The EC handball championships again proved the huge popularity of indoor ball in Germany. Finland is no longer ahead only of the Nordic independent states, but also of the tiny Faroe Islands, writes Pekka Holopainen
Pekka Holopainen Sports journalist
The people who like the fair and entertaining game of handball, handball, could literally startle on Monday morning if they hit the frequency of Ylen TV1’s morning broadcast. News anchor Ilkka Lahti reported in the sports section of the news that the European Men’s Handball Championship, which ended in Germany on Sunday, had culminated in France’s overtime victory over Denmark in a stunning final match.
The shock was due to the fact that this sport, which is one of the major European sports, rarely gets national visibility in Finland. Handball was downright searching time on Monday morning TV, because still in the Jälkihiki section, an emeritus reporter Bro-Erik Wallenius performed a song of praise both for the European Championships and for the sport itself.
As a side note, it is worth mentioning that Ilkka Lahti is a handball player himself, an avid fan of the junior league level. At the end of the handball news, Lahti stated that “Finland did not play in the Games”.
It’s about the obvious
It was a matter of rather self-evident and so-called understatement, because the only time Finland has played in the prestigious competition for adults was in 1958, when visual radio was still in its early days and it was enough to get a place in the competition when you registered with the organizers.
The European Championship in Germany, with its packed stands, proved the amazing level of the country’s indoor soccer culture. The host country, which won the basketball World Cup gold last year under the Finnish command, advanced to the medal matches, and the first group match played by Germany in Düsseldorf was watched by 53,000 spectators at the football stadium.
Among the Nordic countries, after Denmark, Sweden took the bronze, and Norway and Iceland also played in the games. Sweden was the reigning European champion, Denmark was the country that won the previous three World Cup tournaments. Norway’s recent history includes two lost World Cup finals, and the Icelandic team has also returned to Reykjavik as both Olympic and European medalists.
This time, the Finnish representation was equal to the head coach of the A national team Ola Lindgrenwho worked as a sideline analyst for the Swedish TV6 during the Games.
The sport in the starting stands
Now Finland is not only ahead of the other Nordic independent states, but also the Danish self-governing region of the Faroe Islands, which played a sensational game against Norway with its team largely composed of one sport at the European Championships and narrowly lost two matches. All the inhabitants of the Faroe Islands could fit in the Düsseldorf football stadium mentioned above.
There is not a single structural or sporting cultural reason why Finland could not succeed in handball like the other Nordic countries. For some reason, the game, which is in principle excellently suitable for Finns, has remained in the starting stands, which are located in Swedish-speaking areas on the coast of the Gulf of Finland.
In the Finnish-speaking hinterland, the sport has not survived as a top-level competitive sport anywhere else than in Riihimäki. Outside of the capital region, Turku is practically the only large city where the species has survived. The main series has been reduced to a gathering of only seven teams.
A battle for souls
Ice hockey, basketball, floorball, volleyball and the fast-growing futsal. The battle for souls interested in indoor team sports is tougher and more diverse in Finland than in any other Nordic country, and the cards in that game have been dealt in the big picture a long time ago.
The handball association rejoiced in the announcement, a few a year ago, how the sport had reached the all-time record number of licensed players, 4224 registered enthusiasts.
In the spring of 2021, I interviewed a Danish player legend in Vantaa Lasse Svanin after the court had witnessed a brutal walk-over by the reigning Olympic champion in a European Championship qualifier. Svan complained that handball has lost a bit of its position in Denmark. Each has its own problems: 146,000 Danes have registered as handball enthusiasts.