Kuopion Elo (originally Männistön Elo) is a football club from

Kuopio Kuopio ( , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Savo. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Kuopio is approximately , while the Kuopio sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mos ...

, Finland. In 2023, they compete in

Kakkonen Kakkonen or II divisioona is the fourth level in the league system of Finnish football and comprises 36 Finnish football teams. Until the end of 2023, ''Kakkonen'' was the third-highest level in Finland, but after the creation of new second-t ...

, the third tier of Finnish football. Elo is the oldest existing football club from Kuopio.

History

Kuopion Elo was founded as Männistön Elo by local working class youth in 1919. In the past, the club have also played other sports. From early on their home area have been

Männistö Männistö is a district in the city of Kuopio, Finland It is part of the Itkonniemi–Männistö– Linnanpelto division area, which has a population of just over 5,800. Most of the services are located in the Männistö shopping center, which ...

and Itkonniemi districts north of Kuopio city center. At the beginning they played only against Kuopion Riento. They played their first match in 1919. In 1929 club possessions where ceased by court as a leftist organization and some members founded a new club called Männistön Urheilijat, some joined Kuopion Kisa-Veikot. In 1946, Männistön Urheilijat continued as Männistön Elo. They have played three seasons in Finnish top tier

Mestaruussarja Mestaruussarja (Championship series) was the top division of Finnish football from 1930 to 1989. It was replaced by Veikkausliiga in 1990. In 1930 league format was used for the first time to decide the Finnish champion. Before that (1908-1929) ...

. In late 1980s club had financial difficulties and they eventually merged with other financially troubled club

Koparit Koparit (originally Kuopion Pallotoverit, or KPT for short) was a football club from Kuopio, Finland. It was founded in 1931 and disbanded in 1990. The club played a total of 21 seasons in the Finnish premier division Mestaruussarja between 19 ...

to form FC Kuopio. Elo continued football in 2012 season from sixth tier

Vitonen Vitonen or V divisioona is the seventh 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 ...

Notable players

* Pat Corbett * Paul Sugrue *

Olavi Rissanen Olavi Rissanen (born 26 March 1947) is a Finnish former footballer who played as a forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association foot ...

* Jouko Suomalainen * Tero Taipale *

Ilja Venäläinen Ilja Venäläinen (born 27 September 1980) is a retired Finnish football player. He played for FF Jaro and FC KooTeePee and most recently for Kuopion Palloseura Kuopion Palloseura, commonly referred to as KuPS, is a Finnish professional foo ...

* Valeri Chupin

Season to season

*3 seasons in ''

'' *20 seasons in ''2nd Tier'' *21 seasons in ''3rd Tier'' *4 season in ''4th Tier'' *6 seasons in ''5th Tier'' *4 seasons in ''6th Tier''

References and sources

Official Kuopion Elo Website
*

Finnish Wikipedia The Finnish Wikipedia () is the edition of Wikipedia in the Finnish language. With articles, it is currently the -largest Wikipedia and the largest Wikipedia in a Uralic language. Wikipedia is the only encyclopedia in Finnish which is still upda ...

References

{{reflist Football clubs in Finland Sport in Kuopio 1919 establishments in Finland