The future executive director of the Floorball Association sees that the sport has an opportunity to promote exercise and sports.
The new executive director of the Floorball Association has been appointed Riku Tapio. The union’s board decided on the matter at its meeting on Sunday.
36-year-old Tapio is currently the general secretary of the Finnish Workers’ Sports Union (TUL). He will take up his new position on October 14.
Previously, Tapio has worked, among other things, as the executive director of the basketball club Kataja Basket and as the CEO of the football club FC KTP.
Floor Band Association in the bulletin it is said that Tapio’s choice was influenced by his diverse expertise and leadership skills.
– Riku Tapio’s personable, but strong leadership profile and his excellent cooperation skills provide good conditions to drive the development of the Floorball Association to the next level. In addition to federal level management experience and financial know-how, he has experience and a realistic picture of the operating environment thanks to his background in ball sports club operations. In addition, the critical issues of the next few years will be the concrete implementation of sports association cooperation, and we believe that Riku Tapio’s demonstrations of network management will help us succeed in this, President of the Floorball Association Kaarina Vuori commented in the announcement.
Tapio does not have a floorball background, but he himself considers the fact that he comes from outside the sport to be a strength.
– Times are financially tight in society as a whole, and exercise and sports are no exception. The first step when facing challenges is to recognize the situation, and in my opinion, the situation has also been awakened in sports. It is clear that there is definitely a demand for exercise and sports – society needs exercisers, Tapio says in the press release.
– As a big sport, floorball has the opportunity to do a lot to promote exercise and sports. The sport has committed actors throughout the entire sports community and the sport has plenty of enthusiasts in all age groups. The sport also has a lot of potential for growth, which is a joint opportunity of the sport community, he continues.
From autumn 2020, served as executive director of the Floorball Association Pekka Ilmivalta will leave his position at the end of August.