IFK Mariehamn is a Finnish

football club In association football, a football club (or association football club, alternatively soccer club) is a sports club that acts as an entity through which association football teams organise their sporting activities. The club can exist either as ...

based in

Mariehamn Mariehamn ( , ; ; ) is the capital of Åland, an autonomous territory under Finnish sovereignty. Mariehamn is the seat of the Government and Parliament of Åland, and 40% of the population of Åland live in the city. It is mostly surrounded b ...

, the capital of the

Åland Islands Åland ( , ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland. Receiving its autonomy by a 1920 decision of the League of Nations, it is the smallest region of Finland by both area () and population (30,54 ...

. It plays in the Finnish Premier Division (''

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 ...

''), winning their first title in 2016. The club is managed by Gary Williams, and it plays its home matches at

Wiklöf Holding Arena Wiklöf Holding Arena (located in ''Idrottsparken'') is a multi-purpose stadium in Mariehamn, Finland. It is used mostly for football (soccer), football matches and is the home ground of IFK Mariehamn and Åland United. The stadium has a capacity ...

History

While IFK Mariehamn was formed in 1919, the sports club did not have a football department until the mid-1930s. Initially the team participated primarily in local tournaments on

Åland Åland ( , ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland. Receiving its autonomy by a 1920 decision of the League of Nations, it is the smallest region of Finland by both area () and population (30,54 ...

, only sporadically playing other Finnish or Swedish teams. The team has participated in the Finnish football leagues since 1945. Until the 1970s, IFK Mariehamn played primarily in the Finnish football divisions 3 and 4. The club reached a peak in 1975 and 1976, when the club first advanced to division 2 and then reached division 1 (''

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 following year. After two seasons in division 1, IFK Mariehamn was relegated to division 2, where it would remain up until the 2000s, except for a few seasons in division 3 during the early 1990s. In 2003, IFK Mariehamn returned to division 1. After only one season in division 1, the club advanced, for the first time in its history to the premier division of Finnish football, the

, for the 2005 season following qualifying the October 2004 games against FC Jazz. In its first season in the ''Veikkausliiga'', IFK Mariehamn finished 12th out of 14 teams. In 2006, the club finished in 5th place and the year after 6th after an impressive run of unbeaten matches during the autumn of 2007. In addition to playing in the ''Veikkausliiga'', IFK Mariehamn participates in local Åland tournaments, having won the Åland cup 40 times and the Åland football championships 42 times. In recent years, the club has been the most dominant football team on Åland, having in 2008 won its 11th and 15th straight titles in these two events, respectively. In 2009, IFK Mariehamn started its first season as a fully professional football club. In

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, the team won 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 ...

for the first time. On 23 October 2016, IFK Mariehamn defeated FC Ilves 2–1 to secure the first ever

Championship for the island club. In the 2017–18 season, IFK played its first-ever two-match

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 ...

qualification, where it was knocked out by Poland's champion

Legia Warsaw Legia Warszawa (), commonly referred to as Legia Warsaw or simply Legia, is a professional football club based in Warsaw, Poland. Legia is the most successful Polish football club in history, winning a record 15 champions titles, a record 2 ...

Stadium

IFK Mariehamn plays its home matches at the

Domestic history

* 1945–1971: Kolmonen and Nelonen (two seasons) * 1972:

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 ...

* 1973–1975: Kolmonen * 1976: Kakkonen * 1977–1978:

* 1979–1990: Kakkonen * 1991–1992: Kolmonen * 1993–2003: Kakkonen * 2004: Ykkönen * 2005–present: ''

'' (Premier League) *20 seasons in ''

'' *4 season in ''

'' *41 seasons in ''

'' *13 seasons in '' Kolmonen''

European history

;Notes * 1QR: First qualifying round * 2QR: Second qualifying round

Current squad

On loan

Youth players

Former players

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

Management and boardroom

Management

''As of 20 January 2021''

Managerial history

* Pekka Lyyski (2003–2015) * Kari Virtanen (2016) * Peter Lundberg (2016–2019) * Lukas Syberyjski (2020–2021) * Daniel Norrmén (2021–2023) *

Jimmy Wargh Jimmy Jan-Anders Wargh (born 9 April 1976) is a Finnish football executive, Manager (association football), football manager and a former player who played as a midfielder. He is currently the CEO and the club director of Veikkausliiga club IFK M ...

(2023) * Bruno Romão (2024) * Gary Williams (2024-)

Boardroom

''As of 11 April 2017''

Honours

**Champions:

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

**Winners:

**Runners-up:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

MIFK Ishockey

MIFK Ishockey is the ice hockey section of IFK Mariehamn. MIFK men's team plays in the Swedish " HockeyFyran", the fifth division of Swedish hockey. MIFK Ishockey has also played in the Finnish III-divisioona. IFK Mariehamn plays its home games in the Islandia ice rink in Mariehamn. Islandia's capacity is 800. The hockey team was founded in 1993. MIFK won their division in HockeyFyran with 33 points and advanced to the HockeyTrean qualifiers for the 2023/24 season. MIFK's head coach is Kenneth Westerback, assistant coaches are Kim Schauman and Robert Andersson, the GM is André Portin and the team captain is Pontus Nylén. IFK Mariehamn U17 plays in the Finnish U17 II-divisioona. MIFK Ishockey Dam is the women's ice hockey team founded in 2017. The team plays in the Swedish Division 2, but has played in the Finnish

Suomi-sarja The Suomi-sarja is Finland's third highest ice hockey league. Suomi-sarja has 14 teams. Suomi-sarja has been played since the 1999–2000 season. Prior to this, Finland's third league had been Division II since 1975 and before that the Provi ...

References

External links

* * (archived
GMM – The fan club
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mariehamn, IFK Football clubs in Finland Association football clubs established in 1919 Football in Åland Mariehamn 1919 establishments in Finland Swedish-speaking population of Finland Ice hockey teams in Finland Ice hockey in Finland