The Finland national football team (, ) represents Finland in men's international football competitions and is controlled by the Football Association of Finland, the governing body for football in Finland, which was founded in 1907. The team has been a member of FIFA since 1908 and a UEFA member since 1957.
Finland had never qualified for a major tournament until securing a spot at UEFA Euro 2020. After decades of average results and campaigns, the nation made progress in the 2000s, achieving notable results against established European teams and reaching a peak of 33rd in the FIFA World Rankings in 2007. Afterward, their performances and results declined, drawing them to their all-time low of 110th in the FIFA Rankings in 2017. Nine years after their all-time low in the FIFA Rankings, as of July 2026, they sit at 75th place in the overall ranking.
History
Early history The Football Association of Finland was founded in 1907 and became a member of FIFA the next year. At the time, Finland was an autonomous grand duchy ruled by the Russian Emperors. Finland played its first international on 22 October 1911, as Sweden beat the Finns at the Eläintarha Stadium in Helsinki. Finland participated the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, beating Italy and the Russian Empire, but losing the bronze medal match against the Netherlands.
Period of dispersion
After the 1918 Civil War, the Finnish sports movement was divided into the right-wing Finnish Gymnastics and Sports Federation (SVUL) and the leftist Finnish Workers' Sports Federation (TUL). The Finnish Football Association was a member of the SVUL. Both sides had their own championship series, and between 1919 and 1939 the Finland national team was selected from Football Association players only. The Finnish Workers' Sports Federation football team participated in the competitions of the international labour movement.
However, from the late 1920s several top footballers defected from the TUL and joined the Football Association so as to be eligible for the national team. During the 1930s, these ″defectors″ formed the spine of the national team. For example, the Finland squad at the 1936 Summer Olympics included eight former TUL players. In 1937, Finland participated FIFA World Cup qualification for the first time, losing all three matches against Sweden, Germany and Estonia.
From 1939, TUL players were selected for the national team and finally, in 1956, the TUL and the Football Association series were merged.
Post-war years The 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki saw the Finnish hosts lose to Austria in the first round. Finland did, however, win the unofficial Nordic championship in 1964 and 1966.
Finland also took part in European Championship qualifying from the 1968 event, but had to wait for its first win until 1978.
Late 20th century
Finland missed out on qualification for Euro 1980 by just a point and for the 1986 World Cup by two points. Finland was invited to take part in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow after many Western countries announced they would boycott the games, but failed to progress from its group.
By the mid-1990s Finland started to have more players in high-profile European leagues, led by Ajax superstar Jari Litmanen. In 1996, Euro 1992-winning coach Richard Møller Nielsen was hired to take Finland to the 1998 World Cup. The team enjoyed mixed fortunes in the campaign, the high points of which were a draw and a win away to Norway and Switzerland respectively. Going into the last match, Finland needed a win at home to Hungary to earn a place in the play-offs. They led the game 1–0 going into injury time, but scored an own goal, and their qualification campaign was over. Møller Nielsen also tried to lead Finland to Euro 2000. In that campaign the Finns recorded a sensational win away to Turkey, but couldn't compete with Germany and Turkey in the long run.
Antti Muurinen succeeded Møller Nielsen as coach in 2000. He had arguably the most talented group of Finnish players ever at his disposal, including players such as Antti Niemi, Sami Hyypiä, Teemu Tainio and Mikael Forssell in addition to the legendary Litmanen. The team performed quite well under him in qualification for the 2002 World Cup despite a difficult group, earning two draws against Germany and a home draw with England as well as beating Greece 5–1 in Helsinki. In the end, however, England and Germany proved too strong, and the Finns finished third in the group, although they were the only team in the group not to lose at home. Hopes were high going into qualification for Euro 2004 after the promising previous campaign and friendly wins over the likes of Norway, Belgium and Portugal (which saw the Finns jump from 40th to 30th in the Elo ranking). However, Finland started the campaign by losing to Wales and Yugoslavia (later Serbia and Montenegro, now two separate nations). These losses were followed by two defeats by Italy, and a 3–0 home win over Serbia and Montenegro was little consolation as the Finns finished fourth in the group. In qualification for the 2006 World Cup, Finland failed to score a single point in six matches against the top three teams in their group, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Romania. Muurinen was sacked in June 2005 and replaced by caretaker Jyrki Heliskoski, but results didn't improve.
Recent history In August 2005, it was announced that Englishman Roy Hodgson would become the new Finland coach in 2006, and he started the job in January of that year. Hodgson stepped down as manager after they failed to qualify for Euro 2008.Hodgson to return for Inter role BBC Sport, 1 December 2007
Hodgson's replacement was a Scotsman, Stuart Baxter, who signed a contract until the end of the 2012 European Championship qualification campaign. In the Euro 2008 qualifying Finland needed to win their last qualifying game away to Portugal to qualify for their first major football tournament. However, the match ended 0–0, meaning the team missed out on qualification to the tournament, with Finland ending the group stage with 24 points and Portugal with 27 points. However, the performance in qualifying led to the Finns gaining their best-ever FIFA world ranking to date at 33rd.
The 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign saw Finland again finish third in their group with five wins, three draws and two defeats. They were the only team in qualifying not to lose to eventual 3rd-place finishers Germany. In both the home and away matches Finland had led Germany, only to concede late equalizers.
Mixu Paatelainen era (2011–2015) During the Euro 2012 qualifying, head coach Baxter was sacked, and on 31 March 2011 he was replaced by former national team player Mixu Paatelainen. Paatelainen started his tenure with a win against San Marino, only to be followed by a 5–0 loss against Sweden. Finland eventually finished fourth in its group with only three wins, two of them against San Marino.
Paatelainen's deal with the Finnish FA extended until 2016, covering the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifiers, and also the next 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification and the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers. As Finland had already been eliminated from UEFA Euro 2012, his main task was to renew the national team with a generation switch, and try to qualify for one or more of the tournaments during his projected tenure as Finland's head coach. This included ultimately leaving out Jari Litmanen, the most capped player and the team's long-served captain and "The King of Finnish Football".
In the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign, Finland's best result was a 1–1 draw against reigning world champions Spain. They finished third in the five-team Group I, behind Spain and France. On 14 June 2015, Paatelainen was sacked following his fourth defeat in a row during the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign. Finland eventually finished fourth in Euro 2016 qualifying under the guidance of a caretaker manager, Markku Kanerva. They achieved a somewhat noteworthy result when Joel Pohjanpalo's goal gave the Finns a 1–0 win at former European champions Greece, who had reached the second round of the 2014 World Cup and were the top seeds of their qualifying group.
Paatelainen had applied his preferred formation of 4–3–2–1, which he had named joulukuusi – the Christmas tree – due to its shape. Because of the bad results while insistently using the same formation, and his defensive statements to media, he gained a negative reputation among the supporters and the media, and his time as the national team head coach is still remembered mainly for joulukuusi.Paatelaisen joulukuuselle naureskeltiin vuosia – tässä hyljityn järjestelmän lyhyt historia, Ilta-Sanomat, 13 June 2015
Hans Backe (2016) On 12 August 2015, Swedish Hans Backe was named the new manager, starting on 1 January 2016.Hans Backe appointed head coach of Finland men's national team His first official match with the team was on 10 January 2016, and ended in a 3–0 defeat by Sweden. On 12 December 2016, Backe was fired during the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign, and a former assistant and caretaker Markku Kanerva was named the new head coach. Finland did not win a single game during Backe's time as head coach. His record during 2016 was nine defeats and two draws.
Markku Kanerva era (2016–2024)
Finland's FIFA ranking had declined from its peak of 33rd in 2007 to 110th in 2017. As UEFA created a new competition, UEFA Nations League, to largely replace international friendlies, Finland were placed in the League C in the first 2018–19 edition due to the low ranking position. Kanerva renewed the team roster, as veterans such as Perparim Hetemaj, Niklas Moisander and Alexander Ring had announced their retirement from international duty. Roman Eremenko was also no longer available for national team due to a competition ban. With a help of goalscoring by Teemu Pukki and saves by captain goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky, Finland won their League C Group 2, ahead of Hungary, Greece and Estonia, and won promotion to League B for the next edition of UEFA Nations League.
Kanerva continued to get outstanding results with the team in the UEFA Euro 2020 qualification, and on 15 November 2019 Finland qualified for the country's first ever major tournament, UEFA Euro 2020, after defeating Liechtenstein 3–0 and finishing as the Group J runner-up behind Italy. The successful qualifying campaign was aided by the distinguished performance of Teemu Pukki, who scored ten goals in ten qualifying matches. However, the tournament finals were postponed to the summer of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The second edition of UEFA Nations League started in autumn 2020, and Finland was drawn with Wales, Ireland and Bulgaria in Group 4. They defeated both Ireland and Bulgaria home and away, but lost both games against Wales, finishing 2nd in the group and missing out on promotion to the following season's League A.
On 12 June 2021, in the UEFA Euro 2020 tournament, Finland beat Denmark 1–0, with Joel Pohjanpalo scoring the only goal with a header to give his country their first goal and the first win in a major tournament finals. The game was interrupted by a heart attack suffered by Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen, which he survived.Jukka Raitala ihmetteli, miksi Christian Eriksen näyttelee – sitten paljastui järkyttävä totuus: "Näin hänen silmänsä", Helsingin Sanomat, 29 June 2024 Unfortunately, after losing the next two games against Russia and Belgium, Finland finished third in the group and were knocked out at the group stage alongside fellow debutants North Macedonia.