Azerbaijan 1 3/10/07 Portugal
Belgium 13/10/07 Finland
Armenia 13/10/07 Serbia
Poland 13/10/07 Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan 17/10/07 Portugal
Azerbaijan 17/10/07 Serbia
Belgium 17/10/07 Armenia
Serbia 17/11/07 Kazakhstan
Finland 17/11/07 Azerbaijan
Portugal 17/11/07 Armenia
Poland 17/11/07 Belgium
Azerbaijan 21/11/07 Belgium
Serbia 21/11/07 Poland
Portugal 21/11/07 Finland
Armenia 21/11/07 Kazakhstan

The Polish team had one last meal at the Hotel Wednesday night and then everyone said their goodbyes. Thursday morning it was time to fly back to their club teams for the weekend fixture. Many of them hung out in the hotel bar while others got dressed and hit the town.

While Frans was eating with the team, I talked to Job and Jami about FC Inter Turku and Finnish Football. This is what I found out:

The Finnish Premier League is called the Veikkausliiga (Veikkaus is the main league sponsor) and is made up of 14 teams and is a National competition.

The 1st Division is also a National competition and has 14 teams.

The 2nd Division has 3 groups of 14 teams and is played regionally with a playoff to determine National Champion. Most of the professional clubs reserve teams play in this competition. The best players age 16 and above are pushed to play with men to help their development.

The 3rd Division has several groups and is regional.

Youth Structure :
It is similar to most countries in Europe and is divided into A, B, C , D, E and F Juniors. Only the A Juniors (U19) play in National Competition.

The distances are very big. Finland is one of the least populated countries in Europe with only 5 million people. Only 200,000 play Football. Ice Hockey is #1, although Football is gaining ground. The success of the Finnish National Team is doing wonders to the game at the grassroots.

Turku the 3rd largest city in Finland on the West Coast has 2 Professional Teams and only 180,000 inhabitants.

FC Inter Turku is only 15 years old. The budget is 800,000 Euros.

Due to the harsh winters, the Veikkausliiga season runs from April – October with the Cup Final at the end of October. In February and March they have 2 groups and play 11V11 Indoor with the top four teams making the playoffs. Every big city has a huge indoor facility with a full field pitch. They play normal Football without walls.

The best youth education is in HJK Helsinki, FC Inter Turku and TPS.

Thursday morning at 9am I went to HJK Helsinki to watch the Professional Team train. They were playing 11V11 to prepare for the weekend match against MyPa.

Afterwards, I met with Youth Director of HJK Helsinki – Peter Jaatinen. He was very helpful and offered me the following information on HJK:

They have 1700 players in the Helsinki area divided into 2 sectors –
1 = HJK suburbs (mostly recreation players coached by moms and dads which practice 2-4 times per week).
For the suburb players/teams HJK offers education, training and some fields and the name HJK Helsinki. The suburbs is both a strength and a weakness. Weakness, because the rely on mom and dad coaches (most who have not played) and a strength because they are able to identify some young , up and coming coaches.

Total full time staff – the Suburbs have 2 full time people. This includes the operation of day care, camps and many other programs. The rest are volunteers.

The cost to play for the year is 250 Euros.

2 = HJK Junior First Teams
1300 of the players are age 14 and below.
200 are girls age 7-17
HJK has a Premier Women’s Team who is the best of Finland

For the Junior 1st teams, there is only one person who is Full time and that is Petteri. The rest of the Youth coaches are compensated a bit and mostly for their exsenses. Most are teachers of Physical Education.

They have 3 part time District area coaches who train the coaches of the Suburb teams an scout for talented players for the HJK Junior 1st Teams.

The cost for the HJK Juniors is 475 Euros per year. The cost per players is $1400. The difference is compensated by the club , sponsors, parents etc.

The price includes : Coaching, insurance, fields, competitions and tournaments.

In 2006, HJK was champion of U19, U17, U15 and U14. They have 24 players in the National Youth Teams U15-21.

The Women’s team of HJK started in 1973 and has 23 Championships. The Men have 21 Championships.

Each team has 2 coaches, a team leader, a kit manager. The club has 2 gker coaches.

There are 12-20 kids in each team.

They play 7V7 until age U13.
At U13 they switch to 11V11.

From U9-14 they train 3-4X per week.
From U15-19 they train 5-6X per week.

The have a Talent Academy with the Finnish Football Association. The most promising talents get 2-3 extra trainings a week in the morning and attend a Sports High School. The best talents are getting 7-8 trainings per week.

They play mostly 1:4:3:3 or 1:4:4:2 but leave it up to the coach a bit.

At U12 HJK sends their teams to International Tournaments in France, Germany , Holland and play matches in Sweden and Estonia.

Most of the talented players (youth internationals) are invited for tryouts or training stings at Foreign Clubs. Many have been going to Holland.

HJK have very good relationships abroad and encourage every coach to travel abroad 1 time per year to further their education. Many have gone to Holland.

HJK has 3 of their own tournaments:
April for U17, September for U13/14 and October for U11/12.

The total budget for HJK is 1.5 million Euros.

HJK tries to play a passing game with the ball on the ground. Championships are not important, it is developing players for the 1st team. The current team has 12 youth players in it.

Keith Armstrong , an English coach for the last 6 years was recently fired and replaced by Aki Hyrylainen. The former Finnish National Team Captain and ex-player of HJK. He was the former U19 coach.

After our meeting, I went home to pack my bags and then took the Metro east out of Helsinki towards Voosaari for the Veikkausliiga Match FC Viikingit vs Tampere United.

As the Metro popped out of the city , I was amazed at how beautiful is was. There was water everywhere with colorful houses nestled in forests along the water. Boats were scattered throughout the water.

I got off the stop in Voosaari and asked 2 teenage boys where the stadium was. I headed off in the direction they told me and came upon a training session of FC Viikingit. It was with a Nigerian Skills coach named Sunny. It was an optional session with 12 boys from the 96 age group.

Since I was a few hours early, I found a few parents and struck up a conversation. This is what I found out about FC Viikingit.

The kids pay 300 Euros per year. All coaches are volunteer. The 1st team plays in the Premier League and has a budget of 300,000 Euros. The players are not paid. Many are given jobs and all get exspenses.

In 1950, they made the stadium in an old sand mine. It below the ground. The entire stadium and stands was built with volunteers and with donated materials. It seats 4,000 and they average between 2,000 and 2,500.

The game was very exciting. It ended 3-3.

During the game Peter Lundstrom (The Head of Competition of the Veikkauliga) who was the liason for UEFA for the Polish team approached me. I had met him briefly at the hotel and Frans had told him about the Coaches Education Tour. He may join us in December in Holland. He is also the coach of the HJK U15 Girls team, which was National Champion.

He is working hard to improve the league on all levels. He offered me a ride back to my hotel. I told him about the Nor Cal Premier League and he was elated. He wants to talk to my brother Benjamin and possibly model a youth development model for the country of Finland.

In many ways, Finland reminds me of the U.S. with Football. They are overshadowed by another sport (Hockey), but the game in #1 with the youth and popular with girls and women. The current generation is soccer mad and want to bring the game to higher levels. Of course they are fighting the T.V. and the financial side such as sponsorship etc.

Peter dropped me off at my hotel. This morning I caught a taxi at 5:15am to the airport to catch a flight to Frankfurt. My flight leaves in 1 hour to San Francisco.

It has been a great 2 weeks. I am looking forward to getting back to my family and to all the kids and coaches in the various soccer jobs I have.

Hope you have enjoyed the blog as much as I have enjoyed sharing my experiences with all of you.

Your friend in Soccer,
Andrew Ziemer