Flora flourish in Estonia

By Margus Luik

FC Flora won their sixth Estonian title last weekend, after securing a goalless draw against FC Levadia Maardu on the final day of the season to keep their two-point lead over their fierce rivals.

Estonian record
Having won the championship with a game to spare last season, it was a dramatic end to the season for the club's Dutch coach, Arno Pijpers. His side are now threatening a long-standing Estonian record - they are just three titles short of pre-war giants FC Sport Tallinn's record of nine league titles.

Pijpers relieved
"It feels a little bit better than last season, when we were champions before the last rounds," Pijpers told uefa.com. "To win it like this - in the final match of the season - is the best way to win a league title, though it was a nightmare for the nerves."

Shaky start
After suffering a 6-1 home defeat against JK Trans Narva early in the season, Flora looked vulnerable for a while, and a tight battle with Levadia and FC TVMK Tallinn followed for the remainder of the season, before Flora's burst of late-season form saw them through.

Strong competition
They lost only once in their last 16 games and won 12. Nonetheless, Flora's 64 points is the smallest total ever amassed by a championship-winning Estonian side since the league took its current format, a measure of the level of competition this season.

Winning formula
Pijpers found a winning formula with his 4-3-3 formation in the summer, with centre-forward Tor Henning Hamre scoring 19 goals in the second half of the season, but Pijpers was equally proud of all his squad, saying: "I must give credit to the players, they worked very hard and developed our game exactly the way I wanted. Martin Reim was our most stable player throughout. He is the real leader of the team."

Six of the best
Reim, a 31-year-old midfield player, and his team-mate Marko Kristal were rewarded for their efforts with their sixth titles too, as both had featured in all of Flora's championship-winning sides.

'Special feeling'
"The tighter the competition, the better it feels to win it," admitted Reim. Kristal - who holds an Estonian record with 120 international appearances - was all smiles after the win: "Now I know how [basketball player] Michael Jordan felt when he got his sixth NBA champions' ring," he said.

Europe beckons
Now Flora can look forward to the qualifiers for the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League. "In two years we have made good progress, especially in discipline and the team play," said Pijpers. "Now we have to take another step - to improve details of each player's individual skills. We have to work very hard on these things and then we might achieve something in Europe."

Huge network
Flora president Aivar Pohlak has built up a huge network of football schools around Estonia, with almost 2000 young players training in Flora football schools or affiliated teams, making the club one of the biggest in the continent.

'The only way'
"Our youth system is the only way to build up a successful club, as we cannot buy expensive foreign players," Pohlak said. "The first products of our system are forcing themselves into the squad. This might not be enough to succeed in Europe next season, but in long term this is the only way to do it."

Fine football
Flora are a team on the up, playing fine football and achieving excellent results. With their sights set on Europe and a healthy club structure, Sport Tallinn's 70-year-old record is looking increasingly insecure.