The Football Association of Finland was founded in 1907. The Finland national football team has represented Finland since 1908 though the country was an autonomous grand duchy of the Russian Empire at that time. Prior to that winter sports such as hockey and skiing enjoyed larger popularity. But the situation has recently changed and the level of national football team as well as football clubs has grown.
The team has never played in the World Cup and European championships finals. Finland was close to playing in the finals in Euro 1980 and 2008. In 1980 the team defeated Greece and Hungary once each, and drew with the USSR twice. In the next European Championship it finished level with Serbia but lost on goal difference. As a result Finland finished fourth out of seven teams behind Poland, Portugal and Serbia.
The team has been nicknamed the Eagle-Owls since the game with Belgium in 1986 when an eagle-owl flew to Helsinki Olympic Stadium and sat on the goal. Finland won that game by 2-0.
The team’s best footballers are Jari Litmanen, who has 137 caps and scored 32 goals, Jonatan Johansson, who has 103 caps and 22 goals.
Finland is ranked 74th in the FIFA World Rankings.
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