Kukkola: The Gamechanger

In Finland, the unthinkable happened. The capital’s two major clubs Viikingit and Tapanilan Erä merged their operations to form a gamechanger in Finnish floorball. The first thing the new floorball giant EräViikingit did was sign the country’s present number one player Jani Kukkola who returns to Salibandyliiga after five seasons in Sweden.

It would be hard to imagine Manchester City and Manchester United merging to form FC Manchester. Or to see New York Rangers and New York Islanders to become NY Hockey Team. No wonder listeners had to pinch themselves when they heard the opening words of the recent press conference. There certainly had been mergers in Finnish floorball but never at this level. Two successful Finnish capital clubs with solid organizations and dozens of successful junior teams becoming one. But it was true. Curtains were drawn from brand new black and blue logotypes as the key operators of the new club took to the stage wearing their new colors.

_{EräViikingit new logo. (Photo Mika Hilska)}

”Had to make sure it was not April fools day”
The first thing a new club will have to do is sign top players to show they mean business and that its exactly what EräViikingit did. Jani Kukkola who lead the Finnish national team’s first line in the WFC in Gothenburg was shown fresh off the flight from Sweden signing a contract with EräViikingit. With five seasons in Sweden playing for FC Helsingborg under his belt, Kukkola was the obvious choice for a first signing. Besides being the current number one player in the country, his joining the team would show other prospects this would be an organization worth representing if you were an ambitious floorball player. Also, he is a player with lots of player contacts and having him on board certainly helped getting other big names to join.

”I first had to make sure it was not April fools day”, Jani Kukkola expressed his thoughts when hearing about the two clubs’ fusion. ”But thinking further I realized this would create a lot of new opportunities for taking floorball even higher not only in the capital region but in the whole country”. Having played for both Viikingit (formerly known as SSV) and Tapanilan Erä, its in no secret Kukkola had been receiving offers from both clubs for years.”Both organizations had their good and less good sides and I hope we will be able to take the good things from both to take with us into the new club”, he said.

The next one
Jani Kukkola, now 30 years old, was noticed already as a junior. He played for SB-Pro from Nurmijärvi, a place with an the most idyllic countryside landscape yet only 30 kilometers from the center of Helsinki. A year younger than his teammates in the Finnish U19 national team, Kukkola lead Finland’s first line between Lauri Kapanen and Markus Palokangas as they won Finland’s first U19 WFC title in Prague in 2003, beating Sweden in the final.

The skilled center was able to do everything anyone else could, still in a little bit faster tempo and his spinarounds with the ball on his stick made spectators gasp. In the domestic Salibandyliiga, SB-Pro’s first season up became their last as they were relegated to then sink into the abyss of the lower divisions and leaving the just club’s women’s and girls’ teams to play for medals. But SB-Pro’s supercenter had come to stay. Jani Kukkola joined Tapanilan Erä for two seasons to then move forward to the mighty SSV for three seasons and three straight Finnish titles.

In 2009, Tapanilan Erä succeeded in getting Kukkola back to seriously challenge SSV for the title but they tried only got within one goal. In 2011, Jani Kukkola took a big step and joined Swedish FC Helsingborg where he would become a leading figure but yet fail to take his team into the final. Everyone saw Jani Kukkola was to be Finland’s next super player but at the same time he would be able to develop away from the brightest spotlight with legend Mika Kohonen drawing most of the attention. Jani Kukkola has one merit that Mika Kohonen never got the cache to: In 2008 again in Prague Kukkola became the first Finnish player to win both U19 and men’s WFC title. Two years later, he would be joined by Markus Bollström and Henri Johansson who were his teammates in the 2003 U19 triumph.

A contract a day
Having Jani Kukkola and his notorious line-mate Lauri Kapanen signed, EräViikingit took to announcing one player name a day through the end of the spring. The list proved to be rather impressive. Mika Moilanen following Kukkola from FC Helsingborg completed the national team’s first line and they would be joined by names like goalie Santtu Strindberg, defenders Tommi Aro and Tapio Kinnunen and forwards Miko Kailaiala, Janne Hyvönen and Tuomas Iiskola.Lead by former Tapanilan Erä head coach Jyri Korsman, the newcomer seems to be extremely strong in offense but a bit less so in defence.

Not all the big names from former Viikingit and Tapanilan era squads signed for the new project as Mikael Lax moved to Switzerland, Lauri Stenfors returned to TPS Turku and Niclas Meyer chose to go back to Oilers. Legends Mikael Järvi and Tero Tiitu have remained quiet about their future plans and at this point of their careers both can afford to listen to offers and postpone their decisions about eventual retirement. As a surprise move, legendary SSV head coach Mika Ahonen was called by his long-time key player Juha Kivilehto to take over Swedish FC Helsingborg.

_{Jani Kukkola played for swedish Helsingborg in five years. (Photo Damian Keller)}

Training harder than in Sweden
EräViikingit seems a strong candidate for next years Superfinale but champions Classic may still remain the number one favorite having signed big names like Joonas Pylsy and Asser Jääskeläinen (FC Helsingborg). At least the new Helsinki project is working hard to be able to destroy their opponents. ”We have been training really hard. Especially in the rink, the tempo has been more than it was in Sweden”, Jani Kukkola said. ”There’s also more floorball training than back there.”

Kukkola knows the club and most of its players are going to look up to him to be the one to lead the team to next season’s Superfinale. ”The years in Sweden educated me both as a player and as a person. Being elected captain of FC Helsingborg made me take responsibility. In EräViikingit, I hope to be able to bring both rational coolheaded plays and the nerve to take chances and not always take the easy way out. For a team like this there can be no other goal than winning the title. We have an excellent mix of seasoned veterans and young talent.”

A storm wind of a reorganization
Merging two floorball clubs as big as SalibandySeura Viikingit and Tapanilan Erä is nothing but a small task. The combined number of players for both is around 2,000 of which most are likely to stay. Two highest league teams becoming one obviously means halving the need for players and consecutively a number of players did not make the new organization or other Salibandyliiga teams. There were a number of retirements as well as players looking for contracts in lower leagues. How disappointed many of them probably were about the decision can only be imagined.

EräViikingit will have a team in both men’s and women’s Salibandyliiga as well as in all junior series playing for national titles. These teams are going to represent the club as EräViikingit whereas a part of the junior teams will still be known as SSV or Tapanilan Era at least for the season to come. Two Salibandyliiga teams becoming one left an open spot in the series and the Finnish Floorball Federation decided to assign it for Steelers Hämeenlinna who were the first team to not quite make it in the qualification.

The name EräViikingit obviously wanting to preserve a bit of tradition from both clubs but has also drawn its share of criticism for sounding awkward and forced. The new organization gave no other grounds for deciding about the fusion than wanting to strengthen the possibilities for elite floorball in Helsinki. It was Viikingit who took the initiative during the season. There has been speculation that Viikingit manager Kurre Westerlund felt his organization losing its strength and resources and looked for a wise option before a crisis of any kind would develop. Anyway, Westerlund himself is a major player in the new project, too, negotiating player contracts like he always has.