We’re in the middle of the closed-season in Finland, which is why we’ve been quiet lately, but with the Suomen Cup due to restart on 1st February, we look forward to the group stage and explain the structure of the competition. We also discuss the closed-season transfers in the Veikkausliiga and for Finns overseas.
But first, we look at the recent noise created by UEFA and the recent announcements about ticket refunds for EURO 2020…
With a new year on the horizon, the Finnish Football Show broke out it’s socially distanced champagne (Karhu A) to take a look at the highs and lows of 2020 and get out their appropriately masked crystal balls to peer into 2021. Continue reading FFS 2020: Our Year In Review
In this episode, I hope we’ll get back to something like normal. Wait, wait, don’t all switch off or skip to the next show in your podcast player. Surely YOU are gagging for football as much as we are?! We recorded this in the first week of June 2020 and there are a couple of key dates coming up in the near future; the Veikkausliiga is due to kick off from the 1st July and the Suomen Cup has matches scheduled from 16th June.
We look at those Suomen Cup fixtures and then start to prepare for the Veikkausliiga kick off, by looking at the transfers that have taken place during the extended closed season. All EIGHT months of it! 😫 This show was pulled together all of a sudden (with two weeks planning!) but we won’t have all the usual features this time. We’ll bring back ‘Ja sillä sipuli’ and ‘Following’ next time, we promise.
Yes, we know, it’s been ages since the last show, but this time it really ISN’T our fault. There’s been this virus thing, you see. This episode is something a little different. Firtsly, it’s only Mark W & Keke, but this time we are joined by a very special guest, Mikko Laitinen, Marketing Manager at Suomen Palloliitto – the Finnish Football Association.
Mikko talks to us about financial challenges within Finnish football and, conversely, the commercial opportunities offered by the impressive performances of the Huuhkajat. Mikko also explained the background to the “Kauden tärkein ottelu” (the Season’s Most Important Game) campaign, which enables fans to support Finnish football during this difficult time. Encouragingly, the start of the 2020 Veikkausliiga season was also announced on 6.5.2020, the day of the recording, so of course we talked about that too.
There’s so much going on in the world of Finnish football, that Keke, Rich, Mark § Mark are back together only two weeks after the last show. It’s like waiting for a bus, the Finnish Football Show, you wait two months for one…
As a special bonus episode of the podcast, Rich spoke with Finland captain Tim Sparv about the historic Liechtenstein game and qualification for Euro 2020, the blend of players and staff in the squad, his time in Denmark with FC Midtjylland, his former Southampton academy teammates and packing his own shinpads…
2019 was a year of historic achievement for the Huuhkajat, culminating in qualifying for Euro 2020. The Finnish Football Show team reflects on some of the best moments of the year, proving that it wasn’t all about pitch invasions and hoisting captain Tim Sparv above your head! Continue reading [Blog] Finnish Football Show’s Highlights of 2019
