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 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. Formed in 1897 on the initiative of Georges Doubitsky and fellow students of the Svenska Reallyceum, the Swedish

lyceum The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies among countries; usually it is a type of secondary school. Basic science and some introduction to ...

in Helsinki, it is the oldest continuously-operating

Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna (English: Sporting Society Comrades), usually abbreviated IFK, is a central organisation for many sports clubs in Sweden. There are also eight IFK clubs in Finland but they are organised separately. The Swedish IFK ...

(IFK) organization in Finland. HIFK has sections in many sports, including

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

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 ...

bowling Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...

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

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

Bandy

HIFK Bandy ry oversees the men's and women's representative teams, junior teams and bandy school, and recreational bandy programs. Kauko Rautiainen is chairman of HIFK Bandy ry. The men's bandy section of HIFK was created in 1907 and the representative team has won the Finnish Championship seventeen times, more than any other club, and the

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 ...

twice. The team plays in the

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– ...

and their home arena is

Brahenkenttä Brahe Field (; ), is a sports ground in Helsinki, Finland. It is the home field for Käpylän Pallo football club and the HIFK bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two team sport, teams wearing Ice skates#Bandy skates, ice ...

in the

Alppiharju Alppiharju () is a district of approximately 12,000 inhabitants in the eastern part of the Central major district of Helsinki, Finland. It consists of sub-districts Alppila and Harju, and is bordered by Kallio in the south, Taka-Töölö in the ...

district. HIFK women's team plays in the Jääpallon naisten SM-sarja (Women's Bandy Finnish Championship Series) and have won the Finnish Championship three times, in 1986, 1987, and 2011.

Ice hockey

Oy HIFK Hockey Ab is the largest business within the HIFK association, comprising the men’s representative team in the

Liiga The Liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league comprises 16 teams from all around Finland with relegation and promotion between the Mesti ...

, the women’s representative team in the Naisten Liiga, an expansive junior organization, and the hREDS

eSports Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

team.

eSport

In November 2016 an esports project was started under the name Helsinki REDS (hREDS).

Athletics

The Athletics section of HIFK is one of Finland's oldest and most successful athletics clubs.

Handball

The Handball section of HIFK is one of the pioneers of the sport in Finland. The men's section has won 10 national championships and the women's section 41 national championships. Both teams play their home games at the Helsinki Urheilutalo in the Kallio district of the city.

Football

The football section of HIFK was established in 1907, and its first team earned promotion to

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 ...

for the 2015 season. The men's team currently plays in the fifth highest tier, and the women's team in the third highest tier.

Notes

References

Significant content in this article was translated from the existing Finnish Wikipedia article at :fi:HIFK and the existing Swedish Wikipedia article at :sv:HIFK; see their histories for attribution.

External links

Official club website

Helsinki REDS website
{{Authority control Sports clubs and teams in Helsinki 1897 establishments in Finland