Playing soccer in a mud bath - 16th October 2023

Although football's one of the most popular sports, in Finland they've given the ancient ball game an unusual twist by playing it in a swamp.

One of the organisers of the Swamp Soccer World Cup is Jussi Kiiskila, who explains how it all started.

Jussi Kiiskila: "Swamp soccer was invented back in 1998. Basically, most of the top Finnish cross-country skiers used to train in the summer in the swamp area because it's very good exercise for the, for the fitness. And here in Hyrynsalmi a skier came up with the crazy idea of combining football and skiing, and you know the first competition was held in 1998, near Hyrynsalmi, with 13 teams."

Although it can heighten your fitness levels, swamp soccer's considerably tougher to play, so the length of the match has been dramatically reduced. It comprises two halves of just 10 minutes and the teams are smaller, with merely six players a side on the pitch at any one time, including the goalkeeper. Despite this and the challenges involved, the rules remain the same as normal, as Siri, member of the Finnish team Lahen Stolit, states.

Siri: "Well, we just play kind of soccer in the swamp. Obviously, we get stuck on the swamp and we lose our shoes in the swamp and so on. But we just try to get the ball into the goal. That's the main purpose."

There are numerous categories in the World Championships and German swamp soccer champions Jugendclub Lindenau were motivated by the variety of pitches. They competed for the first time in Finland but came away victorious, winning the gold medal in the men's professional category.

Member of German team Jugendclub Lindenau: "The fields are really different to soccer. Every field, like here, is different. Some, like, really dry and some are really the swamp, and you sink in, like, the whole body and you need to crawl."

With the pitches marked out with white boundary lines, spectators can avoid sinking down into the mud by standing on pathways built of wooden planks. This year, the Finnish championship drew 140 teams, both male and female. The hope is that 2024 will see a return to pre-Coronavirus levels, with between 200 and 250 teams participating in the tournament.

These days, there are a grand total of 300 swamp football teams around the world, so perhaps this muddy challenge appeals to you as well?