It was a night to remember at the Sonera Stadium last Thursday as HJK recorded a historical victory with a battling performance over the German giants Schalke in the Europa League play-off first leg. Teemu Pukki scored two fantastic goals to cap a magnificent team performance by the home side which put the Finns on the threshold of the group stages of the competition.

It is a tedious cliché that Finnish football is small-time and insignificant, but it is unfortunately also kinda true. Precarious finances and a disinterested public make the professional game here seem lower profile than, say, crown green bowls in the UK, or cricket in the United States.

That is a little stark.

English homophobia: uniting Brazilians and Finns Finnish football descended into a bout of televised homophobia this week. The match between KuPS and HJK featured HJK's Brazilian star Rafinha testing his language skills on opponent Pexi Oravainen. He was caught on camera unleashing a torrent of homophobic abuse towards the KuPS.

Charlton Athletic manager Chris Powell confessed he is surprised that the Finnish Football Association announced that Carl Jenkinson is an Arsenal player. Speaking to News Shopper, the Englishman revealed that the Addicks met with the Gunners ...

Well, Arsene Wenger certainly meant business when he said that he was going to be active in the transfer window. Arsenal have started off their summer spending spree, or what fans hope will be a spending spree anyways, with the signing of Charlton right back Carl Jenkinson for a reported compensation fee of around 1 million pounds.

Let's not get carried away by the shock of the match-fixing scandal. A cap on foreign players in Veikkausliiga isn't the answer.

When Timo Soini coined his ever more popular catch phrase "Missä EU, siellä ongelma" (Where there is the EU, there are problems), he created a brilliant out on any tough question regarding his European politics.