Finland national football team

Finland

Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s)	Huuhkajat ("Eurasian Eagle Owls")
Association	Football Association of Finland (Suomen Palloliitto, Finlands Bollförbund)
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Roy Hodgson, 2006-
Captain	Jari Litmanen
Most caps	Jari Litmanen (109)
Top scorer	Jari Litmanen (28)
Home stadium	Helsinki Olympic Stadium
FIFA code	FIN
First colours Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current	44
Highest	33 (March 2007)
Lowest	79 (December 1996)
First international
Finland 2 - 5 Sweden (Helsinki, Finland; October 22, 1911)
Biggest win
Finland 10 - 2 Estonia (Helsinki, Finland; August 11, 1922)
Biggest defeat
Germany 13 - 0 Finland (Leipzig, Germany; September 1, 1940)
Appearances	(first in -)
Best result	-
Appearances	(first in -)
Best result	-

The Finland national football team represents Finland in international football competitions and is controlled by the Football Association of Finland.

The Finnish national team has never qualified for a finals tournament of the World Cup or the European Championships, but has made four Olympic tournament appearances. It was considered one of the weakest teams in Europe in past decades; especially at a time when many of today's smallest nations didn't yet compete in international football. Finland is one of the few European countries where football is not the most popular spectator sport, and the game has traditionally been played on an amateur basis in the country. Only in the last decade – after the Bosman ruling and the removal of foreign quotas in the EU region – have Finnish players had significant opportunities to play in the continent's top leagues. Today, nearly all regular members of the national team play outside of Finland.

History

The Football Association of Finland was founded as early as 1907 and became a member of FIFA in 1908, despite the fact that at that time Finland was still an autonomous grand duchy of the Russian Empire and didn't gain independence until 1917. Finland played its first international match on October 22, 1911, losing to neighbours Sweden 2-5 in Helsinki.

A fourth place finish at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm still arguably ranks as the country's best ever achievement in international football. Finland beat Italy and Russia in the first two rounds before losing to Great Britain in the semi-finals. In the bronze medal match they were beaten 0-9 by the Netherlands. According to the story, the Finns were under the impression that the match would be a day later, so they had gone out celebrating the night before the match, and as a consequence were easily beaten. Finland's star player Eino Soinio, aged only 17 at the time, was chosen to the all-star team of the tournament by Swedish paper Idrottsbladet.

Finland also took part in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, but was beaten by Peru in the first round. The country sought qualification for the World Cup for the first time in the 1938 event, but failed to score a single point. The fortunes of the team didn't improve much in the 1950s or 1960s: they were never near qualification, and didn't achieve their first win until 1965. Finland also took part in European Championship qualifying since the 1968 event, but had to wait for its first win until 1978. The 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki saw the hosts crash to Austria in the first round. Finland did, however, win the unofficial Nordic championship in 1952, 1964 and 1966.

The results of the team improved somewhat in the late 1970s and the 1980s. Finland missed out on qualification for Euro 1980 by just a point and for the 1986 World Cup by two points. Finland was invited to take part in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow after many Western countries announced they would boycott the games, but failed to progress from its group.

By the mid-1990s Finland started to have more players in high profile European leagues, led by the Ajax superstar Jari Litmanen. In 1996 Danish Euro 1992 winning coach Richard Møller Nielsen was hired to take Finland to the 1998 World Cup. The team enjoyed mixed fortunes in the campaign, highpoints of which were a draw and a win away to Norway and Switzerland respectively. Going into the last match, Finland would have needed a win at home to Hungary to earn a place in the play-offs. They led the game 1-0 going into injury time, but scored an own goal, and once again the dreams of qualification were over. Møller Nielsen also tried to lead Finland to Euro 2000. In this campaign the Finns recorded a sensational win away to Turkey, but couldn't compete with Germany and Turkey in the long run.

Antti Muurinen succeeded Møller Nielsen as coach in 2000. He had arguably the most talented group of Finnish players ever at his disposal, including players such as Antti Niemi, Sami Hyypiä, Teemu Tainio and Mikael Forssell in addition to the legendary Litmanen. The team also performed quite well under him in qualification for the 2002 World Cup despite a difficult draw, earning two draws against Germany and a home draw with England as well as beating Greece 5-1 in Helsinki. In the end, however, England and Germany proved too strong, and the Finns finished third in the group. Hopes were high going into qualification for Euro 2004 after the promising last campaign and friendly wins over the likes of Norway, Belgium and Portugal. However, Finland started the campaign by losing to Wales and Yugoslavia (later Serbia and Montenegro, now two separate nations). These losses were followed by two defeats by Italy, and a 3-0 home win over Serbia and Montenegro was little consolation, as the Finns finished fourth in the group. In qualification for the 2006 World Cup Finland failed to score a single point in six matches against the top three teams in their group, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Romania. Muurinen was sacked in June 2005, and he was replaced by caretaker Jyrki Heliskoski, but results didn't improve.

In August 2005 it was announced that Roy Hodgson would become the new Finland coach in 2006, and he started in the job in January of that year. The Englishman becomes the second high profile foreign coach in recent history of the country, as he tries to lead the team to its first ever major championship qualification.

Euro 2008 Qualification

Finland is currently competing in Group A in qualification for UEFA Euro 2008, together with Portugal, Poland, Serbia, Belgium, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. The team started the campaign very well, beating Poland 3-1 away and earning a 1-1 draw with Portugal at home. The Finns then gained four points from their difficult away ties against Armenia and Kazakhstan, drawing 0-0 with the former and beating the latter 2-0. On 15th of November, 2006 Finland beat Armenia 1-0 at home, thus remaining undefeated in the qualifying. In Finland's first match of 2007, they were in poor form when they lost against Azerbaijan 1-0, one of the worst matches in Finnish footballing history. On early June they lost to Serbia 2-0 at home, which many fans felt being the end of a real battle for qualification. But the next match was against Belgium and team Finland gained the trust of their fans back by winning 2-0 at home. Belgium match had its own amusements when an eagle-owl (which is named as Bubi referring to eagle owl's binomal name Bubo bubo, as well as famous football commentator Bror-Erik Wallenius) landed to arena and then flew few rounds above the audience, stopping the game for 6 minutes. Afterwards, the eagle owl has been considered a "mascot" for Finnish national team.

Last and next games

• Last game: Finland 0-0 Spain - Helsinki, Finland - 17 October, 2007. (Friendly)

• Next game: Finland 2-1 Azerbaijan - Helsinki, Finland - 17 November, 2007. (UEFA Euro 2008)

Finland currently ranks somewhere around the middle class in the UEFA region. It regularly beats the lowest-ranked teams, and can occasionally perform well against the stronger teams. It has not, however, yet found enough consistency against the top nations to truly push for qualification.

Stadiums

Most of Finland's important home matches are played at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium in the capital Helsinki. It has been Finland's principal home stadium ever since its construction was completed in 1938. Before that Pallokenttä in Helsinki was mainly used.

Today, some qualifying matches against lower profile opponents and some friendlies are hosted at the Ratina Stadion in Tampere. Helsinki's Finnair Stadium, which has artificial turf, is also used for some friendlies.

World Cup record

• 1930 to 1934 - Did not enter
• 1938 - Did not qualify
• 1950 - Withdrew during qualifying
• 1954 to 2006 - Did not qualify

European Championship record

• 1960 to 1964 - Did not enter
• 1968 to 2004 - Did not qualify

Current squad

Updated 2007-08-23.

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
2	2DF	Petri Pasanen	September 24, 1980	39	1	SV Werder Bremen
4	2DF	Sami Hyypiä	October 7, 1973	84	5	Liverpool
5	2DF	Hannu Tihinen	July 1, 1976	58	4	FC Zürich
7	3MF	Mika Nurmela	December 26, 1971	68	4	HJK
8	3MF	Teemu Tainio	November 27, 1979	37	6	Tottenham Hotspur
9	4FW	Mikael Forssell	March 15, 1981	48	16	Birmingham City
11	3MF	Joonas Kolkka	September 28, 1974	78	11	NAC Breda
12	1GK	Magnus Bahne	March 15, 1979	2	0	Halmstad BK
16	3MF	Aki Riihilahti	September 9, 1976	67	11	Djurgårdens IF
18	4FW	Shefki Kuqi	November 10, 1976	49	5	Fulham F.C.
19	2DF	Toni Kallio	August 9, 1978	31	1	BSC Young Boys
20	3MF	Alexei Eremenko jr	March 24, 1983	29	12	FC Saturn
21	4FW	Jonatan Johansson	August 16, 1975	79	14	Malmö FF
22	1GK	Jussi Jääskeläinen	April 19, 1975	37	0	Bolton Wanderers
23	3MF	Markus Heikkinen	October 13, 1978	30	0	SK Rapid Wien
24	3MF	Daniel Sjölund	April 22, 1983	10	1	Djurgårdens IF
28	2DF	Ari Nyman	February 7, 1984	14	0	FC Thun
32	3MF	Roman Eremenko	March 19, 1987	2	0	Udinese Calcio

• Head coach: Roy Hodgson

Recent call-up

The following players have all recently been called up to the Finland squad for the Euro 2008 qualifying.

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
	1GK	Mikko Kavén	February 19, 1975	15	0	Tampere United
	1GK	Peter Enckelman	March 10, 1977	7	0	Blackburn Rovers
	2DF	Juha Pasoja	November 16, 1976	12	0	Ham-Kam
	3MF	Markus Paatelainen	January 23, 1983	0	0	Inverness Caledonian Thistle
	3MF	Pekka Lagerblom	October 19, 1982	12	0	Alemannia Aachen
	3MF	Jarkko Wiss	April 17, 1972	43	3	Tampere United

Coaching staff

• Head coach: Roy Hodgson
• Coach: Jyrki Heliskoski
• Coach: Jari-Pekka Keurulainen
• Goalkeeping coach: Olli Huttunen
• U-21 coach: Markku Kanerva
• Team director: Lennart Wangel
• Team doctor: Heikki Kinnunen
• Masseur: Hannu Kanerva
• Physiotherapist: Paavo Leiramo
• Kit manager: Kai Kyntölä
• Media officer: Timo Walden

Famous past players

Veikko Asikainen Verner Eklöf Pentti Eronen Ari Hjelm Olli Huttunen Jukka Ikäläinen Atik Ismail Markku Kanerva Hjalmar Kelin Olavi Laaksonen Aatos Lehtonen

Kalevi Lehtovirta Åke Lindman Stig-Göran Myntti Antti Niemi Kaarlo Niilonen Mika-Matti Paatelainen Kai Pahlman Juhani Peltonen Erkka Petäjä Jari Rantanen Pasi Rautiainen

Nils Rikberg Olavi Rissanen Lars Nasman Aulis Rytkönen Thure Sarnola Eino Soinio Antti Sumiala Arto Tolsa Simo Valakari Max Viinioksa Jarl Öhman

Algoth Niska

Player records

Most capped players

#	Name	Career	Caps	Goals
1	Jari Litmanen	1989-	108	28
2	Ari Hjelm	1983-96	100	20
3	Sami Hyypiä	1992-	84	5
4	Erkka Petäjä	1983-94	83	0
5	Jonatan Johansson	1996-	79	14
6	Joonas Kolkka	1994-	78	11
7	Arto Tolsa	1964-81	76	10
8	Mika-Matti Paatelainen	1986-2000	70	18
9	Esko Ranta	1971-80	69	0
10	Juhani Peltonen	1955-70	68	11

Top goalscorers

#	Name	Career	Goals	Caps
1	Jari Litmanen	1989-	28	108
2	Ari Hjelm	1983-96	20	100
3	Mika-Matti Paatelainen	1986-2000	18	70
4	Verner Eklöf	1919-27	17	32
5	Mikael Forssell	1999-	16	47
=	Aulis Koponen	1924-35	16	39
=	Gunnar Åström	1923-37	16	44
8	Jonatan Johansson	1994-	14	79
=	William Kanerva	1922-38	13	51
=	Jorma Vaihela	1947-54	13	33

• Correct as of August 23, 2007
• Players who are still active and available for selection are in bold.

Coaches

Coach	Career	Matches	Wins	Draws	Losses
No coach	1911-21	17	6	2	9
Jarl Öhman	1922	4	1	0	3
No coach	1923-35	77	22	12	43
Ferdinand Fabra	1936-37	8	1	1	6
No coach	1937-38	9	3	0	6
Gábor Obitz	1939	6	1	0	5
No coach	1939-43	7	0	1	6
Axel Mårtensson	1945	2	0	0	2
Niilo Tammisalo	1946	3	0	0	3
Aatos Lehtonen	1947-55	51	7	9	35
Kurt Weinreich	1955-58	23	3	1	19
Aatos Lehtonen	1959-61	19	3	0	16
Olavi Laaksonen	1962-74	91	16	21	54
Martti Kosma	1975	2	0	1	1
Aulis Rytkönen	1975-78	30	8	4	18
Esko Malm	1979-81	27	4	6	17
Martti Kuusela	1982-87	53	9	11	33
Jukka Vakkila	1988-92	48	7	21	20
Tommy Lindholm	1993-94	25	5	7	13
Jukka Ikäläinen	1994-96	21	7	4	10
Richard Møller Nielsen	1996-99	34	9	12	13
Antti Muurinen	2000-05	72	34	12	26
Jyrki Heliskoski	2005	6	2	2	2
Roy Hodgson	2006-	11	2	6	3

• Correct as of October 12, 2006

See also

• Football in Finland
• Finland national under-21 football team
• Finland women's national football team
• Sápmi national football team
• Åland Islands national football team

External links

• Template:Fi icon Official website
• RSSSF archive of results 1911-
• RSSSF archive of most capped players and highest goalscorers
• RSSSF archive of coaches
• The Finnish National Team Supporters' Association