Rovaniemen Palloseura

Rovaniemen Palloseura (RoPS) is a football club founded in 1950 and based in Rovaniemi, Finland. RoPS participated 32 years in the Finnish Premier Division, (Veikkausliiga) since 1981. In 2021 RoPS withdrew from professional football and voluntarily relegated to the amateur Kakkonen third division. The club plays home games at the Rovaniemen Keskuskenttä in the Arctic Circle of Lapland.

RoPS

Full name	Rovaniemen Palloseura
Founded	1950 (1950)
Ground	Keskuskenttä, Rovaniemi
Capacity	4,000
Chairman	Matti Poikajärvi
Manager	Ville Ulanen
League	Ykkönen
2024	Ykkönen, 5th of 12
Website	https://www.rops.fi/
Home colours Away colours

History

Keskuskenttä, home ground of RoPS

RoPS have won the Finnish Cup on two occasions, in 1986 and 2013, and were runners-up in 1962. They placed third in the Finnish Premier Division in 1988 and 1989, before finishing as runner-up in 2015, losing out on the title by 1 point to eventual champions SJK. The club's most notable international achievement was reaching the quarter-finals of the European Cup-Winners' Cup in 1987–88 against Marseille.

Match fixing allegations and scandal

Throughout the 2000s, RoPS became infamous for suspected involvement in match fixing.

In spring 2011 the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation started a large investigation into match fixing. On February 25 Singaporean businessman Wilson Raj Perumal, a convicted match fixer, was arrested after entering Finland with a fake passport. The National Bureau of Investigation suspected that over 30 games between 2008 and 2011, mostly from the Finnish premier league, had been fixed or manipulated.

On July 19, 2011, the Rovaniemi Court of Appeal convicted Perumal and nine RoPS players of match-fixing. Altogether 24 games had been manipulated, and the intended score had been achieved in 11 of them. Perumal was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to return 150,000 euros deemed to be match-fixing profits. The bribes ranged from 500 euros offered to one player to a total of 80,000 euros offered to eight players. The highest total of bribes for one individual was slightly over 40,000 euros. The players received suspended sentences. The sentenced players were six Zambian and two Georgian players: Godfrey Chibanga, Chileshe Chibwe, Francis Kombe, Stephen Kunda, Christopher Musonda, Chanda Mwaba, Nchimunya Mweetwa, Pavle Khorguashvili, and Valter Khorguashvili.

Domestic history

Season	Level	Pos	Pld	W	D	L	For	Against	Points	Finnish Cup	League Cup	Top goalscorer
1991	1st	7	33	14	8	11	63	51	50		-
1992		7	33	12	6	15	53	49	42		-
1993		7	29	11	5	13	32	35	38	Runners-up	-
1994		5	26	10	8	8	32	32	38
1995		9	26	8	8	10	29	30	32	Ninth Round
1996		8	27	11	6	10	35	29	39	Quarter-final	Runners-up
1997		6	27	9	6	12	31	30	33	Semi-final
1998		8	27	6	14	7	27	31	32
1999		8	29	7	10	12	31	46	31	Seventh Round
2000		9	33	10	6	17	35	50	36
2001		12	33	5	9	19	25	56	24	Sixth Round	-
2002	2nd	4	22	9	4	9	41	10	31	Quarter-final	-	Niclas Grönholm  – 11
2003		2	26	14	7	5	40	27	49	Sixth Round	-
2004	1st	12	26	7	4	15	28	45	25	Quarter-final
2005		13	26	3	8	15	18	50	17
2006	2nd	7	26	10	8	8	40	35	38		-
2007		2	26	16	7	3	44	23	55		-
2008	1st	10	26	8	6	12	31	37	30	Sixth Round	Quarter-finals
2009		14	26	4	4	18	21	66	16	Sixth Round	Group stage	Echiabhi Okodugha  – 5
2010	2nd	1	26	15	9	2	61	17	54	Fourth round	-	Nchimunya Mweetwa  – 13
2011	1st	12	33	5	8	20	39	78	23	Fifth Round	Group stage	José Manuel Rivera  – 10
2012	2nd	1	27	18	5	4	53	20	59	Fifth Round	-	Aleksandr Kokko  – 15
2013	1st	11	33	8	10	15	25	36	34	Winners	Quarter-finals	Aleksandr Kokko  – 6
2014		9	33	11	5	17	37	41	38	Sixth Round	Group stage	Aleksandr Kokko  – 9
2015		2	33	17	8	8	44	29	59	Sixth Round	Runners-up	Aleksandr Kokko  – 17
2016		6	33	13	11	9	43	33	50	Sixth Round	Group stage	Robert Taylor  – 11
2017		7	33	12	6	15	43	51	42	Quarter-final Play-offs	-	Emeka Friday Eze  – 7
2018		2	33	18	8	7	42	25	62	Sixth Round	-	Lassi Lappalainen  – 8
2019		10	27	8	6	13	23	35	30	Quarterfinal	-	Youness Rahimi  – 5
2020		12
2021	2nd	2

European history

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1987–88	Cup Winners' Cup	1R	Glentoran	0–0	1–1	1–1(a)
		2R	Vllaznia	1–0	1–0	2–0
		QF	Marseille	0–1	0–3	0–4
1989–90	UEFA Cup	1R	GKS Katowice	1–1	1–0	2–1
		2R	Auxerre	0–5	0–3	0–8
1990–91	UEFA Cup	1R	1. FC Magdeburg	0–1	0–0	0–1
2014–15	UEFA Europa League	2Q	Asteras Tripoli	1–1	2–4	3–5
2016–17	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Shamrock Rovers	1–1	2–0	3–1
		2Q	Lokomotiva	1–1	0–3	1–4
2019–20	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Aberdeen	1–2	1–2	2–4

Notes

• 1R: First round
• 2R: Second round
• 1Q: First qualifying round
• QF: Quarter-finals

Honours

• Finnish Cup
  • Champions (2): 1986, 2013
• Ykkönen
  • Champions (2): 2010, 2012

Current squad

As of 1 January 2022

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	FIN	Miikka Mujunen
2	DF	FIN	Simo Majander
6	MF	NED	Nino Roffelsen
7	FW	FIN	Veka Pyyny
8	MF	FIN	Vili Saarikoski
12	GK	FIN	Mikko Rantala
15	DF	FIN	Miska Ylitolva
16	FW	FIN	Kirill Bullat
19	DF	FIN	Joona Lahdenmäki

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
20	FW	FIN	Simo Roiha
21	MF	FIN	Elmeri Hirvonen
22	DF	POR	Rodrigo Antunes
23	DF	FIN	Sampo Ala-Iso
26	DF	FIN	Eerik Kantola
28	FW	FIN	Jarkko Luiro
33	MF	GHA	Geoffrey Acheampong
34	FW	SRB	Srđan Vujaklija
—	DF	FIN	Aaro Tiihonen

Management and boardroom

Management

As of 18 February 2020.

Name Role Vesa Tauriainen Head Coach Mika Pulkkinen Coach Jari Alamäki Fitness Coach Ossi Koskela Goalkeeping Coach Tuomas Könönen Physiotherapist Vilma Poutiainen Physiotherapist David Coull Kit Manager Essi Jokelainen Masseur Olavi Tammimies Team Manager

Boardroom

As of 18 February 2020

Name Role Risto Niva Chairman, Managing director Pekka Konstenius Vice chairman Jari Ilola Director of Football

Rovaniemi Football Academy

Rovaniemi Football Academy (RFA) is the reserve team of RoPS. The team plays in Kakkonen in 2020 season. It is coached by Aleksi Tanner.

As of 14 September 2020

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
11	GK	FIN	Lauri Vetri
24	MF	FIN	Kirill Bullat
30	GK	FIN	Tino Korhonen
35	GK	FIN	Pauli Tuisku
36	MF	FIN	Vertti Hänninen
37	DF	FIN	Joona Lahdenmäki
36	MF	FIN	Jonne Länsipää
39	DF	FIN	Akseli Kantola
40	MF	FIN	Ville Ojala
40	FW	FIN	Santeri Matilainen
41	MF	FIN	Jonne Koistinen
42	MF	FIN	Riku-Veli Niska

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
43	FW	FIN	Joona Kähkönen
44	DF	FIN	Tuomas Leppäkangas
46	FW	FIN	Adam Mekki
47	FW	FIN	Janne Ojaniemi
49	MF	EGY	Karam Hadhoud
50	DF	FIN	Severi Salmirinne
52	DF	FIN	Miska Ylitolva
53	MF	FIN	Roni Pietsalo
54	FW	FIN	Antti Salmi
56	DF	FIN	Luka Kuittinen
57	DF	FIN	Sampo Ala-Iso

Managers

• Jerzy Masztaler (1990–91)
• Graham Williams (1991)
• Olavi Tammimies (1992)
• Keith Armstrong (1993–94)
• Timo Salmi (1995)
• Graham Williams (1995)
• Ari Matinlassi (1995)
• Ari Rantamaa (1996–97)
• Kari Virtanen (1997–99)
• Olavi Tammimies (2000)
• Mauri Holappa (2001)
• Tomi Molin (2002)
• György Hamori (Jan 1, 2003 – June 23, 2004)
• Mika Lumijärvi (June 23, 2004 – June 30, 2005)
• Matti Vikman (interim) (June 30, 2005 – Dec 31, 2005)
• Jukka Ikäläinen (2006)
• Tom Saintfiet (Jan 1, 2008 – April 7, 2008)
• Valeri Bondarenko (April 14, 2008 – May 27, 2009)
• Mika Lumijärvi (May 27, 2009 – Oct 6, 2009)
• Zeddy Saileti (Oct 6, 2009 – Dec 31, 2009)
• John Allen (Jan 1, 2010 – Aug 9, 2011)
• Matti Hiukka (Aug 9, 2011 – Dec 31, 2011)
• Kari Virtanen (Jan 1, 2012 – Oct 13)
• Juha Malinen (Nov, 2013 – Oct, 2017)
• Toni Koskela (Oct, 2017 – May 22, 2019)
• Pasi Tuutti (May 22, 2019– )

External links

• Official website (in Finnish)