Observers of the Finnish football scene could be forgiven for feeling like they’ve seen it all before. For the last six years HJK Helsinki have won the league championship, and the same is expected this year.
HJK wiping the floor with domestic opposition is becoming as much a part of the Finnish summer as a weekend at the summer cottage. Last year the Helsinki club took 72 points from 33 games, 13 ahead of their nearest rivals, and had a goal difference of +43.
They are so dominant that in 2013 the club’s marketing department advertised season tickets with the promise of ticketing priority for Champions League games, presumably because Finnish opposition don’t have enough star quality to attract the spoiled consumers of the capital.
This year they’ve taken that internationalisation a stage further with the acquisition of two Japanese internationals. Mike Havenaar and Atom Tanaka are a cut above the players normally signed for Veikkausliiga. Havenaar, a towering striker of Dutch parentage with 17 caps for Japan, is expected to provide the firepower to get ‘Klubi’ to the Europa League group stage once again, but the pair have another role too in marketing the club on the international stage.
Best of the rest
Already the club have sold 30 season tickets to the local Japanese community, all in one section of the main stand, and the club now has high hopes of increasing sponsorship revenue in the far east.
Next to this kind of transnational operation, the rest of the league can’t help but a little forlorn. And yet there are bright spots. SJK, upstart challengers from Seinäjoki in Ostrobthnia, have built a squad that is well capable of securing their position as the ‘best of the rest’.
Midfielder Mehmet Hetemaj has returned from Italy, coach Simo Valakari is quietly building a reputation as one of the more thoughtful managers in the country, and to top it all the club will get a brand new stadium from 2016. If any club can challenge for the title from outside Helsinki, it looks like it will be SJK.
Adu sprinkles stardust
Elsewhere there are still bright spots. 16-year-old Sergei Eremenko is expected to get chance to play at FF Jaro, which is perhaps unsurprising as his dad Alexei Eremenko Sr is the coach. The word from Jakobstad is that Sergei has the potential to go all the way, playing abroad and for Finland just like his brothers Alexei Jr and Roman have done.
One other big story came in Kuopio, where KuPS announced they'd signed American former child prodigy Freddy Adu. Since making his debut for DC United at the age of just 14, Adu has lost his way somewhat. Now aged 25, he says he's not looking for money and just wants to play football away from the limelight.
Surprise promotions
Away from HJK, financial desolation has been the order of the day this winter. MYPA have ceased professional operations altogether while FC Honka, a challenger for the title as recently as 2013, were relegated two divisions when their holding company went bankrupt.
Replacing them are KTP from Kotka and Ilves from Tampere. Both clubs have strong traditions but weren’t expecting to be in Veikkausliiga this year. Newcastle-born Ilves coach Keith Armstrong, who is something of a Finnish celebrity but has not coached at the top level for nearly a decade, summed the pre-season up with this less-than-resounding call to arms.
"It feels a little weird," Armstrong told Yle. "We expected to play in Ykkönen (the level below Veikkausliiga). It would have been good if the club could have built up from there, but everything changed in January."
The other newcomer is Helsinki side HIFK, back in the top division for the first time since 1972. Their strong support on the terraces will bring lively derby games to the capital, but as a relatively low-budget team they're not expected to challenge for the title.
Semi-professional
Ilves striker Jonne Hjelm told Ilta-sanomat last week that he is keeping his day job repairing bathrooms even though he's now also leading the line in the top flight. He says it gives him something else to do, and he's not alone. Niko Ikavalko has agreed to play without pay for his hometown team KTP, and nobody playing in Veikkausliiga expects their football salary to provide financial security for life.
With Finland’s national team suffering one of its more disastrous qualification campaigns right now, football fans could use a distraction. It was an easy group, and coach Mixu Paatelainen had said he'd benefited from ‘good luck at the draw’, but now his side are almost certainly unable to qualify for the European Championships.
Right now it looks like HJK are the only footballing entity capable of bringing Finland a little success in Europe. They have their detractors, but their summer qualifers in the Champions League are likely to define their--and Veikkausliiga's--season.
The first round of games will be televised live on Yle's TV2, kick-off 5pm.
