RoPS
Rovaniemen Palloseura
Finnish football club
Rovaniemen Palloseura (RoPS) is a football club founded in 1950 and based in Rovaniemi, Finland. In 2019 RoPS participated in the Finnish Premier Division, (Veikkausliiga) marking their 32nd season in the top flight (previously called "Veikkausliiga") since 1981. The club plays home games at the Rovaniemen Keskuskenttä in the Arctic Circle of Lapland. The closest affiliated team is RoPS/2 from Kakkonen who participates in the third tier of Finnish football.
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| Full name | Rovaniemen Palloseura | ||
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| Founded | 1950; 74 years ago (1950) | ||
| Ground | Keskuskenttä, Rovaniemi | ||
| Capacity | 4,000 | ||
| Chairman | Matti Poikajärvi | ||
| Manager | Ville Ulanen | ||
| League | Ykkönen | ||
| 2023 |  Kakkonen C, 3rd | ||
| Website | Club website | ||
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RoPS have won the Finnish Cup on two occasions, in 1986 and 2013, and were runners-up in 1962. They placed third in the Finnish Premier Division in 1988 and 1989, before finishing as runner-up in 2015, losing out on the title by 1 point to eventual champions SJK. The club's most notable international achievement was reaching the quarter-finals of the European Cup-Winners' Cup in 1987–88 against Marseille.
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]
Domestic history
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 |
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 | |
| 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 | |
| 2Q |  Lokomotiva |
1–1 | 0–3 | 1–4 | | ||
| 2019–20 | UEFA Europa League | 1Q |  Aberdeen |
1–2 | 1–2 | 2–4 | |
- Notes
- 1R: First round
- 2R: Second round
- 1Q: First qualifying round
- QF: Quarter-finals
- Finnish Cup
- Champions (2): 1986, 2013
- Ykkönen
- As of 1 January 2022
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Management
As of 18 February 2020.
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Boardroom
As of 18 February 2020[3]
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Rovaniemi Football Academy (RFA)[4] is the reserve team of RoPS. The team plays in Kakkonen in 2020 season. It is coached by Aleksi Tanner.
- As of 14 September 2020[5]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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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 – Oct, 2017)
- Toni Koskela (Oct, 2017 – May 22, 2019)
- Pasi Tuutti (May 22, 2019– )
- Susanna Kemppainen. "RoPS:lla yli 30 epäiltyä sopupeliä | Pohjois-Suomi". Kaleva.fi. Archived from the original on 2012-09-10. Retrieved 2012-02-12.
- Uusi Suomi. "Oikeus: Sopupeleistä 150 000 euroa – 2 vuotta vankeutta — Uusi Suomi". Uusisuomi.fi. Retrieved 2012-02-12.
- "Yhteystiedot" (in Finnish). RoPS. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
- "RoPS/2 on jatkossa Rovaniemi Football Academy". rops.fi. RoPS. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
- "Kokoonpano: Rovaniemi Football Academy 2020". rops.fi. RoPS. Retrieved 14 September 2020.