The city requires the club to sever all financial ties to the former manager.
The Hämeenlinna Volleyball Club has checked and modified the player contracts of its players so that there are no more illegal, pregnancy-related clauses in them. The club updated the contracts last week, Monday, March 20, according to the city of Hämeenlinna’s new clarification request to the club and the responses received by the city.
Former manager of the club Ville Kalliomäki had entered in at least some of the contracts a clause where the club would have been released from obligations if the player had become pregnant in the middle of the contract period. Former player of the club Ronja Heikkiniemi revealed to in mid-March that Kalliomäki offered him a similar contract in 2018, but he refused to sign one.
The society’s response to the city reveals that the section prohibiting pregnancy was still in use.
– We have gone through the contracts. The clause related to pregnancy has been removed from all valid contracts by the government’s decision on March 20, 2023. All players and, in the case of minors, also their guardians, have been informed about the matter, the club tells the city.
The Hämeenlinna Volleyball Club intends to ensure the appropriateness of its operations in the future so that in the future new contracts will be processed by the club’s board.
The Hämeenlinna Volleyball Club has been in the public eye at the beginning of the year due to numerous abuses. In February, STT revealed inappropriate behavior at the club that had been going on for years. The club’s manager Kalliomäki, who has since resigned, was punished for the incident concerning 2021 after an investigation by the Finnish Center for Ethical Sports (Suek), but there were several other victims of inappropriate behavior over a long period of time.
Mayor of Hämeenlinna Olli-Poika Parviainen has taken the club under strict control so that the operation is healthy. For now, however, the city plans to continue marketing cooperation with the Volleyball Club.
According to Parviainen, it is crucial for the city that the former manager no longer continues in the club’s operations and that the grievances are resolutely corrected.
The city also requires the club to sever financial ties to Kalliomäki. The club still has one apartment used by a player, which is rented from Kalliomäki’s company. According to the club, the rent is at the market price and the lease ends at the end of the season.