Espoo Honka will not play in Veikkausliiga, Ykkösliiga or Ykkö next season, which means the team from Espoo will not be seen in the three highest league levels of men’s football. The matter got its seal today. Honka is not applying for a license to the First League or the First League.
The matter was confirmed to by the development and communications director of the Esport companies Kurt Moller.
Esport Honka Oy has been running the operations of Honga’s representative team since 2015.
Last Friday, it was confirmed that Honka will not apply for a license for next season’s Veikkausliiga, when it was first reported Helsingin sanomat newspaper.
In the season that ended, Honka finished fifth in the Veikkausliiga. In the end, the Espoo team advanced to play against VPS for a place in the next season’s Conference League qualification. Before that Euro final tournament, the information became public that the salaries of Honga’s players and coaching are in arrears.
Möller agreed For Helsingin Sanomatthat Esport Honka Oy has no money in the cash register and listed the reasons for the financial problems as the bad overrun of the budget, the expensive trip to Kazakhstan in the European qualifiers, the recovery from the corona virus, the difficulties in acquiring a partner and the delays in the stadium project.
According to the license rules, the salaries should have been paid today, November 15, so that the club could have submitted its application for next season to the First League or First Division.
On the men’s side, the football league ladder will change next season so that below the Veikkausliiga is the ten-team Ykkösliiga and below that is the 12-team Ykkönen.
Speed up again from Kakko?
It is possible that Honka will play in Kakkose next season, i.e. the fourth highest league level. It is the highest level that does not have a licensing system. Honka Academy has the second place in the series.
In order for Honka to be able to play in Kakkones, Honka Ry should probably terminate its contract with Esport. Esport may also drift into bankruptcy.
Like Sanoma has made news, that is not without problems either, because Esport has managed both the league team and the academy team. The debts that belong to the academy team would have to be paid by the new owner, if Honka were to continue his representative team activities at the second level.
Honga’s triple team has a league place in Nelose, i.e. sixth at the highest level.
Kurt Möller replied that he is not able to open the next steps at all, but that Honka will make the matter public in the next few days. Negotiations with Honka Ry therefore continue.
Honka played in the Veikkausliiga for the first time in 2006–2014. At that time, the club’s representative team was run by Pallohonka Oy. After the 2014 season, FC Honka ry, which owned the league venue, canceled the contract for the management of the league venue with Pallohonga. In 2015, Pallohonka Oy went bankrupt.
After that, Esport Honka Oy started to run Honga’s representative team. Honka played in the years 2015 and 2016 for the second team, and in 2017 for the first team. From 2018, Honka played again in the Veikkausliiga, finishing twice in bronze.
HIFK is still yearning for the First League
HIFK, on the other hand, plans to submit its application to Ykkösliiga today, Wednesday. HIFK finished sixth in Ykköne last season.
The Helsinki club has also been in serious financial problems this season, once again. HIFK started issuing shares in the summer. The goal has been to collect 300,000 euros.
At the end of October, HIFK published bulletin, according to which “the continuation of HIFK’s operation is at stake”. According to the release, the share issue exceeded the 210,000 euro limit in September, but since then new investments have been scarce. At the same time, HIFK announced that the need for money is indeed 300,000 euros higher than the minimum target of the issue.
HIFK’s financial problems and ownership patterns have been a constant topic of conversation in recent years. According to HIFK’s press release, the new board of HIFK Fotboll Ab, which started in May, had immediately noticed that the company was in a difficult financial situation and that the income budget for the season was overoptimistic.
It also happened in the summer at HIFK’s management level. Perttu Hillman, who was elected CEO of HIFK at the end of 2022 and who also served as chairman, left in June. He became the chairman Antti Kaiponen.
Kaiponen confirms that HIFK is applying for a license for the First League, but there are still issues to be clarified. Kaiponen does not want to open up the club’s situation in more detail than to say that the management “does absolutely everything” so that HIFK can continue in the second highest league level. The club is still lagging behind its share issue goal.
There were also problems with the salary payment of HIFK’s coaching staff and players in the 2023 season, and the salaries were occasionally late.
Kaiponen does not want to comment on salary payment problems at this stage or go into details about what kind of things the club still needs to figure out and take care of in order for it to be eligible for the First League.