The Football Association of Finland plans to open a new coaching center in Oulu to serve the area of northern Finland. Presently the Association only runs one center in southern Finland, the Sami Hyypiä Academy located at the Eerikkilä Sports Institute.
“Since Finland is such a long country, we’d like to establish coaching centers for the northern and central regions of Finland, in Oulu and in Jyväskylä”, states Petri Jakonen, a director of development at the Association.
Jakonen notes, however, that the plans are only preliminary, and nothing is set in stone yet.
“Our plans for another coaching center will not be realized this year. We’ll be monitoring the situation over the next two years, so 2014 would most probably be the earliest possible date.”