Exercises without a single coach, sleeping on the bus or sleeping on couch cushions in a coach-run nightspot.
It sounds like an exciting tournament trip for years!
With the difference, of course, that the exercises were never held without a coach.
However, these examples are from Åland United, a long-lasting successful club in women’s football’s premier league, the National League. The team said they were starting the season with a budget of 460,000 euros, of which 190,000 euros was announced as the share of the player budget – the second highest in the series, right after KuPS.
If everyday life is like this in the company of the top caste, the question arises, what is it like elsewhere?
The discussion started on Saturday in connection with ‘s televised match PK-35 – Åland United.
Defender of Åland United Anni Miettunen opened up about his team’s challenging situation in a preliminary interview. In the away match, only the coach named as temporary head coach was with the team Ian Brookswho is also the club’s assistant coach and goalkeeper coach.
The head coach, who has been on sick leave since the end of June Riku Remes is out of team action at least until the end of August. In some of the practices, during the head coach’s sick leave, no coach was present at all.
Åland United’s problems do not come from the bush. Already last August, a pilot joined Steve Beeks said that he will not continue as head coach. He still had a contract until 2024.
Beeks told Ålands Tidningen in an interview that the reasons were related to decisions made by the club’s board.
In October, the club’s long-term sports director Mikael Virta unexpectedly learned that his contract was no longer being extended. The 15-year anniversary of Virtra and the club ended in December.
Chairman of the club Tony Saarinen commented at the beginning of the year that the reasons for Virtra’s departure were costly and related to record-breaking financial losses in the 2022 season.
Mitsuen’s frustration is understandable. The 26-year-old defender is one of the most experienced players in the National League this season. In addition to the Finnish courts, he has played in Sweden for Umeå and IFK Kalmar. He returned to Åland in the summer of 2023 from Kalmar, which suffered from severe financial difficulties.
In the same interview, Miettunen also took a broader stance on the league’s conditions.
Saturday’s match was played in Pihlajamäki at PK-35’s home field, which is surrounded by the light poles visible in the camera images. The away team’s players criticized the field and the dressing rooms built in the barracks.
At the end of the opening period, the fear came true when one of Åland’s top scorers Senja Salo had to leave the field due to a knee injury.
– This injury happened 100 percent because of the teams and the league’s non-existent standards. We are not safe on the field, Miettunen later wrote on his Instagram account.
There are of course many reasons for knee injuries, and the reason is not only on the field. Senja Salo opened up about her situation in her own social media update and said that the past season was also the most mentally challenging of her career. His season ended with a knee injury.
I also understand the players’ concern. PK-35 had five knee injuries last season: Olivia Kåhren, Suvi Kärkkäinen, Katja Hakalan, Coco Sarasteen in addition also Krista Hakala suffered a knee injury.
Miettuse’s output started a discussion that has not pleased everyone. Some clubs find the criticism unreasonable.
Executive director of PK-35 Tapio Rostedt reminds that Pihlajamäki field has a valid license. Rostedt is upset about the light in which their match was shown on ‘s broadcast and in the story on Urheilurueut.
The team’s situation was not discussed much in the broadcast, even though it was an expert Essi Sainio expressed her concern about the future of the club’s women’s activities on the broadcast.
However, it is not about a single club, field or match event.
For example, JyPK and PKKU have been allowed to play some of their home matches in Viitaniemi and Kaleva. The condition of both fields has sparked discussion.
When it comes to the fields, the clubs are in an unfair position with each other in terms of how much the city supports the conditions. In the capital region-led series, there are three teams from Helsinki alone: in addition to PK-35, HPS and HJK.
Like KuPS and HJK, not everyone has a big financier behind them.
But if the players don’t feel safe on the field, maybe it’s worth asking if they are in the license terms something to fix?
How to stay involved in international development?
Sports experts Essi Sainio and Hanna Ruohomaa showed their concern about the current situation of the series more broadly.
– If it used to be the case that the best players in the league after the season moved abroad to better teams, better leagues, now the trend has turned so that many players move to smaller leagues, smaller teams, and not necessarily even better conditions in the middle of the season, Ruohomaa commented to .
Honka from Espoo, who theoretically still has the chance to fight for a place in the top end series of four teams, ended up borrowing their credit defender at the end of July Noora Hämäläinen To Eskilstuna, which plays in Sweden’s first division.
He also moved abroad from Honga in the summer Inka Kaivola (to Austria), goalkeeper Liisa Tuomi was in turn sold to the Lithuanian company Gintra. Now the team’s first keeper is a 16-year-old Ella-Maria Ervasti.
This is not a criticism of players moving abroad. It’s great that more and more people have the opportunity to play soccer as a profession. The desire to gather new experiences or financial compensation are not bad or wrong reasons to move abroad.
However, the experts’ concern is justified: how does Finland plan to keep up with international development when women’s football is growing at an explosive rate in the world? In the comparison of 16 major European leagues carried out in 2021 The national league was rated as the third worst. The Hungarian and Moldovan leagues were left behind.
How could the domestic league be made such an attractive environment for the players that no one would have to move to a league or team that is inferior in terms of level?
And how could the appreciation of the domestic series be increased?
The women’s soccer league changed its name to the National League in the 2020 season. Name change was part of the series’ new strategy and vision. The goal was that modern top sports would be played in the series in 2023.
The 2024 season has shown that we are still far from the goal. The daily life of the players in the top clubs has changed for the better, but too many clubs are still struggling with the basics.
The Swedish Football Association and the National League are aware of the problems. The level differences between the top and the tail end have been freezing big this season as well.
The league reacted to the intensifying international competition by announcing in October 2023 that after the next season, the main league will shrink to eight teams. At the end of this season, three teams will be directly relegated from the league, as well as from Ykkösdivar the first team eligible to advance will be promoted. In the new strategy drawn up for the years 2025-2028, it is promised to also define the “top club criteria” that guide the development of the clubs, which will “raise the level of the entire league”.
Minimum criteria are needed in order to raise the level of activity and improve the daily life of the players in the clubs.
Åland United is by no means the only club in the league with challenges. In many societies, everyday life is survival. When resources are small, an unreasonable amount of work is piled on the shoulders of the only full-time employees.
Poor spectator numbers, insufficient resources and financial problems are nothing new in (women’s) major leagues, and the corona pandemic did not make the situation any easier.
So what would help and who would solve the situation?
Many clubs have been thinking about it for years. Woodcocks and men have come and gone.
Not just about the money
The example of HJK, which has been transferred under its own limited company for this season, has shown this season that investments also bring success. The club leads the league without losses.
Anni Miettunen herself reminded that you don’t always need large wads of banknotes to bet. For example, he raised his time in the ranks of Honga from Espoo, which he represented in 2017-2019. According to Miettuse, it was a matter of will: future opponents were sometimes analyzed by drawing a white sheet over the wall of the booth.
In the 2018 season, Honka progressed Luciano Posillipo in coaching from the Champions League qualifying tournament onwards, but as you know, in the first round against FC Zurich with a total of 1-6 goals.
Coincidence or not, the current president of the National League was the president of the Espoo club at the time Mariet Louhento, who has been working for (women’s) football for years.
The National League has received the critic meekly. Based on the weekend’s discussion, it published a press release on Monday under the title “Together with words and deeds”.
Instead of looking for fingers to blame, the series development manager Minna Kauppinen in the signed release, it is hoped that solutions to improve the players’ everyday life, the quality of the operating environment and the competition would be found together.
Many have longed for concreteness. According to chairman Louhenno, the league promises to offer at least support for the development of commercial skills in the future.
Clubs will certainly need help.
Hopefully not too late.