Kotkan Työvänen Palloilijat

Kotkan Työvänen Palloilijat ( KTP Kotka for short ) is a ball sports club from the southeastern Finnish city of Kotka . The club won the Finnish football championship in 1951 and 1952 and the football cup four times. The club's basketball team has won the Finnish championship six times.

Soccer

history

The association was founded in 1927. As a member of the workers' sports association TUL , the teams did not initially play in the leagues of the national sports associations. In 1937, 1939 and 1947 KTP won the TUL football championship. In 1947 the best two teams from the SPL and the TUL played a joint final for the Finnish championship. KTP took third place. From 1948 the TUL clubs played in the SPL league system . In the first season in the Mestaruussarja KTP was ninth out of 16 teams and thus managed to stay in the league. This was followed by a gradual improvement which culminated in the two championships of 1951 and 1952. After that, KTP remained first class until 1958, before the first relegation to the II. Division followed. After the cup wins in 1958 and 1961, KTP rose again in 1962 to the Mestaruussarja. With the young Arto Tolsa , a real guarantee of success from his own youth joined the team. In 1964 he scored 26 goals in 22 games and was thus the top scorer. KTP reached third place in the league. In addition, the club reached the final of the Finnish Football Cup three times in a row from 1966 to 1968. In 1967 KTP won the final 2-0 against Lahden Reipas . In 1968 Tolsa moved to the Belgian league and in the following year KTP rose again as penultimate to the second division. After three seasons in the second division, he was even relegated to the third division. In 1977 and 1978, however, KTP rose twice in a row and was thus first class again. In this third phase of excellence, which lasted from 1979 to 1983, KTP won the Finnish Cup again and qualified for the European Cup Winners' Cup. In 1983 the relegation to the second division followed, and only a year later the relegation to the third division. It took the team almost ten years to become second class again. Once there, KTP narrowly missed the ascent several times until it succeeded again in 1998. KTP played for two more years and reached the cup final again during this time, but lost it 0: 1 against HJK Helsinki . Several Estonian national players played in the team at that time, such as Urmas Kirs , Martin Reim and Toomas Kallaste . Before the 2001 season, in which KTP should compete in the second-rate Ykkönen, the club declared that it would not start. The FC KooTeePee , which had formed from the second team KTPs, took over the league place KTPs, while KTP 2002 made a fresh start in the fourth division.

European Cup balance sheet

season	competition	round	opponent	total	To	Back
1981/82	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	1 round	SEC Bastia	0: 5	0: 0 (H)	0: 5 (A)

Legend: (H) - home game, (A) - away game, (N) - neutral place, (a) - away goal rule , (i. E.) - on penalties , (n. V.) - after extra time

Overall record: 2 games, 1 draw, 1 defeat, 0: 5 goals (goal difference −5)

successes

Finnish championship

• 1st place: 1951 and 1952
• 2nd place: 1947 and 1964

Finnish Cup

• 1st place: 1958, 1961, 1967 and 1980
• 2nd place: 1966, 1968 and 2000

Finnish League Cup

• 2nd place: 1999

Cup of the Workers' Sports Association

• 1937, 1939, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1981, 1983 and 2008

Known players

• Argo Arbeiter (* 1973), between 1998 and 2000 at KTP
• Urmas Hepner (* 1964), 1992 to 1993 at KTP
• Toomas Kallaste (* 1971), 1999 to 2000 at KTP
• Urmas Kirs (* 1966), 1999 to 2000 at KTP
• Zsolt Petry (* 1966), 2000 at KTP
• Martin Reim (* 1971), 1999 to 2000 at KTP
• Arto Tolsa (1945–1989), with KTP until 1969 and again in 1980
• Rain Vessenberg (* 1975), 1998 at KTP

basketball

The club's basketball team has been competing under the name KTP-Basket since 1927. The team has been continuously represented in the highest Finnish basketball league, the Korisliiga , since 1957 . The 2012/13 season was the 57th in a row for KTP in the elite class.

With six national championships and nine cup wins, KTP is one of the most successful Finnish basketball clubs.

successes

league

• 6 × Finnish champion (1958, 1967, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1994)
• 7 × Finnish runner-up (1960, 1961, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990, 2013)
• 10 × third (1957, 1959, 1964, 1966, 1970, 1976, 1982, 1984, 2004, 2011)

Cup

• 9 × Finnish cup winners

European Cup

The club qualified six times for the European Cup , five times for the European Cup Winners' Cup and twice for the Korać Cup . Below is the performance of each competition:

• European Champion Clubs' Cup: 1959 - Top 16, 1968 - Top 16, 1989 - Top 16, 1992 - Top 32, 1994 - 1st round, 1995 - 1st round
• European Cup Winners' Cup: 1980 - Top 16, 1985 - 1st round, 1986 - 2nd round, 1987 - Top 16, 1992 - 3rd round (as relegated from the national championship cup )
• Korać Cup: 1988 - 2nd round, 1992 - 1st round