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Playing soccer in a mud bath - 16th October 2023
Football's one of the world's most loved sports, but in Finland, they've invented a slightly different game. Swamp football is played in a swamp, a wet and muddy piece of land.
Jussi Kiiskila organises the Swamp Soccer World Cup.
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."
While it can really improve your fitness, swamp football's more challenging, so the playing time's reduced to two 10 minute halves. On the pitch, there are only six players per team, a number which includes the goalkeeper. However, the game's played according to the same rules.
Siri's a member of the Finnish team Lahen Stolit, and she describes some of the difficulties, as well as the aim.
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."
In the World Championships, there's a wide variety of groups. Jugendclub Lindenau – a German club – were new to the competition, but they left with a gold in the men's professional group. They thoroughly enjoyed the range of pitches.
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."
Each pitch is marked with white lines and those people who've come to watch can stay out of the mud by standing on wooden paths.
In the recent World Championships, the contest attracted 140 teams – for both sexes – and it's hoped that by 2024, numbers will return to pre-Coronavirus levels, with between 200 and 250 teams.
With 300 swamp football teams around the world, perhaps this muddy game also sounds exciting to you?
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