3/12/2024.
Every Finn who follows football should mark the date in his calendar in cat-sized letters.
That’s when the Finnish women’s national football team plays one of the most important matches in its history so far, when it meets Scotland at home in the last and decisive match of the EC qualifiers.
Both Scotland matches are the most important for Finland that the team has played during the global growth of women’s football.
Helmarit has played in the European Championships four times before: 2005, 2009, 2013 and most recently in 2022.
Finland advanced to the previous European Championships as the group winner. Due to the calendar messed up by the corona virus, the competition place was secured at the icy Töölö football stadium in February 2021, when Portugal fell 1–0 by Linda Sällström with a last minute hit.
The team had to celebrate in front of an empty stand: because of the pandemic, the arrangements were tight.
Now the situation is different. Töölö’s football stadium can accommodate around 10,000 spectators for the EC qualifying match, which is the decisive match for the venue, and the goal of the Football Association is Helmarie’s record audience for matches outside of the prestigious competitions.
The previous EC qualifiers were still played in the old model without the level groups familiar from the Nations League.
It is no exaggeration to say that Finland overperformed. For example, on the away field in Edinburgh, Scotland was clearly the better team, it also took the goal posts 17–4. But only a substitute Amanda Rantanen became Finland’s hero with his memorable extra-time debut goal – right after being on the field for only a minute in the first national A match of his career.
Swedish coach Anna Signeulin the gameplay did not garner much praise. Finland defended closely and attacked with long balls, which Sällström finished effectively.
At the European Championship in England, the truth hit me in the face when Finland was drawn into the “death group” with Spain, Germany and Denmark. Helmarit lost all three of their matches, managed to score once and conceded eight goals.
Named after Anna Signeul as head coach Marko Saloranta already announced at the start of the Nations League in the fall of 2023 that the team’s goal is not only to advance to the EC final tournament but also to succeed there.
In the September heat of Bucharest, that goal sounded wild, but the head coach assured that he was serious. According to Saloranta, the away matches of the Nations League were already built to simulate what everyday life would be like in Switzerland in July 2025.
In the fall of 2022, Saloranta got a team that had played with almost the same eleven-player opening for almost the entire five-year era of Signeul – the Swedish pilot trusted experience above all. Many of the experienced conkers ended up quitting after the European Championships, and Saloranta’s task was to drive new players in.
He has succeeded well in that. Finland’s best striker at the moment Jutta Rantala was the only player at the summer 2022 European Championships not to play a single minute, and now he carries the mantle of number one striker.
Katariina Kosola was one of the players in Häcken’s opening team that advanced to the playoffs of the Champions League last season. Both are now out due to injury, but will be rehabilitated for the Games.
Moved to the ranks of West Ham in England, the most high-level women’s football league at the moment Oona Siren has proven to be an excellent option for midfield.
Finland’s game is more versatile under Saloranta. There are still some shortcomings, and it has been too difficult on the away field, but the excellent home matches in the European Championship qualifiers against the European leaders Holland, Norway and Italy showed that Saloranta’s wild project is not just a buzzword.
Succeeding in the project is vital for Finland, because the stake is not only a European Championship place. It is also about the future of Finnish girls’ and women’s football.
Head coach Saloranta stated that he was already worried fifteen years ago about the moment when traditional football countries on the men’s side would become interested in women’s football.
That moment is at hand. While the matches in Montenegro showed that the Balkans still have a lot to develop, the team at times showed glimpses of what the future might hold. If all the players in the team were as skilled as the captain playing in Turkey Sladjana Bulatovic, Helmarit would have been in a hurry.
Elsewhere has already woken up, and the top Europeans are fast fleeing from Finland.
In the home games in 2009, Finland still defeated Denmark and the Netherlands, and narrowly lost to England in the quarterfinals. Eight years later, Holland first celebrated European Championship gold and a couple of years later World Championship silver.
In the top European countries, the coaching and facilities are top class for women as well. More and more countries have a competitive women’s league where young players develop and where the players are also paid.
Finland’s ranking in the ranking of European leagues is currently 28th. Above are the leagues of Kazakhstan, Bosnia, Croatia, Romania, Belarus, Serbia and Slovenia, among others.
On the women’s side, the prize money is not yet in the category of the men’s European Championships. The loss of Helmare’s EC place is therefore not the same financial blow to Pallloliito as it was for Huuhkajien. The first European Championship place in men’s history for the European Championship postponed to the summer of 2021 cost the union about ten million euros, of which nine million were participation allowances. The men’s national team did not make it to the European Championships in 2024, and the prize money was not received.
Helmarie’s European Championship venue would help to ensure that the development of women’s football would be taken care of in Finland during the next four years as well. Even though the World Cup final tournament has been expanded to 32 teams, it is extremely difficult to get there from Europe.
If the women’s national football team does not make it to the EC final tournament now, there is a real risk that the next realistic opportunity to play in the prestigious tournament will not be until eight years from now – by which time even the smaller countries have already woken up, pulled together and possibly passed. Making it to the final tournament is even more difficult.
If Finland wants to stay involved in this development, a place in the EC final tournament would now be vital.
Saloranta and partners have repeatedly had to state that Finland has to look for diamonds from a significantly smaller number of enthusiasts than its competitors. For example, in neighboring countries with long traditions in women’s football, the numbers are significantly higher: in Sweden there were 128,284 registered girls and women players last year, and in Norway around 125,000.
In the most recent strategy for domestic football drawn up for the years 2025–2028, the target number of girls and women players has been set at 40,000 girls and women fans by the end of the strategy period.
At the end of 2023, the number was 38,567.
The competition venue could wake up Balloliitto also has more ambitious goals. The growth of well over a thousand players would not seem to be an impossible mark, if there is success.
The Finnish women’s national football team will face Scotland as guests in the latter stage of the European Championship qualifiers on November 29. and at home on 3.12. from 7:15 p.m. shows the matches on its channels.