Manchester United Football Club is coming to Finland in July. I’ve been chewing on this for a long time now, and finally, it’s official! Now it can be talked about out loud. The world’s most followed sports team arrives in Helsinki in July and faces Wrexham, owned by Ryan Reynolds (and that other guy).
I am truly happy for the Finnish United supporters, as for decades, Finland has remained well in the shadows on the club’s world map. The reason has been obvious: right next to us is the world’s largest United supporters’ association, Manchester United Supporters’ Club Scandinavia, which includes fans from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. More than 500 season tickets and 50,000 paying registered members give an idea of why the Manchester club visits one of these countries every year.
Now finally, a sea of Red fans awaits us in Helsinki, heading towards the Olympic Stadium singing to the tune of “Country Roads”:
Take me Home, United Road
To the place, I belong
To Old Trafford, to see United
Take me Home, United Road
Let’s quickly go through the history of Finland and the United. It is short but interesting. Between Finnish teams and United, only one official match, one friendly, and one legends match have been played.
Helsinki 1965: In 1965, the “Red Devils” met HJK at the Olympic Stadium in a two-legged European Cup (now Champions League) battle. United was still recovering from the Munich air disaster of 1958, which took nearly the whole team, but the roster was still magnificent, led by Denis Law, Bobby Charlton (who survived the plane crash), and a young George Best—though the latter did not play in the first leg.
Despite everything, the match was expected to be a United masterclass, but the final result was “only” 2-3 for the visitors. One Markku ”Pelzi” Peltoniemi, a self-confessed United fan, scored a wonderful goal for HJK at the age of 17. The match, played in late September, was watched by 16,000 spectators.
The second leg played at Old Trafford was then a clean 6-0 victory for United, leaving no room for “what ifs.” More stories than that (we’ll return to these in July)!
Hanko 1981: The European Cup clash is certainly not the only match played by Manchester’s first team in Finland. In 1981, a friendly match was played in Hanko between Manchester United and teams from the Western Uusimaa football district. At the Hanko sports field, over 3,000 spectators witnessed United’s 0-4 victory. Steve Coppell, Lou Macari, and company must have had something to wonder about when they stepped onto the field.
Helsinki 2022: The third time United stars stepped onto the field in Finland happened in 2022. We organized an encounter between legends of United and the Huuhkajat (Finnish national team), which was watched by about four thousand people. Once again, the Red Devils, managed by Bryan Robson, traveled home with a victory in their pocket as the match ended 2-0.
Why Finland and Helsinki now? In the case of the first friendly, the chairman of the Western Uusimaa district, Birger Blomqvist, was the executive force, also bringing Olympiacos and Leicester to Hanko around the turn of the 80s.
This time there are several reasons. Perhaps the most important is the team management’s desire to minimize travel and maximize training before the season in which United returns to European competitions (yes they will, other opinions are wrong). Two-week grueling pre-season tours are not ideal for providing the necessary rest and collective training time for the team. Secondly, of course, are the FIFA World Cup games, which take a lot of attention to America, where United played friendly matches for the three previous summers in a row. Very expensive friendly tour circuits in large market areas are surely not at their most attractive when a large portion of the biggest-name players cannot attend due to the tournament. In United’s case, there is, of course, a big question mark over how many players will make it into national teams, as their play has only recently started to click.
Thirdly, I would like to believe that Finland has finally earned an exclamation mark on the Red Manchester world map. Our domestic supporters’ association (Manchester United Supporters Club of Finland) has been among the ten largest official associations outside of Britain for a long time. The association was founded by Leo ”Lexa” Autio in 1996 under the name ”Helsinki Red Devils,” which later formed the basis for the current supporters’ association in 2003. The official supporters’ association status was granted in 2011. This year we are already celebrating our 30th anniversary!
I have also personally tried to do my part to make Finland known to the global fan community, former players, and club management alike. The Helsinki Red Room private museum I founded and the Legends Weekend event concept have been instrumental in gaining hundreds of millions of media impressions over the years and thus reminding them of the existence of us Finnish fans. I’ve ended up running through hundreds of interviews, match events, and other shindigs all over the world!
It hasn’t hurt that I have befriended several old players and club employees over the last few decades. They have been transported here to the North under various pretexts to get to know different cities. The biggest and most beautiful one is still ahead, as next year the region of Kainuu, or ”Arctic Lakeland,” will serve as the stage for one of the largest private fan events of all time, titled Arctic Lakeland Legends Week(end) – weekend would be an understatement when we are talking about an entire week. United legends and fans from all over the world will meet each other during Easter week in the middle of Finnish nature, enjoying snow football, winter activities, and much more. But more on this later. Let’s get back to Helsinki!
A unique opportunity: Even though some players are recovering from the strain of the season and back-to-back World Cup games (some might even play in the final a day later), the majority of the first-team players will be seen at the Olympic Stadium. Due to injuries and a weak start to the season, many United players are at risk of being dropped from their national team’s tournament roster.
The friendly match will be played on Saturday, July 18th. This is just one day before the World Cup final, and no matches are played in the tournament on the preceding days. Football fever will be at its peak, and there is an opportunity to organize a proper carnival atmosphere in Helsinki that gets all the attention. The match falls at a perfect moment.
What can we expect to happen in Helsinki besides the match? I am really the right person to answer this, as we have the honor and privilege of building both the official program with Manchester United and our own unofficial stunts and events. A fan zone, official fan dinners and bars, fan tours of Helsinki, a children’s football school, invitation-only events, private Helsinki Red Room events, utilization of legends, and much more is in store. You can also be sure that the 2027 Arctic Lakeland Legends Week(end) will be seen and heard in Helsinki!
Even though it is “only” a friendly match, we really will see Manchester United’s first team in Helsinki for the first time since 1965. We get to enjoy a large number of international fans and media. We are bringing United legends to the site ourselves, as is the club. A documentary crew will also arrive to continue their massive international documentary project, which you will hear more about…
We are truly excited with the Passiofy team to build a multi-day ensemble in Helsinki that will be remembered for a long time. This is an opportunity for us to show why big clubs should come to Finland more often than once every sixty years. This is also a wonderful opportunity for Helsinki to show its best to the club’s fans, of whom there are hundreds and hundreds of millions around the world.
We will make sure that this isn’t just one friendly match among others. We will show what it means when we finally get the world’s most followed team back to Finland.
Cheers, Jere
PS. We will, of course, continue with Manchester United to other Nordic countries, which opens up visibility opportunities during the summer in Sweden and Norway as well. If you’re interested in hopping on board, send a message.
