2011 Veikkausliiga
# 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. HJK were the defending champions and successfully defended their title.

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. 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

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

### Managerial changes

| Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Incoming manager | Date of appointment | Table |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| VPS | Tommi Pikkarainen | Resigned | 28 July 2011 | Petri Vuorinen | 28 July 2011 | 11th |
| RoPS | John Allen | Sacked | 8 August 2011 | 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |

* 1 2 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.
* ↑ MYPA qualify for the first qualifying round of UEFA Europa League via Fair Play ranking.

## 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 | Job Dragtsma (FC Inter) | Timo Furuholm (FC Inter) |
| June | Antti Muurinen (HJK) | Mika Ojala (FC Inter) |
| July | Toni Korkeakunnas (MYPA) | Mika Ojala (FC Inter) |
| August | Sami Ristilä (Haka) | Sampsa Timoska (MYPA) |
| September | Kari Martonen (JJK) | Alexander Ring (HJK) |
| October | Mika Lehkosuo (FC Honka) | Akseli Pelvas (HJK) |

## Players of the year

Source: veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish)

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