Football Club Jazz, commonly known as just Jazz, is a Finnish

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 ...

club based in

Pori Pori (; ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Satakunta. It is located on the west coast of the country, on the Gulf of Bothnia. The population of Pori is approximately , while the Pori sub-region, sub-region has a population of a ...

, which plays in the Finnish third tier,

Ykkönen ''Ykkönen'' (Finnish language, Finnish for 'Number One'; , previously I divisioona) is the third highest level of the Finnish football league system (after the Veikkausliiga and Ykkösliiga), managed by the Football Association of Finland. Until ...

. The club was founded in 1934 as Porin Pallo-Toverit. PPT changed its name to FC Jazz in November 1991. FC Jazz is tied with several other clubs as the 13th most successful Finnish club by Finnish Championship titles. FC Jazz won the Finnish Championship twice (1993, 1996). Other medals for the club include Finnish Championship bronze (1992),

Finnish Cup The Finnish 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 UEFA Europa Conference League ...

silver (1994) and

Finnish League Cup The Finnish League Cup (in Finnish: ''Liigacup''), is a knock-out football competition contested annually during the pre-season in winter by teams from Veikkausliiga. The competition is notably the only football competition in Europe which is most ...

silver (1994).

History

PPT 1934–1991

FC Jazz was established in 1934 as Porin Pallo-Toverit (PPT for short) by 18 young men who had previously played football in the local sports club Pyrintö. The founders had strong

labour movement The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...

background and PPT immediately joined the

Finnish Workers' Sports Federation The Finnish Workers' Sports Federation (, ''TUL'', , ''AIF'') is a Finland, Finnish amateur sports organization founded in 1919. In addition to the competitive sports, TUL focuses on youth activities and youth education as well as offering activit ...

(TUL). PPT had also a section for

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two team sport, teams wearing Ice skates#Bandy skates, ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The playin ...

and

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 ...

.''PPT 1934–1984 50th Anniversary book.'' PPT played its first years in TUL regional series and after the

second world war World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in TUL national divisions. The club made its debut in Finnish Football Association's national divisions in 1948

Suomensarja Suomensarja (sometimes also ''Suomi-sarja'') (‘Finland Series’) was the second highest level of league format association football in Finland from 1936 to 1972. Before the inauguration of the Suomensarja, there had been, in 1930–1935, spec ...

which was the second tier of Finnish football. After six more seasons in TUL series PPT joined the FA's divisions permanently in 1955 playing third or fourth tiers up to the 1980s. In 1982 PPT was promoted to 1. division and year later to the premier division

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) ...

FC Jazz 1991–present

In 1991 PPT changed its name for FC Jazz. The name was inspired by

Pori Jazz Pori Jazz is a large international jazz festival, held annually during the month of July in the coastal city of Pori (a population of 82,809 in January 2010), Finland. It is one of the oldest and best known jazz festivals in Europe, having be ...

festival, which is one of the most popular

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

festivals in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. FC Jazz won two Finnish championship titles in

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

and

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

. The club was relegated to second tier in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

, but the first team was dissolved 2005 as a result of financial problems. FC Jazz youth section had been separated from the league organisation since 2002, and was known as FC Jazz-juniorit (FC Jazz-j). In 2006, the club started competing with the league license of its youth organisation, and were placed in the 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 ...

, administrated by the Finnish Football Association Satakunta. Two years later, FC Jazz-j was promoted to third tier

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 ...

, which is the lowest national level in Finnish football. In 2010, FC Jazz-juniorit were allowed to start using the name FC Jazz. In 2013, FC Jazz was promoted to second-tier

after beating

Ekenäs IF Ekenäs Idrottsförening (abbreviated EIF or Ekenäs IF) is a sports club from Ekenäs, Raseborg in Finland. EIF was formed in 1905 and they are one of the oldest clubs in the south-west of Finland. The men's football first team currently play ...

4–2 on aggregate in the promotion playoffs. FC Jazz was relegated back to the Kakkonen for the 2017 season, but got promoted back to Ykkönen, the new nation-wide third-tier, for the 2024 season. In 2024, the new second tier

Ykkösliiga ''Ykkösliiga'' (English language, English: ''"League One"''; ) is the second highest level of the Finnish football league system (after the Veikkausliiga), managed by the Football Association of Finland. The teams in Ykkösliiga also play a pre-s ...

was founded and Ykkönen had been demoted one level in the

Finnish football league system The Finnish football league system is a series of interconnected leagues for club football in Finland. The levels two to nine are managed by the Finnish FA. System As of 2025 Cup competitions Clubs at all levels are eligible for the Finni ...

. In the inaugural season of the competition, Jazz finished 5th in Ykkönen.

Name changes

*Porin Pallo-Toverit (PPT, 1934–1991) *FC Jazz (1991–present)

Rivalries

FC Jazz's main

rival A rivalry is the state of two people or Social group, groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each ...

is considered to be the other Pori club

Musan Salama Musan Salama (), commonly abbreviated MuSa, is a Association football, football club based in Pori, Finland, playing in the Finnish fifth tier Kolmonen as of the 2024 season. It was founded in 1960 in the Musa (Pori), Musa suburb of Pori as a foo ...

. The games between MuSa and Jazz are known as the Pori Derby. Other rival for Jazz is the

Rauma Rauma may refer to: Places * Rauma, Finland, a town and municipality in the Satakunta region of western Finland * Rauma Municipality, a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway * Rauma (river), a river in the Romsdalen valley in Møre og Ro ...

club

Pallo-Iirot Pallo-Iirot (abbreviated P-Iirot) is a football club from Rauma, Finland, Rauma in Finland. The club was formed in 1930 and their home ground is at the Äijänsuon stadion. The men's first team currently plays in the Kakkonen. The Chairman of ...

Honours

Finnish Championship Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

: **Winners (2):

: **Runners-up (1):

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

: **Runners-up (1): 1994

Domestic competition record

*19 seasons in ''

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga () is a professional association football league in Finland and the highest level of the Finnish football league system. The league comprises the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agenc ...

'' *14 seasons in '' Second Tier'' *29 seasons in '' Third Tier'' *10 seasons in '' Fourth Tier'' *1 season in ''5th Tier'' *1 season in ''6th Tier''

European competitions

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

Current squad

Farm team

Euran Pallo Euran Pallo (abbreviated EuPa) is a football club from Eura, Finland. The club was formed in 1954 and their home ground is at the Euran Wembley. The men's first team currently plays in the Kolmonen (Third Division). Background Euran Pallo wa ...

of the Finnish fifth division

Kolmonen Kolmonen or III divisioona is the fifth level in the Finnish football league system, league system of Finnish football and comprises 108 Finland, Finnish football (soccer), football teams. The III divisioona was introduced in 1973 and in the mi ...

works as FC Jazz's

farm team In sports, a farm team (also referred to as farm system, developmental system, feeder team, or nursery club) is generally a Team sport, team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any s ...

Former players

All following players who have represented FC Jazz have been capped at least once by their respective national team's first squad.

References

External links

FC Jazz Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jazz 1934 establishments in Finland Association football clubs established in 1934 Football clubs in Finland Sport in Pori Sports clubs and teams in Satakunta