KuPS

KuPS enter the season as the first Finnish club to defend the Veikkausliiga title, champions in both 2024 and 2025 after the 2024 campaign brought a first golden double, the league title paired with the Suomen Cup. That form has also carried them into the league phase of the UEFA Conference League for the first time — only the second Finnish side to get there, after HJK.

That standing followed two brushes with collapse. KuPS dropped out of the top flight in 1993 and fell as far as the third division by 1997; a holding company, KuPS Oy, was set up in 1998 to keep the club solvent. A second financial crisis arrived in 2006, and investor Ari Lahti stepped in to save the club. Silver medals in 2010 marked the turn, and the sixth championship came in 2019, 43 years after the fifth.

Olli Rissanen holds the club's appearance and goalscoring records, 248 matches and 121 goals, and captain Petteri Pennanen came through the KuPS academy himself. Matches against HJK Helsinki are billed in Finland as the modern classic, while Ilves Tampere has become the more regular rival for medal positions.

KuPS was founded on 16 March 1923. The club wore black and green until 1935, when the colours changed to yellow and black, those of the Savo region, and the abbreviation KPS became KuPS.