Finnish team HAVU announced that one of its players, Jemi «jemi» Mäkinen, will go to the reserves. While the organization tries to resolve roster issues, coach Taneli «disturbed» Veikkola will temporarily take his place. The team management attributes this decision «to a long streak of poor results» after the Finns failed to maintain the level reached in the spring of 2021.
In April, HAVU finished second at the 2021 Pinnacle Cup tournament and also climbed to fourteenth in the world rankings. However, in the late spring and early summer, they performed far from as well. They failed to make it to the top at either Spring Sweet Spring 2 or Funspark ULTI Europe. Participation in the Elisa Invitational Summer also started off poorly for HAVU, with the team losing to Copenhagen Flames and 777 in the group stage. In all three mentioned tournaments, jemi's performance was the worst on the team.
On the HAVU website, the team coach commented on the unexpected substitution as follows: «For the last two months our results have been lower than what we are aiming for. It was really difficult for us to get into the form we achieved earlier in the year and now it's time to look for other solutions. In consultation with HAVU management, we decided to temporarily replace jemi to explore other possibilities. Thus, I will play in his place in the upcoming games».
Veikkola has not been an active player since becoming HAVU's coach in 2017. Nevertheless, he has already stepped in as a substitute in this manner several times in recent years.