The new season of the Veikkausliiga, the Finnish men’s football league, starts on Wednesday, April 5. Even though Wednesday as the first game day is a bit anticlimactic, Finnish football people have a lot of things to be even a little excited about.
In terms of gameplay, there will certainly be a mostly even series, because according to my own eyes, there are no pre-emptive throwing bags this season. The championship has already been announced for HJK, for many good reasons, but I dare to believe that the championship will not be decided until deep autumn.
Skilled young Finns can be seen on the field during the season (even if, for example, HJK Top in the middle or AC Oulu Take Glue), hard returners (hopefully Ilves Lauri Ala-Myllymäki has got himself in shape) and more convincing foreign players (KTP’s Jack de Vries is at first glance an excellent futari).
The Veikkausliiga preview of Urheilu’s podcast tells which players and which phenomena should be kept an eye on in the coming season. In addition, the podcast covers the interestingness of Veikkausliiga extensively. You can listen to the podcast from Areena or from the player below.
The series’ new media contract has especially given cause for enthusiasm. While the quality of the broadcasts improves, visibility also expands as both Nelonen Media’s Ruutu service and show league matches. The new contract and the solidarity money distributed by UEFA will bring league clubs around half a million euros just for participating in the league season.
There is also room for improvement, especially in terms of the series’ interest. The matter has become an eternal question.
We want even more people in the stands, both on the spot and next to the screens. The latter is due to the new media contract mentioned earlier. Even though I’m sitting there in the famous warm office of as I write this, I can say, without raising my own tail, that Veikkausliiga’s visibility at is a very important thing to enable growth. Even if you have to sometimes to dodge (you switch to another service) Little Two.
However, the first one, on the spot, is a more difficult tick, as has been found in Finnish sports since the times ravaged by the coronavirus. The drop in viewership has been a common problem. Last season was particularly bad for Veikkausliiga: the audience average was below 2,000 spectators last season, and it was the worst reading of the entire millennium, excluding the confusing corona years.
If you don’t know, I don’t care
Veikkausliiga now seems to be trying to do something about things. The series has told about its change program (you will switch to another service) and CEO Timo Marjamaa admits the league needs to take new steps. And that can only be achieved by doing more, not in the future with the blog’s business jargon.
Time for each, because sometimes what Veikkausliiga has done has seemed more like sabotaging the interest of the league than raising it.
The interestingness of the series became the main topic of the opening half of the Veikkausliiga preview episode of Urheilu’s podcast. There were more blanks to improve the status of the main series.
In particular, why Veikkausliiga and its clubs have not tried to create stories about their players and bring them to the fore?
Former league footballer and current social media professional Ilari Mettälä talked about it very well.
– If I had the option of going to see a four-way match where five of my friends are playing, or a top league match where I don’t know any of the players, I would go to the first one.
To summarize: the general public does not know the players or feel ties to them or the clubs. According to Mettälä, this is clearly visible in the younger audience.
Mettälä has a broad view on the matter. He has specifically made himself interesting during and especially after his playing career. More than 150,000 followers on different social media channels in total are interested in what Kliffa, or Mettälä, is doing.
Making stories is a skill. Bringing out the special features of the players so that, for example, it would fuel the interest of media representatives to make a story about it, is challenging.
Let’s think about the basic work, informing the clubs and managing social media. When the club prepares announcements, I even become interested in clearly more familiar players again, if the club says that Wayne Rooney fishing on their arm (you’ll switch to another service). On the other hand, interest in the new player confirmation ends when the content of the club’s press release is monotonous (you switch to another service).
If the club and the league are able to tap into the interest that arises in the players, it will bring them profits. However, they cannot do this alone. The players themselves are also required to take steps towards something new.
“Are Finnish players just too boring?”
Mettälä received a listener question on the podcast.
– Are the players in the Veikkausliiga given opportunities to create something unique and visible? Or are the Finnish players just too boring to be seen?
– Well, honestly, probably too boring. If I think from my own point of view, no one forbade me to do anything or supervised me, Mettälä began.
He said that it is about daring in many ways. Not everyone is as brave, but some might want to make themselves popular through social media. However, the threshold to do it in team sports is high. There is the question of “what is the team or the bag thinking about”.
The desire within the club and team to help would be important for those players who are thinking about it.
– You never know where it can go in the future. Maybe sometimes there can be a clause in player contracts that says one TikTok video a month or something, Mettälä threw.
Making the players more familiar is a throw-in product for the Veikkausliiga as well. I personally appreciate the fact that Pikkuuhhakajien’s goal stick Kai Meriluoto cook or talk about your day (you switch to another service). Or when FC Lahti became a cult player Teemu Penninkangas says that he has been walking along the Salpausselkä forests with his dog Sulo (you will switch to another service).
They’re doing what the whole series should be focusing on right now. That is, they make themselves more familiar to everyone as football players. Even with everyday things.
Football’s Veikkausliiga and the National League can be seen on channels this year. The first match is already scheduled for Wednesday, April 5. at 6 p.m., when HJK and Honka meet in the opening round of the Veikkausliiga. You can find the first matches here.
You can discuss the topic until Saturday evening, April 1. until 11 p.m. You need a ID to comment.