2019 Veikkausliiga

The 2019 Veikkausliiga was the 89th season of top-tier football in Finland. Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi were the defending champions.^[1] KuPS won the title.

Veikkausliiga

Season	2019
Champions	KuPS 6th title
Relegated	KPV VPS
Champions League	KuPS
Europa League	Inter Turku Ilves
Matches played	162
Goals scored	396 (2.44 per match)
Top goalscorer	Filip Valenčič (16)
Highest scoring	IFK Mariehamn 3–4 KuPS (1 May 2019)
← 2018 2020 →

New league format

Veikkausliiga adopted a new league format for the 2019 season. Each team played against each other twice in the regular season. After the regular season the top six teams advanced to the Championship Series which determines the champion and European tournament qualification places. The bottom six teams advanced to the Challenger Series. The best team from the Challenger Series plays in a tournament against the Championship Series' 4th, 5th, and 6th place teams. The winner from that plays in a final series against the 3rd best team from the Championship Series. The last UEFA Europa League qualification place goes to the winner of that final series.^[2]

The bottom team from the Challenger Series will relegate to the Ykkönen, and second to last team will play in a relegation play-off series against the 2nd best team from Ykkönen.

Teams

Palloseura Kemi Kings were relegated to Ykkönen after finishing at the bottom of the 2018 season. Their place was taken by Ykkönen champions HIFK Fotboll.

Turun Palloseura as 11th-placed team lost their Veikkausliiga spot after losing to second-placed Ykkönen team Kokkolan Palloveikot in a relegation/promotion playoff.

Stadia and locations

HIFK
HJK

RoPS

KuPS

FC Honka

FC Lahti

IFK Mariehamn

Ilves

KPV

SJK

VPS

FC Inter

Location of teams in 2019 Veikkausliiga

Club	Location	Stadium	Turf	Capacity
FC Honka	Espoo	Tapiolan Urheilupuisto	Natural	6,000
Inter Turku	Turku	Veritas Stadion	Natural	10,000
FC Lahti	Lahti	Lahden Stadion	Natural	15,000
HIFK	Helsinki	Telia 5G -areena	Artificial	10,770
HJK	Helsinki	Telia 5G -areena	Artificial	10,770
IFK Mariehamn	Mariehamn	Wiklöf Holding Arena	Natural	4,000
Ilves	Tampere	Tammelan Stadion	Natural	5,040
KPV	Kokkola	Kokkolan Keskuskenttä	Natural	2,000
KuPS	Kuopio	Savon Sanomat Areena	Artificial	5,000
RoPS	Rovaniemi	Rovaniemen keskuskenttä	Artificial	4,000
SJK	Seinäjoki	OmaSP Stadion	Artificial	6,000
VPS	Vaasa	Elisa Stadion	Artificial	6,000

League table

Regular season

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation[a]
1	KuPS (C)	27	15	8	4	46	24	+22	53	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round.
2	Inter Turku	27	15	3	9	42	29	+13	48	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round.
3	FC Honka (O)	27	14	5	8	41	29	+12	47	Qualification for the national Europa League qualification final.
4	Ilves	27	13	8	6	34	25	+9	47	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round.[b]
5	HJK	27	9	10	8	33	29	+4	37	Qualification for the national Europa League qualification tournament.
6	IFK Mariehamn	27	9	5	13	31	34	−3	32
7	HIFK	27	10	9	8	37	34	+3	39	Qualification for the national Europa League qualification tournament.
8	FC Lahti	27	9	9	9	29	36	−7	36
9	SJK	27	7	9	11	18	29	−11	30
10	RoPS	27	8	6	13	23	35	−12	30
11	KPV (R)	27	7	4	16	32	47	−15	25	Qualification for the relegation play-offs
12	VPS (R)	27	3	10	14	30	45	−15	19	Relegation to the Ykkönen

Source: Veikkausliiga, 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; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Teams played against each other twice (22 matches) after which the league split in two (top 6 and bottom 6 teams).
2. Ilves qualified for the Europa League first qualifying round by winning the 2019 Finnish Cup

Results

Home \ Away	HFK	HJK	HON	MAR	ILV	INT	KPV	KPS	LAH	RPS	SJK	VPS
HIFK	—	0–2	2–0	1–1	2–2	1–1	3–2	1–1	0–1	1–0	1–0	2–1
HJK	1–1	—	0–1	2–1	0–0	2–1	3–1	1–1	4–0	2–2	2–2	1–1
FC Honka	3–0	0–1	—	1–3	1–2	3–2	0–1	1–2	2–0	1–0	0–0	1–1
IFK Mariehamn	1–3	0–2	2–2	—	0–1	1–2	3–0	3–4	0–1	2–0	1–0	1–0
Ilves	3–1	1–1	1–1	0–0	—	0–1	4–2	0–2	1–0	2–2	3–0	0–0
FC Inter	3–2	4–1	3–1	1–0	2–3	—	2–1	1–0	2–0	3–0	1–2	1–1
KPV	1–1	2–1	0–1	0–4	0–2	1–3	—	2–1	0–0	0–1	1–2	2–1
KuPS	1–1	0–0	0–3	0–0	1–0	2–0	3–1	—	5–1	2–2	0–1	5–0
FC Lahti	0–0	3–0	3–2	0–1	1–0	1–1	1–0	3–3	—	1–2	1–1	1–1
RoPS	1–0	0–1	1–2	1–2	0–1	0–2	0–0	0–1	3–0	—	1–1	2–1
SJK	1–0	0–0	1–2	0–2	0–1	2–1	1–0	1–3	0–2	0–0	—	1–0
VPS	3–2	1–1	2–3	2–1	1–2	1–2	2–2	1–2	1–1	0–1	1–1	—

Source: Veikkausliiga
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

European competition

Five teams will play for a spot in the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League first qualifying round.

HJK	2–2 (a.e.t.)	FC Lahti
P. Forsell 33' (pen.) Mensah 37'	Report	Josu 68' (pen.) Assehnoun 78'
Penalties
	4–2

23 October 2019 (2019-10-23)

18:30 EET (UTC+2)

Telia 5G -areena, Helsinki

Referee: Mattias Gestranius

IFK Mariehamn	0–0 (a.e.t.)	HIFK
	Report
Penalties
	4–2

23 October 2019 (2019-10-23)

18:30 EET (UTC+2)

Wiklöf Holding Arena, Mariehamn

Referee: Mohammed Al-Emara

HJK	1–2 (a.e.t.)	IFK Mariehamn
Parra 16'	Report	M'Boma 68' Ketting 110'

27 October 2019 (2019-10-27)

Telia 5G -areena, Helsinki

Referee: Antti Munukka

Bracket

	Quarterfinals						Semifinals						Final
	23 October 2019 (2019-10-23)
	HJK			2(4)
							27 October 2019 (2019-10-27)
	FC Lahti			2(2)
							HJK			1
	23 October 2019 (2019-10-23)
							IFK Mariehamn			2
	IFK Mariehamn			0(4)
	HIFK			0(2)
													IFK Mariehamn	1	0	1
													FC Honka	2	1	3

Final stage

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
IFK Mariehamn	1–3	FC Honka	1–2	0–1

IFK Mariehamn	1–2	FC Honka
	Report

30 October 2019 (2019-10-30)

Wiklöf Holding Arena, Mariehamn

Referee: Joni Hyytiä

FC Honka	0–1	IFK Mariehamn
	Report

3 November 2019 (2019-11-03)

Tapiolan Urheilupuisto, Espoo

Referee: Petri Viljanen

Relegation play-offs

TPS	0–0	KPV
	Report

24 October 2019 (2019-10-24)

18:30 EET (UTC+2)

Veritas Stadion, Turku

Attendance: 3,376

Referee: Kalle Mäkinen

KPV	0–3	TPS
	Report	Ääritalo 44' Jakonen 67' Duah 90+2'

27 October 2019 (2019-10-27)

17:00 EET (UTC+2)

Kokkolan keskuskenttä, Kokkola

Attendance: 1,200

Referee: Ville Nevalainen

Season statistics

Top scorers

Final standings^[3]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Filip Valenčič	Inter Turku	16
2	Lauri Ala-Myllymäki	Ilves	12
	Borjas Martín	Honka
4	Timo Furuholm	Inter Turku	10
	Tiquinho	HIFK
6	Luís Henrique	HIFK	8
	Denys Oliynyk	SJK
	Lucas Rangel	KuPS

Awards

Annual awards

Award[4]	Winner	Club
Player of the Year	Filip Valenčič	Inter Turku
Goalkeeper of the Year	Mika Hilander	Ilves
Defender of the Year	Luis Carlos Murillo	KuPS
Midfielder of the Year	Petteri Pennanen	KuPS
Striker of the Year	Filip Valenčič	Inter Turku
Breakthrough of the Year	Jair	Ilves
Coach of the Year	Jonas Rantanen	HJK

Team of the Year

Hilander Diallo Aspegren Mensah Murillo Saxman Myllymäki Pennanen Valenčič Martín Markkula

Team of the Year[5]
Goalkeeper	Mika Hilander (Ilves)
Defence	Felipe Aspegren (Ilves)	Babacar Diallo (KuPS)	Baba Mensah (Ilves)	Luis Carlos Murillo (HJK)
Midfield	Niko Markkula (Inter Turku)	Ville Saxman (KuPS)	Lauri Ala-Myllymäki (Ilves)	Petteri Pennanen (KuPs)
Attack	Filip Valenčič (Inter Turku)	Borjas Martín (Honka)