Santtu Silvennoinen
The Finnish B national team skiers still haven’t seen an athlete contract. The bosses told the athletes to keep quiet, writes Santtu Silvennoinen from Kuusamo.
Markku Haapasalmi (left) is the chairman of the Ski Association and Ismo Hämäläinen is the executive director. PASI LIESIMAA, AOP
Unsecured promises, shifting of responsibility and a gag order.
The operation of the ski association’s chairman Markku Haapasalmi and executive director Ismo Hämäläinen does not represent transparent and responsible management in the 2020s.
The Ski Federation named the 11-athlete B national team on June 14, but a day before the start of the international competition season, despite requests, the athletes had not seen the athlete contract.
The athletes were told in June that the draft contract would come “in the next few weeks”.
The athlete contract could be characterized as a kind of employment contract, where responsibilities and money are defined, among other things.
It was verbally mentioned that B national team athletes’ co-responsibility for the camp of the basic training season 2023 is 1,500 euros. The skiers were asked for their billing addresses, although no one could get a clear picture of what the contract entails.
According to information from Iltalehti, some of the athletes have not agreed to pay the deductible. It works in their favor, because usually deductibles are not retroactively included in the payment.
The camp activities of the B national team, which was concentrated in Vuokatti, went smoothly, but who would have compensated if an athlete without a contract had broken his leg? How would it have been handled if an athlete had entered into a partnership with a direct competitor of the Ski Federation’s sponsor and marketed it in their textiles and social media?
The A national team athletes were able to electronically sign their own athlete contracts this week.
Ismo Hämäläinen is a distinguished coach, but the man’s leadership skills are not appreciated. PASI LEISMA
On June 1, Iltalehti brought the financial disputes of the Ski Association to a screeching halt. It was embarrassing for Haapasalmi, who built his career in the banking world.
In June, at the skiers’ camp in Vuokatti, Haapasalmi and the association’s then commercial director Jari-Pekka Jouppi informed the athletes that they would not comment on the association’s financial affairs in public.
On Thursday, October 5, the Ski Federation’s federal council held a meeting, the agenda of which was the possible return of alpine skiing Ski Sport Finland ry to the Ski Federation.
Iltalehti inquired with calls and messages from the chairman of the federal council, Arto Tolose, and the vice-presidency, after the meeting that ended around 8:00 p.m., what was decided about the situation of the alpine team.
The vice-chairman announced that only Hämäläinen would comment on the matter. Hämäläinen did not answer messages or phone calls, even though he surely knew who was after him and for what purpose.
Tolonen communicated that the announcement will come “by noon on Friday, October 6”.
The Ski Federation announced on Friday, October 6 at 1:13 p.m., about 17 hours after the federal council meeting, that the decision on Ski Sport Finland remained on the table.
A similar provision would not go through in any other major Finnish sports association.
Markku Haapasalmi has been the chairman of the Ski Association since 2017. Pasi Liesimaa
Public radio reported on November 9 about the opinion of the staff of the Ski Association, which strongly criticized the management of the organization and its commercial company Nordic Ski Finland.
Iltalehti reached out to the staff and athletes of the Ski Association. Two clear points emerged from the heated reviews.
1) Ismo Hämäläinen is a good ski coach, but a lousy leader.
2) The train of Mr. Haapasalmi, the pensioner who hired Hämäläinen, stopped at Seinäjoki station already in the 1980s.
– In terms of football and football: immediately out, commented one of the insiders interviewed for this story.
