2011 Veikkausliiga

The 2011 Veikkausliiga was the 81st season of top-tier football in Finland. It began on 2 May 2011 and ended on 29 October 2011.[2] HJK were the defending champions and successfully defended their title.

Veikkausliiga
Season2011
ChampionsHJK
8th Veikkausliiga title
24th Finnish title
RelegatedRoPS
Champions LeagueHJK
Europa LeagueInter Turku
JJK
KuPS
MYPA
Matches played198
Goals scored599 (3.03 per match)
Top goalscorerTimo Furuholm (22 goals)
Biggest home winHJK 6–0 TPS
(22 June)
FF Jaro 8–2 RoPS
(29 June)
HJK 6–0 FF Jaro
(28 September)
Biggest away winHaka 0–5 HJK
(18 June)
Highest scoringFF Jaro 8–2 RoPS
(29 June)
Longest winning runHJK
(10 games)[1]
Longest unbeaten runFC Honka
(14 games)[1]
Longest winless runRoPS
(21 games)[1]
Longest losing runRoPS
(6 games)[1]
← 2010
2012 →

The pre-season was severely affected by license revocations to two teams, which eventually resulted in a later than originally scheduled begin date and an increase of scheduled matches from 26 to 33 per team.

Teams

The league was originally supposed to have 14 teams, but AC Oulu was refused a license due to club's bad economic situation and Tampere United was excluded from every official competition of Football Association of Finland due to breaking the rules of the association, and the league will therefore be played with only 12 teams.[3][4] AC Oulu was, however, obtained a license for Ykkönen, where it will play this season.

FC Lahti were relegated to Ykkönen after finishing at the bottom of the 2010 season. Their place was taken by Ykkönen champions RoPS. 13th-placed Veikkausliiga team JJK and Ykkönen runners-up FC Viikingit competed in a two-legged relegation play-offs for one spot in this season. JJK won 3–1 on aggregate and thereby retained their league position once again.

Team summaries
Location of teams in 2011 Veikkausliiga
Club Location Stadium Capacity Manager Captain
FC Honka Espoo Tapiolan Urheilupuisto 6,000 Finland Mika Lehkosuo Finland Tomi Maanoja
FC Inter Turku Veritas Stadion 10,000 Netherlands Job Dragtsma Finland Henri Lehtonen
FF Jaro Jakobstad Jakobstads Centralplan 5,000 Finland/Russia Alexei Eremenko Sr. Finland Heikki Aho
Haka Valkeakoski Tehtaan kenttä 3,516 Finland Sami Ristilä Haiti Regillio Nooitmeer
HJK Helsinki Sonera Stadium 10,770 Finland Antti Muurinen Finland Ville Wallén
JJK Jyväskylä Harjun stadion 3,000 Finland Kari Martonen Finland Mikko Hyyrynen
KuPS Kuopio Kuopion keskuskenttä 5,000 Finland Esa Pekonen Finland Pietari Holopainen
IFK Mariehamn Mariehamn Wiklöf Holding Arena 4,000 Finland Pekka Lyyski Denmark Allan Olesen
MYPA Kouvola Saviniemi 4,167 Finland Toni Korkeakunnas[5] Finland Tuomas Aho
RoPS Rovaniemi Rovaniemen keskuskenttä 4,000 Finland Matti Hiukka Finland Tuomo Könönen
TPS Turku Veritas Stadion 10,000 Finland Marko Rajamäki Finland Jarno Heinikangas
VPS Vaasa Hietalahti Stadium 4,600 Finland Petri Vuorinen Finland Tero Koskela

Managerial changes
Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Incoming manager Date of appointment Table
VPS Finland Tommi Pikkarainen Resigned 28 July 2011[6] Finland Petri Vuorinen 28 July 2011 11th
RoPS Wales John Allen Sacked 8 August 2011[7] Finland Matti Hiukka 8 August 2011 12th

League table
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation
1 HJK (C) 33 26 3 4 86 23 +63 81 Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round
2 FC Inter 33 16 9 8 70 44 +26 57 Qualification to Europa League second qualifying round[lower-alpha 1]
3 JJK 33 14 12 7 60 48 +12 54 Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round
4 FC Honka 33 13 14 6 57 40 +17 53
5 TPS 33 13 11 9 48 44 +4 50
6 KuPS 33 10 10 13 44 55 −11 40 Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round[lower-alpha 1]
7 IFK Mariehamn 33 10 8 15 39 47 −8 38
8 MYPA 33 11 5 17 39 52 −13 38 Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round[lower-alpha 2]
9 VPS 33 8 13 12 32 44 −12 37
10 Haka 33 10 7 16 36 60 −24 37
11 FF Jaro 33 7 10 16 49 64 −15 31
12 RoPS (R) 33 5 8 20 39 78 −39 23 Relegation to Ykkönen
Source: soccerway.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:
  1. HJK won the 2011 Finnish Cup competition. Because they won the league, they will enter the second qualifying round of UEFA Champions League and their cup winner spot in UEFA Europa League will be given to the league runners-up. KuPS qualify for the first qualifying round of UEFA Europa League as cup runners-up.
  2. MYPA qualify for the first qualifying round of UEFA Europa League via Fair Play ranking.[8][9]

Results

As a consequence of the decreased number of teams immediately prior to the start of the season, the schedule for this season had to be significantly altered. Teams will now play each other a third time after a regular double-round robin schedule; each team will hence play a total of 33 matches. The schedule for the additional round of matches was determined by the final positions of the 2010 season, with the best six teams being assigned an extra home match in the process.

Statistics

Updated to games played on 29 October 2011.

Monthly awards
Month Coach of the Month Player of the Month
May[10] Netherlands Job Dragtsma (FC Inter) Finland Timo Furuholm (FC Inter)
June[11] Finland Antti Muurinen (HJK) Finland Mika Ojala (FC Inter)
July[12] Finland Toni Korkeakunnas (MYPA) Finland Mika Ojala (FC Inter)
August[13] Finland Sami Ristilä (Haka) Finland Sampsa Timoska (MYPA)
September[14] Finland Kari Martonen (JJK) Finland Alexander Ring (HJK)
October[15] Finland Mika Lehkosuo (FC Honka) Finland Akseli Pelvas (HJK)

Players of the year

Source: veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish)

Position Player
Best Goalkeeper Finland Ville Wallén (HJK)
Best Defender Finland Mathias Lindström (HJK)
Best Midfielder Finland Mika Ojala (FC Inter)
Best Striker Finland Timo Furuholm (FC Inter)

References
  1. "Veikkausliiga - 2011". WhoScored.com. WhoScored.com. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
  2. "SPL:n liittohallitus käsitteli otteluohjelman muutoksia". Archived from the original on 4 August 2012. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  3. "Palloliiton liittohallitus ei käsittele AC Oulun lisenssihakemusta". Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  4. "Tampere Unitedia koskevat päätökset". Archived from the original on 2 May 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  5. "Korkeakunnas MYPA:n valmentajaksi". Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 1 November 2010.
  6. "Pikkarainen ja VPS purkivat sopimuksen - Vuorinen vetovastuuseen". veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish). Veikkausliiga. 28 July 2011. Archived from the original on 11 August 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
  7. "Matti Hiukka RoPS:n päävalmentajaksi". veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish). Veikkausliiga. 8 August 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
  8. "Norway wins UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking". UEFA. 7 May 2012.
  9. "MYPA kilpailee paikasta Eurooppa-liigassa" (in Finnish). palloliitto.fi. 7 November 2011.
  10. FC Interin Timo Furuholm Veikkausliigan toukokuun pelaaja Archived 4 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine (in Finnish)
  11. Kuukauden valmentaja ja pelaaja kohtaavat perjantaina Archived 11 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine (in Finnish)
  12. Ojalalle toinen titteli peräkkäin Archived 20 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine (in Finnish)
  13. Sampsa Timoskasta Veikkausliigan elokuun pelaaja Archived 11 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine (in Finnish)
  14. Alexander Ringistä syyskuun pelaaja Archived 5 February 2013 at archive.today (in Finnish)
  15. HJK:n Akseli Pelvas lokakuun pelaaja Archived 14 September 2012 at archive.today (in Finnish)
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