“Now is the time for concrete plans”

The performances of the Finnish women’s national ice hockey team at the World Championships raised concerns about the development of Finnish ice hockey for girls and women.

Chairman of the Finnish Ice Hockey Association Harri Nummela tells Urheilu that the association is about to start a process in which it will comprehensively review the situation of women’s and girls’ hockey.

This was supposed to be done in the fall anyway, but the performances at the World Championships gave even greater grounds for this. The process is linked to the new strategy of Finnish ice hockey drawn up in the summer, in which it was committed to continue the development of women’s and girls’ ice hockey.

– We are going through a process in which we clarify our current status in women’s and girls’ hockey very extensively. We start from how we get players involved in girls’ hockey. We go through the development path of the players and the current situation of the Women’s League and Mesti. We also evaluate the activities of the women’s national team and its situation, Nummela says.

Based on these, the association plans to outline measures for the development of girls’ and women’s hockey.

– Now is the time to make concrete plans. The challenges we faced in the finished Women’s World Cup give us even more reasons to analyze the situation thoroughly.

Nummela previously stated to Urheilu that the most important thing in development is strengthening the financial resources of the Women’s League. For example, the Jääkiekkoliitto supports the development of the series, for example by participating in the hiring of full-time coaches.

Nummela hopes that the SM league clubs would also cooperate more and more often with the clubs of the Women’s League.

– I also hope that we will see more and more similar cooperation patterns on the part of the league clubs as IFK Helsinki has had, that is, the league clubs will also take responsibility for the women’s league teams.

Nummela understands that league clubs have not had this opportunity during the corona pandemic years.

– I hope that the situation with regard to the pandemic and thus the finances of the league clubs will be much easier than before. Through that, the clubs have the opportunity to consider whether they can participate in the development of the activities of the Women’s League clubs. Primarily, the work of increasing fundraising must be done in the clubs’ own organizations.

The Jääkiekkoliitto also participates in the development of the series and its financial situation. Namely, the Ice Hockey Federation is establishing a new unit to improve the finances of the Women’s League and Mesti. The association has applied for marketing coordinators and content producers for a team of four people

– This unit aims to support significantly better than before the development of the economy in both the Women’s League and Mestis clubs. We are making the first additional recruitments, Nummela says.

GM of the Lionesses Tuula Puputi according to the national team, financial resources are at a good level, but the situation is reviewed seasonally.

Reached from the airport, Puputti also says that the player meetings have already started with the players on the bus trip to Copenhagen.

– Along with coaching, the event will be analyzed in the near future. In the same way, we also have a conversation with the trust management and other professionals. The most important thing is to return to everyday work and turn this anger into strength.