AC Oulu is a Finnish professional football club based in Oulu, currently playing in Finland's premier division, Veikkausliiga. Formed in 2002, the club have played six seasons in Finland's highest football league Veikkausliiga and 16 seasons in the second highest league. They currently play their home games at Raatti Stadium, and the club colours are navy blue, and white.
AC Oulu was founded in 2002 as a joint initiative of four local clubs, Oulun Luistinseura (OLS), Oulun Palloseura (OPS), Oulun Työväen Palloilijat (OTP) and Tervarit, with the aim of bringing top level football back to Oulu. FC Oulu played in the Veikkausliiga in the early '90s as the most recent team from Oulu to play top-tier Finnish football. The club inherited the league license of Tervarit in the second-tier Ykkönen for the 2003 season.
After four seasons in Ykkönen, AC Oulu reached the Finland's premier division Veikkausliiga in 2007. However, they were relegated back to the Ykkönen at the end of their first season in the top division. After two seasons in the second tier AC Oulu won promotion again to the Veikkausliiga at the end of the 2009 season after finishing top of the Ykkönen.
Having finished 11th in 2010 season the club were initially going to continue in the Veikkausliiga for the 2011 season. However, they were denied a league licence for financial reasons and therefore dropped down to the Ykkönen.
Since the relegation for financial reasons in 2010, AC Oulu played in Ykkönen for ten years, where it was considered as a candidate to promote for a long time. During 2009–2014, the former Finland national team winger Mika Nurmela played for the club, and simultaneously worked as a sporting director in AC Oulu. Dritan Stafsula had returned to the club in 2011 and represented AC Oulu until 2015, having established himself the club's top goal scorer with 54 goals. During 2016–2018, the former national team defender Markus Heikkinen played for the club as a player-coach. Since 2017, he has also been working as a sporting director for the club. In 2018, Tomi Kaismo and his investment company OTC-Sijoitus Oy, became the biggest shareholder of the club.[1][2] The club managed to create stability to their economy during those years, and finally won Ykkönen in the 2020 season with head coach Jyrki Ahola, gaining a promotion back to Veikkausliiga for the 2021 season, previous time being in 2010.[3]
Veikkausliiga; 2021–present
In the 2021 Veikkausliiga season, after the run of poor results, the head coach Jyrki Ahola was sacked in September and replaced by Portuguese Ricardo Duarte.[4][5] AC Oulu finished 11th in the league, and successfully defended its place in the relegation play-offs against RoPS.[6]
In the 2022 season, the club finished in the 7th place, after having narrowly missed the top-6 championship group in the league. AC Oulu established its place in the league, after having mostly played in the second-tier Ykkönen since its foundation in 2002.
In the early 2023, AC Oulu reached to the final of the pre-season Finnish League Cup tournament, after winning Inter Turku on penalties in the semi-final. They eventually fell short to HJK in the final, losing the game 2–1.[7] Before the league season started, the club sold its own local protégé Miika Koskela to Norwegian club Tromsø IL, and in the summer transfer window Otso Liimatta was sold to Portuguese Primeira Liga club FC Famalicão.
In August 2023, the head coach Duarte announced that he will leave the club after the season, and his option will not be exercised.[8] Only a couple of weeks later, the club announced that Duarte was sacked with an immediate effect, following the loss in the 2023 Finnish Cup semi-final against Ilves, and the miserable results in the league.[9] However, in the end of the season, the club renewed its position in 7th place in the league, having narrowly missed the top-6 again.[10]
After the club had turned 20 years of age in 2022, AC Oulu started the documentary project with a local production studio Feeniks Visual, to highlight the early years when the club was formed starting in 2002. The one-hour long documentary film was first published in the late June 2023 exclusively,[11] and later in April 2024 for the public.[12]
2024
For the 2024 season, the club acquired Tuomas Silvennoinen the new head coach. Due to his lack of the required UEFA Pro coaching license, he was officially named the associate head coach in the coaching staff with Rauno Ojanen and Mikko Viitsalo. The budget for the new season was increased also. In April, it was announced that Hanna Väänänen would step aside from the club's CEO position and later Jani Kotikangas took the charge as the new CEO.[13] The team started the season poorly, and eventually the whole coaching staff was fired on 13 June 2024, after 11 league matches, with a record of one win, five draws and five losses. The reserve team coaches Mikko Isokangas and Rafinha were named the caretaker coaches of the first team, leading the team to advance in the Finnish Cup with a win against KäPa, and drawing with VPS in the league. On 20 June 2024, a former Volos head coach Kostas Bratsos was named the manager of AC Oulu.[14] The team reached the quarter-finals of the 2024 Suomen Cup, but was knocked out by SJK 2–0 in the early July in the OmaSP Stadion in Seinäjoki. On 2 September, after Bratsos had received his third consecutive red card of the season in his 10th league match, he and his whole coaching staff were fired, and the reserve team coaches Isokangas and Rafinha were appointed the interim managers again for the rest of the season. At the time of their departure, the club was sitting in the 9th place of the Veikkausliiga table, just above the relegation play-offs line. Eventually, they finished their disappointing and messed-up season in the 9th place of the table. After the season, Isokangas was officially named the new manager. Later the team's number one striker Ashley Coffey announced he would depart from Oulu. During two seasons he spent with the club, he scored 36 goals in 65 official appearances.
In the beginning of 2025, it was announced that the club had acquired local basketball team Oulun NMKY[15] and volleyball team Oulun Kisko,[16] with the aim to establish AC Oulu as a new multi-sport club.[17]
Stadiums
Raatti Stadium in 2011
Castrén Stadium: 2002–2010
Initially after the formation, AC Oulu played its home matches at the city-owned Castrén Stadium in Välivainio, Oulu until 2010. Castrén has a maximum capacity of 4,000 people. The club set their attendance record of 4,717 on 21 October 2006 in a decisive Ykkönen match against Atlantis, which resulted in a 2–0 victory and secured AC Oulu's promotion to Veikkausliiga for the first time.[18]
Raatti Stadium: 2011–present
For the 2011 Ykkönen season, AC Oulu moved to Raatti Stadium, located in Koskikeskus area of Oulu, near the city centre. The city-owned track and field stadium has a capacity of 4,392.
The club's new home ground is set to be opened in the summer 2026 in Heinäpää. Currently an unnamed Heinäpää football stadium has a project name of OTC Stadion.[19]
Winter arenas
For the 2020–21 off-season, the construction for the club's own air-supported indoor arena, sponsor name Garam Masala Areena, was completed.[20] During the winter months, the club trains at the Garam Masala Areena, and plays the official Finnish League Cup matches at the nearby-located Heinäpää football arena, an indoor arena owned by the city of Oulu, with the capacity of 630.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
In the summer 2020, AC Oulu and one of its founding member clubs Oulun Luistinseura (OLS) signed a new co-operation deal, by which AC Oulu acquired the U-17 team and OLS first team under its command.[23][24]
In the end of the 2023 season, the club's U17 team won the silver medal in the league of their age group.[25] In addition, the club's reserve team OLS gained a promotion from Kakkonen to new Ykkönen.[26]
On 13 November 2023, the club announced that they had signed a co-operation deal with one of their associate clubs Oulunsalon Pallo (OsPa), and acquired the control and the management of the OsPa first team in Kolmonen, as AC Oulu's second reserve team for youth players.[27]
After the 2023 season, Olli-Pekka Piisilä, the head coach of the AC Oulu/OLS U17 team, was awarded The Best Coach of the Boys' Team by the Football Association of Finland.[28]
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