Ice hockey in Finland

Ice hockey in Finland
Esa Pirnes (Blues) and Michal Bros (Kärpät) in the faceoff circle during a decisive SM-liiga playoff game on 1 April 2006.
CountryFinland
Governing bodyFinnish Ice Hockey Association
National team(s)
Nickname(s)
  • Leijonat (men)
  • Naisleijonat (women)
  • Nuoret Leijonat (junior men)
  • Pikkuleijonat (U18 men)
  • Tyttöleijonat (U18 women)
Registered players71,063[1]
National competitions

Ice hockey is the most popular sport in Finland in terms of television viewership and game attendance figures.[2][3][4] It is third most popular sport in participation amongst children.[5] As of 2020, approximately 1.3% of the Finnish population was registered with the International Ice Hockey Federation, ranking Finland second in the world for percentage of population participating in ice hockey[a] and the highest percentage of any country outside of North America.[1]

  1. ^ a b "IIHF Member National Associations: Finland". International Ice Hockey Federation. 24 April 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
  2. ^ "SM-liigan katsojat 2010-2011". SM-liiga. 2011. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 9 January 2012.
  3. ^ "Retailing Opportunities for the National Hockey League in Finland" (PDF). core.ac.uk. 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  4. ^ Suominen, Seppo. "The Geography of Sport in Finland" (PDF). www.athensjournals.gr. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 May 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  5. ^ Andersen, Svein S.; Ronglan, Lars Tore (29 May 2019). Nordic Elite Sport: Same Ambitions, Different Tracks. Copenhagen Business School Press DK. ISBN 9788763002455 – via Google Books.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).