Early years football match Uruguay (Federación Roja del Deporte) vs. Finland (Finnish Workers' Sports Association) at the Dynamo Stadium After the 1918
Finnish Civil War, the
Finnish Gymnastics and Sports Federation (SVUL) dismissed all clubs and athletes who had participated the war on the
Red side. On 26 January 1919, 56 labour movement related clubs founded the new workers' sports central association Finnish Workers' Sports Federation
(Suomen Työväen Urheiluliitto, TUL). During the first year, a 78 newly established clubs joined the federation, and by the end of 1919, TUL had about 10,000 members. In the next decade, the number rose up to 450 clubs with approximately 35,000 individual members. The establishment of TUL led into a dispersion in the Finnish sports as there was no cooperation between TUL and SVUL. Both associations created their own practise and competition systems, the Finnish championship titles were decided by SVUL athletes as TUL had own championships. Also the Finland national teams were composed only of SVUL athletes. After the 1936
Berlin Olympics, TUL and SVUL launched negotiations of cooperation as Helsinki was elected to host the
1940 Summer Olympics. Finally, in 1939 the parties signed a cooperation agreement. The TUL and SVUL athletes competed together for the first time in June 1939 as the TUL and
Finnish Football Association teams played against each other at the
Helsinki Olympic Stadium. The 1940 Summer Olympics were soon postponed due to the World War II, but TUL and SVUL continued their cooperation through the 1940s. In 1948, TUL athletes participated the Olympic Games for the first time, winning three medals, including one gold. The 37-year fragmented period finally came to an end in 1956, as the TUL and FA football series were merged. The number of individual members in TUL peaked at 380,000 in the early 1980s. In 2001, TUL had 337,000 members. == Festivals and Sports academy ==