The Finland national football team (Finnish: Suomen jalkapallomaajoukkue, Swedish: Finlands fotbollslandslag) represents Finland in men's international football competitions and is controlled by the Football Association of Finland, the governing body for football in Finland, which was founded in 1907. The team has been a member of FIFA since 1908 and a UEFA member since 1957.
Finland had never qualified for a major tournament until securing a spot at UEFA Euro 2020.[3] After decades of average results and campaigns, the nation made progress in the 2000s, achieving notable results against established European teams and reaching a peak of 33rd in the FIFA World Rankings in 2007. Afterward, their performances and results declined, drawing them to their all-time low of 110th in the FIFA Rankings in 2017. Seven years after their all-time low in the FIFA Rankings, as of July 2024, they sit at 63rd place in the overall ranking.[4]
After the 1918 Civil War, the Finnish sports movement was divided into the right-wing Finnish Gymnastics and Sports Federation (SVUL) and the leftist Finnish Workers' Sports Federation (TUL), Finnish Football Association was a member of the SVUL.[5] Both sides had their own championship series, and between 1919 and 1939 the Finland national team was selected of the Football Association players only. The Finnish Workers' Sports Federation football team in turn, participated in the competitions of the international labour movement.[6]
However, since the late 1920s several top footballers defected from TUL and joined the Football Association to be eligible for the national team. During the 1930s, these ″defectors″ formed the spine of the national team. For example, the Finland squad at the 1936 Summer Olympics was composed of eight former TUL players.[6] In 1937, Finland participated the FIFA World Cup qualification for the first time, losing all three matches against Sweden, Germany and Estonia.
Since 1939, TUL players were selected for the national team and finally, in 1956, the TUL and Football Association series were merged.[6]
Finland also took part in European Championship qualifying since the 1968 event, but had to wait for its first win until 1978.
Late 20th century
Finnish team after the victory over Yugoslavia in 1950Finland against the Netherlands from 1975
Finland missed out on qualification for Euro 1980 by just a point and for the 1986 World Cup by two points. Finland was invited to take part in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow after many Western countries announced they would boycott the games, but failed to progress from its group.
By the mid-1990s Finland started to have more players in high-profile European leagues, led by Ajax superstar Jari Litmanen.[8] In 1996, Euro 1992-winning coach Richard Møller Nielsen was hired to take Finland to the 1998 World Cup. The team enjoyed mixed fortunes in the campaign, the high points of which were a draw and a win away to Norway and Switzerland respectively. Going into the last match, Finland would have needed a win at home to Hungary to earn a place in the play-offs. They led the game 1–0 going into injury time, but scored an own goal, and their qualification campaign was over. Møller Nielsen also tried to lead Finland to Euro 2000. In this campaign, the Finns recorded a sensational win away to Turkey, but couldn't compete with Germany and Turkey in the long run.
Jari Litmanen is widely regarded as Finland's greatest footballer of all time.
Antti Muurinen succeeded Møller Nielsen as coach in 2000. He had arguably the most talented group of Finnish players ever at his disposal, including players such as Antti Niemi, Sami Hyypiä, Teemu Tainio and Mikael Forssell in addition to the legendary Litmanen. The team also performed quite well under him in qualification for the 2002 World Cup despite a difficult draw, earning two draws against Germany and a home draw with England as well as beating Greece 5–1 in Helsinki. In the end, however, England and Germany proved too strong, and the Finns finished third in the group, but were the only team in that group not to lose at home. Hopes were high going into qualification for Euro 2004 after the promising last campaign and friendly wins over the likes of Norway, Belgium and Portugal (which seen the Finns jump from 40th to 30th in the Elo ranking[9]). However, Finland started the campaign by losing to Wales and Yugoslavia (later Serbia and Montenegro, now two separate nations). These losses were followed by two defeats by Italy, and a 3–0 home win over Serbia and Montenegro was little consolation, as the Finns finished fourth in the group. In qualification for the 2006 World Cup Finland failed to score a single point in six matches against the top three teams in their group, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Romania. Muurinen was sacked in June 2005, and he was replaced by caretaker Jyrki Heliskoski, but results didn't improve.
In August 2005, it was announced that Englishman Roy Hodgson would become the new Finland coach in 2006, and he started the job in January of that year. Hodgson stepped down as manager after they failed to qualify for Euro 2008.[10]
Hodgson's replacement was a Scotsman, Stuart Baxter, who signed a contract until the end of the 2012 European Championship qualification campaign.[11] In the Euro 2008 qualifying Finland needed to win their last qualifying game away to Portugal to qualify for their first major football tournament. However, the match ended 0–0 meaning the team missed out on qualification to the tournament, with Finland ending the group stage with 24 points and Portugal with 27 points. However, the performance in qualifying led to the Finns gaining their best-ever FIFA world ranking to date at 33rd.
The 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign under new head coach Stuart Baxter saw Finland again finish third in their group with five wins, three draws and two defeats. They were the only team in qualifying not to lose to eventual 3rd-place finishers Germany; in both the home and away matches Finland had led Germany only to concede late equalizers.
Mixu Paatelainen era (2011–2015)
During the Euro 2012 qualifying, head coach Baxter was sacked, and on 31 March 2011 he was replaced by former national team player Mixu Paatelainen. Paatelainen started his tenure with a win against San Marino, only to be followed by a 5–0 loss against Sweden. Finland eventually finished fourth in its group with only three wins, two of them against San Marino.
Paatelainen's deal with the Finnish FA extended until 2016, covering the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifiers, and also the next 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification and the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers. As Finland was already eliminated from UEFA Euro 2012, his main task was to renew the national team with a generation switch, and try to qualify for one or more of the tournaments during his projected tenure as Finland's head coach. This included ultimately leaving out Jari Litmanen, team's long-served captain and "The King of Finnish Football".[12]
In the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign, Finland's best result was a 1–1 draw at reigning world champions Spain. They finished third in the five-team Group I, behind Spain and France. On 14 June 2015, Paatelainen was sacked following his fourth defeat in a row during the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign. Finland eventually finished fourth in Euro 2016 qualifying under guidance of a caretaker manager Markku Kanerva. They achieved a somewhat noteworthy result; Joel Pohjanpalo's goal gave the Finns a 1–0 win at former European champions Greece, who had reached the second round of the 2014 World Cup and were the top seeds of their qualifying group.
Paatelainen had stucked with his preferred formation of 4–3–2–1, which he had named joulukuusi – a Christmas tree – due to its shape. With the bad results while insistently using the same formation, and his defensive statements to media, he gained a negative reputation among the supporters and the media, and his time as the national team head coach is still remembered mainly for joulukuusi.[13]
Hans Backe (2016)
On 12 August 2015, Swedish Hans Backe was named the new manager, starting on 1 January 2016.[14] His first official match with the team was held on 10 January 2016, and ended in a 3–0 defeat by Sweden.[15] On 12 December 2016, Backe was fired during the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign, and a former assistant and caretaker Markku Kanerva was named the new head coach.[16] Finland did not win a single game during Backe's time as head coach. His record during 2016 was nine defeats and two draws.
Markku Kanerva era (2016–2024)
Finland's peak of 33rd in the FIFA ranking in 2007, had demoted to 110th as of 2017. As UEFA created a new competition, UEFA Nations League, to largely replace international friendlies, Finland were placed in the League C in the first 2018–19 edition due to a low ranking place. Kanerva had renewed the roster, as veterans including Perparim Hetemaj, Niklas Moisander and Alexander Ring, had announced their retirement from international duty. Roman Eremenko was also not available for national team anymore due to a competition ban. With a help of goalscoring by Teemu Pukki and saves by captain goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky, Finland won their League C Group 2, on top of Hungary, Greece and Estonia, and won a promotion to League B for the next edition of UEFA Nations League.
Kanerva continued to get outstanding results with the team in the UEFA Euro 2020 qualification, and on 15 November 2019, Finland qualified to the country's first ever major tournament, UEFA Euro 2020, after defeating Liechtenstein 3–0, and finishing as the Group J runner-up behind Italy.[17][3] The successful qualifying campaign was aided by a distinctive performance of Teemu Pukki, who scored ten goals in ten qualifying matches.[18] However, the final tournament was postponed to the summer 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Later in the Autumn 2020, the second edition of UEFA Nations League started, and Finland was drawn in the Group 4 with Wales, Ireland and Bulgaria. They defeated both Ireland and Bulgaria home and away, but lost both games against Wales and finished 2nd in the group and missed the promotion to next season's League A.
On 12 June 2021 in the UEFA Euro 2020 tournament, Finland had their first victory on their debut in a major tournament finals against Denmark. Joel Pohjanpalo scored the only goal, a header in a 1–0 win to grant his country their first goal and the first win in a major competition.[19] The game was interrupted by a tragic heart attack suffered by Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen, which he luckily survived.[20] Unfortunately, having lost the next two games against both Russia and Belgium, Finland finished third in the group and was knocked out at the group stage alongside fellow debutants North Macedonia.
Finland failed to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, even though Pukki continued with his scoring streak with 6 goals in the qualifiers. They were drawn in the Group D, with France, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kazakhstan, finished 3rd and missed the second round qualification play-offs. The long-served defenders Jukka Raitala, Paulus Arajuuri and Joona Toivio announced their retirement from international football after the qualifiers.
Having secured their spot in the Nations League B, Finland was drawn in the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League B Group 3 with Bosnia, Romania and Montenegro. They had a mediocre record of two wins, two draws and two losses, and defended their place in the League B again as the group's runners-up, falling behind the group winner Bosnia and Herzegovina.
After the successful qualifying to previous European tournament, the team and the country had high hopes when starting the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying campaign. Finland started expectedly with an away loss to Denmark, but won the next three games in a row against Northern Ireland away in March, and Slovenia and San Marino at home in June, with zero conceded goals in these three games. They continued with an away win against Kazakhstan in September, but lost the next three games against Denmark at home, Slovenia away and Kazakhstan at home. The loss to Kazakhstan occurred with two conceded goals late in the game after Finland was already leading 1–0 before. The defeat also took away the possibility for direct qualifying. Finland ended the qualifying campaign with two wins in the last two matches, including 4–0 victory over Northern Ireland at home in November, and finished third in the group. As having placed among the best runner-ups in the previous Nations League, and with a help of overlapping results in other games, Finland had secured their place in the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying play-offs. In March 2024, in the first decisive play-off match against Wales away, Finland were destroyed 4–1 and were definitely left out of the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament.[21]
After a run of mediocre results and the lack of reaching out the best potential out of the team, the speculations had started about the extension of Kanerva's contract as his previous deal was going to expire soon. However, during Kanerva's seven-year spell, Finland had ascended in FIFA rankings and as of Summer 2024, were sitting at the 63rd place. During the recent years, the national team roster had undergone a relatively large renovation by Kanerva. He had successfully called-up new younger generation players to the roster, including Kaan Kairinen, Benjamin Källman, Oliver Antman, Daniel Håkans and Matti Peltola.
On 17 June 2024, after some ambiguous comments by the Finnish FA president Ari Lahti,[22] it was announced by the FA that Markku Kanerva will continue as the manager of the team until the end of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification and for the possible final tournament.[23] The assistant coaches Mika Nurmela and Toni Korkeakunnas would be replaced by Jani Honkavaara, and by former long-time national team players Teemu Tainio and Tim Sparv. Kanerva, with his new staff, was first set to start preparing the team for the upcoming 2024–25 UEFA Nations League B, where Finland would face England, Ireland and Greece in the Group 2, starting in September. Finland lost both games against Greece and England away with apathetic performances, which signaled outside that Kanerva had a very little more to give for this team anymore.[24][25] According to Helsingin Sanomat, Kanerva is only a puppet leader of the national team until the 2024 Veikkausliiga season is finished and then a current assistant coach Jani Honkavaara, also a current manager of Veikkausliiga club KuPS, can be named a sole head coach of the national team who then later allegedly declined the job offer. There is also a conflict of interest of Finnish FA president Ari Lahti, who happens to be also the owner of KuPS.[26][27] Finland finished the Nations League campaign at the bottom of the group after six losses with a 2–13 goal difference, and were relegated straight to the League C. On 22 November, the board of the Finnish FA released head coach Kanerva from his contract.[28]
Most of Finland's home matches are played at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium in the capital, Helsinki. It has been Finland's principal home stadium ever since its construction was completed in 1938. Before that, Pallokenttä in Helsinki was mainly used.
During 2000s and 2010s, some qualifying matches against lower profile opponents and some friendlies were hosted at the Tampere Stadium in Tampere, and Veritas Stadion in Turku. Helsinki's Bolt Arena, which has artificial turf, is also used for some friendlies and qualifiers. During the reconstruction of Helsinki Olympic Stadium between 2016 and 2020, Tampere Stadium served as the main stadium for qualifying games.
The team returned permanently to Helsinki Olympic Stadium in 2020, after the delayed reconstruction and renovation was finished, but had to play some of the first games without an audience due to pandemic.
In the five home matches during the UEFA Euro 2024 qualification campaign, Huuhkajat had the record audience average of 31,406 (157,029 in total), which corresponds to around 97 per cent of the stadium's full capacity.[29]
The following players were called up for UEFA Nations League matches against Republic of Ireland and Greece on 14 and 17 November 2024, respectively.[31][32]
Caps and goals as of 17 November 2024, after the match against Greece.
Mika-Matti PetteriPaatelainen is a Finnish former professional football player and manager who was most recently head coach of Veikkausliiga club HIFK. He scored 18 goals in 70 appearances for the Finnish national team, which makes him Finland's all time thirteenth most capped player and fifth top goalscorer. He is the eldest of three brothers, all of whom have played professional football. Their father Matti was also a Finnish international.
Tim Sparv is a Finnish former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. He is currently working as an assistant coach of the Sparta Prague in Czech First League, and an assistant coach of the Finland national football team. Sparv was born in Oravais, and started his football career in Norrvalla FF youth team before moving to Southampton's junior organisation. He began his senior club career playing for Halmstad, before signing with Groningen in 2010.
Paulus Verneri Arajuuri is a Finnish former professional footballer who played as a centre-back.
Teemu Eino Antero Pukki is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Major League Soccer franchise Minnesota United and the Finland national team.
Lukas Hradecky is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for and captains both Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen and the Finland national team.
Juhani Ojala is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Veikkausliiga club Gnistan. Ojala was born in Vantaa, Finland where he played for the local youth team before moving to HJK's organisation.
Markku Tapio Kanerva is a Finnish football manager, former player and elementary school teacher. Most recently he served as the manager of the Finland national team.
Kari Arkivuo is a Finnish football coach and a former professional football defender who could play as left back and right back. He is currently working as an assistant coach of FC Lahti. Arkivuo was born in Lahti, Finland where he played for the local teams before moving to Sandefjord at age 22 in 2006.
Jere Uronen is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a full-back for Major League Soccer (MLS) club Charlotte FC and the Finland national team. He began his senior club career playing for TPS, before signing with Helsingborgs IF at age 17 in 2012.
Joel Julius Ilmari Pohjanpalo is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a forward for Serie A club Venezia and the Finland national team.
Nikolai Aleksanteri Alho is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Super League Greece club Asteras Tripolis and the Finland national team. Beyond football, Alho is known for his philanthropic efforts, supporting various causes related to children and young people in Finland.
Sauli Väisänen is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back. He began his senior club career playing for Honka, before signing with AIK at age 20 in 2014.
Kasper Kaan Özden Kairinen is a Finnish professional footballer, who plays as a central midfielder for Czech First League club Sparta Prague and the Finland national team.
Hans Fredrik Jensen is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Bundesliga club FC Augsburg and the Finland national team.
Pyry Soiri is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a defender for Super League Greece club Athens Kallithea and the Finland national team.
Leo Onni Artturi Väisänen is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Austin FC in Major League Soccer and the Finland national team. Väisänen was born in Helsinki, Finland. He began his senior club career playing for HJK and RoPS, before signing with Den Bosch at age 21 in 2018.
Robert Ivanov is a Finnish professional of Russian origin footballer who plays as a centre-back for 2. Bundesliga club Eintracht Braunschweig and the Finland national team.
Miro Tenho is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Allsvenskan team Djurgården and the Finland national team.
Casper Mikael Terho is a Finnish professional football player who plays for Belgian Pro League club Royale Union Saint-Gilloise and the Finland national team.
Matti Peltola is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as midfielder and defender for Major League Soccer franchise D.C. United and the Finland national team.
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(19 December 2024) [2] 
Finland 2–5 Sweden 
Finland 10–2 Estonia 
Germany 13–0 Finland 
