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. 

Thoughts on AI

AI has been in headlines. AI company Anthropic is growing faster than any company before. Data centers are built in Finland and people are worried that it will raise the electricity prices for consumers.

I'm impressed how good pictures and video AI can create. Other strength of AI is coding so soon anyone can be a developer. People are interacting with AI instead of people. I wonder can some people prefer more AI interaction than human interaction. You can solve problems with AI but will it take away the gratification of problem solving.

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. 

Reading deadline

I started writing down the titles of the books I read about 10 years ago. Since then I have read 121 books. The most of the books I have borrowed from library and I have noticed that the loan time gives me a good deadline to finish the books. For example best seller books have a loan time of two weeks which pushes me to read more and finish the book faster in two weeks as regular loan time is one month. I bought the first book of an author whose blog I have been reading many years. It took me over two years to finish the book and in the meantime I read over 20 books from library. The same author published his second book when I had not yet finished the first book. I managed to borrow the second book from library and finished reading the second book before the first book. Good real life examples how deadlines make me read more.

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. 

Housing market crisis in Finland

Housing prices have been going down and not many new houses are built. I wrote a blog post 2,5 years ago if it would make sense for me to buy a home instead of renting. The conclusion was that it didn't make sense financially and now after housing prices have gone down, the decision to not buy has been a good one. Today I checked that the same size apartment in the same address is available for 250k so the price has lowered 50k. Now monthly down payments for a 250k mortgage of 30 years with 2,8 interest rate would be 1 032 EUR. Adding the monthly maintaining costs it would mean paying every month 1 268 EUR. That is slightly above my rent so buying would make more sense now. People are wondering will the prices of homes keep on going lower, better. Or if you believe the prices will start going up, it's a good time to buy now.

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. 

You can live in an old prison in Finland

The main building

Yard

Last weekend I visited an old prison of Kakola in Turku. The old prison has been transformed to apartments and hotel rooms. You can find in the area a spa, escape room adventure, restaurant and other services. The funicular which is famous for not working takes you to the top of the hill where the old prison is located. Also in Helsinki you can find a prison that has been transformed to a hotel if you're interested in staying in a prison.

You cannot find such unique look and thick walls in modern buildings. 

Reading list 2025

Here 20 books listed which I have read since the last list. I have highlighted 5 books which stood out the most

Browning, Christopher - Aivan tavallisia rivimiehiä

Coyle, Daniel - The culture code: The secrets of highly successful groups

Gladwell, Malcolm - Daavid ja Goljat

Gladwell, Malcolm - Pommittajat: matka toisen maailman sodan pisimpään yöhön

Gladwell, Malcolm - Revenge of the tipping point

Gladwell, Malcolm - Sinisilmäiset: miksi luotamme toisiin silloinkin kuin ei pitäisi

Haidt, Jonathan - Ahdistunut sukupolvi: Kuinka älypuhelimiin perustuva lapsuus on aiheuttanut mielenterveyden häiriöiden epidemian

Harari, Yuval Noah - Nexus - tietoverkkojen lyhyt historia

Juntunen, Esa - Vaurastu viisaasti: rahataidot haltuun

Kantola, Anu – Huipputuloiset

Kuusela, Hanna – Syytös

Martela, Frank - Älä etsi onnea

Orava, Sakari - Elämäni urheilukirurgina

Oksanen, Sofi – Puhdistus

Peterson, Jordan - 12 uutta elämänohjetta

Saahko, Lotta-Sofía - Kahvia ja karjalanpiirakoita

Saahko, Lotta-Sofia - Papan kanssa kahvilla

Shua Dusapin, Elisa - Pachinko-kuulat

Tahkokallio, Keijo - Kuka kasvattaisi lapsesi? 

Torkki, Juhana - Järkevää onni: stoalainen tie mielen rauhaan

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.

Summer album

 Here 5 snapshots from my summer

Oittaa beach

Art in Kuopio

Artistic basketball field in Helsinki

Wooden Rollercoaster of Linnanmäki

Art in the center of Iisalmi

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.

Mentality in Spain and Finland

I listened a podcast clip of Jordi Wild where he interviews journalist David Jiménez. They discuss how Spanish people are very envious and do not admire or appreciate successful people. They say that in the Spanish culture it is better to stay mediocre than succeed. For me this sounded the same how Finnish mentality is often portrayed in Finland.

Then Jiménez continued how being entrepreneur has been made very difficult in Spain. Bureaucracy makes starting a company difficult and starting a company can take months. In general Spanish people don't appreciate entrepreneurship according to Jiménez. My understanding is that starting a company in Finland is fast and can be done in one week. Especially Slush has brought a lot of positive things for Finnish start up companies.

As an example for how bad public sector works in Spain, Jiménez gives an example how he had to wait inline when booking a train ticket of Renfe on their mobile app. The waiting time of 27 minutes with an mobile app is something unheard of. In March Yle published an article about the attractiveness of public sector as an employer. Many young people are aiming for public sector jobs in Spain because it is more stable, better paid and has better work life balance than private sector.

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.

2000 day streak achieved in Duolingo

My screenshot

My earlier over 1000 day streak got destroyed by accident but I decided to start a new one and reached today 2000 day streak. I had already finished all the Spanish lessons at one point but developers of Duolingo added a lot more Spanish lessons which I have been going through. Duolingo has gamified language learning very well as I try to keep my position in the diamond league and take advantage of double or triple points by completing lessons. As I have spoken a lot Spanish in real life for me listening and story lessons are the easiest. The lessons where I have to write full sentences can cause me frustration as I might make spelling mistakes or use different expressions. Though those are good lessons to correct my mistakes and improve my grammar. I'm planning to keep on going with Duolingo and hopefully I will write my next update when I have completed the Spanish lessons.

Top Post 2023 - 2024

The Christmas was not white in the capital area of Finland in 2024

Below listed the top posts from the last two years.

1. Awesome book by Author Lotta-Sofia Saahko and I ended up reading her other great books too

2. Buying a house is not necessarily the best investment of your life

3. Insight to real estate investing in Spain

4. Finland is one of the top tax collectors of the world

5. My self improvement tips for sleeping

Top posts from previous years 2021 - 2022, 2019 - 2020, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010