2008 Veikkausliiga

The 2008 season of Veikkausliiga was the 78th season of top-tier football in Finland. It started on 27 April 2008 and ended on 26 October 2008. The defending champions were Tampere United.

Veikkausliiga

Season	2008
Champions	Inter Turku 1st Finnish title
Relegated	KooTeePee
Champions League	Inter Turku
Europa League	Honka Lahti HJK (via domestic cup)
Goals scored	482
Average goals/game	2.65
Top goalscorer	Aleksandr Kokko Henri Myntti (13 goals both)
Biggest home win	Honka 7–0 Haka Lahti 8–1 KuPS
Biggest away win	Jaro 0–4 Haka Haka 0–4 Inter Turku TPS 0–4 Inter Turku VPS 0–4 Inter Turku KooTeePee 0–4 MYPA
Highest scoring	Lahti 8–1 KuPS
← 2007 2009 →

Promotion and relegation

AC Oulu finished at the bottom of the 2007 season and therefore were relegated to Ykkönen. Their place was taken by Ykkönen champions KuPS. 13th placed Veikkausliiga team FC Viikingit and Ykkönen runners-up RoPS competed in a two-legged relegation play-offs for one spot in 2008 Veikkausliiga. RoPS won 2–1 on aggregate and therefore were promoted to Veikkausliiga.

Overview

MYPA

Honka

HJK

Jaro

KooTeePee

KuPS

Lahti

Mariehamn

RoPS

Tampere United

Inter
TPS

VPS

Haka

Location of teams in Veikkausliiga 2008

Club	Location	Stadium	Capacity	Manager
FC Haka	Valkeakoski	Tehtaan kenttä	3,516	Olli Huttunen
HJK	Helsinki	Finnair Stadium	10,770	Antti Muurinen
FC Honka	Espoo	Tapiolan Urheilupuisto	6,000	Mika Lehkosuo
FC Inter	Turku	Veritas Stadion	10,000	Job Dragtsma
FF Jaro	Jakobstad	Jakobstads Centralplan	5,000	Mika Laurikainen
FC KooTeePee	Kotka	Arto Tolsa Areena	4,780	Tommi Kautonen
KuPS	Kuopio	Magnum Areena	3,500	Kai Nyyssönen
FC Lahti	Lahti	Lahden Stadion	15,000	Ilkka Mäkelä
IFK Mariehamn	Mariehamn	Wiklöf Holding Arena	1,600	Pekka Lyyski
MYPA	Anjalankoski	Saviniemi	4,067	Janne Lindberg
RoPS	Rovaniemi	Keskuskenttä	4,000	Valeri Bondarenko
Tampere United	Tampere	Ratina Stadion	17,000	Ari Hjelm
TPS	Turku	Veritas Stadion	10,000	John Allen
VPS	Vaasa	Hietalahti Stadium	4,600	Tomi Kärkkäinen

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	FC Inter (C)	26	15	9	2	46	12	+34	54	Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round
2	FC Honka	26	15	5	6	46	23	+23	50	Qualification to Europa League second qualifying round
3	FC Lahti	26	15	3	8	44	24	+20	48	Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round
4	HJK	26	14	5	7	47	29	+18	47	Qualification to Europa League second qualifying round[a]
5	MYPA	26	11	9	6	33	21	+12	42
6	TPS	26	12	6	8	45	36	+9	42
7	Tampere United	26	9	9	8	41	34	+7	36
8	Haka	26	10	5	11	31	37	−6	35
9	FF Jaro	26	10	5	11	36	47	−11	35
10	RoPS	26	8	6	12	31	37	−6	30
11	VPS	26	6	11	9	18	29	−11	29
12	IFK Mariehamn	26	7	5	14	24	40	−16	26
13	KuPS (O)	26	4	7	15	26	56	−30	19	Qualification to relegation play-offs
14	FC KooTeePee (R)	26	1	5	20	14	57	−43	8	Relegation to Ykkönen

Source: veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish)
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. HJK won the Finnish Cup 2008, thereby qualifying for the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.

Relegation play-offs

KuPS and Ykkönen runners-up FC Viikingit competed in a two-legged play-offs for one spot in Veikkausliiga 2009. KuPS won 2–1 on aggregate and thereby retained their league spot for 2009.

29 October 2008

18:30 GMT+2

FC Viikingit	1 – 2	KuPS
Jäntti 12'	Report (in Finnish)	Koljonen 28' Venäläinen 32'

Vuosaaren Urheilukenttä, Vuosaari, Helsinki

---

1 November 2008

13:00 GMT+2

KuPS	0 – 0	FC Viikingit
	Report (in Finnish)

Magnum Areena, Kuopio

Results

Home \ Away	HAK	HJK	HON	INT	JAR	KTP	KPS	LAH	MAR	MYP	RPS	TAM	TPS	VPS
Haka		2–3	1–2	0–4	1–2	1–1	3–0	2–1	1–0	0–3	3–1	1–1	1–2	1–0
HJK	1–2		0–2	3–2	2–3	6–1	0–0	0–1	4–0	1–1	3–2	5–1	1–0	1–0
FC Honka	7–0	1–0		1–1	3–1	2–1	2–1	1–0	2–0	2–0	0–0	3–4	2–2	1–2
FC Inter	1–0	1–1	0–0		2–0	3–0	4–0	1–0	2–0	1–1	3–1	2–2	3–0	2–0
FF Jaro	0–4	1–1	1–0	0–1		2–1	3–2	2–2	1–2	2–1	1–1	1–4	2–3	2–2
FC KooTeePee	0–2	0–1	0–0	0–2	1–4		1–1	0–1	1–0	0–4	0–2	1–3	0–2	0–0
KuPS	0–1	3–2	1–2	1–1	2–0	2–0		2–3	3–1	1–4	0–1	1–1	0–3	0–0
FC Lahti	1–0	1–2	1–0	0–1	1–2	1–0	8–1		2–1	4–0	3–0	2–2	4–1	1–0
IFK Mariehamn	2–1	0–2	3–2	1–1	1–2	4–2	1–1	0–1		0–0	2–1	1–4	2–1	0–2
MYPA	1–1	1–3	0–2	0–0	3–0	2–0	4–1	2–0	0–2		1–0	1–0	1–0	0–0
RoPS	1–2	2–0	0–2	0–0	1–3	3–0	4–0	2–2	3–1	1–1		2–1	1–0	0–1
Tampere United	1–1	1–2	1–2	1–0	0–0	4–2	2–0	0–2	1–0	0–2	5–0		1–1	1–1
TPS	2–0	1–3	2–1	0–4	4–0	4–1	3–3	2–1	0–0	0–0	2–2	1–0		6–1
VPS	0–0	0–0	1–4	0–4	2–1	1–1	2–0	0–1	0–0	0–0	1–0	0–0	2–3

Source: veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top goalscorers

Source: veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish)

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Aleksandr Kokko	Honka	13
	Henri Myntti	Tampere United	13
3	Mikko Hyyrynen	Jaro	11
	Toni Lehtinen	Haka	11
	Mikko Paatelainen	TPS	11
	Rafael	Lahti	11
8	Jarno Parikka	HJK	9
	Hermanni Vuorinen	Honka	9
10	Tarmo Neemelo	MYPA	8
	Mika Ojala	Inter Turku	8
	Paulus Roiha	HJK	8

Annual awards

Source: Veikkausliigan parhaat kaudella 2008 nimetty (in Finnish)

Players' Association's awards

• Player of the Year: Dominic Chatto (Inter Turku)
• Young player of the Year: Aleksandr Kokko (Honka)
• Referee of the Year: Tero Nieminen

Veikkausliiga's awards

• Goalkeeper of the Year: Patrick Bantamoi (Inter Turku)
• Defender of the Year: Jos Hooiveld (Inter Turku)
• Midfielder of the Year: Mika Ojala (Inter Turku)
• Attacker of the Year: Aleksandr Kokko (Honka)

External links

• Official website (in Finnish)
• soccerassociation.com