Rovaniemen Palloseura

RoPS
Full name	Rovaniemen Palloseura
Founded	1950
Ground	Keskuskenttä,; Rovaniemi
Capacity	4,000
Chairman	Risto Niva
Manager	Vesa Tauriainen
League	Veikkausliiga
2019	10th
Website	Club website
Home colours	Away colours

Rovaniemen Palloseura (RoPS) is a football club founded in 1950 and based in Rovaniemi, Finland. In 2019 RoPS participated in the Finnish Premier Division, (Veikkausliiga) marking their 32nd season in the top flight (previously called "Veikkausliiga") since 1981. The club plays home games at the Rovaniemen Keskuskenttä in the Arctic Circle of Lapland. The closest affiliated team is RoPS/2 from Kakkonen who participates in the third tier of Finnish football.

History

Keskuskenttä, home ground of RoPS

RoPS have won the Finnish Cup on two occasions, in 1986 and 2013, and were runners-up in 1962. They placed third in the Finnish Premier Division in 1988 and 1989, before finishing as runner-up in 2015, losing out on the title by 1 point to eventual champions SJK. The club's most notable international achievement was reaching the quarter-finals of the European Cup-Winners' Cup in 1987–88 against Marseille.

Match fixing allegations and scandal

Throughout the 2000s, RoPS became infamous for suspected involvement in match fixing.

In spring 2011 the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation started a large investigation into match fixing. On February 25 Singaporean businessman Wilson Raj Perumal, a convicted match fixer, was arrested after entering Finland with a fake passport. The National Bureau of Investigation suspected that over 30 games between 2008 and 2011, mostly from the Finnish premier league, had been fixed or manipulated.[1]

On July 19, 2011, the Rovaniemi Court of Appeal convicted Perumal and nine RoPS players of match-fixing. Altogether 24 games had been manipulated, and the intended score had been achieved in 11 of them. Perumal was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to return 150,000 euros deemed to be match-fixing profits. The bribes ranged from 500 euros offered to one player to a total of 80,000 euros offered to eight players. The highest total of bribes for one individual was slightly over 40,000 euros. The players received suspended sentences. The sentenced players were six Zambian and two Georgian players: Godfrey Chibanga, Chileshe Chibwe, Francis Kombe, Stephen Kunda, Christopher Musonda, Chanda Mwaba, Nchimunya Mweetwa, Pavle Khorguashvili, and Valter Khorguashvili.[2]

Domestic history

Season	Level	Pos	Pld	W	D	L	For	Against	Points	Finnish Cup	League Cup	Top goalscorer
1991	1st	7	33	14	8	11	63	51	50		-
1992		7	33	12	6	15	53	49	42		-
1993		7	29	11	5	13	32	35	38	Runners-up	-
1994		5	26	10	8	8	32	32	38
1995		9	26	8	8	10	29	30	32	Ninth Round
1996		8	27	11	6	10	35	29	39	Quarter-final	Runners-up
1997		6	27	9	6	12	31	30	33	Semi-final
1998		8	27	6	14	7	27	31	32
1999		8	29	7	10	12	31	46	31	Seventh Round
2000		9	33	10	6	17	35	50	36
2001		12	33	5	9	19	25	56	24	Sixth Round	-
2002	2nd	4	22	9	4	9	41	10	31	Quarter-final	-	Niclas Grönholm – 11
2003	2nd	2	26	14	7	5	40	27	49	Sixth Round	-
2004	1st	12	26	7	4	15	28	45	25	Quarter-final
2005	1st	13	26	3	8	15	18	50	17
2006	2nd	7	26	10	8	8	40	35	38		-
2007	2nd	2	26	16	7	3	44	23	55		-
2008	1st	10	26	8	6	12	31	37	30	Sixth Round	Quarter-finals
2009	1st	14	26	4	4	18	21	66	16	Sixth Round	Group stage	Echiabhi Okodugha – 5
2010	2nd	1	26	15	9	2	61	17	54	Fourth round	-	Nchimunya Mweetwa – 13
2011	1st	12	33	5	8	20	39	78	23	Fifth Round	Group stage	José Manuel Rivera – 10
2012	2nd	1	27	18	5	4	53	20	59	Fifth Round	-	Aleksandr Kokko – 15
2013	1st	11	33	8	10	15	25	36	34	Winners	Quarter-finals	Aleksandr Kokko – 6
2014		9	33	11	5	17	37	41	38	Sixth Round	Group stage	Aleksandr Kokko – 9
2015		2	33	17	8	8	44	29	59	Sixth Round	Runners-up	Aleksandr Kokko – 17
2016		6	33	13	11	9	43	33	50	Sixth Round	Group stage	Robert Taylor – 11
2017		7	33	12	6	15	43	51	42	Quarter-final Play-offs	-	Emeka Friday Eze – 7
2018		2	33	18	8	7	42	25	62	Sixth Round	-	Lassi Lappalainen – 8
2019		10	27	8	6	13	23	35	30	Quarterfinal	-	Youness Rahimi – 5

European history

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1987–88	Cup Winners' Cup	1R	Glentoran	0–0	1–1	1–1(a)
		2R	Vllaznia	1–0	1–0	2–0
		QF	Marseille	0–1	0–3	0–4
1989–90	UEFA Cup	1R	GKS Katowice	1–1	1–0	2–1
1989–90	UEFA Cup	2R	Auxerre	0–5	0–3	0–8
1990–91	UEFA Cup	1R	1. FC Magdeburg	0–1	0–0	0–1
2014–15	UEFA Europa League	2Q	Asteras Tripoli	1–1	2–4	3–5
2016–17	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Shamrock Rovers	1–1	2–0	3–1
2016–17	UEFA Europa League	2Q	Lokomotiva	1–1	0–3	1–4
2019–20	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Aberdeen	1–2	1–2	2–4

Notes

1R: First round
2R: Second round
1Q: First qualifying round
QF: Quarter-finals

Honours

Finnish Cup

Champions (2): 1986, 2013

Ykkönen

Champions (2): 2010, 2012

Current squad

As of 29 June 2020

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	Martin Kompalla
2	DF	Simo Majander
3	DF	Otto Kemppainen
6	DF	Atte Sihvonen
7	FW	Youness Rahimi
8	MF	Obed Malolo
9	FW	Raymond Gyasi
11	FW	Aleksandr Kokko
12	GK	Mikko Rantala
14	MF	Eetu Muinonen
15	DF	Jussi Niska
17	FW	Sampo Ala

No.	Position	Player
18	FW	Veka Pyyny
19	MF	Tuomas Kaukua
20	DF	Juho Hyvärinen
21	FW	Matias Tamminen
22	MF	Rasmus Degerman
23	FW	Enoch Banza (on loan from HJK)
24	MF	Tommi Jäntti
25	FW	Daniel Carr
27	DF	Samuel Olabisi
28	FW	Jarkko Luiro
32	GK	Matias Niemelä (on loan from HJK)
77	DF	Zurab Tsiskaridze

Management and boardroom

Management

As of 18 February 2020.

Name	Role
Vesa Tauriainen	Head Coach
Mika Pulkkinen	Coach
Jari Alamäki	Fitness Coach
Ossi Koskela	Goalkeeping Coach
Tuomas Könönen	Physiotherapist
Vilma Poutiainen	Physiotherapist
David Coull	Kit Manager
Essi Jokelainen	Masseur
Olavi Tammimies	Team Manager

Boardroom

As of 18 February 2020[3]

Name	Role
Risto Niva	Chairman, Managing director
Pekka Konstenius	Vice chairman
Jari Ilola	Director of Football

Rovaniemi Football Academy

Rovaniemi Football Academy (RFA)[4] is the reserve team of RoPS. The team plays in Kakkonen in 2020 season. It is coached by Aleksi Tanner.

As of 20 February 2020[5]

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

No.	Position	Player
11	GK	Lauri-Eemil Vetri
24	MF	Kirill Bullat
26	DF	Eerik Kantola
30	DF	Luka Kuittinen
35	GK	Pauli Tuisku
36	MF	Vertti Hänninen
37	DF	Joona Lahdenmäki
39	DF	Akseli Kantola
40	FW	Santeri Matilainen
41	MF	Jonne Koistinen
42	MF	Riku-Veli Niska

No.	Position	Player
43	FW	Joona Kähkönen
44	DF	Tuomas Leppäkangas
46	FW	Adam Mekki
47	FW	Janne Ojaniemi
50	DF	Severi Salmirinne
52	DF	Miska Ylitolva
53	MF	Roni Pietsalo
54	FW	Antti Salmi
55	DF	Otto Kemppainen

Managers

Jerzy Masztaler (1990–91)
Graham Williams (1991)
Olavi Tammimies (1992)
Keith Armstrong (1993–94)
Timo Salmi (1995)
Graham Williams (1995)
Ari Matinlassi (1995)
Ari Rantamaa (1996–97)
Kari Virtanen (1997–99)
Olavi Tammimies (2000)
Mauri Holappa (2001)
Tomi Molin (2002)
György Hamori (Jan 1, 2003 – June 23, 2004)

Mika Lumijärvi (June 23, 2004 – June 30, 2005)
Matti Vikman (interim) (June 30, 2005 – Dec 31, 2005)
Jukka Ikäläinen (2006)
Tom Saintfiet (Jan 1, 2008 – April 7, 2008)
Valeri Bondarenko (April 14, 2008 – May 27, 2009)
Mika Lumijärvi (May 27, 2009 – Oct 6, 2009)
Zeddy Saileti (Oct 6, 2009 – Dec 31, 2009)
John Allen (Jan 1, 2010 – Aug 9, 2011)
Matti Hiukka (Aug 9, 2011 – Dec 31, 2011)
Kari Virtanen (Jan 1, 2012 – Oct 13)
Juha Malinen (Nov, 2013 – Oct, 2017)
Toni Koskela (Oct, 2017 – May 22, 2019)
Pasi Tuutti (May 22, 2019– )

References

Susanna Kemppainen. "RoPS:lla yli 30 epäiltyä sopupeliä | Pohjois-Suomi". Kaleva.fi. Archived from the original on 2012-09-10. Retrieved 2012-02-12.
Uusi Suomi. "Oikeus: Sopupeleistä 150 000 euroa – 2 vuotta vankeutta — Uusi Suomi". Uusisuomi.fi. Retrieved 2012-02-12.
"Yhteystiedot" (in Finnish). RoPS. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
"RoPS/2 on jatkossa Rovaniemi Football Academy". rops.fi. RoPS. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
"Kokoonpano: Rovaniemi Football Academy 2020". rops.fi. RoPS. Retrieved 20 February 2020.

External links

Official website (in Finnish)

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] Susanna Kemppainen. "RoPS:lla yli 30 epäiltyä sopupeliä | Pohjois-Suomi". Kaleva.fi. Archived from the original on 2012-09-10. Retrieved 2012-02-12.

[2] Uusi Suomi. "Oikeus: Sopupeleistä 150 000 euroa – 2 vuotta vankeutta — Uusi Suomi". Uusisuomi.fi. Retrieved 2012-02-12.

[3] "Yhteystiedot" (in Finnish). RoPS. Retrieved 18 February 2020.

[4] "RoPS/2 on jatkossa Rovaniemi Football Academy". rops.fi. RoPS. Retrieved 20 February 2020.

[5] "Kokoonpano: Rovaniemi Football Academy 2020". rops.fi. RoPS. Retrieved 20 February 2020.

Top-division football seasons in Finland
Mestaruussarja	1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
Veikkausliiga	1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Football in Finland