Five of Veikkausliiga’s 12 teams play on natural grass. The first four of these home games will be played on the substitute field.
The Veikkausliiga season started in cool weather last Saturday. This week, the rear winter has hit Finland. It has been predicted that, atypically compared to the season, snow can reach as much as 20 centimeters in southern Finland.
For football leagues, winter stretch always poses its challenge, especially if the team plays its match on natural grass. Among the Veikkausliiga teams, Eska’s Honka, Tampereen Ilves, AC Oulu, FC Lahti and Turku Inter will play their home games on the grass.
Four of these teams have already announced their first home game transfer. For some, the game day also changed from the original, when the match between Honga and Haka, for example, moved from Friday to Thursday.
As a result, only FC Lahti, which plays on natural grass, has not yet announced any transfers. Lahti is scheduled to host the series riser VPS on Friday 8.4.
However, it is uncertain whether Lahti can play his match at his home stadium. FC Lahti’s sales manager, responsible for match events Simo Kokkonen says the situation on the grass in Lahti Stadium already looked good, but this week ‘s weather has caused a backlash.
The reserve field of FC Lahti is also Valkeakoski. Playing on the artificial grass in Lahti Race Park is excluded.
Listed below are the matches transferred so far in the Veikkausliiga and their playing times / venues:
CEO of Veikkausliiga Timo Marjamaa says that teams will fill in their spare fields when applying for a Veikkausliiga license. In principle, any Veikkausliiga stadium can act as a reserve field for another club, as the stadiums meet the Veikkausliiga conditions.
If a match has to be relocated, there may be two different situations. On the day of the match, the referee may decide that, for one reason or another, the playing field does not meet the requirements for the match to be played.
Now, however, the matches have been postponed because it is known that the game platforms will not be in good condition for the day of play. In Espoo and Turku, for example, the cities have announced that the fields will not be ready for the second round of the match.
Marjamaa says that it would be good to know about the transfers of the venues no later than a week before the match, so that the match arrangements can be made in time. The home team decides on the venue and cannot be influenced by the away team.
The costs of organizing the match are the responsibility of the event organizer, ie the home team.
– It’s not profitable, Marjamäki inches from the match transfers.
The club says that Vaasa was chosen as the venue for the first home match of the season, because Seinäjoki Stadium will then have a change of artificial turf and it would be more expensive and complicated to move the match to Rovaniemi, because there is no minimum framework required by Veikkausliiga.
– I think this is not only a very embarrassing thing, but also an expensive stitch for the club. The conditions in Oulu must be restored immediately, AC Oulu’s CEO Juho Meriläinen requires a club bulletin.