HIFK Fotboll

HIFK Fotboll or IFK Helsingfors is an association football section of HIFK, a sports club from Helsinki, Finland. The men's football first team plays in the highest tier of Finnish football, Veikkausliiga. Their home ground is at the Telia 5G -areena.

History

Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna i Helsingfors was formed on 15 October 1897 by Georges Doubitsky, a 15-year-old student at the Svenska Reallyceum school in Helsinki. In those early years the club specialised in athletics, football and bandy. The football section was established in 1907, the same year that the Football Association of Finland was founded. The first football match played HIFK was at the Kaisaniemi ground on 17 May 1908 where the new team lost 1–2 to Unitas.
In those early years HIFK were runners-up in the Mestaruussarja on 5 occasions in 1909, 1912, 1928 and 1929. In addition in 1912 the Finnish Football team at the Stockholm Olympics comprised a team of HIFK players.
HIFK won their first Finnish championship in 1930 a feat that they were to repeat on three other occasions in 1931, 1933 and 1937 in a tremendous decade for the club. HIFK also won the Mestaruussarja in 1947, 1959 and 1961. In total HIFK won the Finnish championship on 7 occasions.
HIFK was one of the most successful football sides in Finland until the early 1970s when the team were relegated from the Mestaruussarja. After 1972 the team wandered around the lower divisions of Finnish football, having even played in the Nelonen, the fifth tier of the Finnish football league system, in 1980–83 and 2003–05, and only would return to the first level 43 years later.
In total, since 1930, HIFK have played 29 seasons in the Mestaruussarja, 18 seasons in the second tier and 18 seasons in the third tier. Their best spell in recent decades was from 1999 to 2002 when the club participated in the Ykkönen. However, the club overstretched themselves which resulted in the withdrawal from the Ykkönen at the end of the 2002 season and taking the place of the second team in the Nelonen in 2003. More recently HIFK made great progress and returned to Ykkönen, the second tier of Finnish football for seasons 2011 and 2012 only to be relegated back to Kakkonen after their 2012 season. Back in Kakkonen, HIFK rehired coach Jani Honkavaara who was the coach when HIFK first were promoted to Ykkönen. Since his second term they were able to play in Ykkönen for a third time this millennia, when beating their promotion play-off opponent PS Kemi Kings.
HIFK won Ykkönen in 2014 and thereby were automatically promoted into the highest tier of Finnish football, Veikkausliiga. After securing their promotion, HIFK announced that they would play their 2015 season home games on Telia 5G -areena, the home ground of their local rivals HJK Helsinki. In December 2014 HIFK launched a crowdfunding campaign through Invesdor. HIFK aimed to gather 250.000 – 500.000 euros by selling shares of the club valued at 189,70 euros a piece. According to club chairman René Österman, HIFK was in need of funding for the upcoming Veikkausliiga season and crowdfunding gave a chance for the club's supporters to own a part of the club. The campaign ended successfully in January 2015 and HIFK gathered 335.495 euros from 786 investors.
After three seasons in Veikkausliiga, HIFK were relegated to Ykkönen after finishing 11th in 2017 season and losing relegation play-offs against FC Honka on away goals. However, after a successful 2018 campaign in Ykkönen, HIFK was promoted back to Veikkausliiga for the 2019 season.

European campaigns

HIFK participated in the European Cup in the 1960–61 and 1962–63 seasons and played in the UEFA cup in 1971–72.

Season	Competition	Round	Country	Club	Score	Agg.
1960–61	European Cup	Preliminary round		IFK Malmö	1–3, 1–2	2–5
1962–63	European Cup	First round		Austria Wien	3–5, 0–2	3–7
1971–72	UEFA Cup	First round		Rosenborg	0–3, 0–1	0–4

Honours

Mestaruussarja

Champions : 1930, 1931, 1933, 1937, 1947, 1959, 1961
Runners-up : 1909, 1912, 1928, 1929, 1934, 1935, 1971

Attendance Record: 10,500

Divisional movements since 1930

Top Level : 1930–45, 1947–49, 1958–66, 1970–72, 2015–2017, 2019-
Second Level : 1945–46, 1950–57, 1967–69, 1973–74, 1999–02, 2011–12, 2014, 2018
Third Level : 1975–78, 1988–98, 2008–10, 2013
Season to season

Supporters and rivalries

Historically, HIFK was primarily the club for the Swedish speaking population in Helsinki. However, the club nowadays is bilingual and language doesn't play an important role in the club anymore. Nowadays, the most renowned supporter group of the club is Stadin Kingit. Its name derives from the common slang nickname for Helsinki. Many members attend the handball, bandy and ice hockey matches of HIFK as well. The supporters are reported to have friendship with supporters of FC Copenhagen.
The single most important fixture for HIFK supporters is the one against the major local rivals, HJK. The fixture is commonly known as Stadin derby.

Club structure

HIFK Fotboll run a large number of teams including 3 men's teams, 3 women's teams, 1 men's veterans team, 14 boys' teams and 5 girls' teams.

HIFK are competing in Veikkausliiga. This is the highest tier in the Finnish football system.
HIFK / 2 are competing in Group 3 of Nelonen administered by the SPL Uusimaa.
HIFK / 4 are competing in Group 3 of Vitonen administered by the SPL Uusimaa.

Updated as of season 2020.

Players

As of 11 June 2020

Current squad

Out on loan

Management and boardroom

Management

As of 31 January 2020

Boardroom