The international football association Fifa imposed a penalty on IFK Helsinki, which may have an impact on the main pillars of Finnish football as a whole. According to the HIFK boss, the club will appeal the matter through the courts as far as it needs to go.
– In the same way as HIFK, the Balloliitto is also surprised by the solution, the General Secretary of the Balloliitto communicated Marco Casagrande.
– Here, the entire Finnish league system is under indictment at the same time, uploaded the chairman of HIFK Soccer ry Christopher Perret.
This is how the controversy arose
HIFK’s men’s representative team was supposed to play in the 2024 season at the second highest league level, i.e. Ykkösliiga.
At the beginning of January, the club announced, that the representative team does not have the conditions to continue its activities. The representative team was run by the limited company HIFK Fotboll Ab, which was declared bankrupt on January 16, 2024.
Therefore, HIFK’s football activities continue under the association, HIFK Soccer rf. The men’s previous reserve team, which plays in Kolmose, became HIFK’s representative team. In addition, HIFK Soccer rf runs the women’s representative team, junior soccer and futsal.
End of January HIFK announced, that Fifa has imposed a registration ban on HIFK Soccer rf for a period of three transfer periods. Due to the sanction, only those over 15 who are already enrolled in HIFK can play in HIFK’s teams. In practice, HIFK cannot register players from outside the club in B-juniors, A-juniors or men.
The background of the punishment is in the year 2022 and the Italian coach is in dispute Fabrizio Piccaret with. The unclear situation progressed in a way that, according to Piccareta, he already had a coaching contract with HIFK’s Veikkausliiga team, but HIFK failed Mixu Paatelainen.
HIFK lost the dispute against Piccareta, when Fifa in the summer of 2023 ordered HIFK to compensate Piccareta approximately 86,000 euros for breach of contract.
The compensations were not paid when HIFK Fotboll Ab went bankrupt. The bankruptcy was not supposed to have any effects on the association side, but to the great surprise of HIFK and the Finnish Football Association, Fifa interprets it differently.
Last week, Palloliitto and HIFK asked Fifa for an explanation as to why HIFK Soccer rf has been banned from registering, when the party to the dispute was HIFK Fotboll Ab.
– Fifa has replied to Pallloliito that it is not going to change its earlier decision, in which the junior association is made responsible for the contract dispute of the joint-stock company. Fifa did not justify its position, HIFK announced on Wednesday, February 7.
The special details of the paper war
In addition to everything, Fifa’s decision states that HIFK Soccer rf would be liable for compensation. According to chairman Christoffer Perret, the association will not pay compensation under any circumstances.
– I would assume that they also understand that Piccareta has never demanded anything from this junior association, so it cannot be made liable for compensation either.
– I have asked Fifa five or six times if you really think that this association is also liable for damages. From there, only one sentence is repeated robotically: “The registration ban is correctly set”. So they don’t answer the question.
Information about the registration ban came to HIFK “completely out of the woods”.
– Even the Football Association was completely confused as to what this is all about.
Sopa has had a special lack of communication in the past. Coach Piccareta had demanded compensation from HIFK Fotboll Ab. According to Perret, the limited company had met the requirements, and the club had been discussed all along under the name HIFK Fotboll Ab.
– Then last summer, when Fifa issued a ruling on the matter, it read HIFK Soccer, that is, the name of our junior association. At that point, no one realized – the limited company, Palloliitto or us – that this could possibly be about this association.
At HIFK, the matter was not surprised, because in Fifa’s player registers the club went by the name HIFK Soccer anyway. According to the Finnish league system, players are registered as association players, even if the representative team is run by a limited company.
– So no one thought at the time that this would affect the junior association. Even Fifa’s decision is addressed to the limited company’s lawyer, but it says HIFK Soccer.
– Now after half a year, when the limited company went bankrupt, Piccareta’s lawyer demanded enforcement from Fifa. Then for the first time it became apparent that they really mean that this also applies to the junior club (HIFK Soccer ry).
HIFK boss: “Huge risk”
Christoffer Perret sees that it is a big precedent if the association has to answer for the actions of the limited company afterwards.
In HIFK Soccer ry, it cannot be understood that a party that has not been accused of anything is suddenly sanctioned.
– If I were the boss of the junior side of a Veikkausliiga club or Ykkösliiga club, I would be very nervous. Here, everyone has a huge risk, because everyone has to follow the same practice. If Fifa really thinks that they (the joint-stock company and the association) are always the same entity, then the bottom will fall from the entire Finnish system, states Perret.
– There is certainly a discussion in the Football Association about whether the Finnish system needs to be changed, because this is a completely unsustainable situation.
It has been wanted to separate the representative teams of the highest league levels into joint-stock companies, which bear both the rights and the responsibilities, but the risks do not trickle down, for example to the junior side.
– The whole bottom will fall from it, if the association is still in the background picking up the falling trash.
In the Finnish football system, a joint-stock company is not mandatory, not even in major league level clubs.
But if the operation is run by a limited company, there must be an association behind it. The association controls the players’ representation rights and league place, but hands over the right to run the representative team’s competitive activities to the joint-stock company.
The lawyers are now going through the papers related to the dispute between HIFK and Fifa and will then propose measures to the club.
– We will complain about this as far as we can. This cannot stop here, Perret decides.
A slightly different point of view in football
– Since the matter can have significant effects on our member clubs, we are involved in preparing and supporting HIFK’s appeal, said Marco Casagrande, general secretary of the Football Association.
According to Casagrande, it is true that Fifa’s decision can have effects on the domestic system. Afterwards, he emphasizes that Finland now has to wait for the final resolution of the dispute.
Casagrande does not directly sign that the entire Finnish series system is about to collapse.
– In the case, it must be understood that the entire system has not been challenged, but the sanction has come as a result of the fact that the bankrupt company had a debt, the background of which is a decision made by Fifa.
In any case, Palloliitto agrees with HIFK that Fifa’s decision is incorrect.
– Naturally, we believe that it is possible to get a different decision in the matter. We wouldn’t be involved in the case otherwise, Casagrande states.
The fact that representative football and the rest of the club’s football, the joint stock company and the association, are separated from each other is a functional structure that also has the full approval of UEFA, the European football association, reminds the director of the competition operations of Palloliitto Pekka Soini.
Soini does not feel that Fifa’s current solution is a big risk for the Finnish league system.
– There is no criticism of the system here.
Technically, the bankruptcy of HIFK Fotboll Ab would not have differed from, for example, the bankruptcy of Esport Honka Oy, if it had not been burdened with the sanction confirmed by Fifa. As a result, a claim has remained in Fifa’s systems, which Fifa is now trying to collect.
Soini also agrees that HIFK Soccer rf should not be held responsible for the actions of the limited company.
– HIFK Soccer rf has nothing to do with the contract dispute.
– This is a sad thing, but it doesn’t mean anything definitive for our series system. It is clear that Finnish clubs are not used to arguing with Fifa, so we have to give support in that sense as well. This is such an extraordinary case.