The chairman of the board, Risto Murto, considers it unlikely that Oulunkylä will play any more major league level matches this season.
Aino Paloniemi,
Riku Porvari
10:50•Updated 11:22
Helsinki’s Oulunkylä football club IF Gnistania faced a shock on Saturday morning when the stand of its home stadium was destroyed by fire. Chairman of the board of Gnistan ry Risto Murron according to the fire has been extinguished and the fire brigade is in the process of monitoring it.
– Now we are starting to find out the condition of the field and what damage has been done to it.
With the stadium fire, the club’s warehouses, dressing rooms and all the property inside were also destroyed. According to Murro, it is very unlikely that Oulunkylä will play any more major league level matches this season. The possibilities of using the reserve fields are currently being investigated.
– It is really unlikely that Oulunkylä will be played. A terrible tragedy all the equipment and everything has been burnt and the men’s and women’s representative teams have nothing at the moment.
According to Murro, there have been individual acts of vandalism in the Oulunkylä football stadium in the past.
– There have been some burglaries there in the past, but nothing like this. The authorities are now investigating the cause of the fire, and we don’t know more about it at the moment, Murto said.
The head coach of Gnistan’s betting league team Jussi Leppälahti has informed the players about the fire. The continuation of the club will be discussed with the team in the afternoon. Leppälahti confirms that all material related to the team’s activities was destroyed along with the fire.
– Actually, everything from laptops and screens, equipment and the players’ game stuff and training equipment and everything related to our activities went in it.
– We have trained normally this week and prepared. This morning I was supposed to go to training with the team, but this news came. All team activities have been canceled for a couple of days now. We are trying to take a short break, presumably next week we have to continue the activity.
– We don’t have anything, so we have to do a complete reorganization.
Destruction creates community
– Everyone is sad about the situation. Fortunately, no one died. Noann Olivier-Lönnqvist described the atmosphere on the spot from the stadium.
Lönnqvist acts as a liaison between IF Gnistan, the supporters’ association and the authorities. The supporters’ association was spared material damage in the stadium fire. However, the stadium around the association, around which its activities are based, was destroyed.
– We are trying to come up with ways to help Gnistan and to be here planning with other supporters how we can help, Olivier-Lönnqvist emphasizes.
IF Gnistan’s men’s main league team is ninth in the Veikkausliiga. According to Olivier-Lönnqvist, the season has gone well in the stands and on the field, although there has also been room for improvement on the field at times.
– I claim that this helps Gnistan in community. Now we all have to think together about how we can move forward.
However, there is faith that the club will continue, although it will certainly not be easy.
– Yes, we lose a lot here. We are possibly losing some information, for example training plans and training methods of junior teams, which can be more valuable than the stadium, Olivier-Lönnqvist knows.
The news is updated.