2011 Veikkausliiga


The 2011 Veikkausliiga was the eighty-first 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

ClubLocationStadiumCapacityManagerCaptain
FC HonkaEspooTapiolan Urheilupuisto6,000 Mika Lehkosuo Tomi Maanoja
FC InterTurkuVeritas Stadion10,000 Job Dragtsma Henri Lehtonen
FF JaroJakobstadJakobstads Centralplan5,000/ Alexei Eremenko Sr. Heikki Aho
HakaValkeakoskiTehtaan kenttä3,516 Sami Ristilä Regillio Nooitmeer
HJKHelsinkiSonera Stadium10,770 Antti Muurinen Ville Wallén
JJKJyväskyläHarjun stadion3,000 Kari Martonen Mikko Hyyrynen
KuPSKuopioKuopion keskuskenttä5,000 Esa Pekonen Pietari Holopainen
IFK MariehamnMariehamnWiklöf Holding Arena4,000 Pekka Lyyski Allan Olesen
MYPAKouvolaSaviniemi4,167 Toni Korkeakunnas Tuomas Aho
RoPSRovaniemiRovaniemen keskuskenttä4,000 Matti Hiukka Tuomo Könönen
TPSTurkuVeritas Stadion10,000 Marko Rajamäki Jarno Heinikangas
VPSVaasaHietalahti Stadium4,600 Petri Vuorinen Tero Koskela

Managerial changes

League table

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.

Matches 1–22

Matches 23–33

Statistics

Updated to games played on 29 October 2011.

Top scorers

Source:

Top assists

Source:

Monthly awards

Players of the year

Source:
PositionPlayer
Goalkeeper Ville Wallén '
Defender Mathias Lindström '
Midfielder Mika Ojala '
Striker Timo Furuholm '