JS Hercules is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club based in

Oulu Oulu ( , ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Ostrobothnia. It is located on the northwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Oulujoki, River Oulu. The population of Oulu is approximately , while the Oulu sub-regio ...

, Finland. Founded in 1998, the team started at the lowest level of the Finnish league system and was playing in the Third Division until promoted to Finnish Second Division, Kakkonen, for the first time for season 2016.

History

When Hercules played the first matches in 1998, some of the players had never played in a football club previously. Some had a little background in their local youth teams and nothing else. The team's core was a group of students mostly from the Faculty of Technology at the

University of Oulu The University of Oulu () is one of the largest universities in Finland, located in the city of Oulu. It was founded on July 8, 1958. The university has around 14,200 students and 3,800 staff. 21 International Master's Programmes are offer ...

. This first generation is almost gone, but a couple are still playing for the reserve team, Herkku-Papat, or manage the team business in the background. Younger ranks are now taking care of the first team efforts on the field.

Season to season

*8 season in ''Third tier'' *10 seasons in ''Fourth tier'' *10 seasons in ''Fifth tier''

Current season

On season 2018 Hercules had three teams in different leagues. The first team plays in Kakkonen, group C. The reserve team, JS Hercules/2, plays in the Third Division in northern Finland; the third team, Herkku-Papat, in the Fifth Division in the Oulu area.

Current squad 2018

Outside the pitch

JS Hercules has combined football and business in creating a yearly seminar, FootCoop, which brings together teams and businesses from Northern Fennoscandia with exceptional speakers. The 2012 seminar featured

Brian Deane Brian Christopher Deane (born 7 February 1968) is an English football coach and former player. His most recent managerial position was as the manager of the Norwegian side Sarpsborg 08. During his playing career, he played as forward from 19 ...

Tom Saintfiet Tom Saintfiet (born 29 March 1973) is a Belgian football coach and former player. He is the current head coach of the Mali national team. He managed the Gambian national team from 2018 to 2024, earning a place in the top five list of best coa ...

Martti Kuusela Martti Kuusela (born 9 October 1945) is a Finnish football manager and former midfielder. Kuusela enjoyed a moderately successful career as a player in Finland. As a coach, he won the Finnish championship in 1981 and 1990 with HJK Helsinki. H ...

Tom Markham Thomas Joseph Markham (14 December 1878 – 15 June 1939) founded two Gaelic Athletic Association clubs in Dublin. After his death, funds were collected to provide the Tom Markham Memorial Cup, which was awarded annually to the county which wo ...

, Jarmo Kekäläinen,

Aki Riihilahti Aki Pasinpoika Riihilahti (born 9 September 1976) is a Finnish sports executive and a former professional footballer. He was known as a hard working defensive midfielder. He is the CEO of HJK Helsinki. He was voted by leading European clubs to b ...

and Miguel Huhta, and others. At the same time they organized "Sister City Football Tournament" which included teams from

's sister cities and other neighboring places like

Alta IF Alta Idrettsforening is a sports club from the town of Alta in Alta Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The club is most known for its association football department, which played in the 1. divisjon until 2014. Alta currently plays in 2. d ...

AC Oulu AC Oulu is a Finnish professional football club based in Oulu, currently playing in Finland's premier division, ''Veikkausliiga''. Formed in 2002, the club have played six seasons in Finland's highest football league Veikkausliiga and 16 seasons ...

RoPS Rovaniemen Palloseura (RoPS) is a football club founded in 1950 and based in Rovaniemi, Finland. RoPS played in the Finnish Premier Division, (''Veikkausliiga'') for 32 years, from 1981 to 2021. In 2021, RoPS withdrew from professional football ...

and

Bodens BK Bodens BK is a Swedish football club located in Boden in Norrbotten. The club was formed on 2 November 1916 and began playing soccer in 1918. It is currently playing in the third tier of Swedish football, Division 1. Linguistics Note that ...

. In 2017, the club entered into a partnership with Indian

I-League The I-League is the men's second professional football division of the Indian football league system behind the Indian Super League. Administered by the All India Football Federation, it is currently contested by 13 clubs. It operates as a s ...

club

Chennai City Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian censu ...

.{{cite web, url=https://jshercules.com/2017/04/06/finnish-football-club-opens-branch-office-india-ties-long-term-cooperation-league-club-chennai-city-fc/, title=JS HERCULES OPENS A BRANCH OFFICE IN INDIA AND TIES UP FOR LONG-TERM COOPERATION WITH I-LEAGUE CLUB CHENNAI CITY FC, website=jshercules.com, date=6 April 2017, access-date=29 December 2023, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112025450/https://jshercules.com/2017/04/06/finnish-football-club-opens-branch-office-india-ties-long-term-cooperation-league-club-chennai-city-fc/, archive-date=12 November 2020

References

Football clubs in Finland Association football clubs established in 1998 1998 establishments in Finland Sport in Oulu JS Hercules