Turun Palloseura, commonly known as TPS, is a professional football 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 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 ...

. During the 2022 season, the men's first team of the club competes in

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 pla ...

, the second highest tier of men's football, and the women's representative team in the

Kansallinen 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 ...

, 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 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 ...

s. 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 i ...

, 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 solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

of the season 1987–88, TPS beat

Internazionale Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is t ...

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, Ger ...

, 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. 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 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 Veikka ...

. TPS managed to get in the final of the

in 2005, but lost to

Haka Haka (; plural ''haka'', in both Māori and English) are a variety of ceremonial performance art in Māori culture. It is often performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted or chanted accompani ...

4–1 in

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 Helsin ...

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 and so ended their ten years medalless run. After the end of season Paatelainen left for Scottish club Hibernian FC 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 ...

. 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 have to get a new manager, their third in as many seasons. This time they picked

Pasi Rautiainen Pasi Pentti Rautiainen (born 18 July 1961) is Finnish football manager and former player. He has coached PK-35, FC Jokerit and FC KooTeePee in Finland and FC Levadia Tallinn and FC Flora Tallinn in Estonia. His last club was TPS. Rautiainen ...

. 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 ...

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

. Future plans for home ground development have not been made public. TPS returned to the Veikkausliiga for the 2018 season, winning the

title on 21 October 2017 with a 1–1 draw against Honka. However, after the 2018 season, TPS was again relegated to

, 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 ''

'' *13 seasons in ''

'' *3 seasons in ''Cup-format championship''

Current squad

Out on loan

Management and boardroom

Management

''As of 16 March 2021.''

Boardroom

''As of 16 March 2021''

Managers

* Juuso Lampila (1939–47) * Imre Markos (1948–50) * Raino Suominen (1951–54) * Leo Aaltonen (1955–59) * Knut Gustafsson (1960–61) * Olli Virho (1962) *

Kalevi Lehtovirta Kalevi Valdemar Lehtovirta (20 February 1928 – 10 January 2016) was a Finnish football striker who competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics. Personal life While in Paris he married a local woman who gave birth to their twin sons. They lived in Mo ...

(1962) * Leo Aaltonen (1963) * Tage Friedfeld (1964) * Leo Aaltonen (1964) *

Rainer Forss Rainer Forss (20 October 1930 – 2 August 2005) was a Finnish professional football forward, manager and coach. He won full, Olympic and B caps for Finland at international level and was a member of Finland's 1952 Summer Olympics squad. In add ...

(1965–70) * Paavo Nenonen (1971) * Lars Nyström (1972) * Manuel Gerpe (1973) * Paavo Nenonen (1973–74) * Olavi Laaksonen (1975–77) * Tommy Lindholm (1978) * Tapio Harittu (1978–80) * Raimo Toivanen (1980–83) * Hans Martin (1981–84) * Timo Sinkkonen (1984) *

(1985) * Timo Sinkkonen (1985) * Tommy Lindholm (1986–88) * Heikki Suhonen (1989–90) *

Veijo Wahlsten Veijo is a given name. Notable people with the name include: * Veijo Baltzar (born 1942), Romani author and visual artist * Veijo-Lassi Holopainen (1921–2006), Finnish field hockey player * Veijo Kaakinen (1907–1976), Finnish sports shooter *V ...

(1989–90) * Heikki Suhonen (1991) * Tommy Lindholm (1991) * Raimo Toivanen (1992–93) * Pauno Kymäläinen (1993) * Tomi Jalo (1993) *

Juha Malinen Juha is a masculine given name of Finnish origin derived from Johannes (or John in English language contexts). Notable people with the name include: * Juha Alén * Juha Gustafsson * Juha Hakola * Juha Harju * Juha Haukkala * Juha Hautamäki * J ...

(1993–97) * Siegfried Melzig (1998) * Seppo Miettinen (1998–00) *

Mika Laurikainen Mika Laurikainen (born 28 April 1963) is a Finnish football manager who works as a director of sports for Finnish Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga (; sv, Tipsligan) is the premier division of Finnish football, the highest tier of the Finnish fo ...

(2001 – December 2003) * Kari Ukkonen (January 2004 – December 2006) *

(October 2006 – January 2008) *

(January 2008 – September 2008) * John Allen (September 2008 – December 2008) *

(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 assis ...

(January 2010 – February 2014) *

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

TPS in Europe

Women's football

The club also has a women's team which competes in the

, 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