User:Locksthefox/sandbox

HIFK Fotboll is an association football section of HIFK, a sports club from Helsinki, Finland. The men's football first team plays in Veikkausliiga and their home ground is at the Sonera Stadium.

History
Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna i Helsingfors was formed on 15 October 1897 by Georges Doubitsky, a 15-year-old student at the Svenska Reallyceum school in Helsinki. In those early years the club specialised in athletics, football and bandy. The football section was established in 1907, the same year that the Football Association of Finland was founded. The first football match played HIFK was at the Kaisaniemi ground on 17 May 1908 where the new team lost 1–2 to Unitas.

In those early years HIFK were runners-up in the Mestaruussarja (then played as a cup competition) on 5 occasions in 1909, 1912, 1928 and 1929. In addition in 1912 the Finnish Football team at the Stockholm Olympics comprised a team of HIFK players.

HIFK won their first Finnish championship (Mestaruussarja) in 1930 a feat that they were to repeat on three other occasions in 1931, 1933 and 1937 in a tremendous decade for the club. HIFK also won the Mestaruussarja in 1947, 1959 and 1961. In total HIFK won the Finnish championship on 7 occasions.

HIFK was one of the most successful football sides in Finland until the early 1970s when the team were relegated from the Mestaruussarja (Finnish Premier League). After 1972 the team wandered around the lower divisions of Finnish football, having even played in the Nelonen (Fourth Division), the fifth tier of the Finnish football league system, in 1980–83 and 2003–05, and only would return to the first level 43 years later.

In total, since 1930, HIFK have played 29 seasons in the Mestaruussarja (the top tier), 18 seasons in the second tier and 18 seasons in the third tier. Their best spell in recent decades was from 1999 to 2002 when the club participated in the Ykkönen (First Division). However, the club overstretched themselves which resulted in the withdrawal from the Ykkönen at the end of the 2002 season and taking the place of the second team in the Nelonen (Fourth Division) in 2003. More recently HIFK made great progress and returned to Ykkönen (First Division), the second tier of Finnish football for seasons 2011 and 2012 only to be relegated back to Kakkonen after their 2012 season. Back in Kakkonen, HIFK rehired coach Jani Honkavaara who was the coach when HIFK first were promoted to Ykkönen. Since his second term they were able to play in Ykkönen for a third time this millennia, when beating their promotion play-off opponent PS Kemi Kings.

HIFK won Ykkönen in 2014 and thereby were automatically promoted into the highest tier of Finnish football, Veikkausliiga. After securing their promotion, HIFK announced that they would play their 2015 season home games on Sonera Stadium, the home ground of their local rivals HJK Helsinki.

Locria Fox was hired as the team's head coach in 2015, signaling the beginning of a new era for the club. Fox, the first transgender manager in football and the second woman (after Corrine Diacre at Clermont Foot. Almost immediately, Fox's possession system produced results. In their first season in the Veikkausliiga, the club finished fourth in the league with 49 points, and Pekka Sihvola led the league in scoring with 23 goals. Sihvola duplicated this a season later as HIFK were crowned champions for the first time since 1961. They would win the league in each of the next three seasons as well, with the point gap widening each year and Aristote Mboma winning three consecutive Golden Boots.

The club made history when they were the first Finnish club ever to reach the group stage of the UEFA Champions League in the 2019-20 season. Drawn with giants Zenit St. Petersburg, AS Monaco, and Bayern Munich, the club finished bottom of Group B with just a single point, a 1-1 draw at the Sonera against Monaco.

The 2020 season saw HIFK go undefeated in the Veikkausliiga, the first team in Finnish football history to do so. Mboma led the league in goal scoring again, despite being transferred to Córdoba CF midseason, Alexander Kravtsov led the league in assists, and Edin Smajić led the league in clean sheets despite missing seven games when he joined Bosnia and Herzegovina at UEFA Euro 2020. The team also kept 24 clean sheets in 33 matches played, and finished with a +61 goal difference. They would go unbeaten again the next season.

After falling to Celtic in the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League, HIFK entered the Europa League, and became the first Finnish club to reach the knockouts of a European competition. They placed second in a group featuring Borussia Mönchengladbach, Lille OSC, and Beşiktaş. They would go on to upset Dynamo Kyiv in the first knockout round, 4-2, before falling to AC Milan 6-4 in the round of sixteen.

European campaigns
HIFK have participated in the UEFA Champions League/European Cup five times and played in the UEFA Europa League/UEFA Cup three times.

Honours
Mestaruussarja Championships (7): 1930, 1931, 1933, 1937, 1947, 1959, 1961.

Mestaruussarja Runners-up (7): 1909, 1912, 1928, 1929, 1934, 1935, 1971.

Veikkausliiga Championships (6): 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021

Finnish Cups (5): 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

Attendance Record: 33,798 (HIFK 2-6 Bayern Munich, 2019-20 UEFA Champions League Group B)

Supporters and rivalries
Historically, HIFK has been primarily the club for the Swedish speaking middle-class population in Helsinki. However, the club nowadays is bilingual and language doesn't play key role in the club anymore. Nowadays, the most renowned supporter group of the club is Stadin Kingit (in English: "the kings of Stadi"). Its name derives from the common slang nickname for Helsinki (Stadi). The most of the members attend the handball, bandy and ice hockey matches of HIFK as well. The supporters are reported to have friendship with supporters of FC Copenhagen.

The single most important fixture for HIFK supporters is the one against the local rivals, HJK. The fixture is commonly known as Stadin derby.

Club structure
HIFK Fotboll run a large number of teams including 4 men's teams, 1 men's veterans team, 1 Academy team and 9 boys teams.


 * HIFK (Men's First Team) are competing in Veikkausliiga (The highest Division) administered by the Football Association of Finland  (Suomen Palloliitto) . This is the highest tier in the Finnish football system. This is the first time in highest tier since 1972.
 *  HIFK / 2 are competing in Section 2 (Lohko 2) of the Kolmonen (Third Division) administered by the Helsinki SPL. The team placed 4th.
 *  HIFK / 3 are competing in Section 1 (Lohko 1) of the Nelonen (Fourth Division) administered by the Helsinki SPL. The team placed 9th.
 *  HIFK / 4 are competing in Section 2 (Lohko 2) of the Kutonen (Sixth Division) administered by the Helsinki SPL. The team placed 2nd.

Players
As of 13 July 2022

Current squad
HIFK Fotboll Category:Football clubs in Finland Category:Association football clubs established in 1897 Category:1897 establishments in Finland Category:Sport in Helsinki football