The champion team KuPS, which is hitting the table with tough goals, is struggling with its player budget – the top two are in a completely different category

The National Football League has ended in the previous two years with the Kuopio Football Club’s victory celebration. KuPS is the early favorite this year as well, not least because of its player budget.

KuPS, which won the league championship in the last two seasons and narrowly qualified from the group stage of the Champions League last fall, is the clear number one in the National League’s player budget comparison with its budget of 250,000 euros. The team has become a good alternative for domestic players instead of going abroad.

Åland United’s player budget is also a hefty 178,000 euros, but the other league teams clearly lag behind the duo. The player budget of HJK, which is estimated to be KuPS’s biggest challenger, is 65,000 euros this season.

Working as the head coach at KuPS for the fifth season Ollipekka Ojala estimates that the professionalism of the club’s women’s team is at the highest level in its history. The main owner of the Kuopio club is the person also known as the chairman of Palloliitto Ari Lahti.

– In addition to me, we have two full-time background personnel and a full-time goalkeeper coach who works for the women’s and men’s teams. You can say that most of the players do this as a profession and life is organized on the terms of futs. During the training season, our basic rhythm was morning training and another training at 1 pm. It’s a working day, Ojala said at the league’s preview event.

KuPS built a more versatile team

KuPS lost a couple of its core players when Emma Peuhkurinen moved to Sweden and Nanne Ruuskanen to Norway. Instead Wilma Forsblom PK-35 arrived from Vantaa to Kuopio, although there was interest from abroad as well. In addition, KuPS got to keep its target gun, Gentjana Rochin and Lavdije Begollin, in their ranks. Begolli won the goal exchange last season and Rochi was second.

– Ruuskanen and Peuhkurinen were clear losses, but we did not set out to replace them one by one. We have built a more versatile team, where different players can play different positions and bring different options, Ojala told Urheilu.

According to Ojala, both Rochi and Begolli want to build their future in Finland even after football. The head coach also knows that the duo wants to show their skills, especially in the European games.

– If you look at what they have done in the pre-season, the athleticism has improved in the eyes. You can expect a pretty devastating result, Ojala mused.

KuPS has tough goals for the season, as it wants to win not only the league, but also the national Cup and the Finnish Cup, as well as success in international games. Ojala doesn’t hide the team’s Champions League goal, because last fall the group stage of the best 16 was ruined only by a last-minute overtime goal by St. Pölten from Austria.

– Now is the window of time when we can be successful in the Euro fields. Of course we want to be good at the beginning of the league as well, but in September (in the Champions League qualifiers) are finally our most important games, where we have to be at our best every minute.

Five teams from the capital region

There are five teams from the capital region in the national league this season. HJK coach Arttu Heinonen and HPS coach Mari Savolainen raise not only KuPS but also Åland United as medal favourites, but also their own teams. HPS, which is considered to be the top challenger, has also moved to a more professional training routine year by year, and it is managed by three full-time coaches.

– The goal is hard, for medals. It requires a hugely good and healthy season, and that the team stays healthy. That’s tough talk, but on the other hand, we know what our everyday life is like and the team’s ability to perform well, so it’s not a completely crazy idea, Savolainen said.

Arttu Heinonen expects this season to be more consistent than last year.

– A lot of teams have gotten stronger, and KuPS hasn’t quite been able to recruit players to replace those who left. I believe there are three levels in the league: the sharpest top, the middle class, who are fighting for that last medal, and then a few gangs who are trying to fight for a place in the series, Heinonen estimates.

The National Football League starts on Friday, April 14. shows the National Football League on its channels, the first match Honka–KuPS on Saturday 22.4. Upcoming matches can be found on page 248 of teletext.