INDEX: Finland 3 Seinäjoki 4-5 Travel and page accommodation p.4 4 information 6-7 OmaSp Stadion 8-9 SJK Seinäjoki 10-13 Fixtures in Veikkausliiga 2017 14 Sponsor 15 page 8 page 10 FINLAND Finland, the home of SJK Seinäjoki, is a Nordic country with unique natural and cultural characteristics. It is bordered by Sweden to the west, Norway to the north, Russia to the east and Estonia across the Gulf of Finland. Finland is known for its clean nature, thousands of lakes, design and technology. It is also the home country of famous footballers, such as Jari Litmanen and Sami Hyypiä. The highest level of football is played in the Veikkausliiga. Finland is safe and the world’s least corrupted country, with a high level of education. If you speak English, you should not have any difficulties as most Finns speak fluent (or at least understandable) English. POPULATION: approx. 5.5 million. AREA: 338,424 km², the ÿ fth-largest country in Western Europe. GREATEST LENGTH FROM NORTH TO SOUTH: 1,160 km (720 miles) GREATEST WIDTH FROM EAST TO WEST: 540 km (335 miles) LANGUAGES: Finnish (spoken by 91 %) and Swedish (spoken by 5.4 %). Sámi is the mother tongue of about 1,700 people, members of the indigenous Sámi people of northern Finland. CAPITAL: Helsinki (1.25 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area) CURRENCY UNIT: Euro RELIGION: Christianity; 79.9 % Lutheran and about 1.1% Orthodox. In practice society is fairly secularised CLIMATE: Great contrasts – cold winters and fairly warmsummers (2013 extremes: coldest day in Sodankylä -39.7 C/-39.5 F, warmest day in Liperi 32.4 C/90.3 F) GMT: +2 3 WELCOME TO SEINÄ- JOKI SEINÄJOKI: Seinäjoki is one of the fastest growing urban centers in Finland, with a population of nearly 200 000 people. Municipality of Seinäjoki has population of 62 000. Seinäjoki is also the capital of the South Ostrobothnia (Finnish: Etelä- Pohjanmaa) in Western Finland. Its uniqueness lies in its original culture, rich history and entrepreneurial spirit. Although Seinäjoki is known for its football club SJK Seinäjoki, the town is also renowned for the architecture of Alvar Aalto and many of its popular summer events, such as rock festival Provinssi and tango festival Tangomarkkinat. Seinäjoki is the sixth largest market area in Finland, with high quality education from comprehensive school to university level. Seinäjoki has good transport connections, being situated right at the heart of the Finnish transport network. The town and the surrounding area are famous for entrepreneurship, and Seinäjoki is often touted as the entrepreneurial capital of Finland. The Seinäjoki attitude is ‘for us nothing is impossible.’ More info on Seinäjoki: www.seinajoki.fi/en/ 5 PASSENGER airports NEAR SEINÄJOKI: Helsinki-Vantaa Airport is the main international airport of the Helsinki metropolitan region and the whole of Finland. The airport is located approx. 350 km south from city of Seinäjoki. Vaasa Airport is located in city of Vaasa, approx. 80 km west of Seinäjoki Tampere-Pirkkala Airport is located near the city of Tampere, approx. 150 km south of Seinäjoki. Privately owned Seinäjoki airport is only for the charter flights. Located 10 km from city centre. More info: http://seinajokiairport.fi/ Railway station: Seinäjoki Railway Station is located in the centre of town. The station is a significant junction, with connections toward every point of the compass. It only takes approx. 3 hours by train from Helsinki to get here. Accommodation and travellers info: http://www.visitseinajoki.fi/en/ WELCOME TO SEINÄ- JOKI 7 OMASP Stadion The home of SJK Seinäjoki is the OmaSp Stadion. This new, state of the art stadium is located only 2 km from Seinäjoki town centre, adjacent to SJK’s training centre, Wallsport Areena. The OmaSp Stadion was inaugurated on 15th of the June 2016, with the opening game on 18th of June a sell-out. OmaSp Stadion has the capacity of 5876 spectators. The pitch is the latest technology artificial turf, made by Saltex Finland. It has an integrated, undersoil heating system and is as close to the feeling of real grass as artificial grass can offer. It has the highest FIFA rating and a UEFA-regulation playing area of 105 x 68 metres. OmaSp Stadion has two 500-seat restaurants, an SJK Shop, SJK offices and media facilities. All seats are foldable and covered. The VIP-area, Atria-Lounge, can be found at the third floor of the stadium. The main stand is heated. The stadium is named by our sponsor Oma Säästöpankki, the largest savings bank in Finland. Their marketing name is OmaSp and their headquarters are also in Seinäjoki. More info: www.omaspstadion.fi 9 SJK SEINÄJOKI The Reigning Finnish Cup winners (Suomen Cup) and Veikkausliiga bronze medalist, SJK Seinäjoki, was formed in 2007 by the merger of two older Seinäjoki clubs, Sepsi-78 and TP-Seinäjoki, and the history of football goes back at year 1930. SJK Seinäjoki started in the third tier of the Finnish league system (Kakkonen) and was quickly promoted to the second tier. The end of 2013 saw SJK being promoted by winning the second tier championship (Ykkönen). In the 2014 season SJK won the Finnish League cup (Liigacup) and silver medals in their first ever season in the Finnish premier league (Veikkausliiga). In their second season in the Veikkausliiga 2015, SJK was crowned as the Champions of Finland. Third season brought even more success, as SJK was crowned the Finnish Cup winners and medalists once again with bronze medals. SJK is managed by Spanish coach José Manuel Roca, who started his job in June 2017, as a replacement for the former manager. Roca is a former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Real Madrid, Villarreal & Murcia in Spain and Olympiakos Voloun & Panthrakikos in Greece. He has coached in Greece, Cyprus and Spain. SJK is the most successful, and best supported, sports team from Seinäjoki, a town with a proud sporting history. SJK has a full range youth system with 600 players and its own academy team SJK Akatemia. The club owns its own high-quality training centre, the Wallsport Areena, and the new, state of the art stadium OmaSp Stadion, which had its inaugural game on 18th of June 2016. SJK Seinäjoki participated in the UEFA Europa League qualification games during season 2015 – 2016 and on UEFA Champions League qualifications during 2016 – 2017. More info: Contact: www.sjk2007.fi Teemu Virtanen, CEO [email protected] tel. +358 45 321 8599 SJK SEINÄJOKI IN A NUTSHELL FULL NAME: Seinäjoen Jalkapallokerho or SJK Seinäjoki NICKNAME: Kerho FOUNDED: 2007 by a merger of Sepsi-78 and TP-Seinäjoki HOMETOWN: Seinäjoki (population 61,000) STADIUM: OmaSp Stadion CAPACITY: 5876 MANAGER: Manuel Roca CHAIRMAN: Raimo Sarajärvi LEAGUE: Veikkausliiga SUPPORTER GROUP: Klopit 11 # 3 MARC VALES # 4 RICHARD DORMAN # 5 DANI HATAKKA # 6 Matej HRADECKÝ # 7 TIMO Tahvanainen Position: Defender Position: Defender Position: Defender Position: Midfielder Position: Defender Height: 184 cm Height: 184 cm Height: 185 cm Height: 196 cm Height: 174 cm Weight: 79 kg Weight: 80 kg Weight: 82 kg Weight: 76 kg Weight: 79 kg Born: 04.04.1990 Born: 14.6.1988 Born: 12.03.1994 Born: 17.04.1995 Born: 26.6.1986 Nationality: Andorra Nationality: Wales Nationality: Finland Nationality: Finland Nationality: Finland # 8 JOHANNES LAAKSONEN # 10 BILLY IONS # 11 TOMAS HRADECKY # 15 Matti KLINGA # 17 VILLE TIKKANEN Position: Midfielder Position: Forward Position: Midfielder Position: Midfielder Position: Midfielder Height: 183 cm Height: 182 cm Height: 183 cm Height: 173 cm Height: 183 cm Weight: 83 kg Weight: 83 kg Weight: 82 kg Weight: 67 kg Weight: 84 kg Born: 13.12.1990 Born: 11.03.1994 Born: 13.12.1990 Born: 10.12.1994 Born: 08.08.1999 Nationality: Finland Nationality: England Nationality: Finland Nationality: Finland Nationality: Finland # 18 JARKKO HURME # 19 OBED MALOLO # 20 ARTTU AROMAA # 21 FACUNDO GUICHON # 22 DIEGO BARDANCA Position: Defender Position: Midfielder Position: Defender Position: Midfielder Position: Defender Height: 178 cm Height: 173 cm Height: 188 cm Height: 182 cm Height: 190 cm Weight: 76 kg Weight: 65 kg Weight: 77 kg Weight: 72 kg Weight: 80 kg Born: 4.6.1986 Born: 18.04.1997 Born: 05.01.1995 Born: 08.02.1991 Born: 20.03.1993 Nationality: Finland Nationality: Finland Nationality: Finland Nationality: Uruguay Nationality: Spain # 25 ELIAS AHDE # 26 JESSE SARAJÄRVI # 29 CHEMA ANTON # 31 Paavo VALAKARI # 33 MIHKEL AKSALU Position: Forward Position: Midfielder Position: Defender Position: Goalkeeper Position: Goalkeeper Height: 185 cm Height: 185 cm Height: 185 cm Height: 180 cm Height: 194 cm Weight: 73 kg Weight: 67 kg Weight: 72 kg Weight: 70 kg Weight: 84 kg Born: 06.03.1996 Born: 20.5.1995 Born: 19.03.1989 Born: 28.12.1997 Born: 7.11.1984 Nationality: Finland Nationality: Finland Nationality: Spain Nationality: Finland Nationality: Estonia # 37 ARISTOTE MBOMA # 58 MEHMET HETEMAJ # 80 ERFAN ZENELI MANUEL ROCA Position: Forward Position: Midfielder Position: Midfielder Manager Height: 185 cm Height: 185 cm Height: 168 cm Nationality: Spain Weight: 82 kg Weight: 78 kg Born: 28.12.1986 Born: 30.06.1994 Born: 08.12.1987 Nationality: Finland/Kosovo Nationality: Finland Nationality: Finland/Kosovo FIXTURES IN VEIKKAUSLIIGA 2017 Wed 5.4. 19:30 SJK - FC Lahti 1-1 Sat 8.4. 16:00 VPS - SJK 1-3 Sat 15.4. 15:30 SJK - Ilves 1-2 Sat 22.4. 16:00 PS Kemi - SJK 3-1 Fri 28.4. 20:00 SJK - HIFK 3-3 Sat 6.5. 17:00 FC Lahti - SJK 1-0 Fri 12.5. 20:00 SJK - JJK 1-0 Fri 19.5. 20:00 SJK - RoPS 3-0 Wed 24.5.