HIFK (Helsingfors Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna) Bandy are a

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 ...

club from

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 ...

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, ...

. HIFK Bandy was founded in 1907 and it is one of the oldest bandy clubs in

. HIFK are also the most successful bandy club with 17 championship titles. In 1988 they were

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

runners-up. HIFK Bandy currently plays in

Bandyliiga The Bandyliiga (; 'Bandy League') is the top level of men's bandy in Finland. The league was founded in 1908 as the Jääpallon Suomen mestaruus, SM-sarja ('Bandy Finnish Championship Series') and the present name has been used since the 1991– ...

, the premier bandy league in Finland.

History

HIFK Bandy was formed in 1907 as a bandy section of

HIFK HIFK, the Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors (IFK, Helsingfors) rf (officially abbreviated IFK Helsingfors, colloquially often Helsingfors IFK or Helsingin IFK) is a multi-sport association based in Helsinki, Finland. Formed in 1897 on ...

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

formed in 1897. HIFK competed in the very first Finnish bandy championships in the winter of 1908. The team fared well in the early years of the competition winning their first title in 1910 and then again in 1911, 1912 and 1913. In the 1930s HIFK were again in top form gathering 3 more titles within 10 years. During war years of

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 ...

the team grabbed the top position in 1941 and 1944, along with victories in the unofficial wartime league of 1940 and 1942. After the war HIFK found themselves in a slump and were relegated from

and spent five years in the Suomisarja, a second-tier bandy league. By the 1970s, things were back in shape with the construction of Oulunkylä artificial ice rink which was used for training and HIFK grabbed the title again in 1978. During this time, HIFK developed a healthy rivalry with local Botnia-69 who they competed against in front of thousands of spectators who had come to watch the two teams from

clash. In the late 80s HIFK struck gold again, winning the title twice in 1988 and 1989. In the following years many older players retired and HIFK was forced to rebuild itself from the ground up. The rejuvenated team grabbed a their first title in 1998 but had to mature and wait until the late 2000s to find their top form again. The prize came eventually and HIFK won their first titles of the 21st century in 2010 and 2011. In 2013 HIFK beat

Narukerä Narukerä is a Finnish bandy team based in the town of Pori in the Satakunta, Satakunta region of Finland. The 1965 established team has won two Finnish bandy championships, in 1999 and 2023, but has got 13 medals in total, most recently bronze ...

from

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 ...

in the final by a score of 3-1 - making the team most successful bandy club in Finland with 17 titles. HIFK placed second in 2014-15 season after losing to Mikkelin Kampparit 6-3 in the final, played on HIFK's home ground.

Honours

championship titles: 17 ** 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1934, 1935, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1944, 1978 1987, 1988, 1998, 2010, 2011, 2013 *

Suomen Cup The Finnish Cup (; ) is Finland's main national cup competition in association football, 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 Europ ...

titles: 2 ** 1990, 1992

References

External links

Official website

Bandyliiga
Bandy clubs in Finland Sports clubs and teams in Helsinki

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 ...

Bandy clubs established in 1897 {{Finland-sport-team-stub