The ski association’s federal council will meet on Thursday to decide on Ski Sport Finland’s return to the organization.
The Finnish alpine skiing team is slaloming towards the Ski Federation. Illustration image. PDO
Roughly, it can be stated that the persaukis have found each other. The Finnish Ski Federation, which is facing severe financial challenges, is taking Ski Sport Finland ry, which is suffering from financial challenges, into the organization.
The matter is on the agenda of the meeting of the Ski Federation’s federal council on Thursday.
Ski Sport Finland (SSF), the umbrella organization of domestic alpine skiing, made the first decision to terminate the association last spring.
If the Ski Federation’s federal council decides to accept SSF into the organization on Thursday, SSF will decide for the second and decisive time on October 25 to terminate the association.
– If nothing happens on Thursday, the matter will be moved to next year. It can be a likely option, says SSF’s CEO Janne Leskinen.
Capital in the cold
Janne Leskinen works as CEO of Ski Sport Finland. Pasi Liesimaa/IL
In 2008, the alpine skiing and freestyle people broke away from the Ski Association into their own organization. Reasons at the time included more efficient fundraising and cross-country skiing’s reputation for doping.
After an independent period of fifteen years, the SSF has run out of money. The financial statements of the registered association are not public documents, but according to Leskinen, SSF’s equity is minus 350,000 euros. According to the CEO, the association has no debt.
Among other things, the latest confirmed financial statements of SSF Management Oy, which manages SSF ry’s fundraising, are from May 2022. According to it, the company, which operated with a turnover of 722,000 euros, made an operating profit of 41,000 euros. The equity of the debt-free company was EUR 77,000 positive.
– The economic situation is not at all the reason why we are applying back to the Ski Federation, Leskinen commented.
– If the merger takes place, we don’t assume that we will be supporting anyone. You have to get your own money as before. Of course, the merger would give us broader shoulders, because the Ski Association’s annual budget is 8–9 million and ours is 2.5 million euros, he adds.
Ski Sport Finland’s organization is small: three full-time office workers, three full-time coaches and a dozen people operating as a purchasing service.
In the alpine skiing national team groups in the 2023–24 season, the deductible for athletes is 10,000–20,000 euros, and in freestyle less than 10,000 euros.
Almost unique
The party of the domestic alpine skiing team is over, because the money has run out. Illustration image. Tapio Mainio
Although the alpine skiing team has operated independently, many administrative matters have been run through the Ski Association for 15 years. Such are, for example, state aid granted by the Ministry of Education and Culture and contracts for organizing world cups.
The Ski Federation is a member of the International Ski Federation (Fis), not Ski Sport Finland.
In the other Fis member countries, only Canada has a similar situation as in Finland – elsewhere, the different sport groups of Fis belong to the same national organization.
– Is the current situation artificial? Why do we do things like this at all, when they could be better in a certain way if we were together, Leskinen ponders.
– By merging, we would get synergistic benefits for the operation and the cost side, he adds.
In the fall of 2023, Ski Sport Finland and the Ski Federation will cooperate, for example, in financial administration. Physically, the organizations operate in the same place in Helsinki’s Sporttitalo on Valimotie.
Chairman of SSF ry Antti Kärävä left the washer last spring. Serves as acting chairman until the meeting held on October 25, 2023 Jukka Rautio.
Not a love affair
The finances of the Finnish Skiing Association are in dire straits. Illustration image. Jussi Eskola
Iltalehti reported last June that the Ski Association’s finances are in trouble. The union’s own capital after the most recently confirmed fiscal year 2021–22 was in the freezing cold at no less than 1.7 million euros. The association extended the 2022–23 fiscal year until the end of October 2023. According to IL’s information, the most recent financial year will result in losses of hundreds of thousands of euros.
The union of two organizations in a weak financial mess is not a union of love, not of reason, but of coercion.
– At Thursday’s meeting of the Ski Federation’s federal council, especially the ski group is critical of the return of the alpine people. “Many people remember the brutal antics of the alpine group at the turn of the 2010s,” says an insider contacted by Iltalehti.
– But won’t the merger take place – if not on Thursday, then next year, he estimates.
Iltalehti could not reach the chairman of the Federation Council of the Ski Association on Thursday Arto from Tolo and not the president of the Ski Association Markku Haapasalmea.