Marked for Adeleke Akinyemi
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Oct 2026
A chastening European night for IF Gnistan
0‑3 against Ajax. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
Boardroom26 Oct 2026
IF Gnistan book their European place
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
Market26 Oct 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Benjamin Dahlström will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around IF Gnistan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Saku Ylätupa beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at IF Gnistan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rachide Gnanou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom26 Oct 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout26 Oct 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Matias Tamminen is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Market12 Oct 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around IF Gnistan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and IF Gnistan know it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Rachide Gnanou 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for IF Gnistan is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I watch every IF Gnistan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ekenäs IF runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Juhani Ojala knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at IF Gnistan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Saku Ylätupa’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Sep 2026
The cup run ends for IF Gnistan
1‑4 against HJK, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
IF Gnistan are taken apart by HJK — and the town wants answers
It finished 1-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A defender's goal wins it for IF Gnistan — 7.55
1 for Evgeny Bashkirov, marked 7.55, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Market14 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elmeri Lappalainen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around IF Gnistan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Evgeny Bashkirov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to IF Gnistan.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at IF Gnistan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rachide Gnanou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.84 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match12 Sep 2026
IF Gnistan settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. VPS spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
Marcelo Costa has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around IF Gnistan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at IF Gnistan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rachide Gnanou is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ayo Obileye slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ayo Obileye is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order IF Gnistan prefer.
Squad7 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and IF Gnistan 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Danny Pérez gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Danny Pérez is on it.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ramilson Almeida, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against VPS in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market7 Sep 2026
The Danny Pérez talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. IF Gnistan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Aug 2026
A 3‑1 win over TPS, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Danny Pérez takes the afternoon — 8.64
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Danny Pérez provided it, and the 8.64 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market31 Aug 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around IF Gnistan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Saku Ylätupa beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match29 Aug 2026
Still nobody has beaten IF Gnistan
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Álex Craninx in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IF Gnistan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Aug 2026
IF Gnistan keep winning on the road
4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
IF Gnistan asked and RWDM said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from SJK for Benjamin Dahlström was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Evgeny Bashkirov delivers — 7.71
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Evgeny Bashkirov scored, was marked 7.71, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Window shuts: 15 in, 3 out at IF Gnistan
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Benjamin Dahlström has agreed terms with AC Oulu for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Rachide Gnanou 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Three points for IF Gnistan, 3‑2 the final word against FF Jaro in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at IF Gnistan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Bashkirov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.