Teemu Kulmala, Vaasa’s Kiisto team leader, says he understands the investigation. He points out that what happened could hardly have been avoided even with dozens of law enforcement officers.
The emotional visit of Turku’s KF Kosova in the men’s futsal First Division match in Vaasa last Saturday may also bring something to pay for the home team.
Competition manager of the Swedish Football Association Pekka Soini confirms that the association is investigating whether the home team was guilty of neglecting safety regulations.
If the decision is yes, Kiisto may also have to pay a fine.
– Of course, the home team is ultimately responsible for everything. The rules are clear: the home team responds, even if the away team’s fan has been involved, says Kiisto’s team manager Teemu Kulmala.
Hard to block
On Saturday, the final round of Ykkönen was played, where Kiisto faced KF Kosova in Vaasa. Kosova still had stakes in the match: with a win with plenty of goals, the team could even go directly to the Futsal League for next season.
The Vaasa team had no contributions. However, the team played tenaciously, and the visiting team collected a lot of fouls in a short time.
The situation escalated when, in the first half, the home team received a free kick from the edge of the penalty area in a 2–1 situation, which was too much for one of the away team’s supporters. This one threw the judge with the horn he had with him. The horn sounded, and the referee finally decided to stop the match.
Kulmala, who has been involved in the sport for years, looked at the situation confused.
– I have never seen anything similar in my career. Sometimes the match has been suspended for a long time if there has been a bad injury, but there is no previous experience of this.
A similar reaction is more common elsewhere in Europe. According to him, the situation was difficult to prevent.
– It was a quick overshoot by a single fan, which could hardly have been prevented even with dozens of orderlies.
The result remained valid
Soini, who has been in the sports world for a long time, also considers the case exceptional.
– I don’t immediately remember when I would have come across a similar situation.
The Football Association decided from the beginning of the week to leave the 2–1 situation as the final result of the match as well. Among other things, because a possible rematch would have brought KF Kosova a significant advantage in terms of promotion.
– The rematch would have been scheduled for the Easter holidays. There is no way we could have gotten the same group on the field as on Saturday, says Kulmala.
Saturdays had a lot of meaning anyway. Before the last lap, Kokkola’s TP-Kaarle was in the lead. When they played their own match as a draw and in Pirkkala PJK won theirs 9–2, PJK moved up to the league for the next season thanks to a better goal difference by four goals.
News updated 17:23: Corrected name – Kiisto’s team manager is Teemu Kulmala, not Teemu Huhtala.