Helsingin Ponnistus (abbreviated Ponnistus) is a

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 ...

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 ...

. The club was formed in 1887 making it the oldest football club in Finland. The men's first team currently plays in the

Nelonen Nelonen () is a Finnish commercial television channel. It started out as Helsinki's local television channel PTV in 1990 on the HTV cable network (now part of DNA Welho), and changed its name first to PTV4. On June 1, 1997, the channel expand ...

(Fourth Division) and their home ground is at the Haapaniemen Kenttä.

Background

The sports club was founded on 6 September 1887 by Viktor Damm (1864–1944) supported by 5 other young men. In its early days the club specialised in

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...

and

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

. Nowadays football is the main sport. The club has also been playing

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 ...

. It was the runner-up for the bandy championship of the Finnish Workers' Sports Federation in 1948. Ponnistus have had a variable degree of success in the Finnish football league and have participated in all four top tiers of Finnish football since the war years. The club have played in the Mestaruussarja, which was then the top tier of Finnish football on 4 separate occasions in 1948, 1968,

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

and as recently as

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

in the

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga (; sv, Tipsligan) is the premier division of Finnish football, the highest tier of the Finnish football league structure, comprising the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agency Veikkau ...

. Each time their stay was short-lived and they were relegated back to the second tier at the end of the season. Ponnistus have played 28 seasons covering seven periods in the

Ykkönen ''Ykkönen'' (Finnish for 'Number One'; sv, Ettan) is the second highest level of the Finnish football league system (after the Veikkausliiga), although it is the highest league managed by the Football Association of Finland. The teams also play ...

or Suomensarja (First Division), the second tier of Finnish football in the years 1949–55, 1958–63, 1965–67, 1969–72, 1974–77, 1993–94 and 1996–97. They also have had four spells covering 21 seasons in the third tier, the

Kakkonen Kakkonen or II divisioona is the third level in the league system of Finnish football and comprises 36 Finnish football teams. The II divisioona was introduced in 1973 and in the mid-1990s became known as the Kakkonen (Finnish for 'Number Two' ...

(Second Division), in 1978–83, 1985–92, 1998–2002 and 2005–06. In 1995, Ponnistus won the final of Työväen Urheiluliiton Cup (Workers' Sports Federation Cup) for the first time in their history. The highest ever attendance for a Ponnistus match was in 1968 when 6,281 people attended the home game with Lahden Reipas. The Ladies Team gained promotion to the Women's Premier Division (Naisten SM-sarja) in 1976 but in 1977 they finished bottom of their group and were relegated. The team currently play in the Nelonen (Fourth Division).

Season to season

2010 season

Ponnistus Men's Team are competing in Section 2 (Lohko 2) of the

Kolmonen Kolmonen or III divisioona is the fourth level in the league system of Finnish football and comprises 104 Finnish football teams. The III divisioona was introduced in 1973 and in the mid-1990s became known as the Kolmonen (''Number Three'' in En ...

(Third Division) administered by the Helsinki SPL. This is the fourth highest tier in the Finnish football system. In 2009 Ponnistus finished in 4th place in Section 1 (Lohko 1) of the

. Ponnistus / 2 are competing in Section 2 (Lohko 2) of the

Vitonen Vitonen or V divisioona is the sixth level in the Finnish football league system and comprises 228 teams. The V divisioona was introduced in 1973 and in the mid-1990s became known as the Vitonen (''Number Five'' in English and ''Femman'' in Swed ...

(Fifth Division) administered by the Helsinki SPL.

References and Sources

Official Website
*

Finnish Wikipedia The Finnish Wikipedia ( fi, Suomenkielinen Wikipedia) is the edition of Wikipedia in the Finnish language. By article count, it is the largest Wikipedia with about articles as of . Wikipedia is the only encyclopedia in Finnish which is still up ...

Suomen CupHelsingin Ponnistus Facebook

Footnotes

{{reflist Bandy clubs in Finland Football clubs in Helsinki Association football clubs established in 1887 Bandy clubs established in 1887 1887 establishments in Finland