Veikkaus League CEO Waldén: “The weather would do well to start getting warmer”

No worries as yet over April start of season, but the piles of snow are alarmingly high

Jan Waldén

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Directors of the Veikkaus League (Veikkausliiga), Finland’s top football division, made a wise choice when they decided that the opening game of the new season will be played in the city of Kuopio.
      From the credibility point of view, the important opening match between KuPS of Kuopio and HJK of Helsinki can be played on April 16th, despite the fact that at the moment there is still more than half a metre of snow on the ground and the kick-off is just over a month away.
      “We have a new top-notch artificial turf pitch. We began the heating of the pitch a week ago and from the beginning of the week the boys were already out training on it”, KuPS sales and marketing director Roope Marski explains.
     
Veikkausliiga Chief Executive Jan Waldén is hopeful that all the opening round’s games could be played as planned.
      “Until the recent days there has been no cause for worry, but now the weather would do well to start getting warmer.”
      Waldén points out that nearly all the football grounds and stadiums that are in use in the Veikkausliiga are equipped with subsurface heating systems. None of the opening week’s games have been scheduled for locations from where early matches have had to be moved away in recent years.
      "In the coming days we will be in touch with all the teams and follow the situation.”
     
In addition to KuPS, other hosts of the opening round games also believe that the games can be played as scheduled.
      Nothing is absolutely certain, however, for there is still plenty of snow everywhere and the overnight frosts are set to continue for some time still.
      For example at the Lahti ski stadium, which also hosts the home matches of FC Lahti, the heating of the turf could only commence after the traditional Salpausselkä Nordic Skiing Games last weekend.
     
The League Cup final, to be played in Helsinki, is scheduled for April 10th.
      “At the moment the pitch is covered with snow”, the Finnair Stadium website informs. Waldén, however, promises that the game will be played.
      “But of course removing the snow from the pitch and from the stands is a big operation.”
      In fact, with subsurface heating so widespread it is often the grandstands that pose the real problem: letting the public onto icy stands is not acceptable.
     
Last year, three of the season’s opening round games had to be postponed, even though the winter had been much milder than this year.
      For example the Swedish Allsvenskan league season kicks off already this weekend.
      “Last year the pitches over there were in awful shape at the start of the season”, Waldén recalls.


Links:
  Veikkausliiga (Wikipedia)

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