Football Association of Finland

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Football Association of Finland

UEFA
Founded	19 May 1907; 117 years ago (19 May 1907)
Headquarters	Bolt Arena
FIFA affiliation	1908
UEFA affiliation	1954
President	Ari Lahti
Website	https://www.palloliitto.fi/

The Football Association of Finland (Finnish: Suomen Palloliitto, abbr. SPL; Swedish: Finlands Bollförbund) is the governing body of football and futsal in Finland. It was founded in Helsinki on 19 May 1907.

The SPL organises the men's and women's national football teams, and the second to ninth tiers of national football. The premier division Veikkausliiga is organized by a distinct organisation. The SPL is based in the Finnish capital city of Helsinki.

The SPL has more than 1,000 member clubs and approximately 140,000 registered players. The Finnish Gallup survey has indicated that football is a popular pastime with around 500,000 Finns interested in the sport. The SPL is Finland's largest amateur sports federation.^[1]

The association was also the governing body of bandy in Finland until Finland's Bandy Association was founded in 1972. In 1928, it also arranged the first Finland ice hockey championship, before the 1929 establishment of the Finnish Ice Hockey Association.^[2]

The association publishes several magazines, including now-defunct monthly magazine Futari.^[3]

• Men's team
• Under-21 team
• Under-19 team
• Under-17 team
• Women's team
• Women's under-20 team
• Women's under-19 team
• Women's under-17 team
• Men's Futsal team
• Women's Futsal team

• Walter Flander: 1907–1908
• John Catani: 1909
• Uno Westerholm: 1910–1911
• Carolus Lindberg: 1912
• Walter Qvist: 1913–1917
• Erik von Frenckell: 1918–1952
• Juuso Walden: 1953–1963
• Osmo P. Karttunen: 1963–1974
• Ove H. Rehn: 1974–1975
• Jouko Loikkanen: 1975–1983
• Lauri Pöyhönen: 1983–1987
• Pentti Seppälä [fi]: 1987–1997
• Pekka Hämäläinen: 1997–2009
• Sauli Niinistö: 2009–2012
• Markku Lehtola: 2012 (interim)
• Pertti Alaja: 2012–2017
• Markku Lehtola: 2017–2018 (interim)
• Ari Lahti: 2018–present

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Football Association of Finland.

• Official website (in Finnish)
• Finland at UEFA.com
• Finland at FIFA.com