2017 Veikkausliiga

The 2017 Veikkausliiga was the 87th season of top-tier football in Finland. IFK Mariehamn were the defending champions.

Veikkausliiga

Season	2017
Champions	HJK
Relegated	HIFK JJK Jyväskylä
Champions League	HJK
Europa League	KuPS Ilves Lahti
Matches played	198
Goals scored	542 (2.74 per match)
Top goalscorer	Aleksei Kangaskolkka 16 goals
Biggest home win	HJK 6–0 SJK (31 May)
Biggest away win	SJK 0–6 HJK (10 August)
Highest scoring	FC Inter 6–2 RoPS (12 April) Lahti 6–2 Mariehamn (29 July)
← 2016 2018 →

Fixtures for the 2017 season were announced on 19 January 2017.^[1] The season started on 5 April 2017 and ended on 28 October 2017.^[2]

Teams

PK-35 Vantaa were relegated to Ykkönen after finishing at the bottom of the 2016 season. Their place was taken by Ykkönen champions JJK.

FC Inter as 11th-placed team regained their Veikkausliiga spot after beating the second-placed Ykkönen team TPS 2–0 on aggregate in a relegation/promotion playoff.

Stadia and locations

Ilves

HIFK
HJK

SJK

KuPS

Mariehamn

JJK

Lahti

Inter

PS Kemi

VPS

RoPS

Location of teams in 2016 Veikkausliiga

Club	Location	Stadium	Turf	Capacity
FC Inter Turku	Turku	Veritas Stadion	Natural	10,000
FC Lahti	Lahti	Lahden Stadion	Natural	15,000
HIFK Fotboll	Helsinki	Telia 5G -areena	Artificial	10,770
Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi	Helsinki	Telia 5G -areena	Artificial	10,770
IFK Mariehamn	Mariehamn	Wiklöf Holding Arena	Natural	4,000
FC Ilves	Tampere	Tammelan Stadion	Natural	5,040
JJK Jyväskylä	Jyväskylä	Harjun stadion	Natural	3,000
Kuopion Palloseura	Kuopio	Savon Sanomat Areena	Artificial	5,000
Palloseura Kemi Kings	Kemi	Sauvosaaren Urheilupuisto	Natural	4,500
RoPS	Rovaniemi	Rovaniemen keskuskenttä	Artificial	4,000
Seinäjoen Jalkapallokerho	Seinäjoki	OmaSP Stadion	Artificial	6,000
Vaasan Palloseura	Vaasa	Elisa Stadion	Artificial	6,000

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Sponsors
FC Inter	Fabrizio Piccareta	Timo Furuholm	Nike	Alfons Håkans
FC Lahti	Toni Korkeakunnas	Mikko Hauhia	Umbro	BE Group Lahti Energia Halton
HIFK	Antti Muurinen	Mika Väyrynen	Puma	Aktia Bank
HJK	Mika Lehkosuo	Rafinha	Adidas	Apu
IFK Mariehamn	Peter Lundberg[3]	Jani Lyyski	Puma	Hotell Arkipelag
Ilves	Jarkko Wiss	Antti Hynynen	Adidas	Various
JJK	Juha Pasoja	Tommi Kari	Nike	Harvia
KuPS	Jani Honkavaara	Sebastian Sorsa	Puma	Laitilan Wirvoitusjuomatehdas
PS Kemi	Jari Åhman	Lassi Nurmos	Stanno	Various
RoPS	Juha Malinen	Antti Okkonen	Puma	Saraware
SJK	Brian Page Toni Lehtinen	Mihkel Aksalu	Adidas	LähiTapiola EPKK Prima Power
VPS	Petri Vuorinen	Veli Lampi	Puma	Various

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Incoming manager	Date of appointment	Table
KuPS	Marko Rajamäki	End of contract	n/a	Jani Honkavaara	17 October 2016[4]	Pre-season
SJK	Simo Valakari	Sacked	17 February 2017[5]	Sixten Boström	20 February 2017	Pre-season
SJK	Sixten Boström	Sacked	2 June 2017[6]	Manuel Roca	2 June 2017	8th
FC Inter Turku	Shefki Kuqi	Sacked	3 August 2017[7]	Fabrizio Piccareta	3 August 2017	9th
SJK	Manuel Roca	Sacked	9 September 2017[8]	Brian Page Toni Lehtinen	9 September 2017	5th

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	HJK (C)	33	23	7	3	78	16	+62	76	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	KuPS	33	16	8	9	51	36	+15	56	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round[a]
3	Ilves	33	15	11	7	39	35	+4	56
4	Lahti	33	12	13	8	46	31	+15	49
5	IFK Mariehamn	33	13	10	10	44	42	+2	49
6	SJK	33	13	8	12	42	47	−5	47
7	RoPS	33	12	6	15	43	51	−8	42
8	VPS	33	9	12	12	38	51	−13	39
9	Inter Turku	33	10	8	15	54	57	−3	38
10	PS Kemi Kings	33	8	8	17	38	59	−21	32
11	HIFK (R)	33	6	11	16	37	54	−17	29	Qualification for the relegation play-offs
12	JJK Jyväskylä (R)	33	6	8	19	32	63	−31	26	Relegation to the Ykkönen

Updated to match(es) played on 28 October 2017. Source: Veikkausliiga (in Finnish), Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Head-to-head away goals scored; 7) Play-off
(Note: Play-off is only played if need to decide champion, teams for relegation or UEFA competition and will be played on a neutral ground).
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Since HJK, winners of the 2016–17 Finnish Cup, qualified for the Champions League first qualifying round, the spot awarded to the cup winner (Europa League first qualifying round) is passed to the next best-placed team (in this case to the fourth-placed team).

Results

Each team plays three times against every other team, either twice at home and once away or once at home and twice away, for a total of 33 matches played each.

Matches 1–22 Home \ Away HIFK HJK ILV INT JJK KPS LAH MAR PSK RPS SJK VPS HIFK — 0–0 0–1 0–2 0–0 1–4 1–2 1–1 0–2 1–0 0–2 2–1 HJK 2–0 — 2–0 1–1 4–0 2–0 0–0 2–0 3–1 0–1 6–0 5–0 Ilves 4–3 1–1 — 0–2 2–1 1–0 1–1 3–0 2–4 0–2 1–0 0–0 Inter Turku 3–0 1–1 1–1 — 4–0 1–1 0–0 1–1 1–3 6–2 0–1 0–1 JJK Jyväskylä 0–3 1–5 3–1 1–2 — 0–0 1–3 1–0 2–1 1–1 0–2 1–4 KuPS 2–1 0–2 0–1 2–1 1–0 — 2–2 1–2 3–0 3–0 1–1 2–2 Lahti 4–1 0–0 0–0 1–0 1–1 1–2 — 6–2 1–0 1–1 1–0 0–0 IFK Mariehamn 1–1 1–1 2–2 5–0 5–2 2–1 0–2 — 3–0 2–1 0–0 1–1 PS Kemi Kings 0–0 0–1 0–0 2–1 1–1 1–4 1–1 3–0 — 1–1 3–1 0–1 RoPS 2–2 1–4 1–0 2–0 2–1 0–1 1–0 3–0 3–1 — 1–2 2–4 SJK 3–3 0–6 1–2 0–3 1–0 1–0 1–1 1–1 1–0 3–0 — 0–1 VPS 1–1 2–1 0–2 3–2 1–1 2–2 0–2 0–0 3–3 1–0 1–3 — Source: Veikkausliiga (in Finnish) Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 23–33 Home \ Away HIFK HJK ILV INT JJK KPS LAH MAR PSK RPS SJK VPS HIFK — – – – 1–1 – – 0–0 4–0 1–0 2–2 – HJK 2–1 — – – – 1–0 3–0 1–0 4–0 2–3 – – Ilves 2–1 1–4 — – – 1–0 2–1 – 1–0 3–2 – – Inter Turku 4–1 1–3 2–2 — – 1–2 1–6 – – – – – JJK Jyväskylä – 0–4 0–0 1–3 — – 2–4 – – – – 2–0 KuPS 3–2 – – – 2–1 — – 2–1 – 1–1 2–1 – Lahti 2–1 – – 1–0 – 1–1 — – 0–1 1–1 – – IFK Mariehamn – – 0–1 2–1 2–1 – – — 3–2 – 2–1 1–0 PS Kemi Kings – – – 1–5 1–2 1–3 – – — – 3–3 1–1 RoPS – – – 4–2 2–0 – – 0–3 0–1 — 0–3 3–0 SJK – 0–2 0–0 5–0 0–4 – 1–0 – – – — 2–1 VPS 1–2 0–3 1–1 2–2 – 1–3 2–1 – – – – — Source: Veikkausliiga (in Finnish) Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Relegation play-offs

First Match

1 November 2017 (2017-11-01)

18:30

FC Honka	0–0	HIFK

Tapiolan Urheilupuisto, Espoo

Attendance: 2,674

Referee: Mattias Gestranius (Pargas)

Second Match

4 November 2017 (2017-11-04)

14:00

HIFK	1–1	FC Honka
Sihvola 90+4'		Äijälä 28'

Telia 5G -areena, Helsinki

Attendance: 4,158

FC Honka won 1-1 on away goals.

Statistics

Top scorers

Source: veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish)

As of match played 28 October 2017.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Aleksei Kangaskolkka	IFK Mariehamn	16
2	Tuco	Ilves	15
	Filip Valenčič	HJK
4	Akseli Pelvas	HJK	14
5	Marko Simonovski	FC Lahti	13
6	Billy Ions	SJK	12
7	Gaël Etock	JJK	11
	Alfredo Morelos	HJK
9	Pekka Sihvola	HIFK	10
10	Timo Furuholm	FC Inter	9
	Stênio	FC Lahti
	Benjamin Källman	FC Inter
	Gbolahan Salami	KuPS
	Urho Nissilä	KuPS

Awards

Month	Coach of the Month	Player of the Month
April[9]	Mika Lehkosuo (HJK)	Alfredo Morelos (HJK)
May[10]	Jani Honkavaara (KuPS)	Alfredo Morelos (HJK)
June[11]	Mika Lehkosuo (HJK)	Filip Valenčič (PS Kemi)
July[12]	Toni Korkeakunnas (FC Lahti)	Santeri Hostikka (FC Lahti)
August[13]	Jarkko Wiss (Ilves)	Akseli Pelvas (HJK)

Annual awards

Award[14]	Winner	Club
Player of the Year	Filip Valenčič	HJK
Goalkeeper of the Year	Aleksandr Vasyutin	Lahti
Defender of the Year	Juha Pirinen	HJK
Midfielder of the Year	Anthony Annan	HJK
Striker of the Year	Filip Valenčič	HJK
Breakthrough of the Year	Kaan Kairinen	Inter Turku
Coach of the Year	Mika Lehkosuo	HJK

Team of the Year

Vasyutin Patronen Granlund Coulibaly Pirinen Annan Valenčič Pennanen Hostikka Ngueukam Karjalainen

Team of the Year[15]
Goalkeeper	Aleksandr Vasjutin (Lahti)
Defence	Albin Granlund (Mariehamn)	Hannu Patronen (HJK)	Hamed Coulibaly (KuPS)	Juha Pirinen (HJK)
Midfield	Rasmus Karjalainen (PS Kemi)	Anthony Annan (HJK)	Filip Valenčič (HJK)	Santeri Hostikka (Lahti)
Attack	Aleksei Kangaskolkka (Mariehamn)	Ariel Ngueukam (Ilves)