IF Gnistan

IF Gnistan (The Spark in English) is a Finnish football club from the city of Helsinki, founded in 1924. The club is currently playing in the Ykkonen, the second tier of the Finnish league system. IF Gnistan play their home matches at Mustapekka Areena. Club's home district is Oulunkyla, which locates in northern part of the capital city.

The club is originally Swedish-speaking, but nowadays it is supported by Finnish-speaking majority also. The club was founded by a few Svenska Reallyceum and Aggelby Svenska Samskola students from Oulunkyla in 1924. IF Gnistan were multi-sport club and had several competitive departments including ski, athletics, swim and pesapallo (Finnish baseball). Football department were founded in 1935, when the club joined Finnish Football Association Helsinki district. Later in the 1950s Gnistan had strong teams in orienteering, women's gymnastics, table tennis and cross country running alongside the classical sports.

During the late 1950s the club decided to dissolve all the other departments except for the football teams. When ski and athletics were eliminated, Gnistan turned to a football club, and named Jacob Soderman as their new chairman. They became a significant team in lower leagues of the capital region but never promoted to the top tier. After season 1994, they achieved their place to Ykkonen for the first time. They stayed in the second tier four years and then relegated back to Kakkonen in 1998. They have been in Ykkonen level three occasions.