Face to face: Pelle Pohlak
What led to Flora becoming the most successful club in Estonia?
I would come up with three aspects. Firstly, we have created an attractive environment for players to be part of. Secondly, we choose players by weighing up both their skills and personal characteristics. Finally, we possess a clear sporting vision. This helps us to reach our goals.
How was your philosophy born?
At one point, we understood that there was enough talent in Estonia. You just had to be able to see it and work with it. This is probably the same way everywhere. It’s interesting to give young people like myself a chance by supporting them in realising their goals. Last year we had one of the youngest teams in the Europa League play-offs. As for other personnel, the head coach was 33, our assistant coaches were 33, 28 and 26 and our sports director was 37. Needless to say, we consider our way of doing things very important as it helps to make our world richer and more value-based. We hope to provide a club image that followers and like-minded people can identify with. If we were only focused on becoming successful and didn’t act on our own beliefs, we would only be providing entertainment. Yet, if we can manage to be successful another way, it has a significance of its own. We don’t just want to win; we want more.
Do you think Flora’s current players have the potential to make an impact on the European stage?
We try to become stronger step by step. We have to develop further in how we train, how we play games and how we develop players. We are also trying to bring through players capable of playing at an even higher level. We strive to be competitive in European club competitions and hopefully, this on-going process will get us there. Last season, we peaked in the play-offs of the Europa League.
How close is the connection between Flora and the national team?
Since we mainly work with Estonian players who must have the potential to represent their country, we definitely play our part in the national team’s success on a sporting level. In most cases, we remain in contact with players even after they have left Flora to move abroad. We try to stay in touch and support them, even if their only real connection to Estonian football is through the national team.
Basketball and ice hockey are very popular in Estonia, but what attention do football and Flora attract?
Ice hockey was more popular in Estonia before the Second World War. Today, football shares the status of basketball in the popularity rankings. However, the advantage football has is its worldwide sporting appeal. This impacts Estonia too. In essence, today’s youngsters perceive football as an actual profession. Estonia’s club football has now developed far beyond basketball’s and this also applies to Flora. People have noticed us because we aim to be successful by developing local players and because we take our work seriously. We believe that entertainment is not all there is to sport and football. It is only a part of it. To us, it seems people understand the meaning of this attitude.
How does Flora engage supporters of all different ages and backgrounds?
Like all other first division clubs, Flora has a community development officer who is in charge of engaging the supporters. This project is co-financed by UEFA and the Estonian FA. In the project’s first year, we saw a significant rise in club communities and match spectators. Unfortunately, the second year was affected by the pandemic. At Flora, we have two approaches to the community. First and foremost, we strive to be a family-based club with nearly 1,000 youth players. After that, we try to connect to others who can identify with our exact methods. Perhaps you could call it cultural sensitivity. Our club has quite a lot of followers from abroad as a result.
Does the club have any other traditions or values?
In my opinion, 30 years of history is too little time for traditions to be born, so I think the cultural aspects I mentioned previously are the most important values we carry. There’s an image of an Ancient Greek goddess of spring and flowers on the club’s logo. This influenced the club name and, among other things, symbolises our view that Estonian culture is not superior to others. Here, we champion the culture-based approach instead of the other ways of doing things.
“We don’t just want to win; we want more”