Reipas Lahti is a sports club based in Lahti, Finland. It is involved in various of ball games 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. As a consequence, the activities of

Viipurin Reipas Viipurin Reipas was an ice hockey club based in Viipuri (Vyborg). Its ice hockey section was established in 1928. It played in the SM-Sarja for two seasons (1928 and 1932) Reipas was one of the six first hockey teams that played in the first Fin ...

, 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, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

, ice hockey and

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing 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 international governing body for bandy is ...

, 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 Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

, 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 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 FC Kuusysi (Finnish for ''FC sixty-nine'') is a football club in Lahti, Finland. Its men's team is currently playing in the fourth tier of Finnish football (''Kolmonen''), and its women's team is playing in Kakkonen. The homeground of FC Kuusysi ...

. At the time both clubs played in the northern section of Division 1, i.e. on the second level, but at the end of the season Reipas found themselves in the relegation zone.

FC Lahti

The new club was simply called FC Lahti, and it inherited Kuusysi's place in Division 1, now in the southern section. The place of Reipas, in 1997 Kakkonen 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 Reipas Lahti is a sports club based in Lahti, Finland. It is involved in various of ball games 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 ...

was founded in 1996. Its task is to continue the tradition of bringing up new generations of footballers in Lahti, more specifically A and B juniors. 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 In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football * Belgian Th ...

Season to season

*27 seasons in '' Veikkausliiga'' *19 seasons in '' Ykkönen'' *16 seasons in '' Kakkonen'' *7 seasons in '' Kolmonen''

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 Cov ...

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

* Finnish Cup (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 it:Lahden Reipas lt:Reipas Lahti