Finland expects EURO legacy
Thursday, September 10, 2009
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UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ was the first senior national-team tournament ever staged by the Football Association of Finland and president Pekka Hämäläinen believes it will have a lasting legacy.
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UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ was the first senior national-team tournament ever staged by the Football Association of Finland and president Pekka Hämäläinen believes the finals will have a lasting legacy.
Success
The previous record crowd for a women's international in Finland was less than 6,000 yet the average attendance here was not far off that and Finland's three group games in Helsinki attracted more than 15,000 each. "Our intention has all along been to promote women's and girls' football in Finland and I think that we have succeeded," Hämäläinen told uefa.com. "The crowds in the matches involving our national team have been good and we think the impact will be that even more girls will start playing football as their hobby."
Public interest
It was a truly national event. "Before this tournament the biggest crowds we had in women's football have been around 5,000 but now we have had over 15,000 in three matches so that shows that there has been public interest," Hämäläinen said. "In all the cities that have been involved in the organisation, I'm quite sure that everyone in the cities and over the whole country have known that we have this tournament going on."
Highlight
Hämäläinen picked out a personal highlight. "Of course the first highlight was when UEFA awarded us the organisation of this tournament because it's the biggest football tournament that we have ever organised in Finland. Then the second highlight was the start of the tournament on 23 August and our opening match at the Olympic Stadium with more than 16,000 spectators. That was a highlight for us."
Legacy
A legacy seems assured. "This is one of the main reasons that we organised this tournament," Hämäläinen said. "At the moment we already have the good situation that, among girls, under-18 football is already the most popular sport in Finland, but we are still trying to increase this. The figure of registered players has doubled in the last ten years but we want to improve more and this tournament is a big way of helping increase the interest in girl's football."
