Thoughts on VAR

FIFA world cup 2026 champion is Spain. The tournament is over and refereeing decisions were in the headlines even though video assisted refereeing (VAR) was supposed to clarify decision making of referees, remove controversial decisions and help referees to make fair decisions. VAR was introduced to Fifa World Cup in Russia on 2018 and is working much better now but it has not removed controversial refereeing decisions. 

I follow international football with VAR and Finnish league football without VAR. As a spectator I don't feel that Finnish football is unfair or unwatchable without VAR. The rules of football simply let room for referees to make their own interpretation with or without VAR. The rules of football just can lead to a "wrong" team to win and make supporters of one team angry. As one goal has such a big impact in football often winning team might not be a better team based on events in the match. Spain was clearly better than Argentina in World cup final 2026 and VAR was not needed to determine the winner.

I believe that the rules of football which leaves space for interpretation is actually good for football and has helped it to grow so big sport. The controversial decisions makes the game more emotional. The players and the fans get emotional. The press gets headlines to write about. There is a reason to watch again controversial events. Many other sports are more fair like tennis and athletics where the winner is very rarely questioned because of refereeing. 

Sorry for winning

Konsta Helenius scored winning goal on overtime against Switzerland and secured the ice hockey world championship to Finland. The commentator Jani Alkio erupts celebrating the goal but soon after the celebrations he says "Anteeksi Sveitsi" and expert commentator Jesse Joensuu first word after the goal is "Anteeksi". Both Finnish commentators apologize by saying "I'm sorry" in Finnish. The goal was fair, there was no controversial decision by the referee. The whole match was fair without big controversies but still commentators felt like they had to say sorry. Is it that nowadays people apologize victories in sports because the losing players get dissapointed. It made it sound like that Finnish commentators wished that Switzerland wins after two defeated finals. I'm sure that if the players of Finland would feel that much sympathy towards the opponent they would have no chance to win a match. 

Huge gym in Espoo

 

Loft gym

Yesterday I went to a huge gym with 3000 square meters space in Espoo. The entrance was easy to find but the first impression was dissapointing because you have to walk up a dull staircase few floors up before you reach the main lobby with nice atmosphere. For such a big gym it was surprising to see just few showers and no sauna in the dressing room. The gym is an old office floor so the ceiling is not high. There is a big variety of machines and I could try out machines which I hadn't tried before. Also big functional training area but no group training room. There was mirrors only in the dumbell section. I would need more training sessions in the gym to give proper review but based on the first impression I wouldn't give 5 stars. 

KuPS making history

KuPS is the best Finnish football team at the moment. They have won two Finnish Championships in row and made history by being the first Finnish team qualifying from the Conference group stage which meant winter outdoor match in - 14 degrees in February.  The club had a great season also financially by earning over 5 million prize money from UEFA and 3 million from transfer fees. As a KuPS supporter I have been delighted for the wins and looking forward for a bright future as stadium project is also moving forward in Kuopio. KuPS has still plenty of work to grow their fan base and attract more spectators. This season also Bodo/Glimt has proved that a club from small town from north can compete against big clubs by qualifying to top 16 in Champions league. 

Coaching volleyball

I have been coaching beginner level juniors aged 13 - 16 in volleyball two times a week for an year. It has been a pleasure to see players developing and some of the them have been already drafted to competing teams. I feel a bit sad when good players advance to competing team cause then they're not anymore part of my coaching squad. 

I have seen articles how all levels of players should be given a chance to train. Often I have noticed that players with low level don't seem to have motivation to practice or making their best effort in the practice. The level of the players' motivation also impacts my motivation to coach so I understand the difficulty of finding good coaches for players with low level of skills. If player doesn't seem to listen, follow your instructions, attends training session seldom etc. You start to wonder why couldn't they give the spot for someone else who is more enthuastic. For example in my volleyball club we're lacking coaches so we cannot offer a spot for all the interested players.

Looking forward for the next semester of training and I'm thinking about coaching a competing team. 

Interactive wall for games with ball

Multiball in Superpark Turku

Finally I had a chance to play Multiball what I had been looking forward to play almost an year. The set up in Turku was only for tennis with slanted floor. The space was also quite small so based on what I had seen the game could offer much more with more space and with additional sports equipment.

I enjoyed playing but some available games were very difficult as the game ended in under 30 seconds. Also the calibration was slightly off because the projector had moved and moved even more during the time I stayed in the location. My observation was that kids prefered more trampolines of the location than Multiball. The interactive wall was fun but it cannot beat playing tennis against opponent with similar skill level. 

Football phenomenon Gilla

Gilla playing in Laaksolahti

FC Gilla is formed by popular Finnish social media influencers (Roni Back, Roope Rannisto, Jalmafi etc.). The team includes also popular music artists (JVG, Ege Zulu, Hugo etc.) and former top division football players (Ilari Mettälä, Duarte Tammilehto, Teemu Penninkangas etc.) from Finland. FC Gilla is the most followed Finnish football team in social media, beating also the top division (Veikkausliiga) teams of Finland. Gilla has 69k followers in Instagram and 42k followers in YouTube vs. HJK the biggest club in Finland 47k followers in Instagram and 15k followers in YouTube. The team has won promotion every season and the fourth promotion in row to the 5th level (kolmonen) will be likely achieved. 

The team has gained popularity fast and I decided also to go see their match live. The 6th highest level (Nelonen) football match in Laaksolahti Espoo attracted about 1 000 spectators. Gilla ultras a group of about ten young boys with chants and drums were also present. Matches of Gilla are still free entry so traditional football teams in Finland are still doing better with attracting paying spectators to the stands. 

Gilla has to find new players if they want to climb towards top divisions. The retired top division players and other players with large following have their limitations. The question is are the current players ready to start training football seriously and if they drop out will the club supporters still support Gilla if their favorite players are not playing in the team anymore. One option is to make a reserve team where influencers with large following could play in a suitable level for them but would that decrease the following of the more competitive main team too much. The owners must be thinking what to do.

Arcade games in Helsinki

Dancing game

Driving simulator

I went to the shopping center Itis to try out the games in new arcade games center. The center piece was the rally simulator with suspensions. The driving experience was cool and suspensions definitely gave a more immersive experience. There was also a dancing game like Stepmania but an upgraded version with great light effects and the playing required moving your whole body. The third game worth mentioning was a shooting game where guns had recoil. There were also other games which were fun. 

Football pinball

Football merged to pinball in SuperPark Turku

When I was young I liked playing Psycho pinball with PC so it was a joy to discover an interactive game where football is merged to pinball. In football pinball you collect points by kicking the ball to the targets during one minute. You use actually your own feet to kick the ball and not your fingers to push the buttons like in arcade pinball. The game was fun and skills acquired from playing football were useful. It was fun to compete against my brother and see who is able to collect more points. Though I noticed that the targets were too sensitive and you often got points even though you didn't hit the target. The idea is very good and with some further development it would be even more fun. I have some ideas how the football pinball could be improved.

I have also tried a football version of billiard which was also fun but not as fun as football pinball. In the future I hope to be able to try a Finnish invention: activity mat called Dribla, which you play by dribbling a football.

Pickleball in Finland

Playing in Kera

I like playing sports involving a ball. Some time ago I discovered pickleball and two courts available in Kera sports complex in Espoo. I'm very familiar with the ball used in pickleball as it is similar to the ball with holes as in floorball. Also having some background playing with rackets it was easy to have good one to one match with my brother. I preferred pickleball over padel which I tried for the first time in Spain. I would like to try playing pickleball also 2 vs 2.

The sports complex of Kera is going to be demolished this summer so lets see if there will be courts dedicated to pickleball after that. The calendar of the pickleball courts were quite empty so pickleball has not yet become popular in Finland.  My understanding is that pickleball has been growing fast in USA.

Interactive sports games

Sutu in Tahto sports museum

I have visited activity parks called SuperCorner Tahko, Duudsonit Activity park Espoo, Tahto sports museum and Hoplop Tripla. I have had chance to try out different kind of interactive sports games. I have tried iWall, SlamIt, cycloBEAT, runBEAT, tapWall, ValoClimb, ValoJump, KickIt, Lappset Sutu interactive ball wall, Superball and SuperTouch. Then there are plenty of more interactive sports games what I would like to try. My favorite have been kicking the ball to an interactive wall. Also Supertouch is a fun competition of pushing the light buttons as fast as you can. The ones that I have liked the least are runBEAT and SlamIt. Interactive ice hockey doesn't work equally well as football because the puck doesn't bounce back from the wall like football does. runBEAT is after all just running but still more fun than just running on a basic treadmill.

Does eating in a lunch buffet help muscle gain?

Last year on March I went to InBody body composition analysis. 9 months later on December, I went to the same analysis to see the results. I kept my training regime the same as before the 1st analysis but I started to eat more by eating in the lunch buffet 3 times a week. Eating enough to gain mass has been a challange for me. The result was that I gained weight 2,5 KG. My muscle mass increased 0,6 KG and fat mass increased 1,7 KG. Which means that the rest of the difference was water. During the 9 month period I would have liked to have longer training sessions. I felt that it would be nice to train more. Basically I ate too much or I should have trained more in order to avoid gaining fat mass. My conclusion is that gaining muscle mass is tough.

Winter cycling

Winter road home

The landscape has been covered with snow the whole December in my sourroundings but I have been still cycling to work regularly. Though I have had to walk to work few times because the snow had not been cleaned from the roads due a heavy snowing during the night. Some people change for the winter tires with spikes but I cycle through the winter with the same hybrid bike and summer tires. As I go throug the streets of Kauniainen and Espoo regularly I have noticed how the streets of Kauniainen are maintained in better condition during the winter months. That might change in the future because Kauniainen is looking for savings as the health care system change led Kauniainen in financial trouble.

Holiday in Kuopio

View from Tahko

It had been about 4 years since I last time visited my home city Kuopio. I had forgotten how mosquitos are bothering you there more than here in the capital area. Even though my current neighborhood is surrounded with plenty of trees and nature I don't remember being bothered by mosquitos.

Recently I discovered a football game called sub soccer which I liked a lot. You play it seated with your feet against one opponent facing you about 2 meters away. Another football variation which I like is played in about 6 diameter round panna arena. Would be fun to make and play also floorball variation of these games.

My weekly sports schedule

Here little update regarding how my time dedicated to sports has looked during the autumn. Everyday I go to work by bike and before starting the work day I have a short gym session. Below my weekly schedule.

Monday: 20 - 30 min in gym and 20 min mobility

Tuesday: 20 - 30 min in gym

Wednesday: 20 - 30 min in gym

Thursday: 20 - 30 min in gym and 1 h 30 min trampoline training

Friday: 20 - 30 min in gym and 20 min mobility

Saturday: 30 min mobility

Sunday: 1 h floorball

Here how my weekly sports looked three years ago.

Trampoline

On August I started a new hobby: trampoline, which is an Olympic sport. My dream has been to learn a front flip and back flip. The last time I tried to learn front and back flip was in Georgia 2015 but my training was interrupted by the floods that destroyed the gym where I was training. Now 7 years later on last Thursday I landed my first front flip on a mattress on the 9th training session. Doing the front flip on the butt felt comfortable but I had some fear to land on my feet. After having the instructor to hold me to land on my feet, I got over the fear and managed to land on my feet on my own. Once I got the first landing soon I managed to land the front flip on my feet three times in row. Next it is time to start working on the back flip.

Ekstraklasa First League of Poland

Stadion Miejski

Today I went to see Polish First League match in Poznan. The home team Lech Poznan lost 0 - 2 against visitor Stal Mielec. The stadium has capacity of 43 000 people, the first round league match brought 12 000 spectators to the stadium. Almost everyone was wearing the Lech Poznan scarf and shirt. The whole crowd welcomed the teams by standing and supporting. Home team had a loud group of supporters chanting through the match eventhough home team didn't perform well. I believe they had about 1 000 fans singing the full match. The atmosphere was good eventhough most of the seats were empty.

Here listed my previous matches seen abroad

Second season of my podcast

Season 2022 of Finnish football league Veikkausliiga started in April. I am continuing my podcast where I focus interviewing Spanish speaking football players and coaches. In the most recent episode l interviewed Álvaro Molinos the fitness coach of HJK. we spoke about physical training in football teams, myths about training and about giving physical exercise as a punishment for the players. The interview is in Spanish and includes Finnish subtitles. I have now published 17 interviews in Spanish and 1 in Finnish.

Do you prefer cycling in Finland during the winter or in Spain during the summer?

This week I had an interview with physical trainer of HJK Álvaro Morenos. He is also a cycling enthusiast and I asked him whether he prefers cycling in Finland during the winter or in Spain during the summer. He answered that infrastructure in Finland is much better than in Spain so therefore he prefers Finland for daily commuting, but mountains makes Spain more suitable for training. Another advantage of Finland is that you can park your bike around the city you don't have to be extremely worried that your bike will be stolen. In Spain your bike will be stolen much more likely than in Finland when parked on the street. Once I have made the subtitles, I will publish the full interview on my YouTube channel.

In the below video Álvaro Molinos made a comparison of electric scooter, electric bicycle and walking as a method of transportation for distance of 1,5 km in Helsinki. The video is in Spanish

Salary of Professional Floorball Players

Credit: Salibandyliitto

Floorball is the 3rd most practiced hobby in Finland with 61 000 registered players in 2020. If you add also recreational players the number is 350 000. Despite the high number of the players there are not many professional floorball players in Finland. On December 2021 world cup of Floorball is played in Helsinki and about half of the Finnish national team are professionals according to Helsingin Sanomat. Semi professionals are combining their floorball career with studies or part-time work. For example National team player Eemeli Salin confirmed in an interview of Yle in 2015 that he was earning about 2 000 EUR per month during the season.

One of the biggest Finnish Youtubers Roni Bäck (559 000 subscribers November 2021) plays floorball in the third division. The turnover of his one person company was 337 000 EUR and profit 202 000 EUR. So he is making much better income than the professional floorball players. Another famous floorball player in 3rd divison is radio host Tuukka Ritokoski whose income in 2019 was 44 000 EUR written in IS.fi. He went for a try-out (video) session to 1st division team. After the training session he commented that he did fine technique wise but was exhausted and could see a great difference especially in the physical condition (audio). I believe that there are also many other players in the third division who have well paying jobs and are making more income than the first division floorball players in Finland.

The budget of players in the Finnish first division floorball teams was between 270 000 EUR and 10 000 EUR in 2018 - 2019 according to pelimies.com. In the season 2019 - 2020 average attendance was 605 spectators. So the floorball league is not considered big in financial standards nor by exposure to the large crowds. Peter Vesterbacka who is known from Angry Birds is explaining in the article of Iltalehti how he is planning to help making Finnish floorball league the most valuable floorball league by the year 2028. Part of the plan is to make the league attractive for bigger audience and expand internationally.