Ismo Hämäläinen has proven that he is qualified for several positions. The operational leadership of the ski association was not such a task, and the departure was only a matter of time after the trust leadership changed, writes Pekka Holopainen.
Pekka Holopainen sports reporter
15:55•Updated 18:03
Hiihtoliitto ry’s loss for the extended fiscal year is just under 1.3 million euros. Equity minus a little over three million euros. Accounts payable amounting to over a million euros. And so on. The losses of the association’s own commercial company are such that at the group level they are almost two million euros.
The financial statement for the 17-month financial year, which was blessed in connection with the Äänekoski SC skiing, was a chilling read for the givers of the blessing, i.e. the members of the federal council, and there is no saving silver bullet in sight.
The situation is now most acutely visible in the daily life of the national team coaches, when there is no excel to hand out to the athletes preparing for next winter’s World Cup, just a scarcity without concrete information about what can be done.
On Friday, concrete results were obtained, when it was revealed that the executive board, which was reformed in Jyväskylä in March, had decided that a new executive director, who had led the position until September 2019, would be recruited for the union. Ismo Hämäläinen in place of.
The predecessor was also fired
The news was only a matter of time after the chairman who recruited Hämäläinen and served as his bullet shield Markku Haapasalmi left the union at the Jyväskylän meeting. Hämäläinen eventually became executive director Mika Kulmalan in place of; the board led by Haapasalmi fired him in 2019 – even though these situations are nowadays veiled in press releases as beautiful consulting language.
This time, director Hämäläinen “leaves his position as part of the change process of the Ski Association” and “continues in the organization in an expert role until the end of June”. In Finnish, this means a gagging termination agreement, money in the account and packing the golf bag.
When the board of trustees changes in an association or company, it is certainly not unusual that the operative management is also modified at the same time. For example Mikko Salonen the days as CEO of the Olympic Committee were known to be well over when Jan Vapaavuori started 2021 as chairman.
The new president of the Ski Association Sirpa Korkatti he wasn’t late either. In November, Urheilu reported on the address of the staff of the Ski Association, a direct emergency call. In the address signed by almost the entire staff, including the coaches, people very strongly questioned the management of the organization and the competence of executive director Hämäläinen and the support he received to succeed in the task.
Staff furious
However, the address prepared in the spring had not led to any kind of measures, which was very strongly personified by the chairman Haapasalmi. At the end of his long presidency, he did not want to get his hands dirty in the operational pits anymore, which some of the staff considered an absolutely intolerable shirking of responsibilities. Of course, the entire board at the time, not just the chairman, has a part to play in this.
Ismo Hämäläinen is far away has proven in his career that he is a very competent person for several different tasks. However, the operational management of the ski association turned out to be a job in which he could not operate in his most athletic areas of strength.
When the Ski Federation chooses a new executive director – that person will not collect a lot of friends in the next few years, otherwise – it is unlikely that a person will be applied for the position who would be able to function as a competent training manager, head coach or physiologist of the cross-country team. Sirpa Korkatti, who had an impact on the board for a long time before his chairmanship, certainly knows this as well.