Ilves (W)

The club was founded in 1931 and played its first official football matches in the following year, playing in the local city and district leagues.

The young club found it difficult to recruit experienced players, however, and schoolboys who at the time made up the bulk of the membership often spent their summers in the country and were thus unavailable for matches. Thus the Ilves football team was disbanded in 1938 and the club concentrated on its other main sport, ice hockey.

Another brief stint of football activity begun during World War II, and in 1947, Ilves was for the first time close to being promoted to nationwide leagues. However, they lost the decisive match—their only loss that year—and after this disappointment, football was again removed from the club repertoire.

The third coming proved to be more long-lasting and successful, as Ilves merged with erstwhile rivals Tampellan Palloilijat and Ilves-Kissat (an unrelated club despite the similar name) in 1974. Ilves assumed the considerable debts of Ilves-Kissat and in return inherited their league berth in the I-Divisioona (first division). They spent four years there before gaining promotion to the Mestaruussarja for the first time in 1978.

Ilves’ first year in the top flight was a mediocre one but they managed to avoid relegation and, more importantly, won their first major trophy as they beat TPS in the Finnish Cup final.

The cup win brought along Ilves’ first European matches next year as they were drawn against Feyenoord in the 1980–81 Cup Winners’ Cup. The Dutch giants proved too tough for the Finnish amateurs who won both legs.

The years 1983 to 1985 were Ilves’ most successful to date. The club won their first league championship in 1983, finished 3rd the following year and 2nd in 1985. In the 1984–85 European Cup they met Juventus who easily swept Ilves away on their way to win the whole competition. The home leg at Tampere Stadium was witnessed by Ilves’ all-time largest crowd of 24,073 spectators.

In the 1986–87 UEFA Cup Ilves played against Glasgow Rangers. Ilves scored their first European win on their home turf but the Glaswegians advanced to the second round with aggregate goals 2–4.

In 1990, Ilves scored their last trophy for a long while when they won the Finnish Cup. In the 1991–92 Cup Winners’ Cup Ilves advanced for the first time to the second round in European competitions as they beat the Northern Irish club Glenavon F.C. They held AS Roma to a draw at home in the second round, but in the end Roma won the second leg 5–2.

In the early 1990s, Ilves struggled on and off the pitch. The Finnish economy entered a deep recession. Ilves found it difficult to acquire sponsorships, and high unemployment and lack of disposable income resulted in low attendance figures. At the end of the 1996 season they were relegated to the Ykkönen.

After two seasons on the second tier, Ilves was close to bankruptcy. Another merger was attempted, this time with TPV, but they withdrew from the talks after a close membership vote. Despite this, the Ilves’ men’s football team was reformed as Tampere United, and Ilves focused on its junior teams.

In the early 2010s, Tampere United was embroiled in a match-fixing and money laundering scandal. They were disqualified from the league and consequently went bankrupt. This left Tampere without a top-level football team, as TPV was also mired in the lower leagues.

Ilves had restarted its men’s team in 2008 in the Kakkonen and begun a slow climb back to the top. After the demise of United, this was accelerated, and Ilves reached the Ykkönen in 2013 and returned to the Veikkausliiga for the 2015 season.

The club managed solidify its place in the Veikkausliiga, finishing in the middle of the table in their first two seasons and reaching 3rd place in 2017. This achievement brought them back into the Europa League, but the Bulgarian side Slavia Sofia proved too tough in the first qualifying round.

Ilves claimed their third Finnish Cup title in 2019 and returned to Europe in the following year, playing against Shamrock Rovers of Dublin in the 1st qualifying round of the Europa League. The match—played as a single leg due to the Covid-19 pandemic—ended 2–2, but after a lengthy penalty shootout which featured 13 attempts from both sides, the Rovers were victorious 12 to 11.

Coming to the late 2010s, the atmospheric but aging Tammela stadium was no longer fit for professional football. The city decided to tear it down and build a completely new stadium in its place. This forced Ilves to relocate to the Tampere Stadium starting from the 2020 season. With a capacity of over 16,000, the Tampere Stadium was too large for the crowds Ilves was drawing at the time, and the running track between the pitch and the stands further contributed to a poor atmosphere in the games. This, combined with the effects of the pandemic and disappointing performance on the pitch, resulted in poor attendance and financial trouble.

However, with a surprise Cup victory in 2023, together with the completion of the new stadium and the ice hockey division of Ilves stepping in to provide financial backing, Ilves was soon back among the top teams of the Veikkausliiga, having acquired sporting director Miika Takkula and head coach Joonas Rantanen. The first season in their rebuilt home resulted in a 2nd place finish in the league and a strong run in Europe, during which Ilves eliminated Austria Wien in the 2nd qualification round of the 2024–25 UEFA Conference League before falling to Djurgården in the 3rd, with the aggregate score of 2–4.