World Footy News

Finland's footy scene has grown rapidly over the past few years, with the Finland AFL being founded in 2006, the first domestic clubs being created in 2007, the Finland Icebreakers national team coming to Melbourne for the IC08 and the inaugural FAFL national league kicking off in 2009.

In 2010, the Helsinki Heatseekers, Salo Juggernauts and Turku Dockers will soon kick off the domestic competition's second season, with a small chance that the Espoo Roos will re-form and a new club in Vaasa will take the field.

Recruitment of new players has been very strong over the northern winter, with the clubs counting around 100 players on paper, with only 6 Australians. All three Finnish clubs have also been hard at work taking the game to local schools.

Finnish footy stalwart Kimmo Heikkilä spoke to WFN about the upcoming 2010 season.

Kimmo says that Salo, Helsinki and Turku will be definitely be in the national league, but there is still work to be done to expand the number of clubs. "There is a small change that Espoo Roos will start, but the Roos right now don't have enough players. We are also trying to start a new team, the Vaasa Wombats."

The team in Vaasa, located on Finland's eastern coast a few hundred kilometers north of Turku, was founded in January this year by Mika Kupila and Kaj Karlsson, two members of the Icebreakers national team.

Karlsson says "We've both have played footy for two years now. It's such a great sport, we both got hooked at the first sight of a footy. As of now we have got four players, all Finns, and are still working on recruiting more. The potential in Vaasa is great so I don't see any problems in finding more players. Whether we are going to play during the regular season is still unclear, but a few friendlies is a must."

Regarding the name of the club, Karlsson explains that the name of the city is officially spelt 'Vaasa', but the alternative 'Waasa' is often used, and they decided it made for a humorous combination with the 'Wombats' nickname. "Kupila came up with the name. We wanted something that would begin with the letter 'v' or 'w'. Vultures and Wilders were considered, but Wombats was too funny to pass up."

Across the country, Kimmo says numbers are looking positive. "At training, we have had around 50 players, that's the main group for Helsinki, Salo and Turku. We have more, but people have so many other things to do that they can't always make training. Also we have had lots of new players during winter season. We hope that they will stay."

"All in all you could say that we have around 100 players, with about 6 Australians. We also have players from Ireland, Estonia, France, Italy, Spain, Columbia and so on, so our environment is very multicultural."

"All teams have been in local schools and introducing footy to kids ages 13-17. Last Monday, 3 others and I spent the whole day in a local school, where we taught footy to over 120 kids in sport class. We will keep doing this for whole spring."

"Salo now has junior players in their team and and I believe that other teams will also have some soon. The problem with juniors is that their parents think that this game is too violent. This is something that we face very often, but we talk with parents and tell them that footy isn't any more violent than ice hockey."

The Icebreakers are planning to make a few appearances on the European international circuit this year, with Kimmo saying they will attend both the inaugural European Championships in Denmark-Sweden, and the EU Cup to be held either in Italy or Spain. "We will also try to play some friendly games against Sweden, or at least one of the teams from Sweden. Also Germany were supposed to come to Finland, as we visited them in Germany last summer, but now they aren't sure."

"We will go to the EC-2010 and the EU Cup 2010. Some of our Australian players will go to the Anzac Cup in France. So lots of traveling and no money!"