Zenith Myllypuro (abbreviated Zenith) is a football club from

Myllypuro Myllypuro ( Finnish), Kvarnbäcken ( Swedish) is an East Helsinki's neighborhood of Helsinki, Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land ...

, an eastern neighbourhood of

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

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 1978 and currently plays in 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 E ...

(Third Division), the fourth tier of

Finnish football ) , country = Finland , sport = association football , noncountry = , teamlabel1 = , nationalteam = Men's national team Women's national team , teamlabel2 = , repteam = , nickname = , first ...

. The club's home ground is at the Myllypuron hiekka. Zenith also has a successful

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is ...

team that competes in the First Division of the Finnish Futsal League.

History

Zenith Myllypuro was founded in 1979 by a group of schoolmates at Myllypuro high school in eastern Helsinki. In those early years the club did not play competitively, but by the early 1980s Zenith had established itself in the lower divisions of the

Finnish football league system The Finnish football league system is a series of interconnected leagues for club football in Finland. The three highest levels are managed by the Finnish FA while the other leagues are managed by the regional departments of the FA. System As of ...

serving the Helsinki area. The 1986 season proved a landmark when Zenith finally gained promotion to Division 4, the level the club played with few exceptions for more than 20 years. The first Zenith generation's highlight was the training camp in Malta before the 1987 season. By accident, Zenith arranged to play against the Malta national team, eventually losing the game 11–1, but only after upsetting the host's Bulgarian team coach by equalising 1–1 in the first half. The game was noted also by the Finnish media after the team's return home, particularly when Malta just weeks later drew 2–2 with Portugal in the Euro 1988 qualification. After 1991 season Zenith were relegated to Division 5, but bounced back immediately in the next season after which many of the first generation of players concentrated on Old Boys games. The second Zenith generation eventually achieved promotion for the club to Division 3 for the 1996 season, but the joy was short lived and the team was immediately relegated back to Division 4 after a disastrous time. Since 1997 Zenith have played in Division 4 until gaining promotion back to Division 3 at the end of the 2009 campaign. The Finnish Futsal League was first played in the 1998–99 season. Zenith's path in the Finnish Futsal began in Autumn 2000, when the players decided that they needed some new challenges for the long winter. Their first two years in the local series proved to be much more successful than anticipated and the club secured the rights to play in the newly formed nationwide Division 1 for the 2002–03 season. The first two seasons were a rollercoaster ride but since 2004 Zenith have been one of the most respected first division futsal teams in Finland, although blamed by some opponents for their defensive approach to the game. The Zenith first team was joined by a second futsal team for the 2003–04 season and finally after the 2008–09 campaign the second team was able to earn a place in the second division for the 2009–10 season, establishing a solid foundation for the future in futsal. In 2009 the club were honoured to be invited to

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

to play

FC Flora FC Flora, commonly known as Flora Tallinn, or simply as Flora, is a professional football club based in Tallinn, Estonia, that competes in the Meistriliiga, the top flight of Estonian football. The club's home ground is Lilleküla Stadium. For ...

for the first international game in the Zenith's futsal history.

Season to season

Club Structure

Zenith are a small club running 1 men's football team and 1 veteran's team. The club do not have a junior section. Zenith run 2 futsal teams during the winter season.

2010 season

Zenith are competing in Section 3 (Lohko 3) of the

(Third Division) administered by the Helsinki SPL. This is the fourth highest tier in the Finnish football system. In 2009 the team finished in first place in Section 2 of 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 were promoted.

References and sources

Official WebsiteSuomen Cup

Footnotes

{{Reflist Football clubs in Helsinki 1979 establishments in Finland