Turun Palloseura, commonly known as TPS, is a professional

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 based in

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

, Finland. During the 2024 season, the men's first team of the club competes in new Ykkösliiga, the second highest tier of men's football, and the women's representative team in the Kansallinen Liiga, the highest level of women's football in Finland. Nicknamed "''Tepsi''", the club was founded in 1922. TPS have won 8 League titles and 3 Finnish Cups. They play their home league matches at

Veritas Stadion Veritas Stadion is an association football stadium in Turku, Finland. It is situated in the district of Kupittaa, in an area dedicated to sporting venues. The stadium serves as the home venue for FC Inter Turku and Turun Palloseura playing in Finl ...

, with a capacity of 9,372 seats for most matches.

History

In the early stages of the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

of the season 1987–88, TPS beat Internazionale at the San Siro stadium in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, thanks to a goal by

Mika Aaltonen Mika Aaltonen (born 16 November 1965) is a Finnish former footballer. His position was an attacking central midfielder. He also played for the Finnish national team. During his career (1982–1994) he played in Finland, Italy, Switzerland, Germ ...

, who was later signed by Inter. They lost the return leg with 0–2, but this is widely regarded as the highest point by the club in international football. After season 2000, TPS lost its place in Finland's Premier League and played for two seasons in the Ykkönen (eng first) in the Finnish first division. In 2001, Petri Jakonen was named a new sporting director of TPS. They aimed to get back up to the Premier League with determination and it took them two seasons to complete the mission. Since season 2003 TPS has again played in the Finland's Premier League, Veikkausliiga. TPS managed to get in the final of the Finnish Cup in 2005, but lost to Haka 4–1 at

Finnair Stadium The Bolt Arena (named Telia 5G -areena until January 2020, named Sonera Stadium until April 2017, and Finnair Stadium until August 2010; also known as ''Töölön jalkapallostadion'', "Töölö football stadium") is a football stadium in Helsinki, ...

. Before season 2007, TPS hired famous Finnish striker

Mixu Paatelainen Mika-Matti Petteri Paatelainen (born 3 February 1967) is a Finnish former professional football player and the head coach of Veikkausliiga club HIFK. He scored 18 goals in 70 appearances for the Finnish national team, which makes him Finland's ...

as their manager. In his guidance TPS won bronze, ending their ten-year medalless run. After the end of season Paatelainen left for

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

club

Hibernian FC Hibernian Football Club (), commonly known as Hibs, is a professional association football, football club based in the Leith area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The club plays in the Scottish Premiership, the top tier of the Scottish Professional Fo ...

in early January 2008. Quickly TPS hired heralded Finnish manager

Martti Kuusela Martti Kuusela (born 9 October 1945 in Rovaniemi) is a Finnish football manager and former midfielder. Kuusela enjoyed a moderately successful career as a player in Finland. As a coach, he won the Finnish championship in 1981 and 1990 with HJK ...

. However Kuusela didn't get the best out of his squad and was fired mid September 2008. Overall TPS ended sixth in Veikkausliiga. So again, TPS had to get a new manager, their third in as many seasons. This time they picked Pasi Rautiainen. The CEO also changed next year as Jakonen moved on to Finnish FA and a former sporting director

Marco Casagrande Marco Casagrande (born 7 May 1971) is a Finnish architect, environmental artist, architectural theorist, former mercenary, writer and professor of architecture. He graduated from Helsinki University of Technology department of architecture (2001 ...

was named the new CEO. In recent years, TPS has had the highest average attendance in Veikkausliiga but it has suffered from a poor rental agreement with

. This has led TPS for planning to build their own stadium in Nummi. They also considered the possibility of using the

Paavo Nurmi Stadion Paavo Nurmi Stadium ( fi, Paavo Nurmen stadion, sv, Paavo Nurmis stadion) is a multi-use stadium in Turku, Finland. It is currently used mostly for football matches and athletics meets. It holds 13,000 people and is named after the Turku-born runn ...

as their home ground, but these plans faced scheduling problems with Athletics competitions and were scrapped. Both Turku based teams however played few games at the Paavo Nurmi Stadion during 2014 season when the Veritas Stadion was under maintenance. After relegation TPS changed their home venue to the Urheilupuiston yläkenttä, which is close to the Paavo Nurmi Stadion in the Turku Sports Park, but is not eligible to be used in the Veikkausliiga. Future plans for home ground development have not been made public. TPS returned to the Veikkausliiga for the 2018 season, winning the Ykkönen title on 21 October 2017 with a 1–1 draw against Honka. However, after the 2018 season, TPS was again relegated to Ykkönen, after finishing second-to-last in the league and losing the two-leg play-off against Kokkolan Pallo-Veikot (KPV), the Ykkönen runner-up. Since the 2018 season, TPS plays all home games at

Honours

Season to season

*76 seasons in '' Veikkausliiga'' *17 seasons in '' Ykkönen/ Ykkösliiga'' *3 seasons in ''Cup-format championship''

Current squad

Out on loan

Management and boardroom

Management

''As of 16 February 2024.''

Boardroom

''As of 16 March 2021''

Managers

* Juuso Lampila (1939–47) * Imre Markos (1948–50) * Raino Suominen (1951–54) *

Leo Aaltonen Leo or Léo may refer to: Acronyms * Law enforcement officer * Law enforcement organisation * ''Louisville Eccentric Observer'', a free weekly newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky * Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity Arts an ...

(1955–59) *

Knut Gustafsson Knut Gustafsson is a retired Swedish bandy player. Gustafsson was part of the Djurgården Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, ''Kungliga Djurgården'' (), is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Djurgården is home to historical build ...

(1960–61) * Olli Virho (1962) * Kalevi Lehtovirta (1962) *

(1963) * Tage Friedfeld (1964) *

(1964) * Rainer Forss (1965–70) * Paavo Nenonen (1971) *

Lars Nyström Lars is a common male name in Scandinavian countries. Origin ''Lars'' means "from the city of Laurentum". Lars is derived from the Latin name Laurentius, which means "from Laurentum" or "crowned with laurel". A homonymous Etruscan name was born ...

(1972) *

Manuel Gerpe Manuel may refer to: People * Manuel (name) * Manuel (Fawlty Towers), a fictional character from the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers'' * Charlie Manuel, manager of the Philadelphia Phillies * Manuel I Komnenos, emperor of the Byzantine Empire * Manuel ...

(1973) * Paavo Nenonen (1973–74) *

Olavi Laaksonen Olavi Laaksonen (26 July 1921 – 27 October 2004) was a Finnish footballer who competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of t ...

(1975–77) *

Tommy Lindholm Tommy Lindholm (born 3 February 1947) is a Finnish former footballer. He was the head coach of the Finland national football team from 1993 to 1994. He also coached TPS (1978, 1986–1988, 1991) and HJK (1996). He earned 43 caps at internation ...

(1978) * Tapio Harittu (1978–80) * Raimo Toivanen (1980–83) * Hans Martin (1981–84) * Timo Sinkkonen (1984) * Rainer Forss (1985) * Timo Sinkkonen (1985) *

(1986–88) *

Heikki Suhonen Heikki is a Finnish and Estonian male given name. It derives from a medieval vernacular form of the name Henrik. Notable people with the name include: *Heikki Aho (footballer) (born 1983), Finnish footballer *Heikki A. Alikoski (1912–1997), F ...

(1989–90) * Veijo Wahlsten (1989–90) *

(1991) *

(1991) * Raimo Toivanen (1992–93) *

Pauno Kymäläinen Pauno Kymäläinen (born 14 November 1949)
Retrieved 14 May 2013. is a

Tomi Jalo (1993) * Juha Malinen (1993–97) *

Siegfried Melzig Siegfried Melzig (born 12 July 1940) is a German former football player and manager. He played as a goalkeeper for SpVgg Weisenau and SV Meppen. He managed VfL Osnabrück, Bonner SC, Bayer Uerdingen, Panionios, FC 08 Homburg, Freiburger FC, MS ...

(1998) * Seppo Miettinen (1998–00) *

Mika Laurikainen Mika Laurikainen (born 28 April 1963) is a Finnish football manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of man ...

(2001 – December 2003) *

Kari Ukkonen Kari Ukkonen (born 19 February 1961) is a Finland, Finnish former football (soccer), football player and current football manager. As player, Ukkonen was fielded as defender (football), defender as well as midfielder (soccer), midfielder. Ukkone ...

(January 2004 – December 2006) *

(October 2006 – January 2008) *

(January 2008 – September 2008) * John Allen (September 2008 – December 2008) * Pasi Rautiainen (January 2009 – January 2010) *

Marko Rajamäki Marko Rajamäki (born 3 October 1968) is a Swedish-born Finnish former footballer and current manager of TPS. He managed Turun Palloseura between 2010 and 2014. Previously he managed the club's under-18 team (since 2002) and was also the assist ...

(January 2010 – February 2014) *

(February 2014 – November 2018) * Tommi Pikkarainen (November 2018 – July 2020) * Jonatan Johansson (July 2020 – September 2022) *

(October 2022) *

(January 2023 – December 2023) * Miika Nuutinen (January 2024 – present)

TPS in Europe

Women's football

The club also has a women's team which competes in the Kansallinen Liiga, the top division of women's football in Finland. TPS women took part in the national championship for the first time in 1972, and won the title in 1978. After withdrawing from the top league in 1992, they returned in 2008.

Footnotes

References

External links

Official websiteTPS Supporters
{{Finnish Champions in Football Football clubs in Finland Association football clubs established in 1922 Sport in Turku 1922 establishments in Finland