RoPS

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RoPS

Full name	Rovaniemen Palloseura
Founded	1950
Ground	Keskuskenttä, Rovaniemi (Capacity: 4,000)
Chairman	Risto Niva
Manager	Kari Virtanen
League	Ykkönen
Veikkausliiga, 12th (relegated)
Home colours Away colours

Rovaniemen Palloseura (or RoPS) is a football club, founded in 1950 and based in the town of Rovaniemi, Finland. In 2011 RoPS played in the Finnish Premier Division (Veikkausliiga) but was relegated to Ykkönen after being the lowest-placed team at the end of the season. The club plays home games at Keskuskenttä in downtown Rovaniemi.

Achievements

RoPS won the Finnish Cup in 1986. RoPS also placed third in the Finnish Premier Division in 1988 and 1989.

The club's most notable international achievement was reaching the quarter-finals of the European Cup-Winners' Cup in 1987–88 European Cup Winners' Cup 1987/88.

Match fixing allegations and scandal

Throughout the 2000s, RoPS became infamous for their suspected involvement in match fixing.

The 2004 league match against Tampere United sparked headlines. RoPS lost the game 5-1 and club's Serbian goalkeeper Ratko Marijanovic performed suspiciously poor; the Finnish FA ultimately concluded that there was no reason for investigation.

In 2008 German news magazine Der Spiegel claimed that the league match MyPa-RoPS in 2005 was fixed. MyPa won the match 4-1 and the name of RoPS midfielder Adrian Pelka was mentioned. That match was his last in the Rovaniemi club. Der Spiegel alleged that at least two of the goals could be attributed to Pelka's poor performance.

In the Autumn of 2006 RoPS faced Helsinki club Atlantis. The final result was 2-2 draw. British betting agencies reported unusual betting activity for the defeat of Atlantis. Goalkeeper Aleksandr Mistshuk of Atlantis was later convicted of receiving a bribe. The RoPS players were not involved in the investigation.

In 2008 unusual betting activity was reported for the match between RoPS and VPS Vaasa. Estonian defender Aleksandr Kulik was later sacked. Valeri Bondarenko, Kulik's former coach in Estonian club Trans Narva, was at that time the manager of the Rovaniemi club and was implicated in match fixing activities in his home country Estonia. Earlier on that season RoPS had already sacked Ukrainian goalkeeper Nikolai Pavlenko, whose performance in the match against Espoo club FC Honka was suspicious. Jouko Kiistala, the then CEO of the club, told in a radio interview that the club will not anymore hire players whose mother tongue is Russian. In May 2008 Bondarenko was sacked.

In the Spring of 2011 the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation started a large match fixing investigation. On February 25 the Singaporean businessman and a convicted match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal was arrested after having entered Finland with a fake passport. The National Bureau of Investigation suspected that during the years from 2008 to 2011 over 30 games, mostly from the Finnish premier league, were fixed or manipulated.^[1]

On July 19 the Rovaniemi Court of Appeal convicted Wilson Raj Perumal and nine RoPS players for match fixing. Total of 24 games were manipulated, in 11 of them the given score was achieved. Perumal was sentenced to two years in prison and was ordered to return the 150,000 euros, which was deemed match fixing profits. The sums of the bribes ranged from 500 euros, which was offered for one player, to 80,000 euros, which in total was offered to eight players. The highest sums of bribes for one individual were slightly over 40,000 euros.

The players were handed suspended sentences.^[2]

Sentenced players

• Christopher Musonda
• Nchimunya Mweetwa
• Chanda Mwaba
• Chileshe Chibwe
• Stephen Kunda
• Godfrey Chibanga
• Francis Kombe
• Pavle Khorguashvili
• Valter Khorguashvili

European cup history

Season	Competition	Round	Country	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1987–88	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	1. Round		Glentoran	0–0	1–1	(a)1–1
		2. Round		KS Vllaznia Shkodër	1–0	0–1	2–0
		3. Round		Olympique de Marseille	0–1	3–0	0–4
1989–90	UEFA Cup	1. Round		GKS Katowice	1–1	0–1	2–1
		2. Round		AJ Auxerre	0–5	0–3	0–8
1990–91	UEFA Cup	1. Round		1. FC Magdeburg	0–1	0–0	0–1

Season to season

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Pauli Tuisku 2 DF Albin Granlund 3 DF Jarkko Lahdenmäki 4 MF Jukka Yrjänheikki 5 DF Jari Gröhn 6 DF Ndukaku Udoka Alison 7 MF Tuomas Tyystälä 8 MF Tuomo Könönen 9 FW Mika Lahtinen 10 MF José Manuel Rivera 11 FW Aleksandr Kokko 12 GK Juhani Hotti 13 MF Joonas Pennanen

No. Position Player 14 FW Santeri Kumpula 15 DF Juho Sieppi 16 MF Ebrima Sohna 17 FW Juho-Teppo Berg 18 FW Toni Vesala 19 MF Mika Ylipaavalniemi 21 MF Emenike Uchenna Mbachu 22 MF Mika-Matti Maisonvaara 23 FW Antti Peura 30 GK Mikko Vilmunen 35 DF Faith Friday Obilor 55 MF Victor Turcios

Former players

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References

External links

• Official website (Finnish)