2008 Veikkausliiga

The 2008 season of Veikkausliiga was the seventy-eighth 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.

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 goalscorer Aleksandr Kokko
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 →

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
Location of teams in Veikkausliiga 2008
Club Location Stadium Capacity Manager
FC Haka Valkeakoski Tehtaan kenttä 3,516 Olli Huttunen
HJK Helsinki Finnair Stadium 10,770 Antti Muurinen
FC Honka Espoo Tapiolan Urheilupuisto 6,000 Mika Lehkosuo
FC Inter Turku Veritas Stadion 10,000 Job Dragtsma
FF Jaro Jakobstad Jakobstads Centralplan 5,000 Mika Laurikainen
FC KooTeePee Kotka Arto Tolsa Areena 4,780 Tommi Kautonen
KuPS Kuopio Magnum Areena 3,500 Kai Nyyssönen
FC Lahti Lahti Lahden Stadion 15,000 Ilkka Mäkelä
IFK Mariehamn Mariehamn Wiklöf Holding Arena 1,600 Pekka Lyyski
MYPA Anjalankoski Saviniemi 4,067 Janne Lindberg
RoPS Rovaniemi Keskuskenttä 4,000 Valeri Bondarenko
Tampere United Tampere Ratina Stadion 17,000 Ari Hjelm
TPS Turku Veritas Stadion 10,000 John Allen
VPS Vaasa Hietalahti Stadium 4,600 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[lower-alpha 1]
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) Champion; (O) Play-off winner; (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 Aleksandr Kokko Honka 13
Henri Myntti Tampere United 13
3 Mikko Hyyrynen Jaro 11
Toni Lehtinen Haka 11
Mikko Paatelainen TPS 11
Rafael Lahti 11
8 Jarno Parikka HJK 9
Hermanni Vuorinen Honka 9
10 Tarmo Neemelo MYPA 8
Mika Ojala Inter Turku 8
Paulus Roiha HJK 8

Annual awards

Source: Veikkausliigan parhaat kaudella 2008 nimetty (in Finnish)

Players' Association's awards

Veikkausliiga's awards
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