From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Dec 2026
Tempers go at SalPa
Sadat Seidu 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at SalPa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Topias Dementjeff 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 92% of everything SalPa earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
A falling-out at SalPa
Joonas Meura and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Reino Ruponen 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Thomas Agyiri plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Joshué Ndakala commits to SalPa for another 3 years.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A falling-out at SalPa
Anton Lundin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout14 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at SalPa
Anton Lundin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at SalPa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Topias Dementjeff 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 Dec 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Endrit Rrustemi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
Tempers go at SalPa
Anton Lundin 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 88% of everything SalPa earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A row about effort at SalPa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reino Ruponen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
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Squad
Gezim Voca is training like a man with a point to make
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
Anton Lundin 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 SalPa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at SalPa
Anton Lundin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Topias Dementjeff 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Anton Munukka 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 Anton Munukka is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tempers go at SalPa
Severi Pöysä 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at SalPa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reino Ruponen 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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Reino Ruponen is still paying for one afternoon at SalPa
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at SalPa
Joonas Meura and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 88% of everything SalPa earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Juho Pirttijoki. SalPa will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tempers go at SalPa
Goudouss Bamba 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at SalPa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Topias Dementjeff 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at SalPa
Goudouss Bamba and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Anton Munukka 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 Anton Munukka is on it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at SalPa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reino Ruponen 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
The step up is real for Miika Koski
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at SalPa
Goudouss Bamba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thomas Agyiri and SalPa agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
In brief
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Squad
14 new faces, and SalPa are still learning each other
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The dugout
Reino Ruponen is still paying for one afternoon at SalPa
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 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 SalPa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at SalPa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 110% of everything SalPa earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Anton Lundin 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 SalPa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Reino Ruponen 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Onni Rintamäki
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
Severi Pöysä 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 SalPa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Anton Munukka has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at SalPa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tempers go at SalPa
Joonas Meura 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at SalPa
14 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at SalPa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Topias Dementjeff was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at SalPa, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 SalPa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
Anton Lundin 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 SalPa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes Michael John a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at SalPa. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at SalPa would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2026
11 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match19 Aug 2026
SalPa bow out of the cup
Ekenäs IF go through and SalPa go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at SalPa
Anton Lundin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
SalPa asked and HJK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The window shuts on the David Agbo deal
SalPa ran out of time with Ekenäs IF. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
SalPa supporters have found a favourite in Anton Munukka
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Anton Munukka has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at SalPa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Topias Dementjeff 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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Markku Hoskonen left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Window shuts: 15 in, 3 out at SalPa
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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The offer went to Ekenäs IF this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at SalPa
Anton Lundin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
SalPa are still strangers to each other
13 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at SalPa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reino Ruponen 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Ilves, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Anton Lundin and SalPa agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Anton Lundin 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 SalPa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Paulus Sparv joins the SalPa first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Paulus Sparv is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Joni Karjalainen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Lukas Joronen has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Riku Ojala has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
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.” Anton Lundin and SalPa agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at SalPa
Sadat Seidu 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
SJK Akatemia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Joonas Meura 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and SalPa know which stage they are at.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Sadat Seidu's contract
49 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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Goudouss Bamba is in the works
SalPa have made the call to Ilves. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.