2008 Veikkausliiga

Veikkausliiga
Season2008
ChampionsInter Turku
1st Finnish title
RelegatedKooTeePee
Champions LeagueInter Turku
Europa LeagueHonka
Lahti
HJK (via domestic cup)
Goals scored482
Average goals/game2.65
Top goalscorerFinland Aleksandr Kokko
Finland Henri Myntti
(13 goals both)
Biggest home winHonka 7–0 Haka
Lahti 8–1 KuPS
Biggest away winJaro 0–4 Haka
Haka 0–4 Inter Turku
TPS 0–4 Inter Turku
VPS 0–4 Inter Turku
KooTeePee 0–4 MYPA
Highest scoringLahti 8–1 KuPS
← 2007
2009 →

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.

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

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Location of teams in Veikkausliiga 2008
Club Location Stadium Capacity Manager
FC Haka Valkeakoski Tehtaan kenttä 3,516 Finland Olli Huttunen
HJK Helsinki Finnair Stadium 10,770 Finland Antti Muurinen
FC Honka Espoo Tapiolan Urheilupuisto 6,000 Finland Mika Lehkosuo
FC Inter Turku Veritas Stadion 10,000 Netherlands Job Dragtsma
FF Jaro Jakobstad Jakobstads Centralplan 5,000 Finland Mika Laurikainen
FC KooTeePee Kotka Arto Tolsa Areena 4,780 Finland Tommi Kautonen
KuPS Kuopio Magnum Areena 3,500 Finland Kai Nyyssönen
FC Lahti Lahti Lahden Stadion 15,000 Finland Ilkka Mäkelä
IFK Mariehamn Mariehamn Wiklöf Holding Arena 1,600 Finland Pekka Lyyski
MYPA Anjalankoski Saviniemi 4,067 Finland Janne Lindberg
RoPS Rovaniemi Keskuskenttä 4,000 Russia Valeri Bondarenko
Tampere United Tampere Ratina Stadion 17,000 Finland Ari Hjelm
TPS Turku Veritas Stadion 10,000 Wales John Allen
VPS Vaasa Hietalahti Stadium 4,600 Finland 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.

FC Viikingit1 – 2KuPS
Jäntti 12' Report
(in Finnish)		 Koljonen 28'
Venäläinen 32'
KuPS0 – 0FC Viikingit
Report
(in Finnish)

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

Annual awards

Source: Veikkausliigan parhaat kaudella 2008 nimetty (in Finnish)

Players' Association's awards

Veikkausliiga's awards