Sponsorship income in cross-country skiing back to levels before 2001 doping scandal

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The income from sponsorship and corporate partners enjoyed by the cross-country skiing branch of the Finnish Ski Association has returned to roughly the level it was before the Lahti World Nordic Ski Championships of 2001.
      As some will remember all too well, the 2001 World Championships ended in fiasco and embarrassment for Finnish cross-country skiing, as no fewer than six athletes, including former Olympic medallists, were found guilty of using banned substances and were given two-year competition bans.
      The incident, together with a later positive doping case at Val di Fiemme in March 2003, caused tremors within the FSA organisation, and also a mass flight from corporate sponsorship of the discipline, in much the same way as a match-fixing scandal some years ago hurt Finnish-rules baseball.
     
Yesterday, however, Jari Piirainen, the FSA's Managing Director, reported that income from corporate sponsors had returned to normal levels.
      After Lahti, a whole raft of sponsors parted company with the FSA, including insurers Pohjola and the Nordea bank, and the government radically reduced state funding through the Ministry of Education.
      In the spring of 2001 the cut-price petrol chain ST1 agreed to become the new principal sponsor for Nordic skiing in this country, and they have now signed a new three-year deal with the FSA to run until the spring of 2009. Piirainen was quick to point out the company's pivotal role in saving the sport from near-oblivion in the wake of the doping scandals.
     
This year the entire FSA budget is undergoing some belt-tightening, as in 2004 the Association recorded a loss of EUR 860,000.
      The Association's budget for 2006 predicts income of around EUR 7.6 million, with some 83% of this coming in the form of its own fund-raising activities and the remainder in state aid and training grants from the Finnish Olympic Committee.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish Ski Association may lose over 1.6 million euros due to Varis doping case (28.4.2003)
  Lahti doping scandal has cost Finnish Ski Association over three million euros (7.11.2002)
  Finns numbed by shocking revelations of Finnish Ski Association (1.3.2001)
  Minister Lindén asks police to investigate Finnish Ski Association (27.2.2001)

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