Bror-Erik "Bubi" Wallenius (born 1943) is a retired Finnish

sports commentator In Broadcasting of sports events, sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real time (media), real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present t ...

who still occasionally works for Finland's National Broadcasting Company

YLE Yleisradio Oy (; ), abbreviated as Yle () (formerly styled in all uppercase until 2012), translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock comp ...

. Wallenius had a great passion for sports since his childhood. When he was a little boy he organized sports competitions in

Kruununhaka Kruununhaka (; ) is a Subdivisions of Helsinki#Neighbourhoods, neighbourhood of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Kruununhaka became the area next to the harbour and the center, when Helsinki was moved from the earlier location in the mid-1660s ...

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

, the neighbourhood where he lived, and collected entrance fees from the adults who came to attend. Wallenius learned to read when he was four years old, and practised speaking. He recited poetry in front of the class. In the 1960s he studied languages and social sciences in the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

. At the end of the 1970s Wallenius got job with the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

sports editorial staff of YLE. Before that he had worked ten years as a salesman for

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

. Wallenius' first play-by-play sportscast was the women's 60 meters hurdles, which he watched from

videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually Sound recording and reproduction, sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog signal, analog or Digital signal (signal processing), digital signal. V ...

, for

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

. In the 1980s Wallenius worked mainly in the Swedish language sports staff, but also did some newsflashes for Finnish language sports news ''

Urheiluruutu ''Urheiluruutu'' is a daily sports news show produced and broadcast by the Finnish Broadcasting Company, Yle. The programme originally launched on 18 August 1963. The sportsreader was and the programme was gathered up by . Kukkonen is also the ...

''. In Swedish he sportscasted the

1988 Winter Olympics The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Calgary 1988 were a multi-sport event held from February 13 to 28, 1988, with Calgary, Calgary, Alberta as the main host city. This marks the m ...

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

, among others. In the beginning of the 1990s he made a permanent move to the Finnish side of sport staff. The first sportscasts were mainly

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing whereby skiers traverse snow-covered terrain without use of ski lifts or other assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreational activity; however, some still use it as a m ...

competitions. Nowadays Wallenius commentates every sport. He usually commentates

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

together with

Antero Mertaranta Lauri Antero Johannes Mertaranta (born 17 January 1956 in Hyvinkää, Finland) is a prominent Finland, Finnish sportscaster and television personality, TV personality and former elementary school teacher. Antero Mertaranta is best known for his e ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

with a

colour commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The person may also be referred to as a summariser (outside North America) ...

(

Jukka Toijala Jukka Toijala (born 9 May 1972) is a Finnish professional basketball coach and former player, who is currently working as the assistant coach of the Yokohama B-Corsairs in Japan's B.League. Previously he worked as the head coach of the Estonia n ...

and

Henrik Dettman Henrik Dettmann (born 5 April 1958) is a Finnish professional basketball coach who last served as head coach of the French LNB Pro A team SIG Strasbourg and the Finnish national basketball team. He was the head coach of German national basketball ...

in the 2000s), and skiing with color commentator too (

Juha Mieto Juha Iisakki Mieto (born 20 November 1949) is a Finland, Finnish former Cross-country skiing (sport), cross-country skier, who was born in Kurikka. He competed in the 1972, 1976, 1980 and 1984 Olympics and won five medals, including a gold medal ...

, Pekka Vähäsöyrinki and

Kari Ristanen Kari Ristanen (born 27 July 1958) is a Finnish cross-country skier who competed during the 1980s. He won a bronze medal in the 4 × 10 km relay at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. Ristanen also won a silver in the 4 × 10 km rel ...

in the 2000s). In the skiing season 2006/2007 Wallenius himself had made a move to a colour commentator, and the main play-by-play commentator was a young Jussi Eskola. In the 1990s Wallenius also commentated

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

, and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

so far as the second half of the 2000s. He was one of the main commentators in

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

s and

UEFA European Football Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro or Euros, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition ...

. In the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

he wasn't anymore a play-by-play commentator, but had his own intermission show ''Bubin vaihtopenkki'' ("Bubi's substitution bench") where he discussed about the events in football with many celebrity guests and football personalities. "Bubi" has also commentated many other kind of sports, like strong man competitions. The commentating style of Wallenius is very restful, genial and philosophic. This arouses many kinds of opinions among sports fans. Many people consider him a "walking sport encyclopedia", but others think he is a boring chatterer. The integral part of his style is to tell simple things in quite complex ways and fall into very deep philosophic contemplation. He has spoken up for his calm analytic style by saying that shouting should only be done in the

army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

and by the

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

. Wallenius had been married twice, but has been a bachelor for the last 20 years. He retired in December 2008.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wallenius, Bror-Erik Association football commentators Finnish sports broadcasters Swedish-speaking Finns 1943 births Living people IBM employees Place of birth missing (living people) University of Helsinki alumni Sportspeople from Helsinki