The Finnish women’s national football team will open the EC qualifiers in less than a month. The tight schedule has brought its own challenges.
The Finnish women’s national football team Helmarit will start their European Championship qualifying campaign in Norway in less than a month.
Finland found out about its European Championship qualifying opponent only last Tuesday, when the European football association Uefa organized the group draw for the European Championship qualifiers relatively late. The first matches will be played already at the beginning of April.
Finland will face Norway, Italy and the Netherlands in the EC qualifiers.
Read also: Helmari’s opponents for the EC qualifiers drawn – “Perhaps not the worst possible group”
The head coach of the helmets Marko Saloranta has criticized the tight schedule, which brings challenges not only to preparing for the matches but also to the arrangements.
– Absolutely incomprehensible. There are four weeks from the draw to the first qualifying match, which challenges everything from match arrangements to travel arrangements. Pity our team leader Outi Saarisi, when we start taking an orchestra like this somewhere in Europe, when we don’t know when we will play away, when abroad. You can’t do anything in advance, everything suddenly comes crashing down, Saloranta commented in February.
In three different locations
Last Wednesday, Balloliitto announced the match schedule. In Finland, the game locations are already known, unlike in many other countries.
Balloliitto’s sales and marketing director Mikko Varis admits that the process has been complicated. However, Varis says that the association has prepared for the task in advance by finding out which stadiums are available in general.
– Everything starts from where you can play, taking into account the Veikkausliiga match schedule and the Euro windows of the Veikkausliiga teams, Varis begins.
According to UEFA rules, match venues can be a maximum of two hours away by car from international airports without the opponent’s consent.
– Really good stadiums like Seinäjoki and Vaasa are out of the game in that sense, unfortunately.
The Olympic stadium was considered
Last fall, Helmarit played two matches in Turku and one in Helsinki at the Töölö football stadium. In the summer, Helmarit met Scotland in a training match at Ratina in Tampere.
The Huuhkaji’s home base is the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, but the Helmarii do not have a similar home stadium. In spring and summer, matches are played in Helsinki, Turku and Tampere.
– Regional balance is one aspect we always consider. This time, the stadium restrictions were significant. Due to the concerts in June and July, the Olympic Stadium was out of action. It could very well have come into question if we had been able to build a big event at the stadium in summer conditions, Varis commented.
The venue for the July match was again limited by the European games of the men’s league teams.
– Tammela and the Töölö football stadium are out of the game due to the European game windows of the HJK and Ilves men’s teams. In April, Tammela’s new stadium has not yet passed UEFA’s stadium inspection. It will only come in the coming weeks and the test match should also be played before the qualifying game under UEFA can be played, Varis opens.
Ticket sales for Finland’s first home match against Italy open this week.
– Of course, it is a challenge of its own to sell tickets on this schedule. We try to get the tickets on sale well in advance months in advance, so that people have time to prepare and come from a longer journey to the matches.
Despite that, Palloliitto aims for sold-out stadiums.
– Our goals are really tough. Helmarit, like Huuhkajie, has been on a good rise. We start from the fact that we very much aim to fill the stadiums three times.