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Are the Baltics waking up?
Fri, Nov 6, 2009; Estonia
I went to Estonia last week to see a couple of Baltic League games. The competition is an interesting experiment, aimed at providing a higher level of competition for the top clubs in each league. After the failure of the Royal League, is it time Nordic clubs started looking in a similar direction, as an attempt to bridge the gap between mediocre domestic leagues and European competition? Here’s a short piece I did for the Helsinki Times on the competition:
LEVADIA Tallinn’s training ground is not an easy place to find. Off the northern edge of most tourist maps of Tallinn, close to the Pirita beaches, getting to Marjamäe can seem a little bit of a challenge to the first time visitor. There is usually not much reason to visit, unless you are a scout for rival team or wanting to tap up a young prospect. Marjamäe is comfortable enough, but it is not the most auspicious football venue in Tallinn.
The picturesque Kadriorg Stadium, magnificent Soviet-era bowl-like Kalev Stadium, and the recently constructed A Le Coq Arena at Lillekula all make for more dramatic venues, but Marjamäe’s pitch is dry and the Baltic League tie against Lithuanian side FK Tauras Taurage was switched at short notice from Levadia’s usual home ground at Kadriorg, which was waterlogged.
It was a surprise to see around 50 Tauras fans setting out their banners on arrival. They had travelled over 500km for a 2pm kick-off on a weekday, in a competition that does not even offer a spot in Europe for the winners. This kind of fanaticism is common in Baltic League games, which seem to have a high percentage of active supporters even if the total number of spectators is low.
“People want to see their team beat sides from the other Baltic countries,” explained Baltic League CEO Christian Happel as the teams warmed up at Marjamäe. “15 years ago there were tanks on the streets, and people were getting killed in Lithuania, and these people really want to show that they are here and they are free.”
The political and cultural dimensions of the Baltic League seem to bubble under the surface of the football. In pure sporting terms it provides competitive games for the best clubs against a higher standard of opposition than is available domestically, but the vision and sense of shared destiny among the Baltic countries offer this competition a pull that other transnational competitions, such as the recently mooted and geographically non-contiguous Belgian-Portuguese-Norwegian-Scottish-Dutch Atlantic League, would have to work to achieve.
This becomes abundantly clear when the teams run out and the Baltic League hymn – entitled ‘The Baltics Are Waking Up!, it is a tri-lingual anthem composed for the 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the Baltic Way protest at Soviet occupation in which hundreds of thousands of people linked hands to form a chain across the Baltic countries – blares tinnily out of the speakers. The sound drifts away and the tune is difficult to make out, but here is a sample of the lyrics to give an idea the spirit the Baltic League is trying to invoke:
Three sisters stand by the coast of sea
They are pressed by weakness and tiredness.
Their lands and spirits crushed,
And the honour and sense of three nations.
But in towers the bells of destiny toll,
And the sea starts to wave.
Three sisters wake up from sleep,
Come to stand for themselves.
Within Estonia some clubs are more equal than others. Levadia have gone 61 games without defeat, recently clinched their fourth Estonian title in a row, and have won seven titles in their eleven year history. Founded by metals magnate Viktor Levada and heavily subsidised by his firm, their main rivals are Flora Tallinn. Flora have also won seven titles, were founded in 1990, and are owned by Estonian FA President, author and Estonian intellectual, Aivar Pohlak.
Levadia won their match 3-0, with a cameo performance from Finnish substitute Tomi Saarelma, and later in the day Flora Tallinn won their game against Lithuanian side FK Šiauliai 3-1 thanks to a hat-trick from Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko. Both Lithuanian sides fought quite hard and brought a lot of fans, and Flora coach Tarmo Rüütli – who also coaches the Estonian national team – analysed the significance of the competition for Estonian football.
“I think we have different cultures in Lithuania and Latvia. We did not have a lot of contact in the Soviet period, as Lithuania played in the top soviet division and Latvia played in the First Division, we lost contact with high level football. They have more traditions and more culture, but we have made a small step forward in the last five years. If you compare to Latvia and Lithuania, we were a bit lower, but now in national team games and in European club competitions we are coming a bit closer.”
The Baltic League – which is a knock-out cup competition, not a league, but is named to avoid confusion with the Baltic Cup that decides the best Baltic national team – will continue next April at the Quarter Final stage.
Are the Baltics waking up?
Fri, Nov 6, 2009; Estonia
I went to Estonia last week to see a couple of Baltic League games. The competition is an interesting experiment, aimed at providing a higher level of competition for the top clubs in each league. After the failure of the Royal League, is it time Nordic clubs started looking in a similar direction, as an attempt to bridge the gap between mediocre domestic leagues and European competition? Here’s a short piece I did for the Helsinki Times on the competition:
LEVADIA Tallinn’s training ground is not an easy place to find. Off the northern edge of most tourist maps of Tallinn, close to the Pirita beaches, getting to Marjamäe can seem a little bit of a challenge to the first time visitor. There is usually not much reason to visit, unless you are a scout for rival team or wanting to tap up a young prospect. Marjamäe is comfortable enough, but it is not the most auspicious football venue in Tallinn.
The picturesque Kadriorg Stadium, magnificent Soviet-era bowl-like Kalev Stadium, and the recently constructed A Le Coq Arena at Lillekula all make for more dramatic venues, but Marjamäe’s pitch is dry and the Baltic League tie against Lithuanian side FK Tauras Taurage was switched at short notice from Levadia’s usual home ground at Kadriorg, which was waterlogged.
It was a surprise to see around 50 Tauras fans setting out their banners on arrival. They had travelled over 500km for a 2pm kick-off on a weekday, in a competition that does not even offer a spot in Europe for the winners. This kind of fanaticism is common in Baltic League games, which seem to have a high percentage of active supporters even if the total number of spectators is low.
“People want to see their team beat sides from the other Baltic countries,” explained Baltic League CEO Christian Happel as the teams warmed up at Marjamäe. “15 years ago there were tanks on the streets, and people were getting killed in Lithuania, and these people really want to show that they are here and they are free.”
The political and cultural dimensions of the Baltic League seem to bubble under the surface of the football. In pure sporting terms it provides competitive games for the best clubs against a higher standard of opposition than is available domestically, but the vision and sense of shared destiny among the Baltic countries offer this competition a pull that other transnational competitions, such as the recently mooted and geographically non-contiguous Belgian-Portuguese-Norwegian-Scottish-Dutch Atlantic League, would have to work to achieve.
This becomes abundantly clear when the teams run out and the Baltic League hymn – entitled ‘The Baltics Are Waking Up!, it is a tri-lingual anthem composed for the 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the Baltic Way protest at Soviet occupation in which hundreds of thousands of people linked hands to form a chain across the Baltic countries – blares tinnily out of the speakers. The sound drifts away and the tune is difficult to make out, but here is a sample of the lyrics to give an idea the spirit the Baltic League is trying to invoke:
Three sisters stand by the coast of sea
They are pressed by weakness and tiredness.
Their lands and spirits crushed,
And the honour and sense of three nations.
But in towers the bells of destiny toll,
And the sea starts to wave.
Three sisters wake up from sleep,
Come to stand for themselves.
Within Estonia some clubs are more equal than others. Levadia have gone 61 games without defeat, recently clinched their fourth Estonian title in a row, and have won seven titles in their eleven year history. Founded by metals magnate Viktor Levada and heavily subsidised by his firm, their main rivals are Flora Tallinn. Flora have also won seven titles, were founded in 1990, and are owned by Estonian FA President, author and Estonian intellectual, Aivar Pohlak.
Levadia won their match 3-0, with a cameo performance from Finnish substitute Tomi Saarelma, and later in the day Flora Tallinn won their game against Lithuanian side FK Šiauliai 3-1 thanks to a hat-trick from Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko. Both Lithuanian sides fought quite hard and brought a lot of fans, and Flora coach Tarmo Rüütli – who also coaches the Estonian national team – analysed the significance of the competition for Estonian football.
“I think we have different cultures in Lithuania and Latvia. We did not have a lot of contact in the Soviet period, as Lithuania played in the top soviet division and Latvia played in the First Division, we lost contact with high level football. They have more traditions and more culture, but we have made a small step forward in the last five years. If you compare to Latvia and Lithuania, we were a bit lower, but now in national team games and in European club competitions we are coming a bit closer.”
The Baltic League – which is a knock-out cup competition, not a league, but is named to avoid confusion with the Baltic Cup that decides the best Baltic national team – will continue next April at the Quarter Final stage.
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