In Finland for Finnish people football is not important

Young Finns play very much football, but they are gradually becoming bored with football. for Finnish people football doesn`t mean very much, but for foreigners it means a lot because they want to become professional. A lot of foreigners practice in their spare time with friends because they develop their skills . When foreigners practice football they take it seriously because they don’t! want to lose the game.

first when l started football l was 12 years old. l played in team. l was the only foreign player in my team. l was a bad player, l didn`t know how to kick the ball. the Finns spoke behind our backs bullshit, then l feel very badly and l was embarrassed. l wanted to learn how to play good football, but it was not so easy for me. Now l have learned how to play football because l had been practicing very much even my coach said to me that l`m becoming a good player. l was so happy when l heard that from my coach and also my friends said to me that l`m faster attacker. Now my point is to become a professional and l still practice very hardly, l hope one day l will become a professional football player.

By Nawid and Jama

Finnish sports

Ice hockey is probably the most popular  sport in finland, but we added here two other hobby too wich are floorball and ice swimming. Finnish does have many other hobbies too,but these are just some sports that we find interesting.

ICE HOCKEY

It’s said that ice hockey is the most popular sport here in Finland. We have a lot of teams, ice rinks and players, of course. Ice hockey is probably much more popular among boys, but girls play it a lot too.

Ice hockey is about two teams playing against each other in a hockey rink. Both teams have five players and a goal keeper in the rink and the point in the game is to get the puck in to the opponents goal. Hockey is quite physical game, so hockey players have a lot of equipment, such as skates, shin pads, athletic cup, hockey pants, protective gloves, elbow and shoulder pads, helmet and a hockey stick. You can also play without equipment, like a lot of finnish kids do in wintertime. All you need is skates and a hockey stick. I also recommend to wear a helmet. 

Last time Finland won the Ice Hockey Championship in 1995, so it’s been a while, even though it has been close several times. 

I’ve grown up in a ”hockeyfamily” myself, as my big brother has always played ice hockey and my father is a coach. We’ve watched their games since I was 5 years old, and I used to hate ice hockey those days. I thought that it was so boring to watch people skating and chasing the puck, just to get a goal. But now, years later, I’m truly in love with this sport. I don’t play myself, but I love to watch and take pictures of games.

I hope that everyone could even try this sport once, it’s so cool!

by Kia

Floorball
 
Floorball is really popular game in Finland it’s played by girls and boys both. It’s the most popular ballgame in Finland after football.
 
Every year is organized EuroFloorball cup and Finnish National Championship, and every two years is World Championships.
 
It is played indoors with a stick and a little ball with holes. The size of the field is about 20×40 meters. In the field can be five payers + goalkeeper, from both teams.

By Sanni

Ice swimming

Ice swimming is more overly a hobby, that middle aged women usually do. They do this about three times a week, after sauna, but of course some men do this too but it´s just more popular among women. So what is this ”sport” about ,  it´s about that you go in this hole in ice  and you swim there, and this is something what you do in the middle of the winter. People say it´s very refreshing and that it´s good for your health. There is also a championship team in finland and some do compete about this, so that’s why it´s nowadays sport. I´m not sure how they compete, but probably they take time of that, how long they can stay in the water or something like that.

This video is from the finnish championship games.

By Anna