Porin Palloilijat or formerly FC PoPa 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 the city of

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 ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. The club currently plays in the

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 ...

, the seventh highest level of Finnish football. The club was established in 1925 but did not operate between 1960 and 1981.

History

Porin Palloilijat is the oldest team sports club in Pori being over 85 years old. Bror Weckström had the original idea of forming a new team in Pori and on 16 April 1925 the first meeting of PoPa was held in the café at Pori Theatre. It was decided to form a team called Porin Palloilijat and to make

and

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 ...

their main focus. The first Committee members were Erkki Laitinen, J. Kari, Bror Weckström, O. Huhtanen, A. Forsberg and H. Lingvist. In May 1925 the constitution and rules for the club were prepared and the team was registered on 13 May 1925. They also included

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

, women's

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 ...

and

ice-skating Ice skating is the self-propulsion and gliding of a person across an ice surface, using metal-bladed ice skates. People skate for various reasons, including recreation (fun), exercise, competitive sports, and commuting. Ice skating may be perfo ...

within the club's featured programme. The first chairman was Erkki Laitinen and he was later followed by Veikko Laitinen. PoPa played their first games at Liisantori and then later at Tiilimäki before moving in 1929 to the football and ice-hockey field at Juhannuslehto. The club later moved to the Herralahti football ground. PoPa had a rich early history playing 10 seasons in the Suomisarja (Finland League) which at that time was the second tier of Finnish football in 1937–39 and 1945–51. They have had three periods covering 7 seasons in the

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 ...

(Second Division), the third tier of Finnish football in 1989, 2002–03 and 2005–08. FC PoPa Oy took over the responsibility for the sport and financial operation of the principal team in 2007. In season 2007 PoPa played in the Kakkonen (Second Division) in the Western Group, reaching second place just one point short of promotion to the

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 ...

(First Division). In 2008 the team went one better winning the Western Group of Second Division in a crushing manner and were promoted to the Ykkönen for 2009. The club maintained their rapid progress in 2009 by finishing 4th in the Ykkönen and are well on target of bringing

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 ...

football back to Pori. The key people behind the initiative are

Antti Sumiala Antti Markus Sumiala (born 20 February 1974) is a Finnish former footballer who played as a striker. He played his last years in his hometown team FC PoPa. He was born in Pori Pori (; ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of S ...

(sport and managing director), Rami Nieminen (manager / marketing executive),

Pertti Lundell Pertti "Lunkka" Lundell (born 12 August 1952) is a Finnish football manager. He is currently working as a youth coach for a Finnish club Musan Salama. Lundell has been coaching 11 seasons in the Finnish premier divisions Mestaruussarja and Veik ...

(coach) and

Risto Puustinen Risto Puustinen (born 28 September 1959) is a Finnish football manager and a former footballer. He is currently the head coach of Musan Salama. Puustinen played five seasons in the Finnish premier division Mestaruussarja for PPT Pori and HJK H ...

(coach). From the beginning, the focal point of new executive board has been raising the football in Pori and Satakunta back to the top level in Finland. The strategy of FC PoPa is to play attacking and entertaining football, to develop young, talented players for the use of FC PoPa and to sell the most talented players to the foreign professional clubs. FC PoPa changed their name back to Porin Palloilijat in 2012.

Season to season

*15 seasons in ''2nd Tier'' *18 seasons in ''3rd Tier'' *17 seasons in ''4th Tier'' *6 seasons in ''5th Tier'' *7 seasons in ''6th Tier'' *3 seasons in ''7th Tier'' *1 season in ''8th Tier''

Club Structure

PoPa currently has 1 men's team. There is also a

futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

team that plays in the Second Division. The club runs one junior football team.

2024 season

PoPa are competing in the

administered by the

Football Association of Finland The Football Association of Finland (, SPL; ) is the governing body of football (soccer), football and futsal in Finland. It was founded in Helsinki on 19 May 1907. The SPL organises the Finland national football team, men's and Finland women's ...

(Suomen Palloliitto). This is the seventh tier of the Finnish football system.

References and sources

Official Website

General 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 ...

Suomen Cup

Porin Palloilijat Facebook

Footnotes

{{Reflist

PoPa Popa (''priest'' in Romanian) may refer to: People * Alina Popa (born 1978), Romanian-Swiss, IFBB professional bodybuilder * Anatolie Popa (1896–1920), Moldavian military commander * Celestina Popa (born 1970), Romanian, artistic gymnast * Consta ...

Sport in Pori 1925 establishments in Finland Association football clubs established in 1925 Bandy clubs established in 1925 Sports clubs and teams in Satakunta