West Ham United and English football have enjoyed a long relationship with supporters in the Nordic countries.
There, grainy images of the likes of Bobby Moore, Clyde Best and others started appearing on television screens in the 1970s.
With their own leagues being amateur or semi-professional and their national team failing to qualify for a major tournament, Finnish fans welcomed the arrival of top-class football into their homes.
With a few live matches and regular highlights being shown, many Finns quickly picked their favourite English First Division club. Forty years on, and with VIASAT SPORT broadcasting four or five live Premier League matches every weekend, English football remains hugely popular among the country’s 5.5 million inhabitants.
Among them are around 165 members of the West Ham Fans Finland supporters’ club, which was the brainchild of 55-year-old hotel worker Markku Kauppinen (pictured above, far right, with fellow members and Jussi Jaaskelainen).
“It all started in the early 1970s, when I saw West Ham playing and Clyde Best scoring on Finnish TV,” he explained. “At that time, Finnish TV showed five to six English Division One games each season and for us young football fans it was a big thing.
“We have the English Premier League on TV all the time through channel called VIAPLAY, so in the best case we can get seven live games on one weekend – one on Friday one, three on Saturday, two on Sunday and one on Monday, good times!
“I’m afraid in Finland the biggest clubs are Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool, followed by the newcomers Chelsea and Manchester City – because of all the glory hunters, of course!
“Because the games started to be shown in the 1970s, though, we also have fans of clubs like Leeds United and Ipswich Town, while my brother supports Derby County!”
Unsurprisingly, many of the players Kauppinen lists as his favourites hail from the same era.
“For me it´s Sir Trevor Brooking – he is my number one, my greatest hero! And I also love Billy Bonds, Alan Devonshire, Frank McAvennie, Phil Parkes and Tony Cottee.
“Of course, I need to give a special thanks to Mr Clyde Best, who I want to meet one day, as he´s the reason I started to support West Ham! For me, what matters is the team, and I loved both 1975/76 and 1985/86 very much.”
Having developed an affinity for the east London club, Kauppinen set about trying to find others with a similar obsession.
Soon, he and his fellow Hammers had founded their own football team, called Finnish Irons FC, and this year he launched the supporters’ club.
“We have had a football team called Finnish Irons FC, which I founded, and we played at the Boleyn Ground few times at the Frank McAvennie Tournaments!” he revealed.
“Those were great moments in our lives. After the last Tournament, the players decided to start to have a West Ham Fans Finland group on Facebook. That we started at the beginning of this year with ten members and at this moment we have 165 members and are growing fast!”
Of course, the Finns’ love for the Hammers grew stronger during periods when their own fellow countrymen were turning out in Claret and Blue – namely centre-back Hannu Tihinen in 2001 and goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen between 2012 and 2015.
“We might not have as many fans as clubs like Man United, Liverpool or Arsenal, but I’m happy to say we are more passionate and stronger than them,” Kauppinen continued.
“A lot of my mates are very deeply into the Club and fly regularly to London to watch the games. We have two Season Tickets at the moment which we use for our members. I was lucky enough to come to the EFL Cup win over Chelsea, too!
“I´ve been supporting West Ham for more than 40 years, so I’ve got a lot of good and funny stories! I don´t even know how many times I´ve visited east London!
“The two seasons that I remember best are 1985/86 because the football was brilliant and I made more than ten trips as we finished third, and 2011/12, when I came seven times because West Ham was not on telly in Finland! The day out at the Wembley in 2012 was great, too!
“As well as the players Hannu and Jussi, West Ham have played in Finland a couple of times, including the European Cup Winners’ Cup match with Lahden Reipas in 1975 – I was there! Also, Sir Trevor Brooking’s wife Lady Hilkka is of course Finnish and she is a wonderful lady.”
While travelling from Helsinki to London is the preferred viewing option for West Ham Fans Finland, Kauppinen says they will also try to meet regularly to watch matches on television.
As mentioned, five to six live matches are shown every weekend, meaning most Hammers games are available to view live. The next step for the club is to find a base in the Finnish capital.
“We are a newly-founded supporters’ club and have watched only two games together at this moment at the local pub in Helsinki,” he revealed.
“In Finland the distances are very long and we have only a small population. We have a very strong support up in the north of Finland and they will have their own meeting very soon.
“Next April we are going to hold a tournament in Helsinki where all the West Ham United fans from Finland are going to arrive and have a special weekend. We hope to have some teams from England also joining us as we had a few years back at the ‘Hannu Tihinen Tournament’ we held!”
The future
West Ham have not started the current season as everyone associated with the Club would have hoped, but Kauppinen is confident that manager Slaven Bilic will turn the Hammers’ fortunes around.
“We must keep calm and give Mr Bilic a ten-year contract because he needs time and needs to feel secure in his job,” said the West Ham Fans Finland founder.
“Sir Alex Ferguson was going to be sacked in his third season after he started with six losses and two draws, so we need to give Slaven time and we will be playing in the Champions League sooner than you think!”
Finally, should West Ham fans be in Helsinki, Kauppinen has extended a personal welcome to meet up for a drink and a chat about all things Claret and Blue.
To contact him, email Markku here or visit the West Ham Fans Finland webpage here for more details.