Finland may be fined for hanging special flag at World Hockey Championships

With the World Hockey Championships taking place in Helsinki, Finland, the hometown team decided to show its pride by hanging a huge flag in the home dressing room. However, there is a problem. Rather than hang the national flag of Finland, which consists on a blue cross on a white background, the team hung up the state flag, which is illegal to use in Finland unless used by "staffs, troops, departments and ships of the Defense Forces." Essentially, it is a military banner and is to be used by the military only. The flag was revealed in a video the team shot and posted on YouTube.

There is very little difference between the two flags. The state one includes a crest in the middle of the blue cross. To be clear, the fine would not be coming from the International Ice Hockey Federation, but rather the Finnish government. Finland's Ministry of the Interior confirmed to Ilta Sanomat that the team has indeed used the incorrect flag, which is subject to a fine. However, the department also confirms that someone would actually have to file a complaint before that happened. I guess we'll have to wait and see if that happens.

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