About Veikkausliiga
Veikkausliiga History, Format, Organization, Media Coverage
Veikkausliiga is the top-flight professional football league in Finland. While a top-division Finnish football league has existed since 1930, this competition was founded in 1990 and is run by the Football Association of Finland.
Veikkausliiga has undergone several changes throughout its history. However, the Finnish league currently consists of 12 clubs competing every season. The championship follows a double round-robin format, meaning that each team plays every other club twice (home and away) during the 22-match regular season.
Once the regular season ends, the top six Veikkausliiga teams move on to the Championship Round, while the bottom six enter the Relegation Round. Each team then plays an additional five matches, thus totaling 27 games. The team with the most points wins the Veikkausliiga title, while the club at the bottom of the table following the Relegation Round drops to the Ykkösliiga, the Finnish second football division. The Ykkösliiga champion replaces the relegated Veikkausliiga team.
Meanwhile, the second-last team from the Relegation Round enters the relegation playoff, facing the Ykkösliiga runner-up across two legs. The winner of this tie either wins or retains its spot in the Veikkausliiga for the following football season.
Due to the harsh weather conditions in Finland during winter, the Veikkausliiga season typically kicks off in April and wraps up in October or November. The Finnish top-flight football champion is granted a spot in the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round.
HJK, FC Haka, and KuPS are a few of the standout teams in this competition. FC Haka was the first to win consecutive Veikkausliiga titles, securing three consecutively between 1998 and 2000. HJK took things a step further by lifting an impressive six titles in a row between 2009 and 2014 while winning the Finnish top-flight in eight of the 10 seasons from 2009 to 2018.
The league's name, Veikkausliiga, comes from its main sponsor, the Finnish betting agency Veikkaus. Before 1990, the top-tier league was known as Mestaruussarja. Additionally, during its inaugural two seasons, the league was called Futisliiga.
