According to Tomi Tolsa, CEO of Kotka football club FC KTP, the fact that the public cares about the club sometimes shows in a brutal way.
Helena Korpela,
Maija Tuunila
The poor success of the football team FC KTP from Kotka during the season has spawned fierce contacts with the club’s management.
The club’s CEO tells about it Tomi Tolsa.
The season of the football team from Kotka ended on Saturday in severe disappointment.
KTP was relegated from the Veikkausliiga after losing to IFK Mariehamn 0–2.
– Bad season. Especially the end of the season was shocking, the last eight games were taken as a drag, says a KTP fan from Kotka Timi Rokka.
FC KTP will play football next season in the new ten-team Ykkösliiga. We asked the club’s CEO Tomi Tolsa what went wrong.
1. What are your moods now?
– It’s still a bit empty. Now the defeat begins to take on a slightly bitter taste. We didn’t succeed and there’s no need to explain it. The fans have every right to feel disappointed, says Tolsa.
2. What went wrong this season?
– The results speak for themselves. There are several underlying reasons. They must first be identified, and then we must think carefully and even more determinedly about how to get the critical issues in a better place in the future, says Tolsa.
The team lost several players during the season.
– If that happens during the season, our team weakens and the opponents get stronger, then such a situation should at least be avoided next year, says Tolsa.
3. What changes will there be for the next season?
– Answering this question requires a slightly larger session about how best to keep our resources and work in balance. Thinking about it requires more time than a couple of nights, Tolsa states.
4. Head coach Juha Malinen came to the playing field with an orderly. Why so?
– The use of an organizer was a backup measure. There were no disturbances during the match and no direct threat appeared during the match, says Tolsa.
– This season has shown that people really care about this club. Sometimes that caring shows up in a more subtle way. During this season, each of them has received an inappropriate scolding.
– This season, we have received quite direct messages and calls, in the style of pressing a pellet to hell. Our sports director has received personal threats. Our office has been threatened to blow up with a singleton and of this type. Although the messages have probably been just a bad joke, it has been really bad humor.
– The use of the organizer on Saturday was not related to the messages that came in earlier. Our security manager evaluates the match event and that it is worth using an orderly.
5. Where did the players lose in the middle of the season?
– In the background, there are matters related to the players’ contracts and, on the other hand, the player evaluations made by the head coach. For example, a Dutch defender who was part of the team’s captaincy Daan Klinkenberg In this case, it was his personal decision, says Tolsa.
– Klinkenberg didn’t have a good season at HIFK and the game didn’t go well for us either. You can’t keep anyone by force.
6. Why was the head coach changed in the middle of the season?
– If the head coach has to be changed, it’s quite easy to conclude that everything is not in order. It is a situation where you have to think about the position of either the head coach or the other team. Such a solution has then been reached, Tolsa formulates.