FC Honka
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| Full name | FC Honka Espoo |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1957 |
| Ground |
Tapiolan Urheilupuisto, Espoo |
| Capacity | 6,000 |
| Chairman | Harri Pellikka |
| Manager | Vesa Vasara |
| League | Ykkönen |
| 2016 | Kakkonen, 1st |
'FC Honka Espoo' (commonly known as FC Honka or Esport Honka) is a Finnish football club, based in Espoo. It was promoted into the Finnish premier division (Veikkausliiga), for the first time in its history, at the end of the 2005 season. The club's manager is Juho Rantala and it plays its home matches at Tapiolan urheilupuisto. It was founded in 1957 as Tapion Honka, and changed its name to FC Honka in 1975.
FC Honka is largely renowned in Finland for its extensive youth scheme with over 1000 youth players playing in various age groups.
Until 2005 FC Honka was thought of as a "nearly, but not quite" team, always underachieving in the Finnish First Division (Ykkönen). In the late 1990s the objective was promotion but year after year they failed. In the beginning of the 21st century FC Honka almost went bankrupt but was saved at the last moment. In early 2005 the club was taken over by Jouko Pakarinen and Jouko Harjunpää, who had a plan to turn FC Honka from underachievers to a UEFA Champions League candidate.
In the first year of their take-over of FC Honka, the management succeeded in assembling a squad which won the First Division (Ykkönen) with ease and also made the semi-finals of the Finnish Cup where they eventually lost 1–0 to FC Haka.
FC Honka was able to fight for top positions instantly, but narrowly missed the top three in their first two seasons. However, in 2007 team lost the Finnish Cup final to Tampere United on penalties. As Tampere United also won the league title, FC Honka qualified for the 2008–09 UEFA Cup. In 2008, FC Honka achieved its first medal by finishing 2nd in the league.
FC Honka won the Finnish Cup in 2012. Due to financial difficulties the team was relegated to the third tier Kakkonen in 2015. FC Honka dominated their first season in Kakkonen and lost only two games, but were defeated in the promotion battle. After the 2016 season the team was promoted to the second tier Ykkönen.
As runners-up in yh 2007 Finnish Cup to Tampere United, who had also won the league title, FC Honka qualified for the 2008–09 UEFA Cup, beating Icelandic ÍA 4–2 in the 1st qualifying round and Norwegian Viking in the 2nd. In the first round of actual competition, they were drawn against Racing Santander and lost 0–2 on aggregate.
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