Reipas Lahti is a sports club based in

Lahti Lahti (; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Päijät-Häme. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Lahti is approximately , while the Lahti sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mo ...

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, ...

. It is involved in various of

ball game This is a list of ball games and ball sports that include a ball as a key element in the activity, usually for scoring points. Games that include balls Ball sports fall within many sport categories, some sports within multiple categories, inclu ...

s and also other sports. The club emerged in the late 1940s, when the inhabitants of Viipuri had mostly been relocated in Lahti, after evacuation during

World War II 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 ...

. As a consequence, the activities of Viipurin Reipas, which had been founded in 1891, were continued in the new home town of the evacuees. The name of the club was still Reipas Viipuri until 1962, when the ball game section became simply Reipas. Reipas has played in top-flight

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 ...

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

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 ...

, with particular success in football. In bandy, Reipas last appeared in top flight in

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

, but then discontinued its involvement in this sport the following year. In 1975, the football and ice hockey sections became independent clubs, football being continued under the name of Lahden Reipas, and ice hockey under the name of Kiekkoreipas, who now play as Pelicans.

Football

The hallmark of Reipas in football is a shirt with vertical orange and black stripes. From 1963 to 1970, Reipas won the

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) ...

three time, thus achieving a hat trick of Finnish championships. However, by 1996 the club was in financial difficulties, and the problem was solved by merging Reipas and they more recently arrived local rival Kuusysi. At the time both clubs played in the northern section of the second-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 ...

, but at the end of the season Reipas found themselves in the relegation zone.

FC Lahti

The new club was simply called

FC Lahti FC Lahti is a Finnish professional football club based in the city of Lahti. It currently plays in the Finnish second tier Ykkösliiga, after relegating from Veikkausliiga after the 2024 season. The homeground of Lahti is Toolpoint Arena. La ...

, and it inherited Kuusysi's place in

. The divisional position and the league license of Reipas, in 1997

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 ...

, was given to FC Pallo-Lahti, which was founded as a reserves team. Later this team was discontinued and the place in the division in question was given up.

FC Reipas

Together with the other changes, a club named FC Reipas was founded in 1996. Its task is to continue the tradition of bringing up new generations of footballers in Lahti, more specifically U15–U18 players. Nowadays the club has teams in all age groups. The club also has an elderly men's team. The club organises the annual Lahti Soccer tournament.

Return of Reipas Lahti

Lahden Reipas, i.e. Reipas Lahti returned to men's competitive football for the season 2012, when it was given the former place of Reipas Salpausselkä in Division 3.

Season to season

*27 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 ...

'' *19 seasons in ''

'' *16 seasons in ''

'' *7 seasons in ''

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 ...

Honours in football

*Finnish champion (3): **

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

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 ...

(7): **1964, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978 *Finnish Cup runners-up (3): **1963, 1967, 1970

References

External links

Reipas Lahti homepagesFC Reipas homepages
by Sports Museum Foundation of Finland. {{Finnish Champions in Football Football clubs in Finland Reipas Viipuri Reipas Viipuri Reipas Viipuri Sport in Vyborg Sport in Lahti 1891 establishments in Finland it:Lahden Reipas lt:Reipas Lahti