Sounds of Valkeakoski

These are the sounds of Tehtaan Kenttä:

They usually play an incredibly annoying song from last summer. I will spare you that, not least because I don’t know what it’s called. Feel free to guess in the comments section.
Last night’s crowd was pathetic - just 2,200 for a derby at a club in dire financial trouble [...]

FC Haka correction

It seems my introduction for the FC Haka piece relied rather too heavily on Aamulehti, the local Tampere newspaper. They started the week with an astonishing story by Esa Maaranen, stating that the chairman had resigned, the club was close to bankruptcy, and the players salaries were being cut. All of these things were denied [...]

FC Haka

EDIT-see my FC Haka Correction regarding the first few paragraphs.

The previous post was a bit premature, it must be said. Haka still have an appeal, and most people expect them to get their licence, but the whole affair does raise some questions. For instance, why has their budget been passed for Veikkausliiga competition but is [...]

Haka kicked out of Europe

FC Haka have been denied a licence to play in the 2008-09 UEFA Cup. Apparently this is for financial reasons, and TPS have been ‘promoted’ from the Intertoto to fill their place. The full list of Finnish entrants now reads:
Champions League: Tampere United
UEFA Cup: Honka, TPS, Jaro (if they win the Fair Play ballot)
Intertoto: [...]

1st round of Veikkausliiga

Veikkausliiga started last Sunday with six games and the first round was concluded on Monday as HJK paid a visit to IFK Mariehamn. The results were as follows.
FC Inter - RoPS 3-1, highlights 1, 2
VPS - FC Haka 0-0, highlights
TamU - FF Jaro 0-0, highlights
FC KooTeePee - FC Lahti 0-1, highlights
KuPS - TPS 0-3, highlights
FC [...]