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It could be worse for Irish soccer – we could be Finland

The Finns have had great players without great success, and once saw a giant eagle owl do more than most to promote the game

Jari Litmanen: the former Barcelona and Liverpool striker is commonly regarded as the greatest footballer in Finland's history. Photograph: Janek Skarzynski/AFP/ via Getty Images)
Jari Litmanen: the former Barcelona and Liverpool striker is commonly regarded as the greatest footballer in Finland's history. Photograph: Janek Skarzynski/AFP/ via Getty Images)
James McDermott
Wed Oct 09 2024 - 06:00

Irish fans impatiently waiting for a first qualification since 2016 can console themselves that things could always be much worse.

You could support Finland who took 82 years and 33 attempts before they finally qualified for their first, and only, major championship at Euro 2020, with only Luxembourg having a worse record (37 unsuccessful qualification campaigns and counting).

Even then, Finland’s extraordinary tournament debut involving a 1-0 victory over Denmark in their opening group game at Euro 2020 was overshadowed by the on-pitch collapse of Christian Eriksen following a cardiac arrest. One player who started all three of Finland’s group games at Euro 2020 was Daniel O’Shaughnessy who enjoys dual Finnish-Irish citizenship through his father, who was born in Galway.

Crucial to this overdue success was Teemu Pukki who scored 10 of Finland’s 16 goals during Euro 2020 qualifying and is unsurprisingly his country’s record goalscorer with 42 goals. Now playing with Minnesota United, Pukki’s sequence of 54 consecutive competitive internationals ended last month when he was an unused substitute against Greece.

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Pukki means ‘goat’ in Finnish but unfortunately for fans of normative determinism the former Norwich City striker is not his country’s GOAT (greatest of all time). That honour remains with Jari Litmanen, whose record 137 caps were accumulated between 1989 and 2010 making him one of only three men to play international football in four different decades. Such is the status of the former Liverpool and Barcelona striker that when a post-retirement documentary was made about his life it was simply called: The King – Jari Litmanen.

A handful of Finns have played in Ireland, most notably Sami Ristilä who won both the 2005 FAI Cup and the League of Ireland title in 2007 with Drogheda United.

Also in that Drogheda team was Stephen Bradley but when he was subsequently appointed manager of Shamrock Rovers in 2016 he did not initially have his Uefa Pro-Licence. Ristilä provided a Finnish solution to an Irish problem by temporarily becoming Shamrock Rovers “manager” to ensure technical compliance with the regulations.

Ristilä was also part of the squad that won the 2007 Setanta Cup when the Drogheda hero was Finnish goalkeeper Mikko Vilmunen who saved two penalties in a shoot-out victory over Linfield at Windsor Park.

Making the reverse journey was Ireland under-21 international Shane McFaul who played for four different Finish clubs including FC Haka. Tommy Dunne went one step further by both playing and managing in Finland, taking charge of SJK Akatemia in 2019.

Liam Brady shakes hands with Ireland manager Jack Charlton on the occasion of the player's testimonial game against a visiting Finland in May 1990. Photograph: Lorraine O'Sullivan/Inpho
Liam Brady shakes hands with Ireland manager Jack Charlton on the occasion of the player's testimonial game against a visiting Finland in May 1990. Photograph: Lorraine O'Sullivan/Inpho

Ireland’s first ever World Cup victory was a 3-0 win over Finland at Dalymount Park in September 1949. However recently Finland have enjoyed the upper hand, winning both 2020 Nations League matches against Ireland 1-0, with Fredrik Jensen scoring on both occasions.

Finland visited Lansdowne Road in May 1990 for a 1-1 draw remembered for Jack Charlton’s decision to substitute captain Liam Brady before half-time even though the game was his testimonial match.

One of the Finland defenders tasked with briefly keeping an eye on Brady that afternoon was Markku Kanerva who, after winning 59 caps as a player, was appointed Finland manager in 2016.

However Kanerva’s employment with the Football Association of Finland goes back two decades as he previously managed the under-21 team who successfully qualified for the Euros in 2009, earning him his country’s manager of the year award.

Kanerva has been the most successful Finland manager in history and his crowning achievement was leading his country to Euro 2020. But he was unable to repeat the trick four years later when Finland were beaten 4-1 by Wales in a Euro 2024 play-off semi-final.

Despite this heavy defeat, Kanerva was awarded a contract extension until 2026 but most of his assistants were replaced. The more familiar faces among Kanerva’s refreshed coaching staff include former Spurs defender Teemu Tainio and Antti Niemi who played in goal for both Fulham and Southampton.

Finland’s captain is goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky who won the double with Bayer Leverkusen last season and was an unused substitute for their 3-0 Europa League Final defeat to Atalanta at Lansdowne Road – the only match the German side lost all season. However Finland’s form player is midfielder Kaan Kairinen who scored in both of Sparta Prague’s Champions League matches this season.

A European eagle owl (Bubo Bubo), the world's largest owl, interrupted a Euro 2008 qualifier in 2007 between Finland and Belgium at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki. Photograph: Antti Aimo-Koivisto/AFP/Gettu Images
A European eagle owl (Bubo Bubo), the world's largest owl, interrupted a Euro 2008 qualifier in 2007 between Finland and Belgium at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki. Photograph: Antti Aimo-Koivisto/AFP/Gettu Images

Finland are nicknamed the ‘Eagle-owls’ after a bird of prey who perched on the crossbar of both goals at a packed Olympic Stadium in June 2007 delaying a vital Euro qualifier against Belgium for six minutes.

Finland went on to win the match 2-0 with grateful journalists subsequently voting Bubi, the giant eagle owl in question, a surprise avian winner of the Helsinki Citizen of the Year award for 2007. Announcing the decision the head of the journalists’ association helpfully explained: “It was a unanimous decision. Bubi promoted Finnish football much more effectively than our team’s scoreless draws here and there”.

Bearing in mind that Finland and Ireland have both lost their opening two Nations League matches without scoring a single goal, another scoreless draw appears likely. Encouragingly recent European club competition encounters have been much more exciting.

In 2023 Derry City beat KuPS 5-4 on aggregate in the Europa Conference League. Even more dramatic was Shamrock Rovers’ remarkable 12-11 victory over Ives on penalties in the 2020 Europa League that earned the Hoops a glamour tie against AC Milan in Tallaght Stadium.

Perhaps the most bizarre incident involving an Irish international in Finland occurred in 2023 when Jonny Hayes, as captain of Aberdeen, had to appeal to his club’s supporters to stop throwing snowballs at HJK Helsinki’s goalkeeper Niki Maenpaa as the referee temporarily stopped and threatened to abandon the Europa Conference League fixture.

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