As July ends so does the ability for Swedish teams to acquire new players. The Swedish transfer window closed this past Tuesday, which allows us the opportunity to review the most significant Allsvenskan signings. It's been a fairly interesting shopping window for the Swedish clubs with a few foreign additions as well as one major move between Allsvenskan clubs. Click to continue reading...

It was a long day at the office for VPS who got drilled by FC Honka on Sunday afternoon at Tapiolan Urheilupuisto in Espoo. Click to continue reading...

Azerbaijani Premier League outfit FK Qarabag surpassed their very own milestone in UEFA club competition through a shock victory over Rosenborg BK in the wake of a decade-long anniversary celebrating the nation's first away triumph. The mementous win came in the second batch of qualifiers for the inaugural Europa League, a prestigous and recognised platform than the now-defunct Intertoto Cup which was the backdrop for Qarabag's prior success on the European continent. Click to continue reading...

Coming off their best win of the season, Lawrence Smith and VPS return home to try to make it two wins in a row versus FC Honka on Sunday afternoon at Hietalahti Stadium in Vaasa. Click to continue reading...

Veikkausliiga heads north today, with long journeys deep into the countryside for HJK and Tampere United. RoPS, KuPS and VPS all have nice grounds but terrible pitches, and the difficulty of getting results there has been evident in recent seasons, with VPS acting as a bit of a bogey side for TamU and KuPS getting a memorable 3-2 win against HJK late last season to help them to a play-off spot.

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Ilves have been playing again for a season and a half now, and for the most part they've been up near the top of the Kakkonen group B table. Tampere photographer Petteri Lehtonen has been following them, and has kindly agreed to allow NFN to use his photos to bring a little bit of Kakkonen to our readers.

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The preview of the sxth round should take many forms, the first one being a homage to Pasi Rautiainen. This Monday's match between Honka and TPS in Tapiola turned into something of a media event, with most of the Finnish under-21 squad presented with roses for their achievement in failing to win a single game or point, and scoring a solitary penalty during their three matches in Sweden.

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Watching Tampere United struggle to a single goal victory over JJK at Ratina yesterday, it occurred to me just how astonishing it is that anyone watches Finnish football. The first half was enjoyably predictable, as TamU attacked and JJk attempted to string a few passes together. JJK's South Korean striker Nam was brought off injured, and someone curled a shot against the bar for the Jyväskyläns (it could very possibly have been Koskela), and Rafinha got the winner when Sinisalo's headed past his own keeper, but overall it was a pretty run of the mill Veikkausliiga match.

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TPS won MYPA 3-1 and Lahti took a 2-1 win over Tampere United. The latter meant that my prediction accuracy fell from 100% to 50% compared to Wednesday's round of games, and I'm too disillusioned to round the games up in any more depth now. I will round them up later, however, once the whole round is over.

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Sorry for the recent silence as far as NFN's Finland section is concerned. If you're wondering why we're so quiet over the U21 European Championships, we have a simple explanation: Egan is following the tournament in Sweden as it unfolds, and is covering the proceedings for ESPN Soccernet. Meanwhile, I will treat you to a Veikkausliiga preview.

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A match between two skillful, attacking-minded teams was always going to be entertaining and Inter and Honka lived up to their expectations. It was a very good game from both teams, and neither side really deserved to lose. Honka did lose in the end, and will not look back at their early season very positively.

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JJK have had an encouraging start to their first ever campaign in the Finnish top flight. They have already managed to limit TPS, Haka and HJK to draws, and nothing suggests that they could not cause another upset against Honka, especially as Honka have had a poor start to this year's Veikkausliiga.

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Two Veikkausliiga games will be played on Saturday. Inspired JJK will entertain underachieving Honka and Inter will welome Haka to Veritas Stadion to what, somewhat surprisingly, is a clash between two table-topping teams.

NFN will be present in Turku, treating you to minute-by-minute updates of the game.

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OK, maybe I am taking a step too far in comparing this 19-year old to mr. Litmanen. Still, what a performance! Riski, or RR10, as his recently innovated nickname goes, beautifully set up TPS's 2-0 winning goal against VPS and also put the ball past Henri Sillanpää himself. He was composed with the ball, passing precisely and setting up a number of chances for his mates.

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JJK v HJK, Sunday 6:30pm

This is a tough one to predict. As ever, it all depends on Muurinen's team selection, and the choice between the quick and mobile strikers or the less mobile Mäkelä. He played Mäkelä in the last game, and they got a disappointing draw against Honka, so maybe he will go with a Popovitch-Parikka combination for the JJK game.

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Tampere United v FC Honka, Sunday 6:30pm

Tampere United have all the finesse, skill, confidence and panache of a bag of used cat litter right now. Their 1-0 loss to Haka was not an awful performance, but their goalkeeper messes up big time and they lost. he's a young lad and should be replaced, but now Mikko kaven has a knee injury.

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I have been to Keuruu many times before, but never previously had the urge to visit one of the fine examples of Nordic wooden architecture common in the area. Thanks to Mr Berlusconi, I'm now curious what they're like and am about to go and have a look. Anything that man dislikes deserves a chance, at least, but it does mean that this round-up/preview is going to e a bit of a rush job.

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Since Haka were taken over by SK-Ravintolat owner Sedu Koskinen, the town of Valkeakoski has found that most of it's night time entertainment will contribute to the upkeep of the football club, via the new Koski ravintolat company.

The closure of Dolly's and Angels, the town's well-loved Irish pub, to be replaced by a bar open only on Fridays and Saturdays, has not impressed the workers at one of the few non-Koski Ravintolat watering holes the town has left.

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HJK v IFK Mariehamn, Wednesday 6:30pm

This is, somewhat surprisingly, a top of the table clash. IFK have already beaten last season's champions, drawn with one of the favourites for this season, and had a regulation win over wooden spoon-chasers KuPS. This puts them level on points with HJK, who dropped their two points at home to draw specialists TPS.

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Tampere United v VPS, Saturday 6:30pm

The first TamU home game after CEO Sami Salonen and Sporting Director Jarkko Wiss left the club promises to be an eventful affair. Fans are unhappy at the way both men have been treated, as Wiss was not just a Sporting Director but TamU's most successful captain of all time.

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VPS Vaasa 2 Honka 5

Highlights

TPS Turku 0 JJK Jyväskylä 0

Highlights

The ice hockey world championships is getting quite a lot of media coverage in Finland at the moment, and ahead of today's Czech Republic-Norway game I asked Lars what he thought of the Norwegian team's chances.

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HJK 2 TPS 2

Highlights

Pasi Rautiainen's haircut garnered a lot of headlines when he unveiled it at the Veikkausliiga media event on the eve of the season. The formerly wild-haired TPS coach claimed that his new, clean-cut image was the result of a marital diktat after his wife finally snapped at her husband's barber-aversion.

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HJK 2 TPS 2

Highlights

Pasi Rautiainen's haircut garnered a lot of headlines when he unveiled it at the Veikkausliiga media event on the eve of the season. The formerly wild-haired TPS coach claimed that his new, clean-cut image was the result of a marital diktat after his wife finally snapped at her husband's barber-aversion.

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The second round of games, similarly to the first, shrank a bit because newly promoted JJK joined the already too long list of teams who had to cancel their opening fixture. VPS and Haka kicked off the round yesterday, with the latter snapping a 1-0 away win thanks to a goal from Pietari Holopainen.

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The second round of games, similarly to the first, shrank a bit because newly promoted JJK joined the already too long list of teams who had to cancel their opening fixture. VPS and Haka kicked off the round yesterday, with the latter snapping a 1-0 away win thanks to a goal from Pietari Holopainen.

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IFK Mariehamn 2 Inter Turku 0

The first round of Veikkausliiga threw up a few surprising results, but arguably the biggest shock was Inter Turku's 2-0 defeat in Mariehamn. The manner of defeat was more surprising than the result, as Iner's manager Job Dragtsma pointed out afterwards.

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IFK Mariehamn 2 Inter Turku 0

The first round of Veikkausliiga threw up a few surprising results, but arguably the biggest shock was Inter Turku's 2-0 defeat in Mariehamn. The manner of defeat was more surprising than the result, as Iner's manager Job Dragtsma pointed out afterwards.

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IFK Mariehamn 2 Inter Turku 0

The first round of Veikkausliiga threw up a few surprising results, but arguably the biggest shock was Inter Turku's 2-0 defeat in Mariehamn. The manner of defeat was more surprising than the result, as Iner's manager Job Dragtsma pointed out afterwards.

Click to continue reading...

Veikkausliiga announced their hoped-for attendance figures yesterday, and they seem to be grounded in as much reality as the budgets. Clubs are hoping for an increase in their attendances that may be difficult to achieve with current facilities, as well as the cold, hard fact that most clubs will be unsuccessful in most seasons.

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Veikkausliiga announced their hoped-for attendance figures yesterday, and they seem to be grounded in as much reality as the budgets. Clubs are hoping for an increase in their attendances that may be difficult to achieve with current facilities, as well as the cold, hard fact that most clubs will be unsuccessful in most seasons.

Click to continue reading...

Veikkausliiga announced their hoped-for attendance figures yesterday, and they seem to be grounded in as much reality as the budgets. Clubs are hoping for an increase in their attendances that may be difficult to achieve with current facilities, as well as the cold, hard fact that most clubs will be unsuccessful in most seasons.

Click to continue reading...

As this opening round of Veikkausliiga has been decimated by pitch related postponements, this preview is dedicated to the two men who have actually done quite a lot to get playable pitches in Finland. Harkimo was instrumental in the construction of Finnair Stadium in Töölö, before selling his stake in the ground andwinding up Jokerit's football club, while Håkans played a similar role in the construction of Veritas Stadium in Kupittaa.

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As this opening round of Veikkausliiga has been decimated by pitch related postponements, this preview is dedicated to the two men who have actually done quite a lot to get playable pitches in Finland. Harkimo was instrumental in the construction of Finnair Stadium in Töölö, before selling his stake in the ground andwinding up Jokerit's football club, while Håkans played a similar role in the construction of Veritas Stadium in Kupittaa.

Click to continue reading...

As this opening round of Veikkausliiga has been decimated by pitch related postponements, this preview is dedicated to the two men who have actually done quite a lot to get playable pitches in Finland. Harkimo was instrumental in the construction of Finnair Stadium in Töölö, before selling his stake in the ground andwinding up Jokerit's football club, while Håkans played a similar role in the construction of Veritas Stadium in Kupittaa.

Click to continue reading...

Niclas Lonnqvist wrote a series of articles this summer focusing on immigrant sides in Helsinki. There was a Kosovan side, a Hispanic one, a Russian club and Mondial sport, a club that draws its players from any and all immigrant groups. They have different problems to 'normal' Finnish clubs. As immigrants they have fewer sponsors to [. Click to continue reading...