RoPS

RoPS

Full name	Rovaniemen Palloseura
Founded	1950
Ground	Keskuskenttä, Rovaniemi
Ground Capacity	4,000
Chairman	Risto Niva
Manager	Juha Malinen
League	Veikkausliiga
2015	2nd
Home colours Away colours

Rovaniemen Palloseura (RoPS) is a football club founded in 1950 and based in Rovaniemi, Finland. In 2017 RoPS plays in the Finnish Premier Division (Veikkausliiga) with 30 years of history at top league (also before called "Veikkausliiga") since 1981. The club plays home games at Keskuskenttä in downtown Rovaniemi at Arctic Circle of Lapland. Closest farm and co-operation team locally is Santa Claus from lower divisions, and both co-operate with youth teams.

History

Keskuskenttä, home ground of RoPS

RoPS won the Finnish Cup in 1986 and 2013, Runner Up 1962, and placed third in the Finnish Premier Division in 1988 and 1989 before finishing as runner-up in 2015 losing by 1 point to champion SJK. Its 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]

Season to Season

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 Shkodër	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

Notes

• 1R: First round
• 2R: Second round
• 1Q: First qualifying round
• QF: Quarter-finals

Honours

• Finnish Cup (2)

1986, 2013

• Ykkönen (2):

2010, 2012

Current squad

As of 21 July 2017

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

No. Position Player 2 MF Sani Kaita 4 MF Antti Okkonen (Captain) 5 DF Ivan Tatomirović 6 MF Eerik Kantola 7 MF Mota 9 FW Emeka Friday Eze 10 FW Cem Felek 12 GK Juhani Kangas 13 DF Lassi Järvenpää 14 MF Eetu Muinonen 15 DF Leo Väisänen

No. Position Player 16 FW Jarkko Luiro 17 MF Anselmi Nurmela 18 DF Juho Hyvärinen 19 MF Charlie Trafford 20 FW Simo Roiha 21 MF Aapo Heikkilä 22 FW Sakari Tukiainen 24 FW Lassi Lappalainen (on loan from HJK) 25 GK Antonio Reguero 47 DF Juuso Hämäläinen 77 FW Timo Stavitski

Available youth players

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

No. Position Player MF Veka Pyyny

No. Position Player MF Rasmus Degerman

Management

As of 29 January 2017.

Name Role Juha Malinen Head Coach Matti Kilpelä Coach Ossi Koskela Goalkeeping Coach Tuomas Könönen Physiotherapist David Coull Kit Manager Matti Vikman Team Manager

Managers

References

External links

• Official website (in Finnish)