Raimo Ilmari Helminen is a Finnish former professional ice hockey player. He is often called "Raipe" or "Maestro" by his fans. He is the world record holder for most international games played by a hockey player, as well as for tied for being the hockey player in the most Olympic Games, and his 26 seasons as a professional is one of the longest careers in professional hockey history. He is currently the head coach of TPS.
The SM-liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagues of the Champions Hockey League and currently allocated five spots - the maximum number - based on success in previous editions. It was created in 1975 to replace the SM-sarja, which was fundamentally an amateur league. The SM-liiga is not directly overseen by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association, but the league and association have an agreement of cooperation. SM is a common abbreviation for Suomen mestaruus, "Finnish championship".
Ilves is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Tampere. They play in the Liiga at the Tampere Deck Arena.
Oulun Kärpät is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Oulu and playing in the top-tier Finnish Liiga. Kärpät have won the Finnish championship title eight times, and has been the most successful Finnish ice hockey team in the 2000s and 2010s.
UEFA competitions, referred improperly by the mass media as European football, are the set of tournaments organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), generally in professional and amateur association football and futsal. The term was established in 1971 by the confederation to differentiate the men's football competitions under its administration, the first in history being held at a pan-European stage, from other international competitions carried out in the continent between 1960s and 1990s, such as the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, International Football Cup and Karl Rappan Cup, Cup of the Alps, Balkans Cup and the restructured Mitropa Cup. All these tournaments were organised by private bodies and/or at least two national associations and concerning one of more regional areas of Europe, not being recognised by UEFA for historic-statistical purposes.
The Lasse Oksanen trophy is an ice hockey trophy awarded by the Finnish Liiga to the best player of the season during regular season play.
The Aarne Honkavaara trophy is an ice hockey trophy given by the Finnish Liiga to the player who scores the most goals during regular season play.
Inter Fútbol Sala, known as Inter Movistar Fútbol Sala for sponsorship reasons, is a professional futsal club based in Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid. The club was founded in 1977 and its pavilion is the Pabellón Jorge Garbajosa with capacity of 3,136 seated spectators. The club's main sponsors is Movistar.
Sporting Clube de Portugal has a professional futsal team based in Lisbon, Portugal, since 4 March 1985, and plays in Portuguese Futsal First Division. They are the most decorated team in terms of domestic titles in the country, and are the current UEFA Futsal champions, with their second title in three years. With the 2019-20 season cancelled due to Covid-19 pandemic and since the 2009-10 season, Sporting have made the last 11 Portuguese National Futsal finals and winning 8, with the club winning 3 straight Portuguese championships 2016, 2017 & 2018, making it their second three peat in their history.
The Spain national futsal team represents Spain in international futsal competitions and is controlled by the Royal Spanish Football Federation. It is one of the strongest teams in the World, seven times champions in the UEFA Futsal Championship, and the two times consecutive champions of the FIFA Futsal World Cup.
Ats Purje is an Estonian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Tallinna Kalev.
MFK Dinamo is a Russian futsal club based in Moscow oblast. Futsal is a variant of association football that is played on a smaller pitch, mainly indoors. It won the UEFA Futsal Cup in 2007.
AFC Kairat is a professional futsal club based in Almaty, the biggest city of Kazakhstan. The club was founded in 1995. Since 2012 the club has been one of the strongest teams in Europe, having reached UEFA Futsal Cup semi-finals four times and winning it in 2012–13 and 2014–15 seasons.
Mato Stanković is a Croatian futsal coach and former player. He is current coach of the Croatia national futsal team.
Araz Naxçıvan is a futsal club based in Nakhchivan City, Azerbaijan. The club is very dominant in Azeri futsal, as they won ten consecutive Premier League titles from 2004 to 2014.
Cirilo Tadeus Cardoso Filho, commonly known as Cirilo is a Russian futsal player of Brazilian origin. He is a member of the Russian national futsal team.
Futsal Klub Tirana or short FK Tirana are the most successful Albanian futsal club. In their short existence they have already won 10 major domestic trophies; 9 championships of the Albanian Futsal Championship, once Cup winners and one trophy of the Nationwide Futsal Cup.
Tampereen Ilves Naiset are an ice hockey team in the Naisten Liiga, the premier women's ice hockey league in Finland. They are the representative women's team of the multi-sport club Ilves, based in Tampere, Pirkanmaa, and their home arena is the Tesoman jäähalli in Tampere's Tesoma district. They are the only team to have iced a team every season since the establishment of the Naisten SM-sarja in 1982. The team ranks second on the list of most Aurora Borealis Cup wins, with ten, and has claimed the most Finnish Championship medals in league history, with ten gold, twelve silver, and six bronze for 28 total medals.
Oulun Kärpät Naiset are an ice hockey team in the Naisten Liiga. They are the women's representative ice hockey team of the Finnish sports club Oulun Kärpät 46, based in Oulu, North Ostrobothnia, and their home venue is Oulun Energia Areena. Ilves has won the Aurora Borealis Cup three times, in 2012, 2017, and 2018.
PK-35 Vantaa is a football club based in Vantaa, Finland. The club is "dedicated to women's football" and its representative team plays in the Kansallinen Liiga, the top-tier women's league in Finland. PK-35 Vantaa has won the Finnish Championship six times and the Finnish Women's Cup four times. The club's home ground is the Myyrmäen jalkapallostadion in the Myyrmäki district of Vantaa.
