Arto Bryggare paints a threatening picture of Finnish sports

Arto Bryggare is worried. Jussi Saarinen

Iltalehti’s athletics expert Arto Bryggare couldn’t help but roll his head when the sports grants distributed by the Ministry of Education and Culture for athletes in summer sports were published on Wednesday.

Fast hitters Nooralotta Neziri and Annimari Korte were left empty-handed after being injured for almost the entire last season.

Sprinters Samuli Samuelsson and Samuel Purola they didn’t get a dime either, when the journey to the top of the world was too much in an extremely competitive sport.

The criteria for receiving grants is really brutal.

– Whether there are eight enthusiasts, 80,000 or two million, the criteria does not take that into account in any way, Bryggare says.

Bryggare reminds that there are tens of thousands of rock-hard opponents for Finnish sprinters in the United States and Caribbean countries alone.

– It’s really terrible. When you look at the world rankings, they will never make it.

– In the world, men’s sprinting is in a different league than other forms of athletics. It’s a completely different situation in terms of the intensity of the competition. It’s a bit sad that there is only one set of criteria (in terms of grants), and that’s it.

Threat pictures

A number of para-athletes, for example, were wedged ahead of the top runners in the scholarship queue.

– Nothing against them, but there are numerous names that I have never even seen. And I follow athletics quite closely, Bryggare says.

According to the expert, there are problems not only in athletics, but also in the ranking of summer and winter sports.

For example, skiers have again been accused of a lot of stipends, even though the sport is not internationally competitive.

– This year the competition is between a few countries, Bryggare states.

– We have to start thinking about how this relationship between summer and winter sports will go in the future. That we want nothing more in Finland than to see one ball game and a couple of winter sports in winter – or do we also want to see something in summer sports.

Bryggare paints a threatening picture of the future.

– In this way, we are going to a situation that will kill summer sports in Finland.

Species die

Bryggare also does not understand why ice hockey and football enjoy huge financial support at the expense of individual sports.

– It has also never been thought about in Finland, where a pattern where 80 percent of the sponsor market goes to two sports will lead. To the huge death of sports forms in elite sports. Especially in summer sports. Should something be done about it?

– I am asking directly that if Palloliitto receives EUR 10 million a year in support from UEFA, does the Finnish government still have to give system support in addition to that? Or could that money be used for the artificial respiration of these smaller species?

Bryggare says that he received strong feedback about his opinions in hockey circles.

– If you criticize even a little, then a terrible barking will immediately come out of it.

In Bryggare’s opinion, concentrating support money on “two sports” has already been reflected in Finland’s sporting success.

– We are talking about a huge success if there is one women’s boxing medal from the Olympic Games. It’s gross. I couldn’t have imagined such results when I was playing sports myself. This situation just keeps getting worse and worse.

– Of course, no one dares to say anything, because then someone will say “hey, hey, hey, this (money) belongs to us”. And it doesn’t belong.

Still a good thing

However, Bryggare wants to emphasize that the grant equation is impossible to solve. There will never be a situation where everyone is happy.

The Olympic medalist thinks that the system is enormously useful for individual athletes already in its current form. It just requires filing.