An English football coach was sacked on Wednesday after deciding to take up paid work in the TV studio rather than stand on the touchline as his team played an away match. In a statement released on Wednesday, the club thanked him for a ‘wonderful season’ but stating that their paths will now part.
The Ilves CEO Toni Hevonkorpi had said that he hadn’t been informed in advance of Armstrong’s absence last Sunday, when the team played SJK in Seinäjoki.
Armstrong’s lawyer then put out a statement denying that and threatening legal action, saying that he had missed out on lucrative TV work during the season because the schedule clashed with Ilves games.
He had signed a contract when Ilves were still a second-tier team, but after two Veikkausliiga teams went bust they were promoted to the top flight. That meant more games and more clashes with his bread-and-butter employment as a pundit on MTV Sport, which broadcasts Premier League football in Finland.
The case has shone a light on the parlous finances of most Finnish football clubs, with Ilves a largely part-time team and most Veikkausliiga players earning less than the average wage in Finland.
Armstrong himself is something of a celebrity in Finland. He arrived in 1978 as a player with OPS in Oulu, playing for nine different clubs and winning three championships before moving into coaching in 1993 with Rovaniemen Palloseura (RoPS).
As a manager he’s won the league five times and the Finnish cup three times, and been named manager of the year three times. He’s also appeared on “dancing with the stars”, the Finnish version of the ballroom dancing game show Strictly Come Dancing.
