The Dirtiest
Finland is known for snowy winters, reindeers. forests, and swamps. Swamps stretch across the countryside as far as the eye can see Once a year, the town of Hyrynsalmi, about 650 kilometers north of Helsinki, hosts a very unusual sports event: the World Swamp Soccer Championship. This major spectacle attracts some 5,000 participants from a number of countries. The players play soccer in the knee-deep mud, and often there is more wading and crawling than actual kicking of the ball. The game lasts for two periods of 25 minutes each in a marked soccer field that looks more like a pig pen. After kickoff, the participants' brightly colored team shirts soon become dirty rags