Finland and Slovakia: almost same but very different

[vorky]

, I agree with @GaboriklessWild (#49)

There are regions of Slovakia without hockey, there is not even a training rink (without seats or a few hundred) in some regions. The biggest problem is that kids sitting in front of PC instead of going out to do a sport.

The user is right with the IIHF/NHL transfer rules.

Czech-Slovak hockey league was good, developed many great players. The same can be said about the Soviet league. Then, the system collapsed, new states were created. What did happen in hockey? Of course, the former training centres ceased to exist, the system of players development(not only hockey) ceased to exist. A state stopped to finance the sport as much as earlier. And of course, the NHL grabbed the hockey market in both countries (and Russia). If the clubs were protected by rules as in football, they could get some money on their development. They got nothing, but top-notch players left to the NHL.

Of course, Slovak football was affected by the same problems (the state stopped to finance, training centres ceased to exist), but there is one big difference, as said by @GaboriklessWild, the transfer rules. These rules helped football clubs to revive because they see the future if they develop a top player (Zilina is a good example, Trencin is another). That does not exist in hockey.

Remember Tatar? He had a contract with Zvolen, of course, an NHL club was interested in, he left without a compensation (Slovakia did not sign NHL Transfer Agreement at the time).

Current transfer rules are cancer for European hockey. It is unacceptable that a solidarity mechanism does not work, that there is no protection of minors, that a club having a valid deal with a player has no right in his transfer to another club/league.

If European governments and local authorities did not finance hockey, European hockey would be death. But yeah, they inviting the NHL to a challenging game versus the Champions Hockey League´s winner instead of fixing transfer rules.

 

[Star Ocean]

Is it really? There are only 5 European countries between Finland and Slovakia in Football Elo Rankings.

Finland has never ever qualified for a big tournament

 

[slovakiasnextone]

Biathlon is so weird, I don't get either why people watch it or why skiers just don sprint the hell out of them avoiding shooting making up for the penalties

Because it attracts people like me who find ski sprinting pretty boring. There is the moment of excitement that you get out of it 4 times in a race as there are four shootings that could change everything whereas it's mostly just the last leg that is somewhat interesting to me when it comes to simple sprint.

As for why they don't avoid the shooting, I would assume that's probably against the rules. Also many of them aren't as great in sprinting that they would actually outrun the fast shooters who don't make any mistakes. I mean some like Kuzmina could probably do it easily, but hardly all.

Although the honest reason why biathlon is popular in Slovakia is much simpler - it has to do with the fact that you can watch it with the knowledge that there will be some Slovak success. Same with alpine skiing and cycling.

As for hockey, even despite the fact that the NT has sucked for over a decade with a few exceptions, it's still popular enough that when there is a majr tournament like the WC or Olympics a lot of people watch and pretty much everyone knows if Slovakia won or lost. All the major news outlets also regularly report on Slovak NHLers etc.

But in terms of actual player base etc. soccer has always been ahead of hockey in Slovakia. Basically there are three things you will find in every Slovak village - a pub, a church and a soccer pitch.

 

[Uncle Rotter]

Aren't Canada and Finland the only 2 countries where hockey is #1?

Belarus?

 

[member 305909]

In Finland, and I suspect everywhere else too, sport-fans at large are very opportunistic.

Namely, previously basketball was not that popular at all as a spectator-sport but when the Finnish national team started to become rather good and competitive people have all of a sudden become interested in basketball.

Previously I cant remember anyone who would have been remotely interested in the NBA but now that there is a Finn in the league and he is doing well people have started to take notice of that league.

 

[Realgud]

Belarus?

Really? I didn't know.

 

[Ducks76]

Belarus?

Belarus? Handball or Hockey? What s more popular?

 

[Lepardi]

Finnish rules baseball could have soccer beat, not sure.

By what metric? In reality pesäpallo isn't even close to football in popularity here. Football is clearly number two.

Kids play soccer because it's easy and cheap, and as a second sport among winter sports or motor sports, and there's plenty of registered players, but the top talent moves on to hockey because that's where the money is.

I don't see any reason to believe that Aleksander Barkov and Mikko Rantanen are more talented than Roman Eremenko and Lukas Hradecky.

If we look at our western neighbors, Zlatan Ibrahimovic wanted to play hockey too but he wasn't able to cause his dad couldn't afford the equipment. That hardly means he's less talented than Erik Karlsson or Elias Pettersson.

Well, Finland will play in the Play Offs for the European Championships in a couple of months time ...

I wouldn't exactly call 14 months "a couple of months". They also have to avoid qualifying through the regular qualification process that takes place between March and November this year in order to participate in those playoffs, but I'm fairly confident Finland can stay out of the top-2 in their group featuring Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Greece.

Namely, previously basketball was not that popular at all as a spectator-sport but when the Finnish national team started to become rather good and competitive people have all of a sudden become interested in basketball.

Previously I cant remember anyone who would have been remotely interested in the NBA but now that there is a Finn in the league and he is doing well people have started to take notice of that league.

There have been plenty of people following the NBA even before Markkanen, but he certainly made the league a lot more popular.

I am perfectly ready to admit that I went to the basketball World Cup in 2014, and the European Championships in 2015 and 2017 as a complete and utter glory-hunter, and every time I had loads of fun. The crowd that follows the Finnish basketball team around Europe is very civilized compared to our compatriots who go to the IIHF Worlds in May. I didn't see Finns crawling into the arena on all fours at 4 PM at those basketball tournaments.

 

[Outofbodyinhungary]

American-slovaks, Canadian-Slovaks, Slovaks all across europe and all over the world cheered at this moment. This game inspired a generation.

 

[Outofbodyinhungary]

American-slovaks, Canadian-Slovaks, Slovaks all across europe and all over the world cheered at this moment. This game inspired a generation.

Young Slovak kids look up to the football stars much more than the hockey stars.

 

[Lepardi]

American-slovaks, Canadian-Slovaks, Slovaks all across europe and all over the world cheered at this moment. This game inspired a generation.

Finland once got a tie playing away against Spain in a World Cup qualifier. Finnish football fanatics thought it was Finland's greatest sports achievement ever. They were also proud of the fact that they were civilized and worldly enough to realize what an earth-shattering accomplishment it was, unlike the stupid masses who think that medals in marginal sports like ice hockey, long-distance running or cross-country skiing mean something. Many of those football aficionados also seem to hold a grudge against the Finnish basketball team, because they think it gets way too much credit for being top-12 in Europe in a sport that's like so much smaller than football. Being 30th in Europe in football is more impressive.

 

[moropanov]

Ice hockey is greatest sport there is, so Finland should concentrate most of its sporting recourses to it. Other people who dont care about hockey are just stupider or too poor so they have to play sports like basketball or football when there could be option to play ice hockey. Instead of floorball kids should play street hockey and roller hockey hockey stick at hands full year.

 

[Jussi]

Biathlon is so weird, I don't get either why people watch it or why skiers just don sprint the hell out of them avoiding shooting making up for the penalties

They manage to make it into a good tv sport. Probably the highest rated winter sport in Europe now.

 

[Jussi]

,
Czech-Slovak hockey league was good, developed many great players. The same can be said about the Soviet league. Then, the system collapsed, new states were created. What did happen in hockey? Of course, the former training centres ceased to exist, the system of players development(not only hockey) ceased to exist. A state stopped to finance the sport as much as earlier. And of course, the NHL grabbed the hockey market in both countries (and Russia). If the clubs were protected by rules as in football, they could get some money on their development. They got nothing, but top-notch players left to the NHL.

Of course, Slovak football was affected by the same problems (the state stopped to finance, training centres ceased to exist), but there is one big difference, as said by @GaboriklessWild, the transfer rules. These rules helped football clubs to revive because they see the future if they develop a top player (Zilina is a good example, Trencin is another). That does not exist in hockey.

Remember Tatar? He had a contract with Zvolen, of course, an NHL club was interested in, he left without a compensation (Slovakia did not sign NHL Transfer Agreement at the time).

Current transfer rules are cancer for European hockey. It is unacceptable that a solidarity mechanism does not work, that there is no protection of minors, that a club having a valid deal with a player has no right in his transfer to another club/league.

If European governments and local authorities did not finance hockey, European hockey would be death. But yeah, they inviting the NHL to a challenging game versus the Champions Hockey League´s winner instead of fixing transfer rules.

Yeah if they had an NHL agreement they could have gotten money. Repeating myself here that money is often much more than the player makes and good enough to pay for a better replacement. You can't leverage the NHL for higher money because countries/federations don't own the players so they can't stop them moving if all re legal requirements are filled (NHL transfer agreement or player out of contract). Different sports different transfer system. No need to start comparing hockey and football. Latter has more than one NHL type league vying for the players services. In hockey there is only one league.

 

[ijuka]

Indeed, I would wish that Slovakia was a stronger hockey country, but unfortunately the culture and the amount of arenas available just isn't very good right now. They would in my opinion require some sort of a cultural change.

I really hate skiing, but biathlon is a great sport. It's got such an interesting balance between pure speed and technique, like having to hold back with skiing enough to not have too high a heart rate during shooting. There's a lot of suspense which remains all the way to the last shooting, even if there are large differences before then. There also are very interesting dynamics because some contestants are far better at skiing and others at shooting. This causes there to often be tension between athletes of different archetypes, even towards the end. On the other hand, with sports like Skiing and whatnot, there are just about no dynamics like this. The only skiing events worth watching are relays.

 

[Husqvarna]

How many Finnish NHL players don't come from wealthy families? My guess would be zero.

... and I can dig the idea of the NHL-draft-lottery that is more communism than communism itself, perhaps.

All teams are equal - but some teams are more equal than others.
Simply because they're bad.
NHL - probably the only league where the strong ones don't eat the poor ones like happy meals sponsored by Trump!

Not the American way otherwise exactly ...

 

[Habs76]

Aren't Canada and Finland the only 2 countries where hockey is #1?

I believe it's #1 in Latvia actually

 

[member 305909]

Latvia is a deeply divided country. Hockey is the favourite sport of the ethnic Russians living in Latvia.

The ethnic Latvians prefer basketball.

 

[Urbanskog]

Latvia is a deeply divided country. Hockey is the favourite sport of the ethnic Russians living in Latvia.

The ethnic Latvians prefer basketball.

And what exactly makes you think that? Dinamo Riga alone has a higher attendance than all the basketball clubs in the country combined.

 

[boredmale]

Now tell me: Why? Why are there such big differences?

Without looking into statistics, I am guessing Slovakia is warmer and better at football

 

[Stubu]

Biathlon is so weird, I don't get either why people watch it or why skiers just don sprint the hell out of them avoiding shooting making up for the penalties

And the rifles are so puny. It could be made so much more interesting with proper sniper rifles. Or better, expand it to bazookas and other really fun gear. But that might get a tad iffy to organize as spectator events.

(I'm a big fan of the Tank Biathlon in Russia! Too bad we never send a team. I bet Kaisa Makarainen would make a good biathlon tank commander.)

 

[Atas2000]

Per Wiki:

115	Finland	5,522,015	November 30, 2018	0.072%	Official monthly estimate
116	Slovakia	5,445,087	June 30, 2018	0.071%	Official estimate

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Both countries with almost the same population.
Both countries, where ice-hockey is second most popular sport (after football).

But now comes the differencies:
Slovakia has only 10 727 registered players (according to IIHF)
Finland has 73 374

Slovaks top league is way way under the Finnish Sado Maso Liiga.

Slovak junior leagues are even more under the level of the Finnish.

Now tell me: Why? Why are there such big differences?

Finnland's hockey development was never disturbed by a catastrophe of epic proportions.

 

[stastny12]

And the rifles are so puny. It could be made so much more interesting with proper sniper rifles. Or better, expand it to bazookas and other really fun gear. But that might get a tad iffy to organize as spectator events.

(I'm a big fan of the Tank Biathlon in Russia! Too bad we never send a team. I bet Kaisa Makarainen would make a good biathlon tank commander.)

Big Kaisa fan here. It's a pity that she never won a olympic medal. She is true biathlon legend.

 

[novisor]

Wrong, hockey is without doubt more popular than soccer in Finland.

Came here to say this.

 

[novisor]

Aren't Canada and Finland the only 2 countries where hockey is #1?

& Latvia.