Ismo Hämäläinen, executive director of the Finnish Ski Federation, says that Finland is still involved in the Snowflake group, which is trying to negotiate with FIS.
SpongeBob Forsberg,
Riku Salminen
The Finnish Ski Federation announced on Saturday that it has signed a new media contract with Infront Sports AG. The agreement covers the years 2026–2031.
The agreement ensures that the World Cups of the Nordic skiing sports organized in Finland and the Finnish Cup of skiing will continue to be shown on free channels.
Executive Director of the Finnish Ski Association Ismo Hämäläinen according to which the agreement is significant for the union, which has suffered from financial difficulties.
– This is a significant part of income generation for us. The most important thing is to secure functions and yet take into account the general price increases, which burden top sports and the whole.
Head coach of the Finnish national team Teemu Pasanen commented on the impact of the association’s financial situation on the national team during the World Cup final weekend in Falun.
– Of course it’s not a good thing. Certainly it has an effect in some way, but we try to do as good a job as we can with the resources given to us. This year, too, we have shown that we are able to make good results with these resources.
Still involved
The news of the agreement was published at an interesting time, as the International Ski Federation FIS has required all national federations to sign a new media agreement, according to which FIS would handle TV and marketing contracts centrally from 2026.
The Ski Associations of the major skiing countries Finland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Slovenia have formed a coalition called Snowflake. It is based on dissatisfaction with FIS’s unilateral way of operating.
The countries did not sign the new media contract model and are trying to negotiate with FIS about a model where they would be able to better participate in the development of skiing.
If there is no change, in the extreme case, the countries are ready to create their own competition series – inside or outside the FIS.
Ismo Hämäläinen, executive director of the association, says that Finland is still part of the Snowflake group.
– We still have a letter of intent with Snowflake. Some of the major ski countries have valid agreements until 2031, and now we also have an agreement until then, which we have made as part of the letter of intent, says Hämäläinen.
For example, the German Ski Association’s media contract with Infront lasts until 2031.
There’s no waiting
On Saturday, the Ski Federation also announced financial losses of millions. Helsinki Ski Week, an invitational competition held at the Olympic Stadium a year ago, failed miserably commercially. The event resulted in losses of 200,000 euros for the Ski Association.
The financial year that started on June 22 and ended in October of last year did not go rosy anyway. The association made a loss of just under 1.3 million euros, and the association’s commercial company Nordic Ski Finland recorded a loss of more than six hundred tons.
Hämäläinen admits that money is always a factor in negotiations.
– On the other hand, the fact that with FIS this whole media contract and centralization has progressed really slowly, because it (negotiation of the media contract) is such a big deal. When we were offered a situation to extend our media contract, the overall package influenced us to go for it.
– Another option was to wait. It was not a reasonable model for us in this situation in terms of many things.
According to Urheilu’s sources, the media revenues from the Ruka and Salpausselkä World Cups bring in about 3–3.5 million euros per season for the Ski Federation. Hämäläinen doesn’t say directly whether the union got a higher amount.
– The goal is always to increase the amount. Sometimes it succeeds, sometimes not. I can’t say more about that.