated, especially in the beginning.
The [...]

Reasons to be cheerful? Honka swap Porokara for Vuorinen

My uneducated guess (I haven’t seen them play yet) is that Honka are going to be great this season. They were leading the league in 2006 until they sold Vuorinen for a big pile of money, now they have him back they’ll be a force to be reckoned with. Losing Porokara is a blow, but [...]

Marta and Umeå IK come to Finland

Pre-season friendlies are well underway now, and there seems to be a glut of trans-bothnian fixtures this week. TPS drew 0-0 with AIK Solna today, but the bigger and more interesting story is the arrival of Umeå IK in Vaasa. They played a friendly against FC Sport yesterday at Botniahalli, winning 11-0, but the story [...]

Finnish football grounds

I’ve updated the ‘Finnish football grounds’ tab with some brilliant photos of Hietalahti. I’ve done some of Tammela and already have some of the Olympic Stadium and Finnair Stadium, but it’d be great to have photos of all the grounds in Finland.
In particular I’d like the Arto Tulsa Areena, Veritas, KuPs’ ground, Tehtaan Kenttä and [...]

Kosovar Finns: panic over?

Gramsci’s Kingdom has an excellent post on the politics of international football federation membership applications and their effect on Kosovo. In short: if you opt for Kosovo, you’ll probably never get the chance to play competitive games against the big countries.
The rules changed after Spain effectively vetoed Gibralter’s application, and now you need UN membership [...]

Kosovo start recruiting

Newly independent Kosovo is going to want everything other nations have, including a national football team. They will now look to recruit players who might even have played for other countries, if they can secure agreements with the applicable federations.
Players affected in Finland are Mehmet Hetemaj, Perparim Hetemaj,  Erfan Zeneli, Njazi Kuqi and Shefki Kuqi [...]

Transfer news

Roni Porokara has signed a three year contract with Sixten Boström’s Örebro, leaving Honka with a ‘very good deal’ according to their manager. He will take his place in Allsvenskan a year late, for my money, but he has pace and skill and certainly has the ability to succeed on a bigger stage.
Boström, incidentally, was [...]