HIFK Fotboll

HIFK Fotboll

Full name	Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors
Nickname(s)	IFK Tähtirinnat (The Star Chested) Stadens stolthet (The City's Pride) Röda (The Reds)
Founded	1897; 124 years ago (1897)
Ground	Bolt Arena Helsinki, Finland
Capacity	10,770
Chairman	Christoffer Perret
Head Coach	Joaquín Gómez
League	Veikkausliiga
2020	8th
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

Active departments of HIFK
Bandy		Football
Handball	Ice hockey (men's)	Ice hockey (women's)

HIFK Fotboll or IFK Helsingfors is an association football section of HIFK, a sports club based in Helsinki, Finland. The men's football team competes in the highest tier of Finnish football, Veikkausliiga. Their home ground is the Bolt Arena.

History[]

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 33 seasons in the Mestaruussarja (the top tier), 22 seasons in the second tier and 19 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, in 2010, they won the third tier, after defeating FC Santa Claus in the promotion playoff match,^[3] returning them to the second-tier Ykkönen 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.^[4] 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 , 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.^[5][6][7]

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. However, after a successful 2018 campaign in Ykkönen, HIFK was promoted back to Veikkausliiga for the 2019 season.

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

Honours[]

Mestaruussarja

• Champions (7): 1930, 1931, 1933, 1937, 1947, 1959, 1961
• Runners-up (7): 1909, 1912, 1928, 1929, 1934, 1935, 1971

Attendance Record: 10,500 (HIFK – HJK, Telia 5G -areena, 10 August 2016)^[8]

Divisional movements since 1930[]

• Top Level (32 seasons): 1930–45, 1947–49, 1958–66, 1970–72, 2015–2017, 2019-
• 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[]

Historically, HIFK was primarily the club for the Swedish-speaking population in Helsinki. However, the club nowadays is bilingual and language doesn't play an important 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). Many 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 major local rivals, HJK. The fixture is commonly known as Stadin derby.

Club structure[]

HIFK Fotboll run a large number of teams including 3 men's teams, 3 women's teams, 1 men's veterans team, 14 boys' teams and 5 girls' teams.

• HIFK (Men's First Team) are competing in Veikkausliiga. This is the highest tier in the Finnish football system.
• HIFK / 2 are competing in Group B of Kolmonen (Fourth tier) administered by the SPL Uusimaa.
• HIFK / 3 are competing in Group 4 of Vitonen (Sixth tier) administered by the SPL Uusimaa.

Updated as of season 2021. ^{[11] [12] [13]}

Players[]

As of 2 August 2021^[14]

Current squad[]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  FIN Markus Uusitalo (on loan from FC Honka) 2 FW  SLE Kei Kamara 3 DF  FIN Sakari Mattila 4 DF  FIN Hannu Patronen 5 DF  ESP Pipe Sáez 6 MF  NIR Jake Dunwoody 7 FW  FIN Jusif Ali 8 MF  FIN Jukka Halme 9 FW  ESP Juanan Entrena 10 MF  FIN Moshtagh Yaghoubi 11 MF  FIN Aatu Kujanpää

No. Pos. Nation Player 15 DF  FIN Jean-Claude Mabinda 16 DF  FIN Tino Palmasto 17 MF  FIN Jani Bäckman 22 MF  FIN Matej Hradecky 23 DF  COL Aldayr Hernández 25 GK  EST Martti Puolakainen 31 FW  FIN Keaton Isaksson 35 GK  ENG Calum Ward 44 FW  FIN Sakari Tukiainen 70 DF  FIN Mosawer Ahadi 88 DF  USA Macario Hing-Glover

Out on loan[]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 14 FW  BRA Erikson Carlos (at KTP until the end of the 2021 season)

Management and boardroom[]

Management[]

As of 6 May 2021^[15][16]

Name Role Joaquín Gómez Head Coach Antti Niemi Coach Tommi Ekmark Coach Risto-Matti Toivonen Fitness Coach Ludovic Thuné Kit Manager Olli Orvasto Team Manager Joona Haavisto Team Manager

Boardroom[]

As of 17 February 2021 ^[17]

Name Role Christoffer Perret CEO Mika Lönnström Sports Director Jan-Erik Eklöf Chairman René Österman Board member Peter Standertskjöld-Nordenstam Board member

References[]

External links[]

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