Wondering about the Finnish capital it can be slightly confusing especially so if you have a lack of knowledge about the history of the Finns.
You see public street and traffic signs in both the Swedish and Finnish languages.
Its a little bit like being in Norway but seeing road signs in Norwegian and Danish.
In Finland the Swedes are a recognized minority but Swedish services (schools and legal advice) are not as readily available as they once were 40 years ago.
The reasons for this are easy enough to explain.
In 2021 official governmental population data revealed that Finland now contains more speakers of other foreign languages than it does Swedish speakers. A surge in immigration has boosted Finland’s population, bringing the number of speakers of foreign languages to 293,540 – or 5.4 percent of the population.
This is compared to 290,760 Swedish speakers, who make up only 5.3 percent of the population.
In truth the size of the Swedish speaking population in Helsinki has been going down very slowly for decades. This is in complete contrast to the late 1900’s when Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Helsingfors or HIFK were formed.
The Finnish language back then was still struggling to establish itself as an official language in government. The Swedish language continued to be the language of culture, arts and business all the way through to the 1920’s.
The Star Chested or the Tähtirinnat were founded by schoolboys from Helsinki.
Formed on 15 October 1897 by a Georges Dubitsky he had been a 15-year-old student at the Svenska school in Helsinki. Originally this was was the club for the Swedish speaking middle-class population in Helsinki.
The first football match of the club occurred in central Kaisaniemi Park on 17 May 1908.
The football section of the club was established at the same time as the Football Association of Finland.
When Finland competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics the club had as many as five players in the national team XI. This group managed an all mighty shock when defeating the Russians only to be destroyed by the Dutch and the GB side.
In the early years of competition HIFK were runners-up in the Finnish Championship or Mestaruussarja on numerous occasions – 1909, 1912, 1928 and 1929 to name just four.
HIFK then won their first Finnish championship in 1930 a feat that they were to repeat on three other occasions in 1931, 1933 and 1937.
HIFK also won the Mestaruussarja in 1947, 1959 and 1961.
The victory in 1961 was their seventh and last title.
The previous autumn, HIFK had also been the first club to bring UEFA games to Finland when they faced Swedish IFK Malmö (not Malmo FF) in the European Cup.
The decline of the star breasts took root in the 1970’s and it was unprecedentedly steep in its decline.
HIFK played the 1980 – 1983 seasons as lowly as the Finnish 4th division.
The climb back to the top happened slowly, but the price financially was high.
In the spring of 2003, they went bankrupt and they had to give up their place in the league.
A revival then started and soon a new charge at the Veikkausliiga established during the 1990 and 1991 was in sight.
HIFK returned to the national top flight after more than 40 years of waiting in 2015. After such a long absence, it proved uneasy to re-establish themselves at the national top level.
Relegation and another promotion soon followed.
These years saw the return of the Helsinki derby to Finnish football – the so called ‘Stadin derby’ with the games between HJK and HIFK hosting large sell-out crowds.
Such a rivalry went back to 1909 when the two teams faced each other for the first time.
The two teams clashed for the first time at the top level since 1972 on 23 April 2015. The derby was played at a sold-out Sonera Stadium rather than the larger Olympic Stadium.
Stadin Kingit (the kings of Stadi”) became the noted vocal fan group for HIFK, standing behind the north goal at the stadium in an unseated section.
Stadin Kingit derives from the common slang nickname that is used for Helsinki – ‘Stadi‘.
A banner ‘Stadens stolthet’ would be displayed in front of the group at league fixtures.
The city’s pride once again.
That sense of pride however took a drastic hit in January 2024 when the men’s football wing of this historic club was declared bankrupt.
The Board of Directors of HIFK Fotboll had concluded in agreement with its largest shareholders that the company no longer has the prerequisites to continue its operations. After a share issue failed and negotiations with foreign investors broke down the company filed a bankruptcy petition in the District Court of Helsinki.
A sad announcement on the homepage was made to the fans.
For those who followed the club it had been known that the club’s financial situation had been difficult for years. They had been rescued from the brink of bankruptcy through new ownership arrangements in 2019, 2021 and 2022.
Being dissolved after 127 years was not easy for HIFK supporters especially with inner city rivals HJK enjoying one of its strongest periods for years both in domestic and UEFA competition.
But it would appear that all is not totally. A new HIFK are now playing in the new fifth-tier league of Finnish Football the Kolmonen in season 2024-2025.
Fixtures are being played at the Väinämöinen sports field in the north west of the Finnish capital.
The rest of the 2024-25 season for HIFK may well prove to be a struggle with the now minuscule football operations almost certainly impacted greatly by the bankruptcy. The club hope that a transfer ban may be lifted but they are relying on the goodwill of players after an appeal was made for new players.
Off the field the club have commenced a ‘Moving Forward Together’ campaign and hope all parties (the city of Helsinki, players and fans) will participate in the campaign.
HIFK are still unofficially a bilingual club but the Swedish language doesn’t really play a key role in the club anymore as with most of Finnish society. Historically however the Swedish culture is still strong among supporters – it is common to see the Swedish ‘Helsingfors’ used rather than IFK Helsinki.
The ‘Swedish club’ do then hope the can move back up the ladder of Finnish football again. But the finishing line to that race is clearly still some way off.
