2020_Veikkausliiga Knowpia

Veikkausliiga
Season	2020
Champions	HJK
Relegated	RoPS, TPS
Champions League	HJK
Europa Conference League	KuPS ; Inter Turku ; FC Honka
Matches played	132
Goals scored	296 (2.24 per match)
Top goalscorer	Albion Ademi; Roope Riski; (12 each)
Biggest home win	; HJK 6–1 IFK Mariehamn; (30 August 2020)
Biggest away win	FC Lahti 0–4 HJK; (1 July 2020)
Highest scoring	Ilves 4–3 IFK Mariehamn; (1 July 2020); HJK 6–1 IFK Mariehamn; (30 August 2020); HIFK 4–3 HJK; (10 September 2020)
Longest winning run	7 matches; KuPS
Longest unbeaten run	10 matches; HJK
Longest winless run	16 matches; RoPS
Longest losing run	12 matches; RoPS
	← 2019 2021 →

The 2020 Veikkausliiga was the 90th season of top-tier football in Finland with KuPS being the defending champions.^[2] HJK won the league.

New league format edit

Veikkausliiga adopted a new league format for the 2019 season. Each team played against each other twice in the regular season. After the regular season the top six teams advanced to the Championship Series which determines the champion and European tournament qualification places. The bottom six teams advanced to the Challenger Series. The best team from the Challenger Series plays in a tournament against the Championship Series' 4th, 5th, and 6th place teams. The winner from that plays in a final series against the 3rd best team from the Championship Series. The last UEFA Europa Conference League qualification place goes to the winner of that final series.^[3]

The bottom team from the Challenger Series will relegate to the Ykkönen, and second to last team will play in a relegation play-off series against the 2nd best team from Ykkönen.

Teams edit

VPS were relegated to Ykkönen after finishing at the bottom of the 2019 season. Their place was taken by Ykkönen champions FC Haka.

KPV as 11th-placed team lost their Veikkausliiga spot after losing to second-placed Ykkönen team TPS in a relegation/promotion playoff.

Stadiums and locations edit

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Location of teams in 2020 Veikkausliiga

Club	Location	Stadium	Turf	Capacity
FC Haka	Valkeakoski	Tehtaan kenttä	Artificial	3,516
FC Honka	Espoo	Tapiolan Urheilupuisto	Natural	6,000
FC Inter	Turku	Veritas Stadion	Natural	9,372
FC Lahti	Lahti	Lahden Stadion	Natural	15,000
HIFK	Helsinki	Bolt Arena	Artificial	10,770
HJK	Helsinki	Bolt Arena	Artificial	10,770
IFK Mariehamn	Mariehamn	Wiklöf Holding Arena	Artificial^[4]	4,000
Ilves	Tampere	Tammelan Stadion	Natural	5,040
KuPS	Kuopio	Savon Sanomat Areena	Artificial	5,000
RoPS	Rovaniemi	Rovaniemen keskuskenttä	Artificial	4,000
SJK	Seinäjoki	OmaSP Stadion	Artificial	6,000
TPS	Turku	Veritas Stadion^[5]	Natural	9,372

League table edit

On 28 October 2020, it was decided to cancel the championship and relegation round due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland, and the regular season standings after 22 rounds would be considered final.^[6]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	HJK (C)	22	14	6	2	53	17	+36	48	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Inter Turku	22	12	5	5	36	17	+19	41	Qualification for the Europa Conference League first qualifying round
3	KuPS	22	12	5	5	39	26	+13	41
4	FC Honka	22	9	10	3	26	17	+9	37
5	Ilves	22	10	6	6	37	29	+8	36
6	FC Lahti	22	8	8	6	33	30	+3	32
7	SJK	22	8	5	9	27	29	−2	29
8	HIFK	22	8	4	10	29	33	−4	28
9	IFK Mariehamn	22	6	5	11	29	43	−14	23
10	FC Haka	22	5	7	10	25	41	−16	22
11	TPS (R)	22	6	3	13	23	39	−16	21	Qualification for the relegation play-offs
12	RoPS (R)	22	1	2	19	15	51	−36	5	Relegation to the Ykkönen

Source: [1], [2]
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Head-to-head away goals scored; 7) Play-off
(Note: Play-off is only played if need to decide champion, teams for relegation or UEFA competition and will be played on a neutral ground).
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated

Results edit

Home \ Away	HAK	HON	INT	LAH	HFK	HJK	MAR	ILV	KPS	RPS	SJK	TPS
FC Haka	—	1–1	0–2	2–2	0–2	1–4	0–1	0–2	2–4	0–2	1–4	2–1
FC Honka	1–2	—	1–1	2–1	0–1	0–0	1–0	3–2	1–1	1–0	0–0	3–1
Inter Turku	2–0	0–0	—	3–0	3–2	1–0	2–1	5–1	2–0	3–1	0–1	3–0
FC Lahti	0–0	0–0	2–2	—	2–1	0–4	3–1	3–2	1–2	3–0	0–0	1–1
HIFK	0–1	1–1	0–0	0–3	—	4–3	2–2	1–2	0–3	1–0	2–1	2–0
HJK	3–1	1–1	1–1	1–1	3–0	—	6–1	2–0	2–2	4–0	2–0	2–2
IFK Mariehamn	2–2	0–0	2–0	2–2	0–3	0–5	—	0–2	0–2	4–0	2–3	1–0
Ilves	1–1	4–1	0–2	3–1	2–2	1–2	4–3	—	0–0	1–0	0–0	4–0
KuPS	2–3	0–2	1–0	3–0	3–2	0–3	2–1	1–1	—	3–0	2–1	3–1
RoPS	2–2	1–3	0–2	0–4	0–1	0–1	2–3	1–1	0–2	—	2–3	2–3
SJK	1–1	0–2	3–2	0–1	3–2	1–2	1–2	1–3	1–1	2–1	—	1–0
TPS	2–3	0–2	1–0	1–3	1–0	0–2	1–1	0–1	3–2	4–1	1–0	—

Source: [3]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

European competition edit

Five teams would originally play for a spot in the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League first qualifying round, but this was cancelled and the spot would be awarded based on regular season position.

Relegation play-offs edit

11 November 2020

18:30 EET (UTC+2)

KTP	0–0	TPS

Arto Tolsa Areena, Kotka

Attendance: 1315

Referee: Mattias Gestranius

14 November 2020

16:00 EET (UTC+2)

TPS	1–1	KTP
Muzaci 58'		Mäkijärvi 83'

Veritas Stadion, Turku

Attendance: 2469

Referee: Dennis Antamo

1–1 on aggregate. KTP won on away goals.

Season statistics edit

Top scorers edit

As of 4 November 2020^[7]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Roope Riski	HJK	16
2	Albion Ademi	IFK Mariehamn	14
3	Timo Furuholm	Inter Turku	10
4	Jasin-Amin Assehnoun	FC Lahti	9
4	Tim Väyrynen	HJK	9
6	Lauri Ala-Myllymäki	Ilves	7
	Jean Marie Dongou	FC Honka
	Naatan Skyttä	Ilves
	Aniekpeno Udo	KuPS
10	Dimitry Imbongo	FC Lahti	6
	Ilmari Niskanen	KuPS
	Salomo Ojala	FC Haka

Awards edit

Annual awards edit

Award^[8]	Winner	Club
Player of the Year	Roope Riski	HJK
Goalkeeper of the Year	Tim Murray	Honka
Defender of the Year	Daniel O'Shaughnessy	HJK
Midfielder of the Year	Nana Boateng	KuPS
Striker of the Year	Roope Riski	HJK
Breakthrough of the Year	Usman Sale	KuPS
Coach of the Year	Samuel Fagerholm	KuPS

Team of the Year edit

Team of the Year^[9]
Goalkeeper	Tim Murray (Honka)
Defence	Nikolai Alho (HJK)	Rick Ketting (Inter Turku)	Daniel O'Shaughnessy (HJK)	Luis Carlos Murillo (HJK)
Midfield	Riku Riski (HJK)	Nana Boateng (KuPS)	Naatan Skyttä (Ilves)	Albion Ademi (Mariehamn)
Attack	Timo Furuholm (Inter Turku)	Roope Riski (HJK)

References edit

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h "Summary: Veikkausliiga 2020 Regular Season". Soccerway. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
^ "Veikkausliiga".
^ "Sarjajärjestelmä" (in Finnish). Veikkausliiga.com. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
^ Wiklöf Holding Arenan uuden kentän rakennus etenee aikataulussa
^ "Veikkausliiga - FC TPS". Archived from the original on 2020-02-20. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
^ "Veikkausliiga päättyy runkosarjaan" [The Veikkausliiga ends in the regular season] (in Finnish). Veikkausliiga. 29 October 2020.
^ "PLAYERS: Topscorers". Soccerway. 15 October 2020. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
^ "Teemu Pukki ja Natalia Kuikka kruunattiin Vuoden jalkapalloilijoiksi – HJK:n Roope Riski kahmi palkintoja". www.iltalehti.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 2023-01-02.
^ "Pallo-Koplan Veikkausliigan tähdistöjoukkue on valittu". www.veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish). Retrieved 2023-01-02.