FA Cup

[Johnny K]

Is the competition being shown on any Finnish channels? I can't see anything in the listings

[krash]

Last year the showed quite a lot of the games on the free yle channels, but i havent come across any this year. the only place it seems that showing some is on the viasat sport channels

[simon]

Dont think YLE will do it this year, didnt last year. They do show the final though IIRC

[Chris Beresford]

YLE showed a game per round from the third or fourth round onwards last year, including some of the midweek replays. All games were on YLE Extra, if I remember correctly. Wouldn't surprise me if they'd jacked it in, though - most finals in recent years have been very poor affairs.

[krash]

I remember when i first moved over they used to show on yle2 every saturday a live championship game! i wished they still did that as it was nice to see other teams once in a while. I think they will show some fa cup games this year though as i think i remember seeing and advert from yle saying that had the rights to some fa cup and also england home games

[MagicJ]

I thought i'd do us all a favour and clicked on the Yle website to find out if they'll be showing any action this season. Unfortunately my inability to read Finnish scuppered that and i'm still none the wiser.

[Johnny K]

YLE showed a game per round from the third or fourth round onwards last year, including some of the midweek replays. All games were on YLE Extra, if I remember correctly. Wouldn't surprise me if they'd jacked it in, though - most finals in recent years have been very poor affairs.

Not including the WHU-LivPool final I hope, which was a fantastic match until the penalty shoot-out. You are free to guess which club I support.

[Chris Beresford]

I agree with you there - that was a good game.

Do you get the chance to go and watch MIFK whilst you're on the Åland islands?

[Johnny K]

Yeah I do Chris. Only missed 1 home match last season. I started watching them when we first moved here in 2000 & they were in a regional league. In fact, I saw them a couple of times before that when we were still living in London & were here on holiday.

I'm a bit of a football nut & feel a bit of loyalty towards my local club which probably comes from my Hammers roots.

I know a few of the players through one reason or another. Åland being such a small place it's easy to bump into them. As you probably know they are mostly part-time players & I become friendly with 1 of them who worked at my son's nursery. Funnily enough Daniel Ahnström, the club captain, is also a big Hammers fan.

Unfortunately a couple of the more experienced players have packed it in this season & I think we could struggle. Plus our Kenyan goalie can't get back from his homeland just now.

[Salopian]

Just in case some of you here are interested, there's an interesting blog on Finnish football (in English) here: http://footballinfinland.wordpress.com/

[Rosamunda]

I think there are lots of Brits involved in Finnish football. OK so Hodgson has gone but I think TamU is owned by a Brit and there is a Brit coach or two in Turku no? And plenty of Brit mms/dads coaching junior league football all over the country!

We saw one MIFK game last season when my youngest was in Mariehamn for the Åland cup (last June). Nice stadium - better than Honka's anyway, and it was a nice sunny day when we were there.

We have season tickets for Honka as two of my kids play in the junior leagues (and I am treasurer for one of the clubs). Otherwise we are Reading supporters, but only from a distance. They were in the 4th Division last time I watched a game at home!!!

Fingers crossed for next Tuesday.... revenge against Spurs. Even though Coppell has said Reading is not interested in FA Cup results I still think they will beat Spurs.... and then get trashed at Man United.

[Johnny K]

Let me know if you come over for Alandia Cup this year, Penelope. I can come & shake your hand & say hello!

The stadium is good enough for a club with the catchment area a club like MIFK has & they've made great improvements to the facilities over the last couple of seasons. You should have seen it before they bcame Veikkausligan though. Not that impressive at all. No floodlights & they let sunday league footballers like me play on it!

I hope they can stay in the top division but unfortunately they are having problems attracting part time players & some of the existing players are refusing new contracts if they have to work as well. They have lost 5 of their more experienced players since last season.

[TampereOwl]

Thanks for the plug, salopian.

The Brit involved at TamU has resigned from the board but kept most of his shareholding. He's now involved with Ilves, who recently merged with KooVee and will play in kakkonen. I'm going to write a post about all of that when I find some clarity on what's actually going on.

Mixu's departure could spell the end for John Allen at TPS, but they have Chris Cleaver and Armand One, who must be an honorary Brit after all the football he's played there.

[Rosamunda]

The Brit involved at TamU has resigned from the board but kept most of his shareholding. He's now involved with Ilves, who recently merged with KooVee and will play in kakkonen. I'm going to write a post about all of that when I find some clarity on what's actually going on.

.... aha... actually my SO was sat next to him on a flight at the beginning of this week!

[sinikettu]

What are the odds against Havant stuffing Liverpool in the next round?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/footbal ... 184890.stm

otyikondo is probably busy brewing up some nice magic stew in Namibia to dose them with