This section contains news from Finnish sports.

More news (in Finnish) can be found from FSF Web magazine Liikunnan ja Urheilun Maailma - in English: "The World of Sports and Physical Activities".

The Web magazine comes out every other week. You can access the entire contents of the magazine in Finnish by clicking on Liikunnan ja Urheilun Maailma.

The first sport club in Finland celebrates 150 years jubilee

The first Finnish sport club was founded 26 January 1856. Today there are 9000 sports clubs in Finland and they have more than one million members. That means that every fifth Finn is a member of some sport club. That is a reason to celebrate the 150 years history of non-profit, volunteer sports clubs. The goal of the jubilee year is to thank the clubs and FSF’s member organisations that celebrate their jubilee year this year too. There will be organised different kinds of events during the year. Sports clubs, volunteer work and the volunteers will also be promoted and celebrated through media.

Communications

Sport and Mass Media

The year 2005 the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE and FSF launched a theme year “Finland on the move”. Throughout the year physical activities were promoted in different programmes with the help of famous TV-faces as examples of active lifestyle. Part of the year was also sport for all –events linked to the programmes and campaing advertisements in TV and radio.

Overall the publicity of sport and physical activity in Finnish mass media has increased in comparison with earlier years. Approximately 20 programmes about physical education and sport are weekly presented in Finnish media. Many programmes originate from the FSF. The FSF co-operates with the programme Elixir Sport, which offers the knowledge of competitive and elite sport to the use of recreational athletes.

Education and Training

The aim of the FSF educational project Good Club is to increase the know-how of sports clubs while respecting the clubs’ own needs and choices. The ethical principles of Finnish sport, Fair Play, are now included in the educational content and materials of the project. The project involves 40 different organisations and the instructor network has 120 club instructors as members.

Fair Play – a board game. Fair Play is an engaging board game that makes ethical questions of sports visible by offering real-life situations for group discussion. The board game is based on the ethical principles of Finnish sports. The ethical principles are reflected upon with the help of situations drawn from the different everyday encounters in sports. What is most important is shared discussion and problem solving. Collective problem solving can help reach an understanding of present-day ethical issues or settle or review the ethical guidelines in one’s own sport club. The game is intended for all sport related groups over the age of 15. It can be used in sport practice, at meetings, in coach education, when travelling etc. The game has been produced by the Finnish Sports Federation’s Good Sport Club project. At present, the game is only available in Finnish.

For more information: Pekka Nikulainen, Director of Education and training, pekka.nikulainen@slu.fi 

Equality in sports

Women in Sport

In the winter of 2004, the Finnish Ministry of Education set up a committee to develop methods of gender impact assessment in Finnish sport. The committee considers it important that the gender aspect is always taken into account in the preparation of sports matters and in relevant decision-making. Awareness of the equality aspect must be raised at all levels of administration in the sports field.

The committee proposes that, according to the joint governmental policy, the gender equality aspect in government budget preparations on sport be assessed in 2008 on the basis of the guidelines to be issued by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Ministry of Finance. The gender aspect will be assessed in all major budgetary sports areas, that is, in sports bodies, sports facility construction, local sports services, sports research, education and training in sport, child and youth sports and health programmes.

The numbers of men and women in sports are quite similar as in year 2004.

• 93% of the boys and 91% of the girls are involved in sports and physical activities in Finland
• 58% of the sports club members are male and 42% female
• there are 500 000 volunteers working for sports and physical activities in Finland; 44% of them are women
• 25% of the board members of the sports organisations (126) are women in Finland
• 12% of the presidents of the sports organisations (126) are women in Finland
• 20% of the secretary generals of the sports organisations are women in Finland

The FSF board is more equal than ever. The board comprises 53% men and 47% women

Allowed to care – allowed to intervene, a guidebook about sexual harassment in sports
The FSF has in cooperation with its member organisations and specialists in child welfare and harassment composed a guidebook concerning sexual harassment in sports. The guidebook Allowed to care – allowed to intervene is targeted at all adults who are active in sports and especially those responsible for children and youth sports. The purpose of the guidebook is to offer more information on sexual harassment and a set of guidelines to prevent sexual harassment in sports.

If you wish to order copies of the guidebook please contact: nelli.koivisto@slu.fi or tel. +358 9 3481 2605. The guidebook is free of charge. You can also download the guidebook by clicking on Allowed to care - allowed to intervene.

Finances

According to the Lottery Act in Finland, there is one state owned company (Veikkaus) holding the license to operate lotteries, pools and betting games. The revenue from that company is returned to the State. By law 25% of the annual revenue is allocated to sports. More than 98% of the national state funding of sport consists of gaming revenues.  

In Finland the distribution of lottery profits has for a long time given rise to a debate. According to the act on lottery profits distribution,  the lottery profits will, during a transition period of ten years, be gradually transferred to its legal beneficiaries, in other words to art, sport and youth work. At the same time, the libraries will again be financed directly by the state budget. This means an increased financial support for sport.

In year 2006 the state subsidy for national sport organisations increased by over two million euros

In 2006 National Finnish Sport Organisations are supported with 30 530 000 euros with the lottery profits from Veikkaus. In total 456,4 million euros were paid by Veikkaus to the state budget and 90 million euros went to sports in total.

Lotteries with goods and articles as prizes gave sport clubs 1 000 000 euros in 2005

In 2005 FSF organised four nationwide lotteries with goods and articles as prizes (i.e. no money prizes).In Finland the sport clubs do not receive direct state subsidy and their funding is mainly based on participation fees and voluntary work. By selling allotments they get easily funds for their activities and the income is tax free for the sport club.

Half of the revenues from lotteries organised by FSF go to the Finnish sport clubs.

For further information, please contact:Kerstin Ekman, phone +358(0)9 3481 2224, fax +358(0)9 3481 2602, e-mail:kerstin.ekman@slu.fi

International issues

Finngerprint – International Forum for Finnish Sport

The FSF project Finngerprint promotes the idea and importance of international co-operation at the national level. The International Forum for Sport involves 350 Finnish delegates who have been appointed to different international sports positions. Interviews with sports leaders, education, information, common meetings and round table discussions are tools for the co-operation.

The objectives concerning sports policy during the Finnish EU presidency in 2006 

The Finnish EU presidency begins on 1 July 2006. At the moment the constitution’s entry into force would enhance sports political standing at European level and currently the co-operation in sport is done at unofficial level and sport does not have a direct competence or funding for sport.

The Sports Minister agreed on a Rolling Agenda in 2004 to insure continuity in sports matters discussed. The topics agreed are:

• Anti-doping
• Health and sport
  • Separate working group established in 2005
• Sport and education
  • Follow up of EYES 2004
• Social function of sport
  • Equal opportunities
• Volunteering in sport
  • Sport based on non-profit activities
• Economic dimension of sport
  • Influences on internal market, gambling, etc 

Finland has chosen three priority areas: health and sport, volunteering in sport and anti-doping. The aim is that these topics would also be included to the White Paper on sport, which the Commission will start to work on during the Finnish EU Presidency.

The European Sport Directors will meet in Naantali on 4-5 October to discuss the three topics and it also likely that the European Sports Ministers will meet in Brussels in November.

The Finnish Ministry of Education consulted Finnish Sports Federation when the themes for the Finnish EU Presidency were decided.  The objectives of the Finnish Sports Federation are:

1. EU institutions must take a stand on whether there should be room for non-profit civic activity in the future of the European Union.The Finnish Sports Federation hopes that the Commission will strongly promote the concept of non-profit activity and the status of voluntary work in the preparation of various EU directive proposals.

2.  Gaming must not be included in the service directive. National regulation of gaming prevents abuse and game addiction. It is based on responsible and controlled gaming activity. In Finland the proceeds of the national gaming corporation make up more than 90 per cent of the government support to sports associations; the average amount in Europe is approximately 50 per cent. Allocating pools funds to sports is vital for a wide range of sports for children and young people in the grassroots level, for health-promoting exercise, for competitive sports, and for sports for the disabled.

3. Sports must be horizontally included in various EU programmes.As we cannot be sure of the future of the EU Constitution, and as the EU has no competence in order to start any separate programmes for sports, sports should be extensively included in the existing programmes. Sports associations, for their part, support the attainment of this objective, for instance in the structural funds programmes and the Active citizenship programme. To include sports horizontally in EU programmes we need a strong contribution from the main divisions of the EU Commission.

4. Sports associations must be heard when making decisions on sports on all levels of the EU.In addition to European sports associations, national sports associations should also be heard by the Commission. Otherwise the wide range of sports for children and young people, health-promoting exercise, competitive sports, sports for the disabled, and civic activity relating to sports would not be recognised. National associations can also act as a link between the union and the EU citizens.

5. Lifelong exercise is important for the health all EU citizens.Physical exercise is an effective and inexpensive way to promote the health and ability of the populations of EU countries and thus reduce the increasing pressures for expenses in the social and health sector. If children and young people assume a sporting lifestyle early on, they will probably take exercise in the adult age as well. There are a great number of adults in Europe that do not take enough exercise for their health, and it is an important challenge to encourage those adults to take exercise. This requires extensive cooperation and networking on the various fields of activity of the union, integration of educational programmes, and new perspectives. The physical exercise taken by citizens can be developed by applying the sports knowledge and know-how of sports associations.

Joint Declaration: Civic activity on the agenda during the Finnish EU-Presidency

Finnish Sports Federation, Finnish Youth Cooperation Allianssi and Finnish Federation for Social Welfare and Health submitted a joint declaration concerning civic activity to Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen on 1June 2006. 

The three biggest civic organisations in Finland regard it important that the council of state would, during the Finnish EU-presidency, highlight the significance of the civic organisations, and the fact that the activities of the civic organisations differ substantially from the activities of the private sector. Civic organisations should have their own autonomous space in the society that should not be hindered by unconsidered actions.

Work – including legislative actions - that relates to civic organisations and that strengthens their position should be continued also at the EU level. For the sake of strengthening the citizens’ voice in Europe, it is essential that civic organisations will have an official and consultative role in the preparation of policies and in the dialogue between the European institutions.

 Finnish EU-presidency begins 1st July 2006. The official web site of the Finnish EU presidency is: http://www.eu2006.fi/en_GB/

Youth – a future for sport in Europe 

A five day European Youth and Sport Forum 2006 culminated to the presentation of a declaration to the representatives of the European Commission, Finnish Ministry of Education, Finnish Sports Federation, European Non-Governmental Sport Organisation ENGSO and International Sport and Culture Association. One hundred 18-30 year old future sport leaders from 32 European countries worked devotedly and were a credit to both themselves and their countries. The declaration reflects the beliefs and desires of young people directly involved in sport and it is designed to assist in the development of future European and national policies in sport. 

The participants state that young people should be given opportunities across Europe to participate in the decision making in sport clubs and federations. Different organisations and clubs should have at least one person under 30 years old to give the opinion of the younger generation. The young leaders also need mentors for their support.

The participants believe that to promote equality teachers and couches need to have skills to be able to provide sporting opportunities for everyone – not just the talented and able. This approach needs to be taken into consideration in the education of teachers and couches. 

The participants recommend that every European country develops “free physical activity on prescription”. Instead of taking medicines sport should be used as a preventive action. 

The three main themes active citizenship, heath and equality raised enthusiastic discussions. They were tackled in the light of new research results, but the main focus was in the exchange of participants own experiences and good practices. The views of the participants crystallised into the declaration. However, in addition to that they also wrote a personal action plan on how they will personally promote these issues in their organisations.

The forum was organised during the Finnish EU-presidency. The recommendations were also presented to the EU Sports Directors, who met in Naantali, Finland on 5-7 October and it will be taken forward to the EU Sports Ministers meeting in November.

The EYSF 2006 was organised by the Finnish Sports Federation, International Sport and Culture Association, ENGSO Youth, Young Finland Association and Finnish Gymnastics Federation. The EYSF was organised for the third time. The next EYSF will take place in Bonn in June during the German EU-presidency. 

EYSF 2006 Declaration

Multicultural sports

4/03 The Finnish Sports Federation assigns 50 000 euros to projects promoting tolerance in sports
This year the Finnish Sports Federation supports 42 projects promoting tolerance and multicultural activities in sports with 50 000 euros provided by the Ministry of Education. The funded projects advance ethnic relations and fight racism by means of sports and physical activities and increase immigrants’ and ethnic minorities’ participation in physical activities in equal relation with the dominant population. The financial support was granted for the most part directly to the local level projects around the country: sports clubs (22 projects) and other associations (11 projects). 7 projects were also funded among special sport federations, FSF regional units and other organisations. 16 different sports are promoted in the projects: football, floorball, volleyball, basketball, handball, badminton, tennis, aerobics and other fitness training, dance, athletics, wrestling, skating, sambo wrestling, ice hockey, swimming and cricket.

Projects that enhance cooperation between immigrants and the dominant population in planning and running of the activities, in which local level activities are prioritised and projects that seek to gain local and national exposure for the work through communications were favoured as the funding decisions were made. Moreover, immigrant families’ and immigrant women’s possibilities to participate in sports, voluntary work and networking between various actors in the field were taken into special consideration by the funding committee.

Financial support was not granted for travel expenses, regular running costs of the association not related to the project or training, competition or research in elite sports. The FSF has given out funds provided by the Finnish Ministry of Education for tolerance in sports projects since 1996. So far 316 projects have been funded for the amount of 580 000 euros.

For more information: Kristiina Heinonen, Multicultural sports officer, kristiina.heinonen@slu.fi 

Sports and environment

WWF granted Finnish Sports Federation with Green Office environment label

Finnish Sport Federation was the first non-governmental organisation to receive the Green Office label from WWF Finland.

Finnish Sport Federation has taken part in the Green Office system since 2004. The aim of Green Office system is to get the operation of the organisation more ecologically efficient.

Environment service programme for national sports federations

Nine national sports federations are involved in the FSF’s environment service programme for national sports federations. The environment service programme supports the national federations’ environment work, which also is an evaluation criterion for the performance-based state subsidy for national federations. Well-organised environment work improves the sports organisations’ opportunities e.g. in the distribution of state subsidies, in the decision-making of sports facility construction and in the development of legislation. The environment service programme of the FSF offers the member organisations know-how, education and material in environmental issues. A sustainable development and respect for nature are included in the six general principles of the FSF ethical programme Fair Play. In the future more focus will be put on the information about environmental issues.

Sports and health

National Sport Survey 

The most popular sports

The National Sport Survey 2005-2006 reveals that the most popular sport among the Finnish adult population is exercise walking. More than 1,8 million 19-64 year olds has it as a hobby. Men are more active at sports clubs and women use more private sport companies’ services.

After exercise walking the most popular sports are cycling and cross-country skiing. After them come swimming and exercising at the gym.  

Sport club activities attract children and youth

According to the survey 91 per cent of 3-18 year old Finns do sport. Sport clubs have a growing role in activating children. Almost half of children and youth are involved with sport club activities. However, there are significant regional differences. 

The most popular sport among Finnish children and youth are football, cycling, cross-country skiing and running.

The amount of volunteers has increased

More than half a million adults (532.000), which is about 10 per cent of the population do voluntary work without compensation in Finland. The average time spent on volunteering is about 10 hours per month. The primary target of the voluntary work is children and youth sport.

In Finland volunteering in sports means multiple tasks, e.g. instruction, assistance, education, refereeing and organising.  

Finns consider elite sport important

75 per cent of the Finnish adult population considers success in elite sport important and 18 per cent of those consider it as very important. Especially those who are actively doing sport, consider international success in elite sport very important. However, also 67 per cent of those who are not doing sports consider the success in elite sport important. Only 6 per cent of the respondents said the success in elite sport is not important at all.

Sports Politics

EU Directive on Services 

In Finland, most public funding for sport, nearly 98 per cent, comes from lottery and gambling. In Finland, the national lottery and gambling company Veikkaus Oy enjoys a monopoly in this field. Only monopolies may organise lotteries with money prizes. Finnish sports organisations receive approximately 25 percent of the lottery funding, art receives 38.5 percent, science 17.5 percent and youth work 9 percent.All member organisations (126) of the FSF receive performance-based lottery funding distributed by the Finnish Ministry of Education.  

Nationally regulated lottery markets may contribute to prevent and reduce problem gaming. With regard to Finnish people’s gaming and its frequency, it is very important that the lottery funds are distributed to non-profit associations. Although, according to the Gambelli decision, the regulation of gaming is more important than the use of the funds. The lottery markets are said to be the fastest growing business activity in Europe and private betting companies are struggling hard to influence the decision-makers in Brussels. The exclusion of the lottery activities from the Directive on Services lies in the common interest of Finnish sports. 

The FSF, Veikkaus Oy, the Ministry of Education (responsible for sport), the Finnish Parliament and the state all have the same standpoint, which is, that lottery activities should be excluded from the present draft Directive on Services.

Fair Play

At present, the ethical project Fair Play involves 20 sports federations, which are supported by the FSF regional organisations, education centres of sport and national service organisations. Each organisation acts from its own basis and according to its own motives, which, however, are connected by the common features of the educational programme Good Company. In 2004, FSF regional organisations organised 652 future evenings and other development meetings for over 500 clubs. There were over 7000 people present. For further information, please see the 2003 annual report.

Principles of fair play

Adopted by member organisations of the FSF on Nov. 2004

General principles
•Respect for other people and life
•Promotion of physical and mental well being
•Responsibility for human growth
•Transparency, democracy, integrity and fairness
•Equal rights to do sports
•Sustainable development and respect for nature

Complementary principles
•Multiculturalism and tolerance
•Antidoping work
•moderate use of drugs and alcohol
•Non-violence
•Prevention of sexual harassment
•The safety and comfort of audience
•Economical responsibility

Miscellaneous

New information will be published soon.