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 the initiative of Georges Doubitsky and fellow students of the Svenska Reallyceum, the Swedish
lyceum in Helsinki, it is the oldest continuously-operating
Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna (IFK) organization in Finland. HIFK has sections in many sports, including
athletics,
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 ...
,
bowling,
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
,
ice hockey, and
handball
Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...
.
Bandy
HIFK Bandy ry oversees the men's and women's representative teams, junior teams and bandy school, and recreational bandy programs. Kauko Rautiainen is chairman of HIFK Bandy ry.
The men's bandy section of HIFK was created in 1907 and the representative team has won the
Finnish Championship seventeen times, more than any other club, and the
Finnish Cup twice. The team plays in the
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 ...
and their home arena is
Brahenkenttä in the
Alppiharju district.
HIFK women's team plays in the Jääpallon naisten SM-sarja (Women's Bandy Finnish Championship Series) and have won the
Finnish Championship three times, in 1986, 1987, and 2011.
Ice hockey
Oy HIFK Hockey
Ab is the largest business within the HIFK association, comprising the
men’s representative team in the
Liiga, the
women’s representative team in the
Naisten Liiga
The Kansallinen Liiga ('National League') is the premier division of women's football in Finland. It was previously called the Jalkapallon naisten SM-sarja ('Women's Football Finnish Championship Series') during 1974 to 2006 and the Naisten Lii ...
, an expansive junior organization, and the hREDS
eSports
Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...
team.
eSport
In November 2016 an esports project was started under the name Helsinki REDS (hREDS).
Athletics
The Athletics section of HIFK is one of Finland's oldest and most successful athletics clubs.
Handball
The Handball section of HIFK is one of the pioneers of the sport in Finland. The men's section has won 10 national championships and the women's section 41 national championships. Both teams play their home games at the Helsinki Urheilutalo in the Kallio district of the city.
Football
The football section of HIFK was established in 1907, and its first team earned promotion to
Veikkausliiga for the 2015 season.
Notes
References
Significant content in this article was translated from the existing Finnish Wikipedia article at
:fi:HIFK and the existing Swedish Wikipedia article at
:sv:HIFK; see their histories for attribution.
External links
Official club website
Helsinki REDS website
{{Authority control
Sports clubs in Helsinki
1897 establishments in Finland