HIFK (Helsingfors Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna) Bandy are a

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The international governing body for bandy is ...

club from

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. HIFK Bandy was founded in 1907 and it is one of the oldest bandy clubs in

. HIFK are also the most successful bandy club with 17 championship titles. In 1988 they were

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

runners-up. HIFK Bandy currently plays in

Bandyliiga The Bandyliiga (; 'Bandy League') is the top level of men's bandy in Finland. The league was founded in 1908 as the Jääpallon SM-sarja ('Bandy Finnish Championship Series') and the present name has been used since the 1991–92 season. Bandyl ...

, the premier bandy league in Finland.

History

HIFK Bandy was formed in 1907 as a bandy section of

HIFK HIFK, the Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors (IFK, Helsingfors) rf (officially abbreviated IFK Helsingfors, colloquially often Helsingfors IFK or Helsingin IFK ) is a multi-sport association based in Helsinki, Finland. Formed in 1897 on ...

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

formed in 1897. HIFK competed in the very first Finnish bandy championships in the winter of 1908. The team fared well in the early years of the competition winning their first title in 1910 and then again in 1911, 1912 and 1913. In the 1930s HIFK were again in top form gathering 3 more titles within 10 years. During war years of

Second world war World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the team grabbed the top position in 1941 and 1944, along with victories in the unofficial wartime league of 1940 and 1942. After the war HIFK found themselves in a slump and were relegated from

and spent five years in the Suomisarja, a second-tier bandy league. By the 1970s, things were back in shape with the construction of Oulunkylä artificial ice rink which was used for training and HIFK grabbed the title again in 1978. During this time, HIFK developed a healthy rivalry with local Botnia-69 who they competed against in front of thousands of spectators who had come to watch the two teams from

clash. In the late 80s HIFK struck gold again, winning the title twice in 1988 and 1989. In the following years many older players retired and HIFK was forced to rebuild itself from the ground up. The rejuvenated team grabbed a their first title in 1998 but had to mature and wait until the late 2000s to find their top form again. The prize came eventually and HIFK won their first titles of the 21st century in 2010 and 2011. In 2013 HIFK beat

Narukerä Narukerä are a Finnish bandy club from Pori. Narukerä finished in 3rd position in the Bandyliiga in the 2005-2006 season and also competed in the Bandy World Cup The Bandy World Cup is an international bandy competition played in Sweden a ...

from

Pori ) , website www.pori.fi Pori (; sv, Björneborg ) is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The city is located some from the Gulf of Bothnia, on the estuary of the Kokemäki River, west of Tampere, north of Turku and north-w ...

in the final by a score of 3-1 - making the team most successful bandy club in Finland with 17 titles. HIFK placed second in 2014-15 season after losing to

Mikkelin Kampparit Mikkelin Kampparit is a bandy club in Mikkeli, Finland. The team colours are black and white. The club was founded in 1972, the same year as when Finland's Bandy Association separated from the Finnish Football Association The Football Associatio ...

6-3 in the final, played on HIFK's home ground.

Honours

championship titles: 17 ** 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1934, 1935, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1944, 1978 1987, 1988, 1998, 2010, 2011, 2013 *

Suomen Cup The Finnish Cup ( fi, Suomen cup; sv, Finlands cup) is Finland's main national cup competition in football. This yearly competition is open for all member clubs of the FA of Finland and has been played since 1955. The winner qualifies for the ...

titles: 2 ** 1990, 1992

References

External links

Official website

Bandyliiga
Bandy clubs in Finland Sports clubs in Helsinki

Bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The international governing body for bandy is ...

Bandy clubs established in 1897 {{Finland-sport-stub