Popularity of other sports in Finland

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cagney

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Jun 17, 2002
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I was quite surprised to see the large crowd of enthusiastic Finnish fans at last years Eurobasket. It made the success they had there all the more exciting and I found myself rooting for them, particularly in their victories over Russia and Greece.

I wasn't sure they were the most deserving to be granted a wild card slot at the upcoming FIBA World Cup but the reports of 7,000+ fans heading to Spain for the games will certainly make for great atmosphere. They also lucked out with the draw as I believe they have the potential to beat all of the teams in their group besides the US, though it's no sure thing. If they can get to second place in the group they could face a favorable opponent in the round of 16 and have a shot at making it to the quarterfinals.
 

Urbanskog

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Feb 8, 2014
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IMO HJK making the UCL group stage in 1998 is the biggest accomplishment in the history of Finnish team sports.

So a Finnish club has qualified for the tournament once in the history and even then HJK was the worst team of the group.

Pretty good.
 

LOFIN

Registered User
Sep 16, 2011
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So a Finnish club has qualified for the tournament once in the history and even then HJK was the worst team of the group.

Pretty good.

I would consider making the UCL today a bigger or as good achievement than winning anything in Hockey.

And I'd gladly swap every single medal Finland has ever won on hockey for a place in the WC/EURO
 

QnebO

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Feb 11, 2010
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1st Hockey(not even close to any other sport)


2nd Soccer(national team and champions league games are really popular, Finnish league is a joke)



3rd Formula 1



4th Track&field
5th Biathlon/cross country sking/ski jumping etc


Basketball/Volleyball/MMA/ are getting more popular each year since we have had some sucess recently.

Problem with team sports other than hockey here is low quality of the play. Leagues are mostly semi pro with low attendance numbers and very little tv coverage.

National team games in Basketball have been getting more and more coverage and it may very well become #4 sport here in a few years. Getting into Euro and World championships was a great thing.

This is good rankings, but I'm not sure if football is that much higher than Formula 1.
 

QnebO

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Feb 11, 2010
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I would consider making the UCL today a bigger or as good achievement than winning anything in Hockey.

And I'd gladly swap every single medal Finland has ever won on hockey for a place in the WC/EURO

Just because we suck doesn't mean its an achievement. Your thinking seems to go with the logic that finnish soccer league is "as good as hockey league" but only football level is higher. Making into Champions League means nothing. HJK could even do it this year, and its Finnish league club. Of course its cool if they play there and all but they aren't even close to real competing for the win.

Hockey means much more to me in general. Hockey Olympic gold > football gold. I simply dont give a **** about that sport to be honest and never will. If they win World Cup gold it'll be "Meh" sort of thing for me, like some Rally World Championship or Formula 1 title at best. It is nice if we do well in it and I dont bash that sport, but stating as some kind of fact that winning in football is more valuable is joke. Hockey is the game of heart for many people and they wouldn't trade any medals anywhere.

Hey, at least I don't hope we suck at football, like many jealous football fans hope we suck at hockey.

For the record, I find it surprising that you have even registered here if you would trade our succes in hockey and change it to succes in football.
 
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FiLe

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Oct 9, 2009
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Just because we suck doesn't mean its an achievement. Your thinking seems to go with the logic that finnish soccer league is "as good as hockey league" but only football level is higher. Making into Champions League means nothing. HJK could even do it this year, and its Finnish league club. Of course its cool if they play there and all but they aren't even close to real competing for the win.
One can't certainly compare two sports together and say one's got higher peak than the other. Becoming a world class talent in just about anything requires a crapton of work, no matter the venue. The peak may be broader in a sport that's globally more popular, but even the clubs that are on top on the narrower one are still on the same level.

After all, there are top level clubs like, say FC Barcelona and Manchester United that make the Champions' League relatively easily, year after year. In similar manner there are top level hockey clubs like SKA or Kärpät that make similar competitions in their own venues relatively easily.

Simply put, top level is top level, and one sport should not be compared with another. If the Spaniards and Italians suddenly got crazy about hockey and started developing the sport, it would mean more competition for the established hockey countries, but would NOT mean that Finnish hockey would suddenly slink to the same relative level as Finnish football is when compared to the level of play in those countries.
 

Hasa92

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Aug 4, 2012
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3rd Formula 1

I doubt that, maybe if all motorsports fall into the same category (WRC, MotoGP, F1 etc.) But i don't think that Formula 1 alone is more popular than Floorball which i believe is currently the 3rd biggest sport in Finland.

You also forgot Pesäpallo (Finnish baseball) but i'm not sure if it's more or less popular than the other traditional sports (track 'n' field, skiing, biathlon etc.) but i'd say it's close in terms of popularity among them.

Basketball/Volleyball/MMA/ are getting more popular each year since we have had some sucess recently.

Agreed. I believe that in the future the big 4 Finnish sports will be: Hockey, Football (soccer), Basketball and MMA which seem to be the most popular ones among youth already, at least with the people i know. Floorball might make it "big 5" but i don't think that Volleyball will ever attract the big crowds like the others.
 

FiLe

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Oct 9, 2009
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I doubt that, maybe if all motorsports fall into the same category (WRC, MotoGP, F1 etc.) But i don't think that Formula 1 alone is more popular than Floorball which i believe is currently the 3rd biggest sport in Finland.
The attention garnered by F1 is a far cry from the late 90s/early 2000s, but I think the bi-weekly GP is still a far more covered event than the ongoings of our floorball league.

And even if you could argue that floorball and F1 are about the same, neither of them can really call dibs on the #3 spot. Track & Field and Nordic Ski are FAR above them both.

Just remember, a guy can win the F1 world title, but if, say, a javelin thrower or a skier has won something the same year, the poor wheelmonkey has no chance of grabbing the Finnish "Athlete of the Year".
 

QnebO

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Feb 11, 2010
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HJK - Barcelona 0-4 after 40min played.. Pathetic effort :facepalm:

This is like NHL team vs Norwegian 3 division hockey team. And norway doese't probably even have official 3th division..
 

Loffer

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Sep 22, 2011
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HJK - Barcelona 0-4 after 40min played.. Pathetic effort :facepalm:

This is like NHL team vs Norwegian 3 division hockey team. And norway doese't probably even have official 3th division..

Well, to be fair it was just a friendly 'charity' game in which Barca had more motivation than the hosts HJK. In fact, HJK were pretty sloppy for the reason it was a meaningless game.

And that's why it got ugly so fast.

It was just a show to collect the money. Though HJK could have done better for PR reasons also - it didn't mean a squat.

Barca had motivated young players with them and it was ther second last pre-season game under a new coach, Luis Enrique. SLoppiness was no option for them. -HJK instead didn't know exactly how to take this game between meaningful adn important games. THere were no discipline or detailed game plan for this etc. Just saying.

And it is true as well that football/soccer is the most competed sport and to beat Barca which is at the vey top o its pecking order is no easy feat any way.

"Pathetic" it might have been--but only if somebody expected this to be a meaningful game for HJK. It was not. Not really.
 

Finnpin

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Oct 10, 2005
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Basketball

Finland vs Lithuania: 7300+ spectators
Finland vs Australia: over 4000 tickets sold in advance and the game is next tuesday

The team also gets own mobile game for kids: Wolf Track

WolfTrack%20tausta.jpg
 

Jersey Fan 12

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Nov 20, 2006
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My perspective may be skewed a bit since I lived at a sport school when I was in Finland but would you really put soccer above the winter sports like cross country skiing, ski jumping and even curling? While these may not be viewed as widely in North America it would seem that they were quite popular in Finland and a bigger part of the culture than soccer.

I would also throw tennis and golf into the mix as, despite the size of the country relative to some of the other nations there are some elite level players in both sports.



1st Hockey(not even close to any other sport)


2nd Soccer(national team and champions league games are really popular, Finnish league is a joke)



3rd Formula 1



4th Track&field
5th Biathlon/cross country sking/ski jumping etc


Basketball/Volleyball/MMA/ are getting more popular each year since we have had some sucess recently.

Problem with team sports other than hockey here is low quality of the play. Leagues are mostly semi pro with low attendance numbers and very little tv coverage.

National team games in Basketball have been getting more and more coverage and it may very well become #4 sport here in a few years. Getting into Euro and World championships was a great thing.
 

Danjel

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Jul 28, 2014
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HJK - Barcelona 0-4 after 40min played.. Pathetic effort :facepalm:

This is like NHL team vs Norwegian 3 division hockey team. And norway doese't probably even have official 3th division..

Prime example of football hater taking shot at football without even checking the facts.

This was an exhibition game. HJK is in the middle of the season, under two weeks before their most important games of the season, which are worth few millions for the club. You think they really give a **** about some exhibition game at this point of the season? They got a really nice revenue from the match, which they will spend to develop training circumstances for their juniors. Stupid manwhores paid themselves sick to see Messi and co. meanwhile HJK are laughing on their way to the bank.

Get your facts straight ****ing redneck.
 

Jussi

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Feb 28, 2002
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Basketball

Finland vs Lithuania: 7300+ spectators
Finland vs Australia: over 4000 tickets sold in advance and the game is next tuesday

The team also gets own mobile game for kids: Wolf Track

WolfTrack%20tausta.jpg

7600 fans travelling to support the team at the FIBA World Cup. 2000 fans travelling to support the volleyball team at the World Championships.

My perspective may be skewed a bit since I lived at a sport school when I was in Finland but would you really put soccer above the winter sports like cross country skiing, ski jumping and even curling? While these may not be viewed as widely in North America it would seem that they were quite popular in Finland and a bigger part of the culture than soccer.

I would also throw tennis and golf into the mix as, despite the size of the country relative to some of the other nations there are some elite level players in both sports.

We only have Jarkko Nieminen and he's getting old a bit. No one really before him nor anyone else in the horizon. Not exactly a big sport.
 

FiLe

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Oct 9, 2009
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My perspective may be skewed a bit since I lived at a sport school when I was in Finland but would you really put soccer above the winter sports like cross country skiing, ski jumping and even curling? While these may not be viewed as widely in North America it would seem that they were quite popular in Finland and a bigger part of the culture than soccer.
Traditional winter sports like skiing, ski jumping and the like, sure. There may be some younger people who have tuned off of 'em a bit because we haven't been winning metal in them with the rate we did about a decade ago (for reasons unspecified) but they still are kind of a big deal if you're middle age or older. So yeah, definitely up there.

Curling however has never been quite so. There was a small boom in the middle of previous decade when we had one good foursome in it. But after they split, it went right back under the radar.

I would also throw tennis and golf into the mix as, despite the size of the country relative to some of the other nations there are some elite level players in both sports.
See what I said about curling above. We currently have one athlete I'd call "elite" in both venues. It's said individuals who are followed pretty closely, but other than that the interest is far from nationwide. Both have been steadily gaining popularity as a recreational sport, but I'd say they've still got some miles to go to break top five.

HJK - Barcelona 0-4 after 40min played.. Pathetic effort :facepalm:
This was an exhibition game. HJK is in the middle of the season, under two weeks before their most important games of the season, which are worth few millions for the club. You think they really give a **** about some exhibition game at this point of the season? They got a really nice revenue from the match, which they will spend to develop training circumstances for their juniors. Stupid manwhores paid themselves sick to see Messi and co. meanwhile HJK are laughing on their way to the bank.
Wait a minute. Even if it was a practice game, one guy shows some spark and enthusiasm about it, even notes the result... while the other uses very uncivil language, belittles the event and the effort and even goes as far as calling people who did turn up "manwhores".

So... I'm kinda having trouble here figuring out which one of is supposed to be the soccer fan and which the hater.
 

Jussi

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Feb 28, 2002
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Wait a minute. Even if it was a practice game, one guy shows some spark and enthusiasm about it, even notes the result... while the other uses very uncivil language, belittles the event and the effort and even goes as far as calling people who did turn up "manwhores".

So... I'm kinda having trouble here figuring out which one of is supposed to be the soccer fan and which the hater.

Mieshuora... Obvious forumisti (Futisforum2). :laugh:
 

FiLe

Mr. Know-It-Nothing
Oct 9, 2009
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Mieshuora... Obvious forumisti (Futisforum2).
So is this their term for a person who only tunes into the big events but is clueless about the minutiae of the sport? Here in hockey side, we call 'em "Karjala caps".

Both are degrading terms, but ours is still pretty mild in comparison. These soccer people like to call us hockey folks "rednecks" or worse, but judging by the language they use... I have to say, we're actually quite civil.
 

Raimoh

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Jul 21, 2010
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My perspective may be skewed a bit since I lived at a sport school when I was in Finland but would you really put soccer above the winter sports like cross country skiing, ski jumping and even curling? While these may not be viewed as widely in North America it would seem that they were quite popular in Finland and a bigger part of the culture than soccer.

I would also throw tennis and golf into the mix as, despite the size of the country relative to some of the other nations there are some elite level players in both sports.

Curling was super popular for about two weeks in 2006 and that's about it. Markku Uusipaavalniemi is considered a legend tho. Atleast by me.

In general hockey is the most followed(by both media and fans) sport in Finland. National soccer team and big European soccer leagues get a lot of attention as well, as do formula one, track&field (especially javelin), ski jumping and cross-country skiing. The national basketball team has become quite huge recently and the national volley- and floorball teams also get lots of attention when they play in their respective world/european championships.

Domestic leagues in volleyball, basketball, soccer, floorball and finnish baseball (pesäpallo) all have their own and rather strong fan bases, but they are all quite far behind hockey. Pesäpallo is also not that popular in the largest towns. The most succesful pesäpallo team comes from Sotkamo, which is the 95th biggest municipality in Finland according to wiki (about 10 000 residents). Another team from a town of only only 3000 people made the finals in 2010 and they had over 5000 people in the arena at one of the final games. So saying that the fan bases of these smaller sports are strong is not a stretch by any means. They tried to bring pesäpallo to Helsinki once but it failed. Helsinki also doesn't have a team in the top volleyball division. Volleyball has also found success in certain smaller towns.

The Olympic games as a whole gathers huge crowds in front of the TV screens every time. If a Finn gets a medal in the Olympics he/she is a national hero no matter the sport(curling is a good example). European/world championships in track&field and nordic skiing also gain massive crowds when there's a chance for a Finn to place high. In general I would say hockey, F1, track&field, cross-country skiing and ski-jumping are the most beloved tv-sports among Finns.

Op liked to compare Finland with the other nordic countries, so here you go. Finland is the best Nordic country in basketball and volleyball. Finland and Sweden are quite equal in floorball, which doesn't gain much interest in other nordic countries(accept maybe a bit in Norway?). In handball we are death last tho. It seems to be a major sport in all the other nordic countries, but in Finland it's only played in the swedish speaking areas and it has extremely few followers outside that.

As for the amount of registered players, soccer takes the cake. I would also think floorball will pass hockey soon, if it hasn't already. Soccer and floorball are just that much cheaper to play competitively than hockey that it's really not a contest. However to my understunding hockey and soccer are all the same in terms of popularity among kids. They play hockey in wintertime and soccer in summertime (not competitively, but in the backyard etc.)
 

Jussi

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Feb 28, 2002
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Curling was super popular for about two weeks in 2006 and that's about it. Markku Uusipaavalniemi is considered a legend tho. Atleast by me.

In general hockey is the most followed(by both media and fans) sport in Finland. National soccer team and big European soccer leagues get a lot of attention as well, as do formula one, track&field (especially javelin), ski jumping and cross-country skiing. The national basketball team has become quite huge recently and the national volley- and floorball teams also get lots of attention when they play in their respective world/european championships.

Domestic leagues in volleyball, basketball, soccer, floorball and finnish baseball (pesäpallo) all have their own and rather strong fan bases, but they are all quite far behind hockey. Pesäpallo is also not that popular in the largest towns. The most succesful pesäpallo team comes from Sotkamo, which is the 95th biggest municipality in Finland according to wiki (about 10 000 residents). Another team from a town of only only 3000 people made the finals in 2010 and they had over 5000 people in the arena at one of the final games. So saying that the fan bases of these smaller sports are strong is not a stretch by any means. They tried to bring pesäpallo to Helsinki once but it failed. Helsinki also doesn't have a team in the top volleyball division. Volleyball has also found success in certain smaller towns.

The Olympic games as a whole gathers huge crowds in front of the TV screens every time. If a Finn gets a medal in the Olympics he/she is a national hero no matter the sport(curling is a good example). European/world championships in track&field and nordic skiing also gain massive crowds when there's a chance for a Finn to place high. In general I would say hockey, F1, track&field, cross-country skiing and ski-jumping are the most beloved tv-sports among Finns.

Op liked to compare Finland with the other nordic countries, so here you go. Finland is the best Nordic country in basketball and volleyball. Finland and Sweden are quite equal in floorball, which doesn't gain much interest in other nordic countries(accept maybe a bit in Norway?). In handball we are dead last tho. It seems to be a major sport in all the other nordic countries, but in Finland it's only played in the swedish speaking areas and it has extremely few followers outside that.

As for the amount of registered players, soccer takes the cake. I would also think floorball will pass hockey soon, if it hasn't already. Soccer and floorball are just that much cheaper to play competitively than hockey that it's really not a contest. However to my understunding hockey and soccer are all the same in terms of popularity among kids. They play hockey in wintertime and soccer in summertime (not competitively, but in the backyard etc.)

With team names like Cocks and Dicken, what do you expect?
 

LOFIN

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Sep 16, 2011
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So is this their term for a person who only tunes into the big events but is clueless about the minutiae of the sport? Here in hockey side, we call 'em "Karjala caps".

Both are degrading terms, but ours is still pretty mild in comparison. These soccer people like to call us hockey folks "rednecks" or worse, but judging by the language they use... I have to say, we're actually quite civil.

It's a term for those ppl who support foreign clubs (in hockey or soccer) and despise the quality of our national leagues. They are a joke, and I vommit everytime I hear some finnish Barcelona fan call himself "a football fan". They are customers expecting to be entertained, nothing more.
 

Urbanskog

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Feb 8, 2014
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HJK - Barcelona 0-4 after 40min played.. Pathetic effort :facepalm:

This is like NHL team vs Norwegian 3 division hockey team. And norway doese't probably even have official 3th division..

And what's funny is that Barcelona left their best players home, sent a B-team to Helsinki, put their third goalie in the net and the players went drinking the night before.

And the result?

6:0 :laugh:
 

Danjel

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Jul 28, 2014
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It's a term for those ppl who support foreign clubs (in hockey or soccer) and despise the quality of our national leagues. They are a joke, and I vommit everytime I hear some finnish Barcelona fan call himself "a football fan". They are customers expecting to be entertained, nothing more.

This. These people are the cancer of Finnish sports. Not only in football, this goes for hockey too. I think everyone knows that guy who won't go to Liiga/Mestis or whatever league their local team is playing for, but stays up all night to watch NHL because that's ''real hockey''.

And what's funny is that Barcelona left their best players home, sent a B-team to Helsinki, put their third goalie in the net and the players went drinking the night before.

And the result?

6:0 :laugh:

Didn't really pay attention, did you?
 

WinTheRightGames

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Jan 7, 2014
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In handball we are death last tho. It seems to be a major sport in all the other nordic countries, but in Finland it's only played in the swedish speaking areas and it has extremely few followers outside that.
Hold it! The handball league is dominated by Riihimäki Cocks, and Riihimäki is definitely not Swedish-speaking.
 
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