Hockey|Pentti Matikainen has gotten into a big pension dispute with the Ice Hockey League.
A coaching legend Pentti Matikainen accuses the Finnish Hockey Federation of neglecting his pension payments.
74-year-old Matikainen was the first to tell about it In an interview with MTV on Thursday.
Matikainen says he noticed the ambiguities in his pension payments after he retired ten years ago.
“When I saw my pension savings, I noticed that a significant part of the payments that belonged to the Ice Hockey Federation was missing from it,” he says.
According to Matikainen, the Jääkiekkoliitto has neglected his pension payments during the years 1992 and 1993, when he was the head coach of the Lions.
According to the old pension system, the income of the last two years of the employment relationship is taken into account when calculating the pension salary. Matikainen was employed by the Ice Hockey Federation between 1983 and 1993. He was the head coach of the men’s national team from 1987 to 1993.
Brain cancer Matikainen, who is ill, hired a law firm to investigate the matter on his behalf.
According to the lawyer’s report, Matikainen has lost approximately EUR 300,000 in pension income due to missing pension payments.
“If I live to be over 80 years old, the amount of damage will be 660,000 euros,” he claims, referring to the law firm’s calculations.
Matikainen’s dispute with the Ice Hockey League has sparked a lot of discussion. The hockey legend gives Finnish pensioners some weighty advice.
“It’s worth checking those documents carefully. I myself have trusted that they would be fine.”
Under the leadership of Pentti Matikainen (center), Leijonat won its first competition medal, silver, at the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988.
Matikainen says he still has his old pay slips. When he noticed ambiguities in his pension, he called the then CEO of the Ice Hockey League Matti Nurmin.
“Nurminen said that at that time (1987–1988) I had not yet worked for the union. I said that yes, I was probably at work when the Olympic medal came from Calgary in 1988.”
Nurminen urged Matikais to initiate legal proceedings in the case.
“I didn’t have the strength for it. I gave it to a law firm with credentials. They approached the taxman and the pension insurance company. Then this bomb only revealed what size class we were in.”
The Ice Hockey Federation has not admitted any error in the matter. The union has also pleaded that the matter has already expired.
“I would personally see that we are an employer where anyone is. We found out what we could. But if the material is not there, then it is not there. Now we only had their point of view on the matter”, the Jääkieksliitto’s financial director Jaakko Luumi told MTV.
Matikainen has his own doubts about the matter, which he is now expressing publicly.
“I don’t think this is any careless mistake or ignorance. I guess you can say that this has been a clear cost-saving measure on their part.”
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I don’t think this is any careless mistake or ignorance.
Matikainen was fired from the position of Leijoni’s head coach in 1993. He now tells his own view of the course of events.
“I was invited to the Neste tower to negotiate,” he says, referring to the building in Espoo’s Keilaniemi.
“I said I would come with a lawyer. They said it won’t work, you will come alone. Well, I went alone. The situation was 3–1.”
On the other side of the table sat the leadership of the Ice Hockey Association Jukka-Pekka Vuorinen, Kai Hietarinta and Kalervo Kummola.
“I was told that I was fired now. They said they can’t afford to pay me out. I thought it was time.”
Matikainen’s employment contract had one and a half years left.
Head coach Pentti Matikainen piloted Finland to silver at the World Cup in Prague in the spring of 1992.
Matikainen has received numerous contacts from people in the sport after his public appearance.
“Reactions have also come from hockey people I haven’t been in contact with for years,” he says.
According to his story, Matikainen has received some support in the matter.
“Nothing negative has happened.”
Matikainen, who has had a long career in hockey, took Leijonat to medals for the first time. The historic Olympic silver in Calgary was followed by third place in the Canada Cup in 1991 and silver in the World Cup in Prague in 1992.
Matikainen feels that the Jääkiekkoliitto belittles his life’s work.
“I don’t know if they want to completely erase my name from the association’s history. If I wasn’t about to win that Calgary medal in 1988 with the team.”
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