HIFK Fotboll

HIFK Fotboll

Full name	Helsingin Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna
Nickname(s)	IFK Tähtirinnat (The Star Chested) Stadens stolthet (The city's pride) Röda (The Reds)
Founded	1897
Ground	Telia 5G -areena Helsinki, Finland
Capacity	10,770
Chairman	Christoffer Perret
Head Coach	Teemu Kankkunen
League	Ykkönen
2017	11th
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

Active departments of HIFK
Bandy	Football	Ice hockey
Handball	Floorball	Athletics
Bowling	eSports	Golf

HIFK Fotboll or IFK Helsingfors is an association football section of HIFK, a sports club from Helsinki, Finland. The men's football first team plays in second highest tier of Finnish football, Ykkönen. Their home ground is at the Telia 5G -areena.

History

Telia 5G -areena

Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna i Helsingfors was formed on 15 October 1897 by Georges Doubitsky, a 15-year-old student at the Svenska Reallyceum school in Helsinki. In those early years the club specialised in athletics, football and bandy. The football section was established in 1907, the same year that the Football Association of Finland was founded. The first football match played HIFK was at the Kaisaniemi ground on 17 May 1908 where the new team lost 1–2 to Unitas.^[1]

In those early years HIFK were runners-up in the Mestaruussarja (then played as a cup competition) on 5 occasions in 1909, 1912, 1928 and 1929. In addition in 1912 the Finnish Football team at the Stockholm Olympics comprised a team of HIFK players.

HIFK won their first Finnish championship (Mestaruussarja) in 1930 a feat that they were to repeat on three other occasions in 1931, 1933 and 1937 in a tremendous decade for the club. HIFK also won the Mestaruussarja in 1947, 1959 and 1961. In total HIFK won the Finnish championship on 7 occasions.

HIFK was one of the most successful football sides in Finland until the early 1970s when the team were relegated from the Mestaruussarja (Finnish Premier League). After 1972 the team wandered around the lower divisions of Finnish football, having even played in the Nelonen (Fourth Division), the fifth tier of the Finnish football league system, in 1980–83 and 2003–05, and only would return to the first level 43 years later.

In total, since 1930, HIFK have played 29 seasons in the Mestaruussarja (the top tier), 18 seasons in the second tier and 18 seasons in the third tier. Their best spell in recent decades was from 1999 to 2002 when the club participated in the Ykkönen (First Division).^[2] However, the club overstretched themselves which resulted in the withdrawal from the Ykkönen at the end of the 2002 season and taking the place of the second team in the Nelonen (Fourth Division) in 2003. More recently HIFK made great progress and returned to Ykkönen (First Division), the second tier of Finnish football for seasons 2011 and 2012 only to be relegated back to Kakkonen after their 2012 season. Back in Kakkonen, HIFK rehired coach Jani Honkavaara who was the coach when HIFK first were promoted to Ykkönen. Since his second term they were able to play in Ykkönen for a third time this millennia, when beating their promotion play-off opponent PS Kemi Kings.

HIFK won Ykkönen in 2014 and thereby were automatically promoted into the highest tier of Finnish football, Veikkausliiga. After securing their promotion, HIFK announced that they would play their 2015 season home games on Telia 5G -areena, the home ground of their local rivals HJK Helsinki.^[3] In December 2014 HIFK launched a crowdfunding campaign through Invesdor. HIFK aimed to gather 250.000 – 500.000 euros by selling shares of the club valued at 189,70 euros a piece. According to club chairman René Österman, HIFK was in need of funding for the upcoming Veikkausliiga season and crowdfunding gave a chance for the club's supporters to own a part of the club. The campaign ended successfully in January 2015 and HIFK gathered 335.495 euros from 786 investors.^[4][5][6]

After three seasons in Veikkausliiga, HIFK were relegated to Ykkönen after finishing 11th in 2017 season and losing relegation play-offs against FC Honka on away goals.

European campaigns

HIFK participated in the European Cup in the 1960–61 and 1962–63 seasons and played in the UEFA cup in 1971–72.

Season	Competition	Round	Country	Club	Score	Agg.
1960–61	European Cup	Preliminary round		IFK Malmö	1–3, 1–2	2–5
1962–63	European Cup	First round		Austria Wien	3–5, 0–2	3–7
1971–72	UEFA Cup	First round		Rosenborg	0–3, 0–1	0–4

Divisional movements since 1930

• Top Level (32 seasons): 1930–45, 1947–49, 1958–66, 1970–72, 2015–2017
• Second Level (22 seasons): 1945–46, 1950–57, 1967–69, 1973–74, 1999–02, 2011–12, 2014, 2018–
• Third Level (19 seasons): 1975–78, 1988–98, 2008–10, 2013 ^[2]

Season to season

Supporters and rivalries

HIFK Fotboll supporters June 2017.

Historically, HIFK has been primarily the club for the Swedish speaking middle-class population in Helsinki. However, the club nowadays is bilingual and language doesn't play key role in the club anymore. Nowadays, the most renowned supporter group of the club is Stadin Kingit (in English: "the kings of Stadi"). Its name derives from the common slang nickname for Helsinki (Stadi). The most of the members attend the handball, bandy and ice hockey matches of HIFK as well. The supporters are reported to have friendship with supporters of FC Copenhagen.

The single most important fixture for HIFK supporters is the one against the local rivals, HJK. The fixture is commonly known as Stadin derby.

Club structure

HIFK Fotboll run a large number of teams including 4 men's teams, 1 men's veterans team, 1 Academy team and 9 boys teams.

• HIFK (Men's First Team) are competing in Ykkönen administered by the Football Association of Finland (Suomen Palloliitto) . This is second highest tier in the Finnish football system.
• HIFK / 2 are competing in Group B of the Kakkonen (Second Division) administered by the Football Association of Finland.
• HIFK / 3 are competing in Section 2 (Lohko 2) of the Kolmonen (Third Division) administered by the SPL Helsinki and SPL Uusimaa.
• HIFK / 4 are competing in Section 2 (Lohko 2) of the Kutonen (Sixth Division) administered by the SPL Helsinki.

Updated as of season 2018. ^{[10] [11] [12] [13]}

Players

As of 2 August 2018 ^[14]

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Tomi Maanoja 2 DF Jarkko Lahdenmäki 3 DF Pauli Kuusijärvi 4 DF Tommi Vesala 5 MF Nando Cózar 6 MF Jaakko Lepola 7 MF Daniel Rantanen 8 MF Jukka Halme 9 FW Pekka Sihvola 10 FW Antti Ulmanen 11 MF Otto-Pekka Jurvainen 12 GK Daniel Kollar 13 MF Esa Terävä

No. Position Player 14 FW Tuukka Kurki 16 FW Tuomas Mustonen 17 DF Jani Bäckman 18 DF Matias Hänninen 19 MF Jirijoonas Kanth 20 MF Tommi Jyry 26 MF Reza Heidari 27 FW Hussein Mohamed 29 DF Joonas Salmi 34 DF Tuukka Andberg 35 GK Atte Otronen 40 FW Nikolas Saira 50 FW Casper Olesen

Management and boardroom

Management

As of 03 August 2018 ^[15]

Name Role Teemu Kankkunen Head Coach Ari Rantamaa Coach Petri Pyhältö Goalkeeper Coach Masi Salmi Physiotherapist Ludovic Thune Kit Manager Aapo Haavisto Team Doctor Jammu Öunap Team Doctor Tuomas Naalisvaara Team Doctor Joona Haavisto Team Director Petteri Jutila Team Director

Boardroom

As of 3 August 2018 ^{[16] [17]}

Name Role Christoffer Perret Chairman Joona Haavisto Board member Kaarlo Kankkunen Board member Jan-Erik Eklöf Board member

References

External links

• (in Finnish) Official football website
• (in Finnish) Official club website