The Veikkausliiga club, which lost its main stand in a fire, will decide on Tuesday in which stadium the season will continue. The players already received new equipment to replace the destroyed ones.
Veikkausliga’s rising club, Gnistan, which became a big phenomenon in Northern Helsinki, got a fund-raising permit in the worst case, when the club lost its stadium’s main stand in a fire over the weekend. On Tuesday, Gnistan, which operates in Oulunkylä, warned those willing to help on its social media channels that there may be people with bad intentions and to ensure the money goes to the recipient, donations should only be made through Gnistan’s secured channel.
Managing director Ilkka Vanala was the background of the club’s warning message on Tuesday.
– It’s not a phenomenon, but at least one such case was that money was collected in our name. But even in the most obvious way, the intention was to send money to Gnistan. People’s desire to help is moving, but you have to remember that collecting money requires an official permit and you can’t do it otherwise.
The fundraiser in question was traced to Estonia, and Gnistan had gotten in touch with him.
– I don’t throw them under the bus, because it is most obviously a sincere person. Enthusiastic futsi person who has played the sport for a long time and regularly in Finland.
Gnistan reported on fundraising scams in the messaging service X.
On Tuesday, the most pressing issue for the club was to decide where the season would continue. There are two options on the counter, HJK’s home arena in Töölö and the Myyrmäki football stadium in Vantaa. Gnistan is welcome to both, Töölö football stadium free of charge. In Töölö, the income generation of the match event would be a problem, because many of the functions that Gnistan handles in Oulunkylä themselves have been outsourced to a private operator.
– In our income generation, the match event and keeping labor costs very low is extremely essential. We do everything, such as ticket, food and drink sales, with volunteers and our own contracts. Correspondingly, with Bolt, in this critical situation, we could perhaps sell a little more tickets than in Oulunkylä.
Vanala says that Gnistan’s club and volunteer spirit is illustrated by, for example, the last winter that hit Helsinki, in the middle of which the club restored the Oulunkylä arena to a condition satisfactory to the license guards of the Veikkausliiga before the opening match of the season played on April 6.
Gnistan’s independent operating freedoms would be wide in the modestly used, remote Myyrmäki stadium, but the location of the stadium is not the most optimal for a Helsinki sports club.
The Helsinki Criminal Police’s technical investigation was underway in Oulunkylä on Tuesday, while the cause of the stadium fire is being traced.
– I very much hope that it would not be a case of arson. When you think about the positive atmosphere that has surrounded the company for years, it would be a wet rag to the face if someone had done something like that, CEO Vanala admits.
When the police’s technical investigation is completed, the clearing of the stadium ruins can begin. Ilkka Vanala describes the cooperation with the insurance company as working from the beginning of the process.
This year, Gnistan turns 100 years old, which was published in March the club’s 100-year history. It was luck in the accident, because the fire destroyed the club’s archives and objects, the key source material for the historian.
– Yes, that job would be very difficult now, if not impossible, Vanala admits.
The flames also destroyed something else: the equipment of the representative team. Gnistan’s equipment partner was in a hurry and delivered practically all the new equipment to the team at the beginning of the week. On Wednesday, the team is scheduled to practice on the field where the home games for the rest of the season will be played.
– The new jerseys will come on Friday, says the CEO.
The players will pull up their shirts on Monday in Turku, where Gnistan will face the same team – Inter – against whom the season started victoriously on April 6.