My adopted* Veikkausliiga (Finnish Premiership) team, FC Honka, seem to be suffering a touch of ‘second season syndrome’, but I don’t mind, as one of my most enjoyable discoveries this summer has been the Football In Finland blog, written in English and always intelligent, entertaining and informative. This post is especially good, even if you’ve got no interest in the Finnish title race (such as it is) – it’s a reproduction of the programme notes from Tampere United’s recent Champions League qualifier game, and is a great look at playing in Europe from the minnow’s point of view:
And when we play in the Balkans or further east, where do you go for (e.g.) Armenian visas? Can you tell me where the nearest Armenian embassy is to Tampere? Apparently it’s a cash-only back-street alley in Tallinn. I know because I went there with 25 passports in my pocket back in 2002.
*via the thoroughly modern method of picking them a couple of years ago in a Championship Manager game, because I liked the name.