Jalgpallihaigla’s history
It was the summer of 1994 and yet another Baltic Tournament took place in Lithuania. In Tallinn, some journalists and fans stepped into the bus, which was arranged by the Estonian Football Association (EJL) and took them to Vilnius. There were four fans: Triin, Andrus, Ats and Ott. Their accessories were mighty (without any irony): two Britain-format quite small Estonian blue-black-white tricolours, a trump and loaned white national team shirts (those frizzy Lotto ones). Obviously, in addition to journalists and officials, there were some fans at the games of the previous World Cup qualifying round. Here I must apologise to these people for the following egoistic opinion – namely that summer trip to Vilnius I consider to be the beginning of our (not very wealthy, noisy and sometimes on-their-own-travelling) trips of the fans to away games of our darling national team.
The wish to attend the away games, too, grew during cheering our team at their home games. There was the will to differ from the non-emotional crowd that made up most of the spectators, therefore the first hand-made football flags were produced, national colours or clothes that could be associated with football were worn at games and there were cheers to our heroes despite the negative and sometimes angry comments from the surroundings. It was the time when our first chants and songs were born; most of them are still in use.
Of this friendly company assembling on the smaller tribune of Kadrioru Stadium, the Flora Fänn (Flora Fan) football team emerged in 1994 and, abiding in the lower steps of Estonian football leagues, it has since then gathered immortal fame, also under the names of Vana Villem and 1188 Infoabi (sponsors). We don’t play football well, but there is still enough joy in it.
As it could be concluded from the name of the team, most of the fans were supporters of both, FC Flora and the national team. These days Flora’s management had an important role to play in developing football culture. Probably their moral support was even more important than the organising work they did (formation of the team, organising trips.) Aivar Pohlak, the president of Flora is a man whose emotions and controversy have earned him many angry reproaches, also from the fans. But when there is a leading character in Estonian sports life who thinks of fans as an inseparable part of this game and tries to consider with their needs and wants, Pohlak is the name to speak of. For example, once he ordered a special ferry for fans to go and see Flora play in Hiiumaa!
At least two clubs have tried to organise fan clubs in Estonia – Flora and Levadia. At the moment the supporters of Levadia are probably the noisiest and most active at league games but as far as I know they have no official organisation. Unfortunately no operative system has become of Flora’s fan club. Personally I believe the main reason behind that is the artificiality of this union, the initiative has come from above. By now an independent supporters club organised by us – the supporters - has emerged. The name of this organisation is the MTÜ Jalgpallihaigla (Football Hospital) and it’s aim is to unite mainly the supporters of our national team, not depending on their priorities in terms of club football, and dealing with problems concerning supporting the team; beginning with distributing tickets to the special fan sector and ending with standing for their beliefs in questions concerning the EJL and clubs. Only time will show if this kind of an organisation has more vitality than the ones organised by the clubs. The fans have certainly left a mark in Estonian football. Just an example – the idea and development of the FC Flora coat of arms was done by a fan.
Ott Pruun,
Supporter of the Estonian national team
4.03.2002
Translation into English by Mikk Vainik
