FC Jazz

Football Club Jazz, commonly known as just Jazz, is a Finnish football club based in Pori, which plays in the Finnish third tier, Ykkönen. The club was founded in 1934 as Porin Pallo-Toverit. PPT changed its name to FC Jazz in November 1991.

FC Jazz is tied with several other clubs as the 13th most successful Finnish club by Finnish Championship titles. FC Jazz won the Finnish Championship twice (1993, 1996). Other medals for the club include Finnish Championship bronze (1992), Finnish Cup silver (1994) and Finnish League Cup silver (1994).

History

PPT 1934–1991

FC Jazz was established in 1934 as Porin Pallo-Toverit (PPT for short) by 18 young men who had previously played football in the local sports club Pyrintö. The founders had strong labour movement background and PPT immediately joined the Finnish Workers' Sports Federation (TUL). PPT had also a section for bandy and ice hockey.

PPT played its first years in TUL regional series and after the second world war in TUL national divisions. The club made its debut in Finnish Football Association's national divisions in 1948 Suomensarja which was the second tier of Finnish football. After six more seasons in TUL series PPT joined the FA's divisions permanently in 1955 playing third or fourth tiers up to the 1980s. In 1982 PPT was promoted to 1. division and year later to the premier division Mestaruussarja.

FC Jazz 1991–present

In 1991 PPT changed its name for FC Jazz. The name was inspired by Pori Jazz festival, which is one of the most popular jazz festivals in Europe. FC Jazz won two Finnish championship titles in 1993 and 1996. The club was relegated to second tier in 2004, but the first team was dissolved 2005 as a result of financial problems.

FC Jazz youth section had been separated from the league organisation since 2002, and was known as FC Jazz-juniorit (FC Jazz-j). In 2006, the club started competing with the league license of its youth organisation, and were placed in the sixth-tier Vitonen, administrated by the Finnish Football Association Satakunta. Two years later, FC Jazz-j was promoted to third tier Kakkonen, which is the lowest national level in Finnish football. In 2010, FC Jazz-juniorit were allowed to start using the name FC Jazz. In 2013, FC Jazz was promoted to second-tier Ykkönen after beating Ekenäs IF 4–2 on aggregate in the promotion playoffs. FC Jazz was relegated back to the Kakkonen for the 2017 season, but got promoted back to Ykkönen, the new nation-wide third-tier, for the 2024 season. In 2024, the new second tier Ykkösliiga was founded and Ykkönen had been demoted one level in the Finnish football league system. In the inaugural season of the competition, Jazz finished 5th in Ykkönen. In 2026, Risto Puustinen was appointed as the new manager and signed a one-year contract.

Name changes

• Porin Pallo-Toverit (PPT, 1934–1991)
• FC Jazz (1991–present)

Rivalries

FC Jazz's main rival is considered to be the other Pori club Musan Salama. The games between MuSa and Jazz are known as the Pori Derby. Other rival for Jazz is the Rauma club Pallo-Iirot.

Honours

• Finnish Championship: Winners (2): 1993, 1996
• Finnish Cup: Runners-up (1): 1995
• Finnish League Cup: Runners-up (1): 1994

Domestic competition record

European competitions

UEFA Champions League:

UEFA Cup:

UEFA Intertoto Cup:

Current squad

As of 12 January 2025

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Farm team

Euran Pallo of the Finnish fifth division Kolmonen works as FC Jazz's farm team.

Former players

All following players who have represented FC Jazz have been capped at least once by their respective national team's first squad.

• Finland Jarmo Alatensiö
• Cyprus Alekos Alekou
• Ghana Masahudu Alhassan
• El Salvador Víctor Dubón
• Niger Kourouma Fatoukouma
• Finland Timo Furuholm
• Soviet Union Yuri Gavrilov
• Finland Rami Hakanpää
• Finland Jarno Heinikangas
• Finland Petri Helin
• Finland Janne Hietanen
• Finland Miika Juntunen
• Finland Petri Järvinen
• Finland Toni Kallio
• Finland Lasse Karjalainen
• Finland Aleksandr Kokko
• Finland Peter Kopteff
• Finland Saku Laaksonen
• Finland Jarmo Manninen
• The Gambia Matthew Mendy
• Finland Janne Mäkelä
• Finland Rami Nieminen
• Finland Juha Pasoja
• Finland Jon Poulsen
• Finland Risto Puustinen
• Finland Juha Riippa
• Finland Jukka Ruhanen
• Finland Seppo Sairanen
• Finland Petri Sulonen
• Finland Antti Sumiala
• Finland Janne Suokonautio
• Finland Kim Suominen
• Finland Jani Viander
• Finland Hermanni Vuorinen
• Finland Ville Väisänen

External links