Finnish sports in disarray due to coronavirus

The coronavirus outbreak has affected sports events all around the world. Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games were postponed for one year, some football leagues cancelled, with some of them resuming without fans in stadia, The N.B.A Basketball League suspended its season this year and many other changes have taken place in a short span of time. Accordingly, sports clubs and organisations in Finland had to stop their normal activities and consider alternatives.

After a few months of suspension of most sports activities, the restrictions on them are now relaxed in Finland, this sector has been starting back towards its normal routine step by step. To have a close look at the impacts of COVID-19 on Finnish sports, understand the changes and upcoming events, the Daily Finland has recently talked to two sports authorities.”

Like in most countries across the world, all sports activities have been suspended abruptly in the middle of March with the onset of the coronavirus outbreak in Finland”, said Football Association of Finland Media Officer Mikael Erävuori. Some international games were either cancelled or postponed, The Finnish Cup has now restarted after three months of suspension, this year’s season of the main football leagues was deferred and Veikkausliiga (men’s football league) has started on 1 July, Erävuori added.

Finnish Olympic Committee’s Head of Public Relations Ilmari Nalbantoglu said besides changes in football games, other sport events like ‘Yritysmaratonviesti’ (running competition) remain postponed from May to September, ‘Jukolan viesti,’ an international competitive event with around 40,000 participants from 20 countries, has been deferred for one year, and some elite sport events like the world cup of team gymnastics were cancelled, too.

Nalbantoglu said, all these measures have caused a significant economic damage to the Finnish sport; “according to an estimate, sports organisations have lost around 80 million euros between March and May.” “A recent survey conducted by the National Sports Council found that the turnover of 59 per cent of the country’s sports enterprises has dropped by half or even more, and, in several aspects, the situation of the organisations in the sports sector is becoming much weaker compared to that in the past”. According to Mikael Erävuori, all the 1,400 registered football players on different levels and with different clubs have suffered from the situation and undergone a tough time.

Following the relaxing of restrictions on sports activities in Finland, some sports events have resumed, but with slight differences. In football clubs, everything has returned to normal since the beginning of June, and the obligation to go through the COVID-19 test is no more, unless someone has suspicious symptoms. The only exception is that players are not allowed to use lockers and they have to be more cautious about their sanity. Accordingly, the Finnish Olympic Committee highly recommends the sports clubs in different fields to obey the health protocols and avoid close physical contacts as much as possible.

Since spectators are an inseparable part of any sports event, “the Regional State Administrative Agency has decided that public events with no more than 500 people are permissible until 31 July; however, the number of spectators of outdoor events can go beyond that ceiling, if the organisers follow health safety protocols,” said Nalbantoglu. Particularly in football matches from the beginning of July, he said, the number of the spectators may be multiplied, if they can be safely divided into separate zones with different entrances to and exits from the stadia. He also mentioned that an important factor in determining the number of spectators is the capacity of the stadium, “it is estimated that at the moment football stadia in Finland can accommodate spectators at 20 to 35 per cent of their capacity”. All restrictions will be lifted from 1 October, but some more spectators might be allowed to go to the stadia from the beginning of August, said Erävuori.