The Finnish Football Show

On Wednesday night Finland entertain a Wales side that proved to be a thorn in Markku Kaberva's side in last season's Nations League campaign. Both teams will be looking to experiment in a friendly that preceeds a double-header of World Cup qualifiers. Kick off is at 19.00 at a limited capacity Olympiastadion. Read the blog post   FFS Merch https://www.teepublic.com/user/finnish-football-show Buy...

Another packed show, as Mark W, Keke, Mark H and Rich get together to preview the Finland national team squad  that was just announced and preview the three upcoming games against Wales, Kazakhstan and France. They also look at the Pikkuhuuhkajat (the U-21) squad that was also announced and ponder the quality of the next generation of potential Huuhkajat. Finally, they turn their attention to rece...

In this episode, Keke and Rich are joined by another Huuhkajat star, Robert Taylor, who talks them through his career. It's an inspirational story! Having been told he wasn't good enough for the Northern Counties league in England, his determination to succeed eventually drove him to score for the Finland national team and travel to Euro 2020. FFS store Make a donation Robert gives us his perspect...

(KuPS Kuopio image from KuPS.fi pre Vorskla match) After the craziness of the Euros – the FFS team was crazy-busy representing Finland across the world's media – you MAY have noticed!), crazy-tired staying up until 1:00 AM watching too many games of football, and crazy-hot (at least here in Finland) – it's been nice to calm down and return to normality. Mark W and Rich get together to look back at...

FFS In Conversation with Michael Christiansen Danish journalist, Michael Christiansen, reached out to the FFS team asking for the Finnish perspective on the incident when Christian Eriksen collapsed during the Denmark-Finland game. Mark H, Rich, Keke & Mark W take a moment to ask Michael about the previous day's result; England 2-1 Denmark. They then get down to business and talk about how the inc...

In this episode, we are joined by a very special guest, Joni Kauko, fresh from Euro 2020. A Veikkausliiga winner who also has Suomen Cup and Liiga Cup winners medals in his collection. A combative attacking midfielder who has been a regular Huuhkajat squad member for the past few years. Joni tells us about his club career that has taken him from Finland to India, via Germany and Denmark. He talks...

And so it ends. With three group games played in 10 days, the Finland team managed a goal, a win and finished third in group B. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough for the Huuhkajat to qualify for the knockout stage, but they did themselves and the while country proud. Mark H, Mark W, Rich and Keke get together to review the final group game against Belgium and discuss how we felt while waiting for th...

This was a game in which the Huuhkajat were looking to cement a place in the knockout stages, and to show the watching world, that the win against Denmark was not just the result of extenuating circumstances. It didn't quite go to plan... Mark H, Rich and Keke review the action as Finland had an early goal disallowed for offside, before eventually going down to a goal from Al Miranchuk just before...

In the aftermath of the shocking collapse of Christian Eriksen during the Denmark 0-1 Finland, the FFS team get together to look back at the game. Firstly, Mark W, Rich and Keke review the sporting action on the field and the mixed emotions felt by Huuhkajat supporters as the team gets its first, goal, points and win, in a major competition finals. Then, Mark W speaks with Mark H about his trip to...

With Finland qualifying for Euro 2020, there has, naturally, been a surge in interest in our Huuhkajat. The Finnish Football Show team has been invited to speak and write on a variety of outlets, around the world, and this made us think; no one really knows much about Finnish football. We decided it might be a good idea to go back to basics for this episode, by creating a Finnish football 1.0 crib...

In our episodes of 27.5.2021, Mark W and Keke admitted to getting emotional when they first heard the Finland song for Euro 2020. So we invited Niila Arajuuri 'the man who made Keke cry' onto the show to explain himself! This was going to be a segment in a future FFS, but we felt it deserved to be a stand-alone episode. Mark W flew solo on this one and spoke with Niila about his love of football a...

The momentum is building, Euro 2020 starts NEXT WEEK, so FFS is back. We look at the Huuhkajat squad for the Euros, announced on Tuesday 1.6.2021 – any surprises?. We look back at the recent friendly match that ended Sweden 2-0 Finland and ask 'what did we learn?' We have another guest this week as @footy_nordic AKA Cameron Deacon joins us to preview Finland's first game of the Euros vs Denmark, a...

It's only been 10 days since the last show and much has changed and much remains unclear. Luckily, we are joined on this episode by Ronan Browne from YLE - he's a proper journalist, so he's bound to have loads of secret info that mere-podcasters don't have access to. Right? Euro 2020 starts in two weeks time, so we'll look at Mark H's ticket and travel situation. He's the only one of the FFS team...

Euro 2020 is looming large on the horizon but it's still not clear exactly WHO can travel to the games and precisely HOW they might get there. We are joined in this episode by friend-of-the-show, Jussi Hartikainen, Executive Director of the Finland national team supporters club, who gives us the fresh news. We also look back at the final of the Suomen Cup, won by KuPS on penalties, the World Cup q...

The season's about to start, the FFS team is excited to get back into the stands and cheer our teams on. So what better way to ramp-up the excitement, than by looking at all of the shiny, new players at each Veikkausliiga club? Alas, it's never as simple as that in the COVID era, as it seems there will be no fans in the ground at least until mid-May, so we'll have to watch on TV. We also talk abou...

Mark H joins Keke for this episode of In Conversation, on this occasion with Brighton & Hove Albion and Helmarit defender, Emma Koivisto. Emma talks them through her career that has seen her play in Finland, the USA, Sweden and now the UK, collecting so many championship winners medals along the way, that she may soon need a bigger trophy cabinet. She also tells Mark & Keke about her progression t...

Rich, Mark H & Keke discuss the recent Huuhkajat friendly game versus Switzerland and then put themselves in the shoes of 'Rive' Kanerva as they attempt to choose their final Euro 2020 squad from a list of 36 players! The British phrase 'written on the back of a fag packet' seems appropriate – so get your cigarette packets ready and start choosing your team... Show notes & links

The FFS team look back at the games played in the past few days:  Finland 2-2 Bosnia-Herzegovina Ukraine 1-1 Finland Player development under Rive and possible player ‘churn’ 😁 Plus Mrs W’s prediction for Switzerland vs Finland this week Show notes & links

In this episode we look back at the disgraceful racist behaviour towards Glen Kamara last week. This show was hosted by Keke with Mark H and Rich, who also discuss the Finland National team squad  that was just announced and preview the three upcoming games; Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine and Switzerland.  They also talk about the recent result (singular) in the Suomen Cup and consider how the Veikka...

Part 2 of 2 – Club Career & Return From 'Injury' In this episode, Paula takes us through her club career. From being a stubborn five-year-old who insisted on playing with the boys, through to being a stubborn 22-year-old who refused to be 'injured' by leukemia and a brain haemorrhage – you will not believe how quickly she was back in training! She talks about playing in the Champions League and, t...

Part 1 of 2 – Paula & the Helmarit Paula talk us through the final few games of the Euro 2021 qualifying campaign, from which the Helmarit qualified for Euro 2021 in impressive style. She tells us about her feelings at the start of the qualifiers and as she saw Amanda Rantanen's unbelievable goal to seal their place. She tells us about making her debut for the Finland National Team, aged 34, and t...

FFS36 The Suomen Cup has progressed through the groups stages, so we look back at the recent action and forward to the upcoming knockout games. We also discuss the recently released 2021 fixture list for the Finland Mens National Team, the Huuhkajat. We blow a little smoke up Keke's a** for the interviews he's arranged recently in our FFS In Conversation... series. And we throw a little shade at M...

The Finnish Football's Show's intrepid interviewer, Keke, was flying solo again for this interview, with Finland and Chievo Verona defender, Sauli Väisänen. Keke took one of his customary trips with a player through their career, and Sauli was good value, sharing stories about: His varied youth career around Helsinki. Moving to the Allsvenskan in Sweden at an early age and ALMOST playing with Eero...

We're in the middle of the closed-season in Finland, which is why we've been quiet lately, but with the Suomen Cup due to restart on 1st February, we look forward to the group stage and explain the structure of the competition. We also discuss the closed-season transfers in the Veikkausliiga and for Finns overseas. But first, we look at the recent noise created by UEFA and the recent announcements...

Our guest for this episode, inspired the entire FFS team to turn up for a five-way Zoom. Current Bayer Leverkusen and Finland goalkeeper, Lukáš Hrádecký, spoke to us for an hour about, well, his entire career. A career that started at TPS Turku and took him to Denmark and then Germany. Luke explains the perils of hearing a room with Teemu Pukki and why he turned down Manchester United. We learn wh...