“If you get pregnant, the contract is broken”: The conditions of the Finnish top team shocked the new player – former national team star testifies to similar bans abroad

HPK wanted to prevent their volleyball player from getting pregnant – then Ronja Heikkiniemi put her foot down. Former national team star Saara Esko testifies to similar principles abroad.

The message was not at all unclear in the contract that volleyball player Ronja Heikkiniemi was offered by the top club HPK in 2018. If the player became pregnant during the contract period, the club’s financial obligations would cease immediately.

National team meritorious Heikkiniemi could not accept that. In the end, the aforementioned point in the agreement was scrapped.

– The condition means in practice that the player is pressured so that the club can be sure that she does not become pregnant. It is a proper limitation of the player’s freedom outside the sport. How covered is one to suggest such a thing? Heikkiniemi asks himself General Sports.

In the end, it was only one season in Tavastehus for her. She was not allowed to participate in anything similar in the clubs she played for in Finland or Switzerland.

Many scandalous headlines

HPK – one of the country’s most successful volleyball clubs – has been the subject of a lot of negative publicity recently.

Towards the end of the year, STT revealed that the club’s manager Ville Kalliomäki harassed several players both physically and verbally.

Eveliina Rautiainen, who played in the club between 2014 and 2018, comes with further revelations from that time. She talked about degrading weight principles, and revealed that she contracted a serious eating disorder during her time in Tavastehus.

Heikkiniemi, in turn, believes that she is not the only one who has had a “childlessness condition” in front of her.

– I know players who have been there after me and have had that condition in their contract.

The league boss: “Very strange”

Manager Kalliomäki left the club after decades of service when the scandal headlines came out. The successor, Vesa-Pekka Hirvioja, has managed to operate for a few weeks and emphasizes that contract details cannot be revealed.

But he does not want to see any pregnancy conditions in the contracts that are made in the future.

– It shouldn’t be like that in 2023. We’ll have to learn from that, whoever it is that makes the contracts. Pregnancy should be subject to the same rules as injuries and illnesses, Hirvioja thinks.

The league manager Riia Martinoja had not heard about the matter when Yle made contact.

– It sounds very strange. That doesn’t belong in a normal contract.

And the lawyer Kaius Peltonen, former league player in volleyball who read up on player contracts, believes that you can basically include anything in a contract. But if there is something that violates the Employment Contracts Act, the contract is invalid.

According to Peltonen, the pregnancy condition is a prime example of that.

“The same in Germany and Italy”

Former international professional Saara Esko recognizes the pregnancy issue. The 42-year-old retired in 2010 and played professionally in Germany, Belgium and Italy.

– I probably had such clauses in both Germany and Italy. At the time it didn’t feel particularly tricky, as it wasn’t relevant to me.

No one may be prohibited from pregnancy, slål hon fast för Yle Urheilu.

– On the one hand, I understand the clubs, in that case they need to find a replacement of the same level.

– But it is clear that anyone should be allowed to get pregnant. It’s not something that you can always plan that much.

Curious condition was removed by the athletics association

No corresponding cases came to light when Yle Urheilu was in contact with the branch associations in basketball, football and innbandy.

But from a top Finnish track and field athlete, it was learned that in the track and field association’s coaching support contract even a couple of years ago, it was stated that the support is redistributed in cases of serious injury or pregnancy.

The association’s CEO Harri Aalto emphasizes that it is not an employment contract, and that the contract reflects coaching costs. For example, in cases of serious injury, the athlete’s situation is reviewed again to find out if he can achieve the set goals.

Aalto still has no idea why the condition was on the contracts, and why it is now gone.

– We update the contracts annually.

– I think it’s great that that clause is gone. Nowadays there is a point for “special reasons”, when we can go through the situation together with the athlete.