The Ski Federation announced on Saturday that it has signed a new media contract with Infront Sports AG.
New information has been revealed about the weak financial situation of the Finnish Ski Federation. Ski Association announced on Saturdaythat its deficit in the financial period from June 2022 to October 2023 is 1.28 million euros.
In addition, the losses of 623,000 euros of the commercial company Nordic Ski Finland Oy are added. The total loss is almost two million euros.
In November 2023, the association estimates the losses for that financial period to be around 600,000 euros. The chapter included the Hiihtoliitto Group, i.e. the parent association Hiihtoliitto ry and its commercial company Nordic Ski Finland Oy.
In the middle of February, however, the situation seemed to have changed significantly, and a member of the Ski Federation’s federal council estimated at that time for Urheilu that the losses would be in the millions.
According to the members of the federal council, the change in the situation was due to the position of the auditors of the Ski Federation. According to Urheilu’s information, part of the income of the 2024–2025 season, such as international media contract money, was supposed to be recorded on the income side of this financial statement. It was a very significant sum. This did not go down well with the auditors.
In the case, no one is suspected of, for example, financial abuses or any other inappropriate procedure.
– In practice, the recognition of media revenues in accordance with the Accounting Board’s instructions means that the expenses are registered for the accounting period normally, but the media revenues are not. This causes a big loss. However, this has no effect on the cash situation. The media revenues will only be recorded in the current financial year with the recognition of revenue, the president of the Ski Association Markku Haapasalmi commented in the press release published by the association on Saturday.
– The relevance of the matter becomes apparent when the accounting periods are examined from the same 12-month period. If the accounting period had ended on May 31, 2023, as in previous years, the result for the accounting period would have been around EUR 719,000 in deficit.
The accounting period that has just ended was a record long one. The union’s accounting period was previously June 1–31. May, but in the future it starts at the beginning of November and ends at the end of October. The transition accounting period that ended in October was thus 17 months long.
A large part of the losses were due to the Helsinki Ski Week stadium sprint organized at the Olympic Stadium on March 22, 2023, which was starred by domestic and foreign stars Johannes Hösflot Kläbon under.
– Stadionsprint’s weak audience success alone caused a loss of around 200,000 euros. And our audience target (8,000) wasn’t even overly optimistic, outgoing chairman of the Ski Association Markku Haapasalmi estimated in September.
New media contract
The Ski Federation said in its announcement on Saturday that it has signed a new media contract with Infront Sports AG. The agreement covers the years 2026–2031.
– The agreement secures the visibility of the world cup events of the Nordic sports organized in Finland and the Finnish Cup of Cross-Country Skiing on free linear channels. The agreement is also financially very significant and creates a strong basis for our operations in the longer term, the union’s executive director Ismo Hämäläinen said.
The ski association’s federal council will meet on Saturday, March 23. At the meeting, a new president will be elected for the association. The candidates are Jari Piirainen and Sirpa Korkatti.
Updated at 9:23 p.m.: the accounting period started in June 2022, not May 2022. Added almost two million euros to the total losses.