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Full name	Valkeakosken Haka
Nickname(s)	Haka
Founded	1934
Ground	Tehtaan kenttä, Valkeakoski
Ground Capacity	3,516 seats
Chairman	Marko Laaksonen
Manager	Keith Armstrong
League	Ykkönen
2018	Ykkönen, 4th
Home colours Away colours

Tehtaan kenttä

FC Haka is a Finnish football club based in the industry town of Valkeakoski, and currently competing in Finland's second division, Ykkönen. It is one of the most successful clubs in Finland, with nine Finnish championships and 12 Finnish Cup wins.

History

Haka has historically had close ties with the paper industry in the Valkeakoski area, and it is still sponsored by UPM Kymmene.

The club was founded as Valkeakosken Haka in 1934. In 1949 it was promoted to Finland's top division Mestaruussarja (now called Veikkausliiga), and in 1955 won the inaugural Finnish Cup.

The 1960s was the most successful era in the club's history, winning both the league and cup three times, including the first double in Finnish football history in 1960. The club was relegated in 1972, but came straight back, and won the double again in 1977.

The club's name was changed to FC Haka in the early 1990s. Haka won the title again 1995, but was relegated the next season. Keith Armstrong was hired as the new coach, and the club came straight back again, winning three straight championships from 1998 to 2000. Goalkeeping legend Olli Huttunen succeeded Armstrong as coach in 2002, and has already led the club to the championship (2004) and two cups (2002 and 2005).

Haka's best performance in UEFA competition was in the 1983–1984 season when they reached the quarterfinals of the Cup Winners' Cup, losing to eventual winners Juventus 0–2 on aggregate. The club has been involved in European competitions every year since 1998, the streak ending in 2008–2009 season.

In the recent years the club's financial situation has deteriorated on two different occasions (like many other small market teams in Veikkausliiga). The first one was the 2008–09 season when a group of investors led by local businessman and restaurateur Sedu Koskinen (owner and founder of a nationwide night-club chain) formed FC Haka Oy to help an essentially bankrupt team to finish the season. In 2010 Sedu Koskinen left, after having put around 1 million euros of his own money into the club.

Since then the club's operations have been reformed to make it financial sound or at least not running on deficit. The team, having been one of the most successful and high stature in Finland, had been on run of deficit for several years during the 2000s. At the same time the overall economic situation in the world and also the sponsorship payments from UPM Kymmene diminished. This forced the club to rationalize its operations and adopt a new role as one of the smaller clubs in Finnish top flight football. The current situation at the start of 2012 Finnish football season is described by the current chairman and board members as difficult but stable.

These times of financial struggles have seen the club move from a perennial championship challenger to a team usually poised for relegation. Both 2011 and 2012 the pre-season media predictions have placed the club in the bottom three. Haka finished last in the standings in 2012 and were relegated to the Finnish First Division.

Honours

• 
  Finnish championship (9): 1960, 1962, 1965, 1977, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004


• 
  Finnish Cup (12): 1955, 1959, 1960, 1963, 1969, 1977, 1982, 1985, 1988, 1997, 2002, 2005


• 
  Finnish League Cup (1): 1995

European campaigns

Season	Competition	Round	Country	Club	Score	Agg.
1961–62	European Cup	First round		Standard Liège	1–5, v 0–2	1–7
1963–64	European Cup	Preliminary round		Jeunesse d'Esch	4–1, v 0–4	4–5
1964–65	European Cup Winners' Cup	First round		Skeid Fotball	0–1, v 2–0	2–1
		Second round		AC Torino	0–1, v 0–5	0–6
1966–67	European Cup	First round		RSC Anderlecht	1–10, v 0–2	1–12
1970–71	European Cup Winners' Cup	First round		CSKA Sofia	0–9, v 1–2	1–11
1977–78	UEFA Cup	First round		Górnik Zabrze	3–5, v 0–0	3–5
1978–79	European Cup	First round		Dynamo Kiev	0–1, v 1–3	1–4
1981–82	UEFA Cup	First round		IFK Göteborg	2–3, v 0–4	2–7
1983–84	European Cup Winners' Cup	First round		Sligo Rovers	1–0, v 3–0	4–0
		Second round		Hammarby IF	1–1, v 2–1(aet)	3–2
		Quarter-finals		Juventus	0–1, v 0–1	0–2
1986–87	European Cup Winners' Cup	First round		FC Torpedo Moscow	2–2, v 1–3	3–5
1989–90	European Cup Winners' Cup	First round		Ferencvárosi TC	1–5, v 1–1	2–6
1996–97	UEFA Cup	First qualifying round		FC Flora Tallinn	2–2, v 1–0	3–2
		Second qualifying round		Legia Warszawa	0–3, v 1–1	1–4
1998–99	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	Qualifying round		Bangor City	2–0, v 1–0	3–0
		First round		Panionios FC	0–2, v 1–3	1–5
1999–2000	UEFA Champions League	First qualifying round		HB Tórshavn	1–1, v 6–0	7–1
		Second qualifying round		Rangers	1–4, v 0–3	1–7
2000–01	UEFA Champions League	First qualifying round		Linfield	1–2, v 1–0	2–2 (a)
		Second qualifying round		Inter Bratislava	0–0, v 0–1(aet)	0–1
2001–02	UEFA Champions League	First qualifying round		Valletta FC	0–0, v 5–0	5–0
		Second qualifying round		Maccabi Haifa	0–1, v 3–0[1]	3–1
		Third qualifying round		Liverpool	0–5, v 1–4	1–9
2001–02	UEFA Cup	First round		1. FC Union Berlin	1–1, v 0–3	1–4
2002	UEFA Intertoto Cup	First round		FK Obilić	2–1, v 1–1	3–2
		Second round		Fulham	0–0, v 1–1	1–1 (a)
2003–04	UEFA Cup	Qualifying round		Hajduk Split	2–1, v 0–1	2–2 (a)
2004–05	UEFA Cup	First qualifying round		Etzella Ettelbruck	2–1, v 3–1	5–2
		Second qualifying round		Stabæk IF	1–3, v 1–3	2–6
2005–06	UEFA Champions League	First qualifying round		Pyunik F.C.	1–0, v 2–2	3–2
		Second qualifying round		Vålerenga IF	0–1, v 1–4	1–5
2006–07	UEFA Cup	First qualifying round		Levadia Tallinn	0–2, v 1–0	1–2
2007–08	UEFA Cup	First qualifying round		Rhyl	1–3, v 2–0	3–3 (a)
		Second qualifying round		FC Midtjylland	1–2, v 2–5	3–7
2008–09	UEFA Cup	First qualifying round		Cork City	2–2, v 4–0	6–2
		Second qualifying round		Brøndby IF	0–4, v 0–2	0–6

Divisional movements

• Top Level (60 seasons): 1945, 1950–72, 1974–96, 1998–present day


• Second Level (11 seasons): 1938-43/44, 1945/46-49, 1973, 1997^[2]
  

Season to season

Current squad

As of 11 April 2018^[3]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Aati Marttinen (on loan from Inter Turku) 2 DF Jami Kyöstilä 3 MF Jaakko Rantanen 4 DF Ville-Valtteri Starck 5 DF Reetu Räsänen 6 DF David Abidor 7 FW Antto Hilska 8 FW Jean Fridolin Nganbe Nganbe 9 FW Gerald Ben 10 MF Tuomas Lähdesmäki 11 MF Erkka Helminen 14 MF Anton Popovitch

No. Position Player 15 FW Leevi Lundell 16 MF Joona Kari 17 FW John Fagerström 18 MF Joona Tapani 19 FW Jonni Thusberg 20 DF Henri Malundama 21 DF Valtteri Hiilloskorpi 22 MF Santeri Korpela 23 FW Salomo Ojala 24 FW Samuel Chidi 30 GK Joonas Immonen 35 GK Samu Lindgren

Staff

• 
  Head Coach: Keke Armstrong
  


• 
  Assistant Coach: Lauri Hakanen
  


• 
  GK coach: Michał Sławuta
  

Managers

• 
  Jukka Vakkila (1982–84, 1986–87, 1993–96)


• 
  Keith Armstrong (Jan 1998 – Dec 01)


• 
  Olli Huttunen (Jan 2002 – Sept 09)


• 
  Sami Ristilä (Sept 2009 – Aug 12)


• 
  Asko Jussila (Aug 2012 – Sept 12)


• 
  Harri Kampman (Nov 2012 – Jun 13)


• 
  Asko Jussila (Jun 2013 – Jul 13)


• 
  Juho Rantala (Jul 2013–)

References

External links

• Official website