2011 Meistriliiga

The 2011 Meistriliiga was the 21st season of the Meistriliiga, the top Estonian league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992. The season began on 5 March 2011 and concluded on 5 November 2011. The defending champions Flora won their ninth league title.

Meistriliiga

Season	2011
Champions	Flora 9th title
Relegated	Ajax
Champions League	Flora
Europa League	Nõmme Kalju Narva Trans Levadia
Baltic League	Flora Nõmme Kalju Narva Trans Levadia Sillamäe Kalev
Matches played	180
Goals scored	615 (3.42 per match)
Top goalscorer	Aleksandrs Čekulajevs (46 goals)
Biggest home win	Narva Trans 14–0 Ajax
Biggest away win	Ajax 0–12 Narva Trans
Highest scoring	Flora 13–1 Ajax Narva Trans 14–0 Ajax
Longest winning run	Nõmme Kalju (9 games)[1]
Longest unbeaten run	Flora (21 games)[1]
Longest winless run	Ajax (36 games)[1]
Longest losing run	Ajax (11 games)[1]
← 2010 2012 →

Teams

Lootus finished the 2010 season in last place and were relegated to the 2011 Esiliiga as a result, ending their one-year stay in the Estonian top flight. Taking their place were Ajax, who finished the 2010 Esiliiga first among promotion-eligible clubs and third overall. They returned to the top flight after a three-year absence.

Tulevik terminated their affiliation with Flora and continued as an independent club in the II Liiga. FC Viljandi was created to ensure top-level football would remain in the city of Viljandi.^[2]

In addition, the 9th place Meistriliiga club, Kuressaare, faced the 4th placed Esiliiga club, Kiviõli Tamme Auto in a two-legged play-off for a place in the Meistriliiga. Kuressaare won the play-off, 4–2 on aggregate, and thus retained their place in the league.

Stadiums and locations

Kuressaare

Trans

Paide

Sillamäe

Ajax
Flora
Kalju
Levadia

Tammeka

Viljandi

Locations of the 2011 Meistriliiga teams

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity	Manager
Ajax	Tallinn	Ajax Stadium	500	Boriss Dugan
Flora		A. Le Coq Arena	9,692	Martin Reim
Kuressaare	Kuressaare	Kuressaare linnastaadion	1,000	Sergei Zamogilnõi
Levadia	Tallinn	Kadriorg Stadium	1,300	Sergei Hohlov-Simson
Narva Trans	Narva	Narva Kreenholm Stadium	1,065	Aleksei Yagudin
Nõmme Kalju	Tallinn	Hiiu Stadium	300	Igor Prins
Paide Linnameeskond	Paide	Paide linnastaadion	500	Meelis Rooba
Sillamäe Kalev	Sillamäe	Sillamäe Kalev Stadium	800	Vladimir Kazachyonok
Tammeka	Tartu	Tartu Tamme Stadium	1,500	Kristjan Tiirik
Viljandi	Viljandi	Viljandi linnastaadion	384	Zaur Tšilingarašvili

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Flora (C)	36	26	8	2	100	24	+76	86	Qualification for Champions League second qualifying round
2	Nõmme Kalju	36	24	7	5	82	23	+59	79	Qualification for Europa League first qualifying round[a]
3	Narva Trans	36	22	7	7	107	29	+78	73
4	Levadia	36	21	10	5	76	25	+51	73
5	Sillamäe Kalev	36	17	3	16	77	59	+18	54
6	Paide	36	13	6	17	40	51	−11	45
7	Tammeka	36	11	6	19	57	75	−18	39
8	Viljandi	36	8	6	22	37	69	−32	30
9	Kuressaare (O)	36	7	5	24	28	68	−40	26	Qualification for relegation play-offs
10	Ajax (R)	36	0	4	32	11	192	−181	4	Relegation to Esiliiga

Source: Estonian Football Association (in Estonian)
Rules for classification: 1st - points; 2nd - fewest withdrawals or annulled matches; 3rd - overall wins; 4th - head-to-head points; 5th - head-to-head goal difference; 6th - goal difference; 7th - goals scored.
If two or more teams on the top have the same number of points by the end of the season, the aforementioned rules will not apply and additional game(s) will be played to determine the champions^[3]
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. The winners of the 2011–12 Estonian Cup competition (Levadia) will qualify for the first qualifying round of UEFA Europa League.

Results

Each team played every opponent four times, twice at home and twice away, for a total of 36 games.

First half of season Home \ Away AJA FLO KUR LEV NAR NÕM PLM SIL TAM VIL Ajax 0–3 2–2 1–4 0–7 0–3 1–2 1–5 0–3 0–0 Flora 6–0 3–0 0–1 3–0 3–3 2–1 2–2 1–0 0–0 Kuressaare 1–1 0–1 1–5 0–2 0–1 1–0 0–1 4–1 0–2 Levadia 3–0 1–1 2–1 2–1 1–3 0–1 4–1 2–2 2–1 Narva Trans 7–0 0–2 4–0 1–1 1–3 3–0 1–0 4–1 5–0 Nõmme Kalju 4–0 0–1 1–1 1–1 1–1 0–0 1–2 4–0 3–0 Paide 1–0 1–2 4–1 0–0 0–1 0–3 1–0 2–2 2–1 Sillamäe Kalev 7–0 0–1 1–1 1–2 0–3 1–1 2–0 2–3 2–0 Tammeka 5–0 0–0 2–1 0–5 1–1 2–3 2–2 1–4 1–1 Viljandi 3–1 0–2 2–0 0–1 0–0 0–3 1–0 2–3 1–2 Source: Estonian Football Association Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Second half of season Home \ Away AJA FLO KUR LEV NAR NÕM PLM SIL TAM VIL Ajax 0–11 3–5 0–7 0–12 0–7 0–6 0–7 0–3 0–4 Flora 13–1 2–1 3–0 1–1 1–0 2–1 4–0 3–2 4–0 Kuressaare 0–0 0–3 0–0[a] 0–2 0–2 2–1 1–2 0–2 3–0 Levadia 6–0 1–1 4–0 1–1 0–1 0–0 3–2 3–0 2–0 Narva Trans 14–0 1–1 4–0 0–2 3–2 3–0 2–3 4–0 5–0 Nõmme Kalju 3–0 3–0 3–0 1–1 1–0 1–2 3–0 3–1 2–1 Paide 4–0 1–4 1–0 0–3 0–1 0–5 0–1 2–1 2–0 Sillamäe Kalev 7–0 0–6 3–0 0–2 2–5 0–3 4–0 5–1 5–0 Tammeka 9–0 1–4 1–0 0–4 1–4 0–1 1–2 2–0 1–3 Viljandi 8–0 2–4 0–2 0–0 1–3 0–3 1–1 3–2 0–3 Source: Estonian Football Association Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win. Notes: The original score was 0–2, but was awarded 0–X to Kuressaare as Levadia used a suspended player.[4]

Relegation play-off

At season's end, the 9th place club in the Meistriliiga participated in a two-legged playoff with the runners-up of the 2011 Esiliiga for one place in the following year's competition.

Infonet v Kuressaare

13 November 2011	Infonet	0–1	Kuressaare	Tallinn
13:00 EET (GMT+2)		Report	Borissov 2' (o.g.)	Stadium: Lasnamäe KJH artificial turf Attendance: 187 Referee: Jaan Roos

Kuressaare v Infonet

19 November 2011	Kuressaare	4–1	Infonet	Kuressaare
13:00 EET (GMT+2)	Pukk 41' Valmas 60' Viira 85' Pajunurm 87'	Report	Timofejev 61'	Stadium: Kuressaare linnastaadion Attendance: 135 Referee: Eiko Saar

Kuressaare retained their place in the league, winning 5–1 on aggregate.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[5][6]
1	Aleksandrs Čekulajevs	Narva Trans	46
2	Tarmo Neemelo	Nõmme Kalju	22
	Albert Prosa	Tammeka
4	Henri Anier	Flora	21
5	Vitali Leitan	Levadia	20
6	Maksim Gruznov	Narva Trans	17
7	Jüri Jevdokimov	Nõmme Kalju	16
	Kristen Viikmäe	Nõmme Kalju
9	Aleksei Alekseev	Sillamäe Kalev	14
	Aleksandr Nikulin	Sillamäe Kalev

Average attendance

Club	Average attendance[7]
Nõmme JK Kalju	515
Tartu JK Tammeka	307
Tallinna FC Flora	274
JK Sillamäe Kalev	177
FC Kuressaare	154
Tallinna FC Levadia	150
Paide Linnameeskond	142
JK Narva Trans	128
FC Viljandi	106
Lasnamäe FC Ajax	79
League average	203

Awards

Monthly awards

Month[8]	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
March	Martin Reim	Flora	Marius Bezykornovas	Narva Trans
April	Aleksandr Puštov	Levadia	Sergei Mošnikov	Flora
May	Sergei Zamogilnõi	Kuressaare	Gert Kams
June	Igor Prins	Nõmme Kalju	Aleksandrs Čekulajevs	Narva Trans
July			Vitali Leitan	Levadia
August			Hidetoshi Wakui	Nõmme Kalju
September	Martin Reim	Flora	Aleksandrs Čekulajevs	Narva Trans
October	Meelis Rooba	Paide Linnameeskond	Markus Jürgenson	Flora

Meistriliiga Player of the Year

Sergei Mošnikov was named Meistriliiga Player of the Year.^[9]

See also

• 2010–11 Estonian Cup
• 2011–12 Estonian Cup
• 2011 Esiliiga