Finnish Workers' Sports Association

The Finnish Workers' Sports Association ( Finnish Suomen Työvänen Urheiluliitto , abbreviated TUL; Swedish Arbetarnas Idrottsförbund i Finland , abbreviated AIF) is the name of a Finnish sports association. The association is affiliated to the Finnish Central Federation of Trade Unions and the Social Democratic Party of Finland . The association is a member of the International Workers' Sports Association CSIT .

The TUL currently has around 300,000 members, spread over around 1,100 clubs in 59 different sports. In football, the TUL Cup has been played with interruptions since 1920 .

history

The association was founded on January 26th 1919 with the aim of strengthening the labor movement . It was founded less than a year after the Finnish civil war , in which the bourgeois, conservative camp of the “ whites ” faced the socialist camp of the “reds”. The Red Guards lost the war and the result was a split in the Finnish labor movement between moderates and revolutionaries. TUL athletes didn't have it easy in the 1920s and 1930s. They were mostly excluded from participating in international competitions, these were only reserved for athletes who were members of a club that belonged to the Finnish national sports association ( SVUL ). Finally, the two associations were able to conclude an agreement that enabled the TUL athletes to compete internationally for Finland. The politician Väinö Leskinen , who was elected General Secretary of the TUL in 1951, campaigned for rapprochement and a possible merger with the SVUL, but met with massive resistance, led by Penna Tervo and Pekka Martin . Leskinen finally gave up the post of TUL General Secretary in 1955. This dispute was also to have an impact on the Social Democratic Party, which was on the brink of breaking up in 1955.

In 1993 there was a reorganization in Finnish sport. With the Suomen Liikunta ja Urheilu (Swedish: Finlands Idrott ) a new umbrella organization was introduced. International workers' sport was also restructured after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and now oriented more towards popular, leisure and company sport. The football club Savonlinnan Työvänen Palloseura is part of the association.

Chairperson

1919–1927: Eino Pekkala
1927–1928: Väinö Mikkola
1928-1937: Toivo Wilppula
1937–1944: Urho Rinne
1944–1945: Arvi E. Heiskanen
1945–1951: Olavi Suvanto
1951–1955: Väinö Leskinen
1955-1956: Penna Tervo
1956-1967: Pekka Martin
1967–1971: Olavi Saarinen
1971-1977: Osmo Kaipainen
1977–1995: Matti Ahde
1995-2007: Kalevi Olin
2007-2016: Sirpa Paatero
2016–: Kimmo Suomi

Web links

www.tul.fi ; Site of the TUL (Finnish)

Individual evidence

↑ Leena Laine: TUL. The Finnish Worker Sport Movement. In: Arnd Krüger , James Riordan (Ed.): The Story of Worker Sport. Champaign, Ill .: Human Kinetics 1996, 67-96. ISBN 0-87322-874-X
↑ Halevi Olin (ed.) (2013). Sport, Peace and Development. International Worker Sport. 1913 - 2013. Vienna: CSIT ISBN 978-3-9503593-1-2

[1] Leena Laine: TUL. The Finnish Worker Sport Movement. In: Arnd Krüger , James Riordan (Ed.): The Story of Worker Sport. Champaign, Ill .: Human Kinetics 1996, 67-96. ISBN 0-87322-874-X

[2] Halevi Olin (ed.) (2013). Sport, Peace and Development. International Worker Sport. 1913 - 2013. Vienna: CSIT ISBN 978-3-9503593-1-2