Marked for Yassin Adam
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Otto Ollikainen out for 31 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason HIFK will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match5 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for HIFK
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around HIFK are no longer polite ones.
Match5 Sep 2026
4 matches without a goal for HIFK
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HIFK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Sep 2026
6 unbeaten for HIFK
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation HIFK did not have in the autumn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Rico Finnäs falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
14 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match5 Sep 2026
Point won or two lost for HIFK?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against KTP? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Aug 2026
HIFK out of the cup
Ilves ended it 0‑0. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HIFK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Rico Finnäs falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Yassin Adam dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at HIFK
Aatu Kujanpää was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
HIFK agree a free transfer for Akon Kuek
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Match8 Aug 2026
Three points for HIFK, 2‑0 the final word against FC Lahti in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad10 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Sten Grytebust
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. HIFK will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Aatu Kujanpää's contract
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 7.67 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, HIFK had the best player on the pitch.
Squad10 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and HIFK are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad10 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. HIFK have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Market10 Aug 2026
Sam Jammeh is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at HIFK has been clear about where Sam Jammeh stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yassin Adam and HIFK agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HIFK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Rico Finnäs falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match1 Aug 2026
Ilves take the points off HIFK
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tiquinho gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market3 Aug 2026
Nobody at HIFK has picked up the phone to Yassin Adam
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.