Johan ″Jonne″ Aksel Alho (9 February 1907 – 14 September 1982) was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

and a football referee.

Football

Player career

Alho started his career in the Helsinki working-class side Töölön Vesa, winning the

Finnish Workers' Sports Federation The Finnish Workers' Sports Federation ( fi, Suomen Työväen Urheiluliitto, ''TUL'', sv, Arbetarnas Idrottsförbund i Finland, ''AIF'') is a Finnish amateur sports organization founded in 1919. In addition to the competitive sports, TUL focuses o ...

's (TUL)

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

in 1930. At the time, the football in Finland was split in two due to the 1918

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper ''Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil W ...

. In 1931, Alho was a member of the TUL football team participating the Workers' Summer Olympiad in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. In the fall of 1931, three Vesa players, Alho, Valdemar Virtanen and Kurt Weckström, switched to the bourgeois

HJK Helsinki Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (), commonly known as HJK Helsinki, or simply as HJK, is a professional football club based in Helsinki, Finland. The club competes in the Finnish Veikkausliiga. Founded in 1907, the club has spent most of its history i ...

. Between 1931 and 1936, Alho played six seasons for HJK in the Finnish top tier

Mestaruussarja Mestaruussarja (Championship series) was the top division of Finnish football from 1930 to 1989. It was replaced by Veikkausliiga in 1990. In 1930 league format was used for the first time to decide the Finnish champion. Before that from 1908 to ...

As a referee

After his playing career, Alho was a FIFA international referee in 1941–1956 and 1958–1961. He officiated 11 internationals including the first round match between Sweden and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

. In 1959, Alho refereed

Finnish 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 ...

final.

Other sports

Alho also played bandy for Töölön Vesa, winning the TUL Championship in 1929. As a bandy referee, he officiated the match between

and Sweden at the 1952 Winter Olympics where bandy was held as a demonstration sport.

References

1907 births 1982 deaths Footballers from Helsinki Association football defenders Finnish footballers Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi players Mestaruussarja players Finnish football referees Olympic football referees Finnish bandy players 20th-century Finnish people {{Finland-footy-defender-stub