2003_Veikkausliiga Knowpia

Veikkausliiga
Season	2003
Champions	HJK Helsinki
Top goalscorer	Saku Puhakainen, MyPa (14)
	← 2002 2004 →

The 2003 season was the 73rd completed season of Finnish Football League Championship, known as the Veikkausliiga. At the same time it was the 14th season of the Veikkausliiga.

Overview edit

The Veikkausliiga is administered by the Finnish Football Association and the competition's 2003 season was contested by 14 teams. HJK Helsinki won the championship and qualified for the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League qualification round, while the second and sixth placed teams qualified for the first qualification round of the 2004–05 UEFA Cup. The third and fourth placed teams qualified for the UEFA Intertoto Cup 2004, while FC KooTeePee and KuPS Kuopio were relegated to the Ykkönen.^[1]

Participating clubs edit

In 2003 there were 14 participants in the Veikkausliiga:

^[2]

League standings edit

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Location of teams in 2003 Veikkausliiga

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	HJK Helsinki (C)	26	17	6	3	51	15	+36	57	Qualification to Champions League first qualifying round
2	Haka Valkeakoski	26	16	5	5	54	16	+38	53	Qualification to UEFA Cup first qualifying round
3	Tampere United	26	14	5	7	39	21	+18	47	Qualification to Intertoto Cup first round
4	MyPa Anjalankoski	26	13	4	9	46	29	+17	43	Qualification to Intertoto Cup first round
5	FC Lahti	26	11	8	7	40	31	+9	41
6	Allianssi Vantaa	26	10	6	10	43	44	−1	36	Qualification to UEFA Cup first qualifying round^[a]
7	FC Inter Turku	26	10	5	11	43	41	+2	35
8	Jaro Jakobstad	26	9	8	9	36	38	−2	35
9	TPS Turku	26	8	8	10	30	35	−5	32
10	FC Jokerit	26	7	7	12	29	37	−8	28
11	FC Hämeenlinna	26	7	7	12	25	48	−23	28
12	FC Jazz Pori	26	7	7	12	31	55	−24	28
13	FC KooTeePee (R)	26	6	4	16	28	53	−25	22	Qualification to relegation play-offs
14	KuPS (R)	26	4	6	16	25	57	−32	18	Relegation to Ykkönen

Source: ^[2]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ Allianssi Vantaa as runners-up of the 2003 Finnish Cup qualified for the first qualifying round of the 2004–05 UEFA Cup.

Promotion/relegation playoff edit

RoPS Rovaniemi - KooTeePee Kotka 4-1
KooTeePee Kotka - RoPS Rovaniemi 3-2

RoPS Rovaniemi promoted, KooTeePee Kotka relegated.^[2]

Results edit

Home \ Away	ALL	HAK	HJK	HÄM	INT	JAR	JAZ	JOK	KTP	KUP	LAH	MYP	TAM	TPS
AC Allianssi		0–3	1–4	3–0	2–0	0–1	4–0	1–1	5–0	5–2	0–3	1–4	3–1	2–1
FC Haka	5–0		0–1	4–0	0–1	2–3	5–0	0–1	2–0	3–1	5–1	0–1	1–0	1–0
HJK Helsinki	2–2	0–0		3–0	2–1	0–0	3–0	1–1	5–0	3–0	2–0	1–0	2–0	1–1
Hämeenlinna	0–3	2–2	0–3		1–0	1–1	1–3	2–1	2–1	4–3	2–3	1–0	0–0	0–1
Inter Turku	5–2	2–4	1–2	4–1		1–1	2–0	3–2	2–1	1–2	1–1	1–0	1–3	0–2
Jaro	2–0	0–2	2–3	2–2	0–6		0–1	2–0	3–1	4–2	1–1	0–2	0–0	4–1
Jazz	1–1	1–1	2–6	2–0	1–2	1–1		0–3	3–2	2–2	1–1	2–2	1–1	2–1
Jokerit	0–0	0–0	0–1	2–2	4–0	1–1	3–1		1–1	1–2	2–0	2–4	0–1	2–0
KooTeePee	0–1	0–4	0–4	1–2	3–3	2–0	3–0	2–0		0–1	2–1	1–2	2–1	0–0
KuPS	0–0	0–3	0–2	0–2	0–3	1–5	0–2	2–1	1–3		1–1	2–2	1–3	0–0
Lahti	0–2	0–0	0–0	0–0	3–0	2–1	4–2	0–1	4–1	2–1		4–1	0–1	2–0
MyPa	3–1	2–3	2–0	0–0	2–2	3–0	4–0	3–0	2–0	1–0	1–2		0–1	1–2
Tampere United	4–2	0–2	1–0	4–0	1–0	0–1	2–0	5–0	0–0	4–1	1–3	2–0		2–0
TPS	2–2	0–2	1–0	2–0	1–1	3–1	1–3	3–0	4–2	0–0	2–2	1–4	1–1

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Leading scorers edit

Pos.	Player	Club	Goals
1.	Saku Puhakainen	MyPa	14
2.	Juho Mäkelä	HJK	13
-	Gábor Szilágyi	FC KooTeePee	13
4.	Luciano Álvarez	FC Inter	12
-	Arístides Pertot	FC Inter	12
6.	Mika Kottila	HJK	11
-	Valeri Popovitch	FC Haka	11
8.	Ryan Botha	MyPa	10
-	Jari Niemi	Tampere Utd	10
-	Sami Ristilä	FC Haka	10

^[3]

Footnotes edit

^ "Finland 2003". RSSSF. 2003. Retrieved 2012-01-05.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Finland - List of League First Level Tables". RSSSF. 2003. Retrieved 2012-01-05.
^ "Finland - List of Topscorers (Mestaruussarja/Veikkausliiga)". RSSSF. 2003. Retrieved 2012-01-05.