FC Honka

FC Honka

Full name	FC Honka Espoo
Founded	1957
Ground	Tapiolan Urheilupuisto, Espoo
Ground Capacity	6,000
Chairman	Harri Pellikka
Manager	Juho Rantala
League	Kakkonen
2014	Veikkausliiga, 11th
Home colours Away colours

Tapiolan Urheilupuisto

FC Honka Espoo (commonly known as FC Honka or Esport Honka) is a Finnish football club, based in Espoo. It was promoted into the Finnish premier division (Veikkausliiga), for the first time in its history, at the end of the 2005 season. The club's manager is Shefki Kuqi, and it plays its home matches at Tapiolan urheilupuisto. Originally founded in 1957 as Tapion Honka it changed its name to FC Honka in 1975. FC Honka is largely renowned in Finland for its extensive youth scheme with over 1000 youth players playing in various age groups.

Until the year 2005 FC Honka was thought of as a "nearly, but not quite" team, always underachieving in the Finnish First Division (Ykkönen). In the late 1990s the objective was promotion but year after year they failed. In the beginning of the 21st century FC Honka almost went bankrupt but was saved at the last moment. In early 2005 the club was taken over by Jouko Pakarinen and Jouko Harjunpää, who had a plan to turn FC Honka from underachievers to a UEFA Champions League candidate.

In the first year of their take-over of FC Honka, the management succeeded in assembling a squad which won the First Division (Ykkönen) with ease and also made the semi-finals of the Finnish Cup where they eventually lost 1–0 to FC Haka.

FC Honka was able to fight for top positions instantly, but narrowly missed the top three in their first two seasons. However, in 2007 team lost the Finnish Cup final to Tampere United on penalties. As Tampere United also won the league title, FC Honka qualified for the 2008–09 UEFA Cup. In 2008, FC Honka achieved its first medal by finishing 2nd in the league.

FC Honka won the Finnish Cup in 2012. Due to financial difficulties the team was relegated to the third tier Kakkonen in 2015.

Honours

• Veikkausliiga:
  • Runners-up (3): 2008, 2009, 2013
• Finnish Cup:
  • Winners (1): 2012
  • Runners-up (3): 1969, 2007, 2008
• Finnish League Cup:
  • Winners (2): 2010, 2011
• Ykkönen:
  • Winners (1): 2005
• La Manga Cup:
  • Winners (1): 2009

European competitions

As runners-up in yh 2007 Finnish Cup to Tampere United, who had also won the league title, FC Honka qualified for the 2008–09 UEFA Cup, beating Icelandic ÍA 4–2 in the 1st qualifying round and Norwegian Viking in the 2nd. In the first round of actual competition, they were drawn against Racing Santander and lost 0–2 on aggregate.

Next year, Honka qualified for the new UEFA Europa League, starting from the second qualifying round. The club beat Welsh Bangor City F.C. 3–0 on aggregate but lost 1–3 to FK Karabakh from Azerbaijan in the third qualifying round.

For the 2010–11 season, FC Honka was again drawn against Bangor City in the second round but lost 3–2 on aggregate.

During the winter of 2009, Honka won the annual La Manga Cup, beating Nordsjaelland in the final.

European cups record

Matches

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2007	UEFA Intertoto Cup	First round	TVMK	0–0	4–2	4–2
		Second round	AaB	2–2	1–1	3–3 (a)
2008–09	UEFA Cup	First qualifying round	IA Akranes	3–0	1–2	4–2
		Second qualifying round	Viking Stavanger	0–0	2–1	2–1
		First round	Racing Santander	0–1	0–1	0–2
2009–10	UEFA Europa League	Second qualifying round	Bangor City	2–0	1–0	3–0
		Third qualifying round	Qarabağ FK	0–1	1–2	1–3
2010–11	UEFA Europa League	Second qualifying round	Bangor City	1–1	1–2	2–3
2011–12	UEFA Europa League	First qualifying round	JK Nõmme Kalju	0–0	2–0	2–0
		Second qualifying round	BK Häcken	0–2	0–1	0–3
2013–14	UEFA Europa League	Second qualifying round	Lech Poznań	1–3	1–2	2–5
2014–15	UEFA Europa League	First qualifying round	Sillamäe Kalev	3–2	1–2	4–4 (a)

UEFA Club Ranking

This is the current UEFA Club Ranking, including season 2013–14.^[1]

Last update: 24 June 2014

Rank	Team	Points
299	PFC Cherno More Varna	4.125
300	Skonto FC	4.000
301	HŠK Zrinjski Mostar	4.000
302	FK Liepājas Metalurgs	4.000
303	FC Honka	3.935
304	Fredrikstad FK	3.855
305	Breiðablik UBK	3.850
306	FC Milsami Orhei	3.825
307	Khazar Lankaran FK	3.825

Season to season

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Ville Hursti 3 DF Markus Björs 5 MF Tuomo Turunen 6 FW Didis Lutumba-Pitah 7 MF Jonas Levänen 8 MF Filipe Mello 9 MF Jaakko Hietikko 10 MF John Weckström 11 MF Lucas dos Santos 14 FW Karim Jouini 15 DF Jatuli Laevuo 16 FW Miko Puuskari 17 GK Toni Sjöstedt 19 MF Antonio Inutile

No. Position Player 20 MF Nicholas Otaru 21 FW Samuli Heiska 28 DF Tommi Saarinen 32 GK Robert Barton 33 MF Roni Porokara 34 MF Ville Tuomela 35 MF Elias Tuomela TBA GK Mika Johansson TBA DF Rasmus Kautto TBA DF Alex Lehtinen TBA DF Jere Siltala TBA DF Antti Uimaniemi TBA MF Valte Vuorela TBA FW Rony Huhtala

Available youth players

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

See also Category:FC Honka players.

Managers

• Jari Europaeus (Jan 1, 2001 – Dec 31, 2003)
• Dalla (Jan 1, 2004 – Dec 31, 2004)
• Mika Lehkosuo (Jan 1, 2005 – Feb 7, 2014)
• Shefki Kuqi (Feb 15, 2014 – Dec 31, 2014)
• Juho Rantala (Feb 7, 2015–)

References

External links

• Official Website (Finnish)
• Honka Supporters (Finnish)