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Veikkausliiga
Season	2016
Champions	IFK Mariehamn; 1st Veikkausliiga title
Relegated	PK-35 Vantaa
Champions League	IFK Mariehamn
Europa League	HJK; SJK; VPS
Matches played	198
Goals scored	459 (2.32 per match)
Top goalscorer	Roope Riski; (17 goals)
Biggest home win	RoPS 5–0 PS Kemi (10 August); SJK 5–0 PK-35 Vantaa (17 October)
Biggest away win	IFK Mariehamn 2–5 HIFK (7 August); HJK 1–4 FC Lahti (12 September)
Highest scoring	PK-35 Vantaa 3–4 RoPS (2 April); IFK Mariehamn 2–5 HIFK (7 August)
	← 2015 2017 →

The 2016 Veikkausliiga is the 86th season of top-tier football in Finland. The season started on 2 April 2016; the regular season ended on 23 October 2016, with a promotion/relegation playoff continuing until 29 October.^[1] SJK were the defending champions.

Teams

FF Jaro were relegated to Ykkönen after finishing at the bottom of the 2015 season. Their place was taken by Ykkönen champions PS Kemi.

KTP as 11th-placed team lost their Veikkausliiga spot after losing to second-placed Ykkönen team PK-35 Vantaa 3–2 on aggregate in a relegation/promotion playoff.

Stadia and locations

Location of teams in 2016 Veikkausliiga

Club	Location	Stadium	Capacity
FC Inter	Turku	Veritas Stadion	10,000
FC Lahti	Lahti	Lahden kisapuisto	4,000
HIFK	Helsinki	Sonera Stadium	10,770
HJK	Helsinki	Sonera Stadium	10,770
IFK Mariehamn	Mariehamn	Wiklöf Holding Arena	4,000
Ilves	Tampere	Tammela Stadion	5,040
KuPS	Kuopio	Savon Sanomat Areena	5,000
PK-35 Vantaa	Vantaa	Myyrmäen jalkapallostadion	4,500
PS Kemi	Kemi	Sauvosaaren Urheilupuisto	4,500
RoPS	Rovaniemi	Rovaniemen keskuskenttä	4,000
SJK	Seinäjoki	OmaSP Stadion	6,000
VPS	Vaasa	Hietalahti Stadium	4,600

SJK will move to their new stadium OmaSp Stadion in June 2016 (capacity 6,000).^[2]^[3]

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Sponsors
FC Inter	Shefki Kuqi	Henri Lehtonen	Nike	Alfons Håkans
FC Lahti	Toni Korkeakunnas	Mikko Hauhia	Umbro	BE Group Lahti Energia Halton
HIFK	Antti Muurinen	Esa Terävä	Kappa/Puma ^{[nb 1]}	Aktia Bank
HJK	Mika Lehkosuo	Sebastian Sorsa	Adidas	Apu
IFK Mariehamn	Kari Virtanen Peter Lundberg	Jani Lyyski	Puma	Hotell Arkipelag
Ilves	Jarkko Wiss	Antti Hynynen	Adidas	Various
KuPS	Marko Rajamäki	Petteri Pennanen	Puma	Laitilan Wirvoitusjuomatehdas
PK-35 Vantaa	Pasi Pihamaa	Kim Raimi	Nike	Vantaan Energia
PS Kemi	Jari Åhman	Billy Ions	Stanno	Various
RoPS	Juha Malinen	Antti Okkonen	Puma	Saraware
SJK	Simo Valakari	Mihkel Aksalu	Adidas	LähiTapiola EPKK Prima Power
VPS	Petri Vuorinen	Ville Koskimaa	Puma	Various

^ HIFK switched from Kappa to Puma kits mid-season.^[4]

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Incoming manager	Date of appointment	Table
Ilves	Marco Baruffato	End of contract	n/a	Jarkko Wiss	6 November 2015^[5]	Pre-season
IFK Mariehamn	Pekka Lyyski	End of contract	n/a	Kari Virtanen Peter Lundberg	19 November 2015^[6]	Pre-season
FC Inter	Job Dragtsma	Mutual termination	26 May 2016	Jami Wallenius (as caretaker)	26 May 2016^[7]	7th
PK-35 Vantaa	Shefki Kuqi	Mutual termination	27 July 2016	Pasi Pihamaa	27 July 2016^[8]	12th
HIFK	Jani Honkavaara	Sacked	27 July 2016^[9]	Antti Muurinen	28 July 2016^[10]	11th
FC Inter	Jami Wallenius (as caretaker)	Mutual termination	3 August 2016	Shefki Kuqi	3 August 2016^[11]	10th

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	IFK Mariehamn (C)	33	17	10	6	40	25	+15	61	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round
2	HJK	33	16	10	7	52	36	+16	58	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round^[a]
3	SJK	33	17	6	10	49	36	+13	57
4	VPS	33	15	8	10	36	27	+9	53
5	Ilves	33	15	7	11	36	35	+1	52
6	RoPS	33	13	11	9	43	33	+10	50
7	KuPS	33	14	7	12	37	31	+6	49
8	Lahti	33	10	12	11	42	43	−1	42
9	PS Kemi Kings	33	10	5	18	29	48	−19	35
10	HIFK	33	8	10	15	35	39	−4	34
11	Inter Turku (O)	33	7	11	15	28	41	−13	32	Qualification for the relegation play-offs
12	PK-35 Vantaa^[b] (R)	33	4	7	22	32	65	−33	13	Relegation to the Ykkönen

Source: Veikkausliiga (in Finnish), Soccerway
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; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ SJK qualified for the Europa League first qualifying round by winning the 2016 Finnish Cup.
^ PK-35 Vantaa were deducted 6 points for overdue debts.^[12]

Results

Matches 1–22

Home \ Away	INT	LAH	HIFK	HJK	MAR	ILV	KPS	PKV	PSK	RPS	SJK	VPS
FC Inter		1–1	1–0	0–0	0–2	1–0	3–1	2–2	0–2	1–2	1–3	0–2
FC Lahti	1–0		2–2	1–2	1–1	3–2	0–0	2–1	1–0	1–2	3–0	4–0
HIFK	1–2	2–2		0–0	0–1	0–1	3–2	1–2	0–0	1–1	1–1	0–1
HJK	3–1	2–2	2–1		2–0	5–1	2–3	4–2	2–0	1–1	2–1	3–1
IFK Mariehamn	0–0	3–0	2–5	0–0		3–1	0–3	0–0	2–0	1–0	1–0	2–2
Ilves	0–0	2–0	3–1	1–0	0–1		1–0	2–0	1–1	1–1	2–1	1–0
KuPS	2–1	2–0	1–0	0–0	1–0	0–1		2–3	2–0	1–1	0–0	1–0
PK-35 Vantaa	3–1	1–1	0–2	1–2	0–2	1–1	1–1		2–2	3–4	0–0	0–2
PS Kemi	3–1	2–1	1–2	1–0	1–2	1–0	0–2	2–1		0–2	3–0^[a]	0–0
RoPS	2–1	0–0	1–0	2–2	0–0	1–0	0–1	1–0	5–0		2–3	2–0
SJK	1–0	4–1	2–1	2–3	0–1	0–2	1–0	3–2	1–0	3–1		1–0
VPS	0–0	1–0	3–1	3–0	0–2	2–0	3–0	2–1	0–1	1–0	2–1

Source: veikkausliiga.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:

^ The match originally finished 0–2, but the result was changed to 3–0, as SJK fielded ineligible players.^[13]

Matches 23–33

Home \ Away	INT	LAH	HIFK	HJK	MAR	ILV	KPS	PKV	PSK	RPS	SJK	VPS
FC Inter			0–0	3–2		0–1			0–0	1–1		1–1
FC Lahti	1–2		0–0		0–2	0–0	1–1	2–0
HIFK				2–1			0–2		3–1		3–1	0–1
HJK		1–4			1–1		1–0	2–0		2–1	0–0
IFK Mariehamn	1–1		1–0			2–1		4–2	1–0			0–0
Ilves			1–1	1–3					2–0	2–1		0–0
KuPS	0–2				2–1	1–2		3–0	1–0
PK-35 Vantaa	2–1		0–2			1–3			0–1			1–2
PS Kemi		2–4		0–2						3–1	1–3	1–4
RoPS		3–0	0–0		1–1		2–1	1–0			1–1
SJK	1–0	2–2			1–0	4–0	1–0	5–0
VPS		0–1		0–0			1–1			1–0	1–2

Source: veikkausliiga.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Relegation play-offs

26 October 2016

15:00

TPS	0–0	Inter Turku
	Report

Paavo Nurmi Stadium

Attendance: 4,216

29 October 2016

17:00

Inter Turku	2–0	TPS
Manev 49' Nebihi 89'	Report

Veritas Stadion

Attendance: 6,855

Statistics

Top scorers

Source: veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish)

As of 23 October 2016.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Roope Riski	SJK	17
2	Njazi Kuqi	PK-35 Vantaa / FC Inter	16
2	Alfredo Morelos	HJK	16
4	Gbolahan Salami	KuPS	14
5	Billy Ions	PS Kemi / SJK	13
6	Dever Orgill	IFK Mariehamn	12
7	Robert Taylor	RoPS	11
8	Pyry Soiri	VPS	10
8	Jasse Tuominen	FC Lahti	10
10	Lauri Ala-Myllymäki	Ilves	9
	Aleksandr Kokko	RoPS	9
	Jussi Vasara	SJK	9
13	3 players		8
16	5 players		7
21	4 players		6
25	5 players		5
30	10 players		4
40	9 players		3
49	30 players		2
79	72 players		1

Awards

Month	Coach of the Month	Player of the Month
April^[14]	Peter Lundberg (IFK Mariehamn) Kari Virtanen (IFK Mariehamn)	Walter Viitala (IFK Mariehamn)
May^[15]	Mika Lehkosuo (HJK)	Taye Taiwo (HJK)
June^[16]	Juha Malinen (RoPS)	Roope Riski (SJK)
July^[17]	Petri Vuorinen (VPS)	Pyry Soiri (VPS)
August^[18]	Jari Åhman (PS Kemi)	Erik Törnros (PS Kemi)
September^[19]	Jarkko Wiss (Ilves)	Alfredo Morelos (HJK)
October^[20]	Peter Lundberg (IFK Mariehamn) Kari Virtanen (IFK Mariehamn)	Jani Lyyski (IFK Mariehamn)

Annual awards

Award^[21]	Winner	Club
Player of the Year	Emile Paul Tendeng	Ilves
Goalkeeper of the Year	Walter Viitala	Mariehamn
Defender of the Year	Jani Lyyski	Mariehamn
Midfielder of the Year	Emile Paul Tendeng	Ilves
Striker of the Year	Alfredo Morelos	HJK
Breakthrough of the Year	Mikael Soisalo	Ilves
Coach of the Year	Peter Lundberg	Mariehamn

Team of the Year

Team of the Year^[22]
Goalkeeper	Walter Viitala (Mariehamn)
Defence	Albin Granlund (Mariehamn)	Jani Lyyski (Mariehamn)	Kristian Kojola (Mariehamn)	Taye Taiwo (HJK)
Midfield	Mikael Soisalo (Ilves)	Mika Väyrynen (HIFK)	Atomu Tanaka (HJK)	Emile Tendeng (Ilves)
Attack	Roope Riski (SJK)	Alfredo Morelos (HJK)

References

^ Otteluohjelma | Veikkausliiga
^ "Seinäjoen stadion nousee ensi kevääksi". Archived from the original on 2016-10-26. Retrieved 2016-04-04.
^ "Seinäjoen stadionille nimi - OmaSp Stadion". Archived from the original on 2016-07-28. Retrieved 2016-04-04.
^ "PUMA ja HIFK yhteistyöhön".
^ "Jarkko Wiss on Ilveksen uusi päävalmentaja". Ilves (in Finnish). Ilves. 6 November 2015. Archived from the original on 6 November 2015. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
^ "Tränartrio klar för Grönvitt". IFK Mariehamn (in Swedish). IFK Mariehamn. 19 November 2015. Archived from the original on 30 January 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
^ "Tiedote: Job Dragtsma jättää päävalmentajan tehtävät". FC Inter (in Finnish). FC Inter. 26 May 2016. Archived from the original on 29 May 2016. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
^ "Shefki Kuqi jättää päävalmentajan tehtävät". PK-35 Vantaa (in Finnish). PK-35 Vantaa. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
^ "HIFK Fotboll vaihtaa päävalmentajaa – lehdistötilaisuus huomenna kello 13.00". HIFK (in Finnish). HIFK. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
^ "Antti Muurinen HIFK:n päävalmentajaksi". HIFK (in Finnish). HIFK. 28 July 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
^ "Shefki ja Njazi Kuqi FC Interiin". FC Inter (in Finnish). FC Inter. 3 August 2016. Archived from the original on 13 August 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
^ "PK-35 Vantaalle pisterangaistus ja pelaajasiirtorajoitus" (in Finnish). Veikkausliiga. 5 August 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
^ Päätös koskien SJK:n pelioikeudettomia pelaajia
^ Walter Viitala huhtikuun kuukauden pelaaja (in Finnish)
^ Taye Taiwo valittiin kuukauden pelaajaksi (in Finnish)
^ Roope Riski kuukauden pelaajaksi (in Finnish)
^ Pyry Soiri kuukauden pelaajaksi (in Finnish)
^ Erik Törnros kuukauden pelaajaksi (in Finnish)
^ HJK:n Morelos kuukauden pelaajaksi (in Finnish)
^ Jani Lyyski kuukauden pelaajaksi (in Finnish)
^ "Kauden parhaita palkittiin Captain's Ballissa". www.veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish). Retrieved 2023-01-02.
^ "Koplajoukkue 2016 palkittiin päätöskierroksella". www.veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish). Retrieved 2023-01-02.

[5] HIFK switched from Kappa to Puma kits mid-season.^[4]

[table_note_res_EL1Q0.049407185078323-13] SJK qualified for the Europa League first qualifying round by winning the 2016 Finnish Cup.

[table_note_PKV0.049407185078323-15] PK-35 Vantaa were deducted 6 points for overdue debts.^[12]

[table_note_1_PSK_SJK0.57315691866593-17] The match originally finished 0–2, but the result was changed to 3–0, as SJK fielded ineligible players.^[13]

[1] Otteluohjelma | Veikkausliiga

[2] "Seinäjoen stadion nousee ensi kevääksi". Archived from the original on 2016-10-26. Retrieved 2016-04-04.

[3] "Seinäjoen stadionille nimi - OmaSp Stadion". Archived from the original on 2016-07-28. Retrieved 2016-04-04.

[4] "PUMA ja HIFK yhteistyöhön".

[6] "Jarkko Wiss on Ilveksen uusi päävalmentaja". Ilves (in Finnish). Ilves. 6 November 2015. Archived from the original on 6 November 2015. Retrieved 21 November 2015.

[7] "Tränartrio klar för Grönvitt". IFK Mariehamn (in Swedish). IFK Mariehamn. 19 November 2015. Archived from the original on 30 January 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2015.

[8] "Tiedote: Job Dragtsma jättää päävalmentajan tehtävät". FC Inter (in Finnish). FC Inter. 26 May 2016. Archived from the original on 29 May 2016. Retrieved 26 May 2016.

[9] "Shefki Kuqi jättää päävalmentajan tehtävät". PK-35 Vantaa (in Finnish). PK-35 Vantaa. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2016.

[10] "HIFK Fotboll vaihtaa päävalmentajaa – lehdistötilaisuus huomenna kello 13.00". HIFK (in Finnish). HIFK. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2016.

[11] "Antti Muurinen HIFK:n päävalmentajaksi". HIFK (in Finnish). HIFK. 28 July 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2016.

[12] "Shefki ja Njazi Kuqi FC Interiin". FC Inter (in Finnish). FC Inter. 3 August 2016. Archived from the original on 13 August 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2016.

[14] "PK-35 Vantaalle pisterangaistus ja pelaajasiirtorajoitus" (in Finnish). Veikkausliiga. 5 August 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2016.

[16] Päätös koskien SJK:n pelioikeudettomia pelaajia

[18] Walter Viitala huhtikuun kuukauden pelaaja (in Finnish)

[19] Taye Taiwo valittiin kuukauden pelaajaksi (in Finnish)

[20] Roope Riski kuukauden pelaajaksi (in Finnish)

[21] Pyry Soiri kuukauden pelaajaksi (in Finnish)

[22] Erik Törnros kuukauden pelaajaksi (in Finnish)

[23] HJK:n Morelos kuukauden pelaajaksi (in Finnish)

[24] Jani Lyyski kuukauden pelaajaksi (in Finnish)

[25] "Kauden parhaita palkittiin Captain's Ballissa". www.veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish). Retrieved 2023-01-02.

[26] "Koplajoukkue 2016 palkittiin päätöskierroksella". www.veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish). Retrieved 2023-01-02.

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