Finland. Two-phased championship, designed with the aim to improve the quality of the game, but as every such design there were problems. Well known problems: the first phase counted only for qualifying to the second phase – 8 out 12 league members. The last 4 went to promotion-relegation phase with the top 4 of Second Division. The top 8 teams carried half of their 1st phase points to the final phase – and here was the problem. 7th placed in the first phase KPV Kokkola had 25 points – 4 less than the winner of this phase, TPS Turku. Halving the points reduced the difference to 2 points. The whole first phase was quite meaningless and a clever club would play just well enough to qualify to the final stage, when the competition would be already tired from spending too much effort in the first phase. And that was seemingly the case in Finland this year: HJK Helsinki, 5th in the first phase, and Kuusysi Lahti, 6th, stepped up in the 2nd phase, but the leaders of the 1st phase, TPS Turku and Koparit Kuopio (formerly KPT Kuopio), were no longer competitive. At the end Kussysi prevailed and won the title.
The city of Lahti was no stranger to success, but the club was Reipas, not this one. Kuusysi was new club – or kind of new club. Its roots were old, but 1969 was the most important year. At that time the name was Lahti69 and it is difficult to figure out what exactly this club was: a brand new one, an off-shoot of Reipas, taking off on its own, amalgamation of other clubs or remains of other clubs. The name was odd and was quickly changed to something more palatable… or well, so it looks just because it is letters and looks like name. Who knows Finnish isn’t fooled – it is just that instead of numbers 69 is written with letters. The new boys did well in their short history – established themselves in the top league, sometimes playing better than Reipas, which showed signs of decline. However, nothing spectacular so far…
The squad means nothing to almost anybody, but it is historic nevertheless: these boys made Kuusysi champions for the first time. Did they take advantage of the championship formula or were they even a bit lucky no longer mattered: the young ‘underdog’ won. At the same time Reipas was playing in 2nd Division (won promotion this year, after finishing 2nd in the promotion-relegation tournament).
The Cup final opposed Haka Valkeakoski to KPV Kokkola.
Haka won 3-2 and got their 7th Cup.