JS Hercules


JS Hercules is an association football club based in Oulu, Finland. Founded in 1998, the team started at the lowest level of the Finnish league system and was playing in the Third Division until promoted to Finnish Second Division, Kakkonen, for the first time for season 2016.

History

When Hercules played the first matches in 1998, some of the players had never played in a football club previously. Some had a little background in their local youth teams and nothing else. The team's core was a group of students mostly from the Faculty of Technology at the University of Oulu. This first generation is almost gone, but a couple are still playing for the reserve team, Herkku-Papat, or manage the team business in the background. Younger ranks are now taking care of the first team efforts on the field.

Season to season

SeasonLevelDivisionSectionAdministrationPosition-
1998Tier 5Nelonen Group 1Northern District '5th
1999Tier 5Nelonen 'Premilinary GroupNorthern District '2ndPromotion Group 3rd
2000Tier 5Nelonen 'Premilinary GroupNorthern District 'Promotion Group 2nd - Promoted
2001Tier 4Kolmonen 'Oulu/KainuuNorthern District '7th
2002Tier 4Kolmonen 'OuluNorthern District '7th
2003Tier 4Kolmonen 'Group ANorthern District '8thRelegated
2004Tier 5Nelonen 'OuluNorthern District '2nd
2005Tier 5Nelonen 'OuluNorthern District '6th
2006Tier 5Nelonen 'Group ANorthern District '9th
2007Tier 5Nelonen 'OuluNorthern District '7th
2008Tier 5Nelonen 'OuluNorthern District '10th
2009Tier 5Nelonen 'OuluNorthern District '9th
2010Tier 5Nelonen 'OuluNorthern District '2ndPromoted
2011Tier 4Kolmonen 'Northern FinlandNorthern District '6th
2012Tier 4Kolmonen 'Northern FinlandNorthern District '7th
2013Tier 4Kolmonen 'Northern FinlandNorthern District '7th
2014Tier 4Kolmonen 'Northern FinlandNorthern District '7th
2015Tier 4Kolmonen 'Northern FinlandNorthern District '2ndPromoted
2016Tier 3Kakkonen 'Group CFinnish FA '8th
2017Tier 3Kakkonen 'Group CFinnish FA '5th
2018Tier 3Kakkonen 'Group CFinnish FA '4th
2019Tier 3Kakkonen 'Group CFinnish FA '9th
2020Tier 3Kakkonen 'Group CFinnish FA '2nd
2021Tier 3Kakkonen 'Group CFinnish FA '3rd
2022Tier 3Kakkonen 'Group CFinnish FA '3rd
2023Tier 3Kakkonen 'Group CFinnish FA '11th
2024Tier 4Kakkonen 'Group CFinnish FA '7th
2025Tier 4Kakkonen 'Group CFinnish FA '

  • 8' season in Third tier
  • 10 seasons in Fourth tier
  • 10 seasons in Fifth tier''

Current season

On season 2018 Hercules had three teams in different leagues. The first team plays in Kakkonen, group C. The reserve team, JS Hercules/2, plays in the Third Division in northern Finland; the third team, Herkku-Papat, in the Fifth Division in the Oulu area.

Outside the pitch

JS Hercules has combined football and business in creating a yearly seminar, FootCoop, which brings together teams and businesses from Northern Fennoscandia with exceptional speakers. The 2012 seminar featured Brian Deane, Tom Saintfiet, Martti Kuusela, Tom Markham, Jarmo Kekäläinen, Aki Riihilahti and Miguel Huhta, and others. At the same time they organized "Sister City Football Tournament" which included teams from Oulu's sister cities and other neighboring places like Alta IF, AC Oulu, RoPS and Bodens BK. In 2017, the club entered into a partnership with Indian I-League club Chennai City.