The appearance of Alexander Stubb in the sponsor outfit of the Ski Federation aroused surprise. According to the skiing association, it was a “human error”, which will be discussed with the athletes and partners.
Mika Halonen,
Pekka Holopainen
The coalition’s presidential candidate by Alexander Stubb appearance at the skiing world cup in Kuusamo last weekend has aroused astonishment. Stubb appeared in his Instagram photos several times in the sponsor outfit of the cross country team.
The Ski Federation published on Wednesday bulletin with the title: “Finnish Skiing Federation mistakenly connected to presidential election campaigning”. In its press release, the Ski Federation says that it is a non-political sports organization that does not participate in the campaigning of candidates.
– Presidential candidate Alexander Stubb visited the World Cup in Ruka, performing in the cross-country team’s equipment. National team equipment is only for the use of athletes, coaching and members of the organization. The matter will be dealt with internally in the Ski Federation together with the athletes and partners, in order to avoid similar misunderstandings in the future, the press release says.
This is why the uproar arose
The Ski Federation is a non-political non-governmental organization, which received 1.03 million euros of money collected from taxpayers from the Ministry of Education and Culture in the most recent state aid. The union cannot have “its own” presidential candidate, for example Cross mat Hakola belongs to Stubb’s support group.
The cross country team’s sponsor outfit is not sold anywhere to outsiders, and it is usually only available to athletes, coaching and maintenance.
That’s why the partners of the national team also wondered about the situation last weekend. The matter is unfortunate for Ilta-Sanom, one of the major partners of the national skiing team, which is a politically committed media company.
– The procedure is not suitable from our point of view, because the logo only belongs to the outfits of the sponsors, i.e. above all the athletes. We are in no way sponsoring Stubb’s or any other candidate’s campaign, commented Ilta-Sanomie’s editor-in-chief Johanna Lahti.
Long-term major partner of skiers, chairman of the board and major owner of the energy company St1 Mika Anttonen also swore that St1 as a company has never been politically committed.
The Ski Federation and Hakola apologized
In the ski association’s press release, they are happy that several presidential candidates were present at the Ruka World Cup.
– However, the Ski Federation has not invited people to attend. One of the candidates has inquired from national team athlete Hakola about the possibility of borrowing equipment for a ski run. Hakola has organized this without understanding the problem of handing over the outfit to a politically non-aligned organization and its partners. It is a human error, states the executive director of the Ski Association Ismo Hämäläinen.
According to Hämäläinen, the matter will be discussed internally with Hakola and partners in order to avoid similar mistakes in the future.
Hakola, who is part of Stubb’s support group, previously told Urheilu that he bought Stubb an outfit. Hakola went skiing with Stubb in Kuusamo.
– I got (the apartment) and I promise to keep getting it for every candidate who comes skiing, Hakola stated.
According to the Swedish Ski Association’s press release, Hakola is sorry for the inconvenience caused to the association and its partners. Hakola does not have an employment relationship with the Skiing Federation, but the joint life of the federation and the athletes is regulated by the athletes’ agreement, which does not prohibit athletes from political activity.
The release mentions that handing over equipment to actors outside the national team is not acceptable.
– Naturally, my own political activity is my personal matter, but handing over the equipment of the national team to the presidential candidate has been a mistake on my part, says Hakola.