Finland’s women’s football league, Kansallinen Liiga, kicked off its 2024 season a few weeks ago with great strides made in commercialising the sport — but there's still a long way to go before it matches some of the glitzier women's competitions elsewhere in the world.
The salary cap in North America's NWSL league is 2.75 million USD this year, which is some three and a half times more than all the teams in the Finnish top flight combined this year.
In 2022 the BBC reported that players in the Women’s Super League — the top tier for women’s football in England — earn an average of 47,000 pounds a year.
Leah Williamson — captain of England women’s national football team and Arsenal — recently earned around 200,000 pounds in a single season, which is nearly as much as Kansallinen Liiga’s highest team budget, of around 250,000 euros. That's a figure Kansallinen Liiga players can only dream of.
In the Finnish competition, there is even a club that pays nothing at all to players. The gulf is big, then — but there are signs of progress.
Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (HJK) corporatised their women’s team into a joint-stock company last year, gathering a million euros to invest in the club's development.
Venture leader and main investor Sammeli Sammalkorpi told Yle that the purpose of the project was to improve gender equality in Finnish sports as well as to commercialise women’s football. Mariet Louhento — Chair of Kansallinen Liiga and the venture’s cornerstone investor — explained to Yle News that the project will improve the quality and competitiveness of the entire women’s league.
Before their corporatisation, HJK women functioned under HJK ry, which is responsible for the club’s grassroots teams. Following last year’s venture, HJK women have continued playing under their own subsidiary – similar to HJK men.
This is the first time a woman’s football team in Finland has been run by an independent joint-stock company, separated from both their club’s grassroots and men’s sides.
Budgetary challenges
The budgets of teams playing in Kansallinen Liiga have increased over the years, but differences between the bigger and smaller budget clubs are significant. For example, HJK women have a 2024 budget of 670,000 euros, while PKKU – a team in Central Uusimaa that recently climbed up the league ladder – plans to spend just 90,000 euros.
Differences in player budgets, or the money used to acquire new players, is even more noticeable. Kansallinen Liiga’s three time consecutive champion, KuPS (Kuopion Palloseura), has a player budget of 220,000 euros, which mostly goes towards paying for the international players recruited in recent years.
By contrast, PKKU has no money to spare for their player budget, with zero resources available to bring in new players from outside the club.
Although efforts have been made to increase the profitability of women’s top-football in Finland, finances are in an entirely different ballpark from the men’s game.
Veikkausliiga, the top division in men's football, consists of 12 teams. The league's highest player budget is spent by HJK, who splash out about 2.2 million euros in total — nearly 18 times more than HJK women have to spare.
Ekenäs IF — the Veikkausliiga team with the lowest player budget of 467,000 euros — still has more to spend on players than Kansallinen Liiga’s biggest spenders, KuPS.
Major leaps being made
Louhento told Yle News that a women’s team’s ability to commercialise is key to their success in the league.
"Although women’s football in Finland is still behind on a global scale, we are actively working with the resources we have in order to bridge the gap," Louhento explained.
Louhento noted how different clubs in Finland are organised in different ways. HJK have their own limited company for the women's senior team, while most others work under their club’s grassroots section, which is a registered association, not a company.
"The organisation the women’s league team represents must provide them with adequate resources and skills. When a team has enough resources, success follows," Louhento told Yle News.
Due to budgetary disparities between different teams in the league, Louhento emphasised the importance of commercialisation.
"Our league [Kansallinen Liiga] tries to continuously develop the commercial skills of women’s teams. When a team’s ability to market themselves improves, so does their economic situation. When a team’s economic situation is good, the entire sport improves."
The need for resources in women’s football has been acknowledged across the globe. In 2019 world governing body UEFA has established a development fund for women’s football teams, consisting of 150,000 euros per year for each European football association. Louhento stated that Kansallinen Liiga plans on using the fund, received during the summer, to develop the commercialisation skills of the league’s teams.
It is a drop in the ocean compared to the sums spent in North America and other hotspots for the women's game, however.
"Although the popularity of women’s football has increased on a global scale, we are lagging behind in Finland. Traditional stereotypes and prejudices linked to women’s sports can still be seen, and broader changes in attitudes towards women’s football are needed," Louhento said.
Louhento emphasised the need to stop comparing women's and men's football.
"Pitting women’s and men’s teams against each other is not fruitful. Veikkausliiga is doing tremendous work, and what they do also improves women’s football. Instead of focusing on comparison, we [Kansallinen Liiga] have to focus on our strengths and resources. We are clever and flexible with the resources we have, even in cases when they’re more narrow."
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