RoPS

Full name

Rovaniemen Palloseura

Founded

1950

Ground

Keskuskenttä,
Rovaniemi

Capacity

4,000

Chairman

Risto Niva

Manager

Juha Malinen

League

Veikkausliiga

2015

2nd

Home colours

Away colours

Rovaniemen Palloseura (RoPS), is a football club, founded in 1950 and based in Rovaniemi, Finland. In 2015 RoPS plays in the Finnish Premier Division (Veikkausliiga). The club plays home games at Keskuskenttä in downtown Rovaniemi.

History

Keskuskenttä, home ground of RoPS

RoPS won the Finnish Cup in 1986 and 2013, and placed third in the Finnish Premier Division in 1988 and 1989 before finishing as runner-up in 2015. Its most notable international achievement was reaching the quarter-finals of the European Cup-Winners' Cup in 1987–88.

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.^[1]

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. ^[2]

Season to Season

Season	Level	Division	Section	Administration	Position	Movements
1991	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	7th
1992	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	7th
1993	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	8th	Upper Group – 7th
1994	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	5th
1995	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	9th
1996	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	9th	Lower Group – 8th
1997	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	9th	Third Round – 6th
1998	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	7th	Third Round – 8th
1999	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	8th	Upper Group – 8th
2000	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	9th
2001	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	12th	Relegated
2002	Tier 2	Ykkönen (First Division)	North Group	Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	4th	Lower Group North – 5th
2003	Tier 2	Ykkönen (First Division)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	2nd	Promotion Play-offs – Promoted
2004	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	12th
2005	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	13th	Relegation Play-offs – Relegated
2006	Tier 2	Ykkönen (First Division)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	7th
2007	Tier 2	Ykkönen (First Division)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	2nd	Promotion Play-offs – Promoted
2008	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	10th
2009	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	14th	Relegated
2010	Tier 2	Ykkönen (First Division)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	1st	Promoted
2011	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	12th	Relegated
2012	Tier 2	Ykkönen (First Division)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	1st	Promoted
2013	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	11th
2014	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	10th
2015	Tier 1	Veikkausliiga (Premier League)		Finnish FA (Suomen Palloliitto)	2nd

19 seasons in Veikkausliiga
6 seasons in Ykkönen

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 Shkodër	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
1989–90	UEFA Cup	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
2016–17	UEFA Europa League	2Q	Lokomotiva	1–1	0–3	1–4

Notes

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

Honours

Finnish Cup (2)

1986, 2013

Ykkönen (2):

2010, 2012

Current squad

As of 29 November 2016

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

No.	Position	Player
4	MF	Antti Okkonen (Captain)
6	MF	Juha Pirinen
8	MF	Robert Taylor
12	GK	Juhani Kangas
13	DF	Lassi Järvenpää
14	FW	Jarkko Luiro
15	MF	Juho Hyvärinen
21	MF	Aapo Heikkilä

No.	Position	Player
22	GK	Ricardo
25	GK	Antonio Reguero
47	DF	Juuso Hämäläinen
-	DF	Leo Väisänen
-	MF	Pyry Hannola
-	MF	Sani Kaita
-	FW	Timo Stavitski
-	FW	Sakari Tukiainen

Management

As of 4 August 2016.

Name	Role
Juha Malinen	Head Coach
Matti Kilpelä	Coach
Ossi Koskela	Goalkeeping Coach
Tuomas Könönen	Physiotherapist
Hannu Vento	Kit Manager
Markku Kerola	Doctor
Matti Vikman	Team Manager

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–)

References

↑ Susanna Kemppainen. "RoPS:lla yli 30 epäiltyä sopupeliä | Pohjois-Suomi". Kaleva.fi. Retrieved 2012-02-12.
↑ Uusi Suomi. "Oikeus: Sopupeleistä 150 000 euroa – 2 vuotta vankeutta — Uusi Suomi". Uusisuomi.fi. Retrieved 2012-02-12.

External links

Official website (Finnish)

Veikkausliiga · 2016

FC Inter FC Lahti HIFK HJK IFK Mariehamn Ilves KuPS PK-35 Vantaa PS Kemi RoPS SJK VPS

Top division football seasons in Finland

Mestaruussarja	1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

Veikkausliiga	1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Football in Finland

Football in Finland

Football Association of Finland

National teams

League system

Men:	Veikkausliiga (tier 1) Ykkönen (tier 2) Kakkonen (tier 3) Kolmonen (tier 4) Nelonen (tier 5) Vitonen (tier 6) Kutonen (tier 7) Seiska (tier 8)

Women:	Naisten Liiga (tier 1) Naisten Ykkönen (tier 2) Naisten Kakkonen (tier 3) Naisten Kolmonen (tier 4) Naisten Nelonen (tier 5)

District Associations

Domestic cups

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