Tampere United is a Finnish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

club from the city of

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population ...

. The club plays in

Kakkonen Kakkonen or II divisioona is the third level in the league system of Finnish football and comprises 36 Finnish football teams. The II divisioona was introduced in 1973 and in the mid-1990s became known as the Kakkonen ( Finnish for 'Number Tw ...

, the third highest level of football in Finland. The club had a team in

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga (; sv, Tipsligan) is the premier division of Finnish football, the highest tier of the Finnish football league structure, comprising the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agency Veikka ...

, the premier football league in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

, until the end of the 2010 season. It was excluded from participating in Finnish football during the 2011 season amidst suspicions of money laundering. The club was kept alive by its supporters, who entered a team called TamU-K in Kutonen, the lowest level of football in Finland, in 2012. The club earned three promotions in four years, and all its teams were taken over by Tampere United in the lead up to the 2016 season. Tampere United is now a fan-owned club and controlled by the same supporters who ran TamU-K.

History

The club was formed in July 1998. The initial plan was to merge two local football clubs

FC Ilves Tampereen Ilves (; Finnish for "Lynx") is a Finnish football club, based in Tampere. They currently play in the Veikkausliiga, the highest level of professional football in Finland. They were formed in 1975 as a merger between Ilves-Kissat T ...

and TPV but TPV decided to continue as its own team. FC Ilves continued to play in lower divisions and Tampere United inherited its place in the second highest division. In their first season, 1999 they won promotion to the top division, 15 months after the formation of the club. During season 2000 they reached sixth place in the league. In their third season 2001 they won the Finnish championship. In 2002, they finished in fifth place, and in 2003, third place. In 2006, Tampere United won their 2nd Finnish Championship and one year later, in 2007, they were the champions yet again taking home their 3rd title. During the 2007 season, Tampere United also reached the third qualifying round of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

. Tampere defeated Bulgarian champions

Levski Sofia Levski Sofia ( bg, Левски София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded on 24 May 1914 ...

2–0 on aggregate in the second qualifying round. Tampere United failed to reach the Champions League group stage when

Rosenborg BK Rosenborg Ballklub, commonly referred to simply as Rosenborg () or RBK, is a Norwegian professional association football, football club from Trondheim that plays in Eliteserien (football), Eliteserien. The club has won a record 26 league titles ...

defeated them 5–0 on aggregate. In the UEFA Cup first round, United lost to

Girondins de Bordeaux Football Club des Girondins de Bordeaux (), commonly referred to as Girondins de Bordeaux ( oc, Girondins de Bordèu) or simply Bordeaux, is a French professional football club based in the city of Bordeaux in Gironde, Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The ...

4–3 on aggregate.

Exclusion and collapse

On 14 April 2011 the club were suspended indefinitely by the

Football Association of Finland The Football Association of Finland ( fi, Suomen Palloliitto, abbr. SPL; sv, Finlands Bollförbund) is the governing body of football in Finland. It was founded in Helsinki on 19 May 1907. The SPL organises the men's and women's national footb ...

because they had received money from a dubious company based in Singapore, known for involvement in fixed games and money laundering. The club was excluded from the 2011 season of

. Players under contract were released due to lack of funds. The club did not participate in any league in 2012 or 2013. In April 2013 the Turku Court of Appeal found the former CEO Deniz Bavautdin and the former chairman of the board Harri Pyhältö guilty of money laundering.

Revival by the supporters

Supporters of Tampere United founded a supporters' trust in 2009 after the club had hit financial difficulties. The aim was to help fans gain a voice within the club and to buy shares of the club. In 2012 the supporters' trust founded a new team named after the supporters' trust, TamU-K, In 2012 the team played in Kutonen, the bottom division in Finnish football, and gained promotion to

Vitonen Vitonen or V divisioona is the sixth level in the Finnish football league system and comprises 228 teams. The V divisioona was introduced in 1973 and in the mid-1990s became known as the Vitonen (''Number Five'' in English and ''Femman'' in Swed ...

. The promotion playoff match that decided promotion had the attendance of 441. In 2013 the team was promoted to

and in 2014 the team made it to penalties in the promotion playoff and lost. After another season in Nelonen TamU-K was promoted to

Kolmonen Kolmonen or III divisioona is the fourth level in the league system of Finnish football and comprises 104 Finnish football teams. The III divisioona was introduced in 1973 and in the mid-1990s became known as the Kolmonen (''Number Three'' in E ...

, In the lead up to the 2016 season, Tampere United took over all the teams that played under TamU-K. Thereby the first team played in Kolmonen in 2016, and after the season it got promoted

. In 2017 Tampere United finished sixth in Kakkonen Group B and in 2018 it finished ninth in Group C, and remains in Kakkonen in the 2019 season.

Honours

* Champions:

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple Inc., Apple's first iPhone (1st generation), iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakis ...

Finnish Cup The Finnish Cup ( fi, Suomen cup; sv, Finlands cup) is Finland's main national cup competition in football. This yearly competition is open for all member clubs of the FA of Finland and has been played since 1955. The winner qualifies for the ...

* Champions: 2007 * Runners-up:

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

Finnish League Cup The Finnish League Cup was a knock-out football competition contested annually during the pre-season in winter by teams from Veikkausliiga. The league cup was abolished after the 2016 tournament and replaced with the Finnish Cup group stage startin ...

* Champions:

* Runners-up:

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...

Tampere United in Europe

Season to season

Current squad

Managers

Harri Kampman Harri Kampman (born 13 May 1954 in Oulu) is a Finnish football manager and former footballer, who has managed among others Motherwell, MyPa, FC Lahti, and AC Oulu AC Oulu (ACO) is a Finnish football club based in Oulu. Formed in 2002, the c ...

(1999–2000) *

Ari Hjelm Ari-Juhani Hjelm (born 24 February 1962) is a Finnish football coach and former player. He was the head coach of home-town club Tampere United in Finland's Veikkausliiga. A forward, Hjelm played in the Bundesliga for Stuttgarter Kickers in t ...

(2001–2010) *

Jarkko Wiss Jarkko Wiss (born 17 April 1972) is a Finnish football coach and a former player. He is the manager of Inter Turku. Player career As a player, he played in the position of defensive midfielder for TPV Tampere, FF Jaro, HJK and Tampere United ...

(2011) * Antti Pettinen (2011–2012) * Mika Suonsyrjä (2012–2015) * Mikko Mäkelä (2016–2018) *

Leroy Maluka Leroy Maluka (born 22 December 1985) is a South African footballer currently playing for Åbo IFK in the Finnish third tier Kakkonen. He has previously played for Ikapa Sporting in the South African National First Division and for TPS in th ...

(2018) * Mourad Seddiki (2019) * Jukka Listenmaa (2020–)

UEFA ranking

Current Club Ranking
Full List
Current National League ranking

References

External links

Official website

Sinikaarti – Unofficial supporter group
{{Finnish Champions in Football Football clubs in Finland Association football clubs established in 1998 1998 establishments in Finland