2011 Veikkausliiga

Veikkausliiga

Season	2011
Champions	HJK 8th Veikkausliiga title 24th Finnish title
Relegated	RoPS
Champions League	HJK
Europa League	Inter Turku JJK KuPS MYPA
Matches played	198
Goals scored	599 (3.03 per match)
Top goalscorer	Timo Furuholm (22 goals)
Biggest home win	HJK 6–0 TPS (22 June) FF Jaro 8–2 RoPS (29 June) HJK 6–0 FF Jaro (28 September)
Biggest away win	Haka 0–5 HJK (18 June)
Highest scoring	FF Jaro 8–2 RoPS (29 June)
Longest winning run	HJK (10 games)[1]
Longest unbeaten run	FC Honka (14 games)[1]
Longest winless run	RoPS (21 games)[1]
Longest losing run	RoPS (6 games)[1]
← 2010 2012 →

The 2011 Veikkausliiga was the 81st season of top-tier football in Finland. It began on 2 May 2011 and ended on 29 October 2011.^[2] HJK were the defending champions and successfully defended their title.

The pre-season was severely affected by license revocations to two teams, which eventually resulted in a later than originally scheduled begin date and an increase of scheduled matches from 26 to 33 per team.

Teams

The league was originally supposed to have 14 teams, but AC Oulu was refused a license due to club's bad economic situation and Tampere United was excluded from every official competition of Football Association of Finland due to breaking the rules of the association, and the league will therefore be played with only 12 teams.^[3][4] AC Oulu was, however, obtained a license for Ykkönen, where it will play this season.

FC Lahti were relegated to Ykkönen after finishing at the bottom of the 2010 season. Their place was taken by Ykkönen champions RoPS. 13th-placed Veikkausliiga team JJK and Ykkönen runners-up FC Viikingit competed in a two-legged relegation play-offs for one spot in this season. JJK won 3–1 on aggregate and thereby retained their league position once again.

Team summaries

MYPA

Honka

HJK

Jaro

JJK

KuPS

Mariehamn

RoPS

Inter
TPS

VPS

Haka

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Location of teams in 2011 Veikkausliiga

Club	Location	Stadium	Capacity	Manager	Captain
FC Honka	Espoo	Tapiolan Urheilupuisto	6,000	Mika Lehkosuo	Tomi Maanoja
FC Inter	Turku	Veritas Stadion	10,000	Job Dragtsma	Henri Lehtonen
FF Jaro	Jakobstad	Jakobstads Centralplan	5,000	/ Alexei Eremenko Sr.	Heikki Aho
Haka	Valkeakoski	Tehtaan kenttä	3,516	Sami Ristilä	Regillio Nooitmeer
HJK	Helsinki	Sonera Stadium	10,770	Antti Muurinen	Ville Wallén
JJK	Jyväskylä	Harjun stadion	3,000	Kari Martonen	Mikko Hyyrynen
KuPS	Kuopio	Kuopion keskuskenttä	5,000	Esa Pekonen	Pietari Holopainen
IFK Mariehamn	Mariehamn	Wiklöf Holding Arena	4,000	Pekka Lyyski	Allan Olesen
MYPA	Myllykoski, Kouvola	Saviniemi	4,167	Toni Korkeakunnas[5]	Tuomas Aho
RoPS	Rovaniemi	Rovaniemen keskuskenttä	4,000	Matti Hiukka	Tuomo Könönen
TPS	Turku	Veritas Stadion	10,000	Marko Rajamäki	Jarno Heinikangas
VPS	Vaasa	Hietalahti Stadium	4,600	Petri Vuorinen	Tero Koskela

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Incoming manager	Date of appointment	Table
VPS	Tommi Pikkarainen	Resigned	28 July 2011[6]	Petri Vuorinen	28 July 2011	11th
RoPS	John Allen	Sacked	8 August 2011[7]	Matti Hiukka	8 August 2011	12th

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	HJK (C)	33	26	3	4	86	23	+63	81	Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round
2	FC Inter	33	16	9	8	70	44	+26	57	Qualification to Europa League second qualifying round[a]
3	JJK	33	14	12	7	60	48	+12	54	Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round
4	FC Honka	33	13	14	6	57	40	+17	53
5	TPS	33	13	11	9	48	44	+4	50
6	KuPS	33	10	10	13	44	55	−11	40	Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round[a]
7	IFK Mariehamn	33	10	8	15	39	47	−8	38
8	MYPA	33	11	5	17	39	52	−13	38	Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round[b]
9	VPS	33	8	13	12	32	44	−12	37
10	Haka	33	10	7	16	36	60	−24	37
11	FF Jaro	33	7	10	16	49	64	−15	31
12	RoPS (R)	33	5	8	20	39	78	−39	23	Relegation to Ykkönen

Source: soccerway.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. HJK won the 2011 Finnish Cup competition. Because they won the league, they will enter the second qualifying round of UEFA Champions League and their cup winner spot in UEFA Europa League will be given to the league runners-up. KuPS qualify for the first qualifying round of UEFA Europa League as cup runners-up.
2. MYPA qualify for the first qualifying round of UEFA Europa League via Fair Play ranking.^[8][9]

Results

As a consequence of the decreased number of teams immediately prior to the start of the season, the schedule for this season had to be significantly altered. Teams will now play each other a third time after a regular double-round robin schedule; each team will hence play a total of 33 matches. The schedule for the additional round of matches was determined by the final positions of the 2010 season, with the best six teams being assigned an extra home match in the process.

Matches 1–22 Home \ Away HAK HJK HON INT JAR JJK KPS MAR MYP RPS TPS VPS Haka 0–5 2–2 2–0 3–1 0–2 1–0 0–2 1–2 2–0 0–1 0–0 HJK 5–2 2–1 1–0 1–0 6–2 4–1 1–0 4–1 5–1 6–0 3–0 FC Honka 1–1 0–2 2–3 4–1 0–0 3–1 2–0 1–1 1–0 1–2 1–1 FC Inter 6–1 1–1 4–0 2–0 2–0 4–4 2–0 1–1 3–0 0–0 3–1 FF Jaro 1–2 1–0 2–2 1–3 1–1 1–1 4–0 1–5 8–2 1–1 2–0 JJK 4–2 0–2 2–2 1–0 3–3 2–0 2–1 1–0 3–0 1–1 2–0 KuPS 1–2 2–4 0–2 0–1 1–1 4–4 2–1 2–0 1–0 1–1 2–1 IFK Mariehamn 2–1 2–0 1–0 1–0 3–1 2–2 2–2 1–1 3–3 0–1 0–1 MYPA 3–0 0–2 0–1 2–3 2–1 2–1 1–0 0–2 0–4 0–0 1–0 RoPS 1–2 1–4 1–2 3–4 1–0 1–2 0–0 1–1 2–1 1–1 1–1 TPS 2–0 2–0 2–4 2–1 1–3 2–3 5–0 2–0 2–1 2–1 1–1 VPS 1–1 0–2 1–1 3–3 0–0 1–1 1–1 1–0 1–2 2–1 2–1 Source: Soccerway Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 23–33 Home \ Away HAK HJK HON INT JAR JJK KPS MAR MYP RPS TPS VPS Haka 1–3 0–4 2–1 1–1 0–1 HJK 4–2 6–0 0–0 1–0 5–0 2–0 FC Honka 1–1 1–1 2–2 2–0 5–2 1–1 FC Inter 1–1 2–2 2–1 2–0 5–2 6–2 FF Jaro 1–1 3–2 2–3 1–1 2–4 0–1 JJK 2–1 1–2 2–0 4–0 1–2 KuPS 1–4 2–1 2–1 2–0 2–0 4–2 IFK Mariehamn 0–2 1–1 5–2 5–2 0–3 MYPA 2–0 0–1 0–1 2–0 2–3 RoPS 0–2 3–3 1–1 3–1 0–0 TPS 1–2 2–1 1–1 2–1 2–2 1–1 VPS 1–2 0–1 0–0 1–1 3–2 Source: Soccerway Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Statistics

Updated to games played on 29 October 2011.

Top scorers

Source: veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish)

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Timo Furuholm	FC Inter	22
2	Tamás Gruborovics	JJK	16
	Mika Ojala	FC Inter	16
	Akseli Pelvas	HJK	16
5	Henri Lehtonen	FC Inter	15
	Berat Sadik	HJK	15
	Demba Savage	FC Honka	15
8	Babatunde Wusu	JJK	14
9	Papa Niang	FF Jaro	11
	Teemu Pukki	HJK	11
	Ilja Venäläinen	KuPS	11
	Mika Ääritalo	TPS	11
13	José Manuel Rivera	RoPS	10
14	Dudu	FC Honka	9
	Irakli Sirbiladze	FF Jaro	9
	Olajide Williams	KuPS	9
17	3 players		8
20	5 players		7
25	12 players		6
37	6 players		5
43	9 players		4
52	20 players		3
72	32 players		2
104	58 players		1

Monthly awards

Month	Coach of the Month	Player of the Month
May[10]	Job Dragtsma (FC Inter)	Timo Furuholm (FC Inter)
June[11]	Antti Muurinen (HJK)	Mika Ojala (FC Inter)
July[12]	Toni Korkeakunnas (MYPA)	Mika Ojala (FC Inter)
August[13]	Sami Ristilä (Haka)	Sampsa Timoska (MYPA)
September[14]	Kari Martonen (JJK)	Alexander Ring (HJK)
October[15]	Mika Lehkosuo (FC Honka)	Akseli Pelvas (HJK)

Players of the year

Source: veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish)

Position	Player
Best Goalkeeper	Ville Wallén (HJK)
Best Defender	Mathias Lindström (HJK)
Best Midfielder	Mika Ojala (FC Inter)
Best Striker	Timo Furuholm (FC Inter)

References

1. "Veikkausliiga - 2011". WhoScored.com. WhoScored.com. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
2. "SPL:n liittohallitus käsitteli otteluohjelman muutoksia". Archived from the original on 4 August 2012. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
3. "Palloliiton liittohallitus ei käsittele AC Oulun lisenssihakemusta". Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
4. "Tampere Unitedia koskevat päätökset". Archived from the original on 2 May 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
5. "Korkeakunnas MYPA:n valmentajaksi". Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 1 November 2010.
6. "Pikkarainen ja VPS purkivat sopimuksen - Vuorinen vetovastuuseen". veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish). Veikkausliiga. 28 July 2011. Archived from the original on 11 August 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
7. "Matti Hiukka RoPS:n päävalmentajaksi". veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish). Veikkausliiga. 8 August 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
8. "Norway wins UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking". UEFA. 7 May 2012.
9. "MYPA kilpailee paikasta Eurooppa-liigassa" (in Finnish). palloliitto.fi. 7 November 2011.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
10. FC Interin Timo Furuholm Veikkausliigan toukokuun pelaaja Archived 4 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine (in Finnish)
11. Kuukauden valmentaja ja pelaaja kohtaavat perjantaina Archived 11 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine (in Finnish)
12. Ojalalle toinen titteli peräkkäin Archived 20 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine (in Finnish)
13. Sampsa Timoskasta Veikkausliigan elokuun pelaaja Archived 11 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine (in Finnish)
14. Alexander Ringistä syyskuun pelaaja Archived 5 February 2013 at archive.today (in Finnish)
15. HJK:n Akseli Pelvas lokakuun pelaaja Archived 14 September 2012 at archive.today (in Finnish)

External links

• Official site (in Finnish)
• uefa.com