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Veikkausliiga
Season	2015
Champions	SJK; 1st Veikkausliiga title
Relegated	FF Jaro; KTP
Champions League	SJK
Europa League	RoPS; HJK; IFK Mariehamn
Matches played	198
Goals scored	448 (2.26 per match)
Top goalscorer	Aleksandr Kokko (17 goals)
Biggest home win	SJK 5–0 KuPS; (11 May)
Biggest away win	RoPS 0–4 FC Inter; (23 April)
Highest scoring	IFK Mariehamn 4–3 FF Jaro; (19 July)
Highest attendance	10,521; HJK Helsinki 1-1 HIFK (6 July)
Average attendance	2,574
	← 2014 2016 →

The 2015 Veikkausliiga was the 85th season of top-tier football in Finland. HJK Helsinki were the defending champions. The season was won by SJK, ending HJK's record streak of six straight titles.

Teams

TPS were relegated to Ykkönen after finishing at the bottom of the 2014 season. Their place was taken by Ykkönen champions HIFK.

FC Honka and MYPA were not given a license due to the clubs' bad economic situation. The two places were given for KTP, the runner-up of 2014 Ykkönen, and Ilves, which finished third in Ykkönen.^[1]

Stadia and location

Location of teams in 2015 Veikkausliiga

Club	Location	Stadium	Capacity
FC Inter	Turku	Veritas Stadion	10,000
FC Lahti	Lahti	Lahden kisapuisto	4,000
FF Jaro	Jakobstad	Jakobstads Centralplan	5,000
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
KTP	Kotka	Arto Tolsa Areena	4,780
KuPS	Kuopio	Savon Sanomat Areena	5,000
RoPS	Rovaniemi	Rovaniemen keskuskenttä	4,000
SJK	Seinäjoki	Seinäjoen keskuskenttä	3,500
VPS	Vaasa	Hietalahti Stadium	4,600

Personnel and kits

Club	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Sponsors
FC Inter	Job Dragtsma	Henri Lehtonen	Nike	Alfons Håkans
FC Lahti	Toni Korkeakunnas	Mikko Hauhia	Umbro	BE Group Lahti Energia Halton
FF Jaro	Alexei Eremenko Sr.	Jonas Emet	Macron	Stadshotellet Kaupunginhotelli Halpa-Halli Sagafurs
HIFK	Jani Honkavaara	Esa Terävä	Kappa	Aktia Bank
HJK	Mika Lehkosuo	Markus Heikkinen	Adidas	Apu
IFK Mariehamn	Pekka Lyyski	Jani Lyyski	Puma	Hotell Arkipelag
Ilves	Marco Baruffato	Antti Hynynen	Adidas	LähiTapiola Dextra
KTP	Sami Ristilä	Valeri Minkenen	Puma	Steveco Data Group Port of Haminakotka
KuPS	Marko Rajamäki	Miikka Ilo	Puma	LähiTapiola Laitilan Wirvoitusjuomatehdas
RoPS	Juha Malinen	Antti Okkonen	Puma	Saraware
SJK	Simo Valakari	Pavle Milosavljević	Adidas	GapCon
VPS	Petri Vuorinen	Ville Koskimaa	Puma	Various

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Incoming manager	Date of appointment	Table
Ilves	Mika Malinen	End of contract	n/a	Keith Armstrong	24 October 2014^[2]	Pre-season
VPS	Olli Huttunen	Sacked	29 June 2015	Petri Vuorinen	29 June 2015^[3]	12th
Ilves	Keith Armstrong	Sacked	7 October 2015^[4]	Marco Baruffato	14 October 2015^[5]	8th

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	SJK (C)	33	18	6	9	50	22	+28	60	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round
2	RoPS	33	17	8	8	44	29	+15	59	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
3	HJK	33	16	10	7	45	30	+15	58	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
4	Inter Turku	33	13	10	10	45	34	+11	49
5	Lahti	33	12	12	9	38	36	+2	48
6	IFK Mariehamn	33	11	12	10	30	36	−6	45	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round^[a]
7	HIFK	33	10	13	10	42	42	0	43
8	Ilves	33	11	7	15	32	48	−16	40
9	KuPS	33	9	11	13	32	40	−8	38
10	VPS	33	8	9	16	36	43	−7	33
11	KTP (R)	33	7	11	15	27	44	−17	32	Qualification for the relegation play-offs
12	Jaro (R)	33	6	11	16	27	43	−16	29	Relegation to the Ykkönen

Source: Veikkausliiga, 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 goals scored; 7) Fewer away goals allowed; 8) Home goals scored; 9) Fewer home goals allowed; 10) Play-off. (Note: Criteria 7–10 is only used if deciding Champion, teams to UEFA competitions or teams for relegation).^[6]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ IFK Mariehamn qualified for the UEFA Europa League first qualifying round by winning the 2015 Finnish Cup.

Results

Matches 1–22

Home \ Away	INT	LAH	JAR	HIFK	HJK	MAR	ILV	KTP	KPS	RPS	SJK	VPS
FC Inter		0–2	2–0	3–1	3–0	1–1	3–1	4–1	3–1	2–0	1–1	1–1
FC Lahti	1–1		1–1	2–0	0–0	0–1	3–1	1–1	1–0	1–2	1–0	0–0
FF Jaro	0–0	1–1		0–2	1–1	1–1	3–1	0–2	1–1	1–2	0–1	2–1
HIFK	2–1	3–3	3–2		1–1	1–1	2–2	0–0	1–1	1–1	1–0	3–0
HJK	2–0	1–1	3–0	1–1		1–0	2–1	1–0	1–1	0–2	3–1	1–0
IFK Mariehamn	0–2	0–2	4–3	1–1	0–2		2–0	2–1	1–1	1–0	0–3	2–0
Ilves	1–0	2–1	1–0	1–1	1–1	1–3		0–0	1–0	0–1	0–0	1–3
KTP	4–1	0–0	1–0	1–2	1–1	0–2	1–2		0–1	0–0	0–0	3–2
KuPS	1–1	0–3	1–3	2–0	1–0	0–0	1–2	1–1		3–0	1–1	1–0
RoPS	0–4	1–2	0–0	2–0	1–3	1–1	4–1	4–0	1–0		2–0	1–0
SJK	0–1	0–0	2–0	2–0	1–2	4–0	3–0	1–0	5–0	1–0		2–0
VPS	3–0	2–0	1–2	0–2	2–2	0–1	2–3	1–1	2–2	1–1	1–3

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

Matches 23–33

Home \ Away	INT	LAH	JAR	HIFK	HJK	MAR	ILV	KTP	KPS	RPS	SJK	VPS
FC Inter			1–0			1–1	1–2	3–0			0–2
FC Lahti	3–1			0–5		0–0		3–2		1–4	1–0
FF Jaro		1–1				0–0	3–0	0–0		0–1	1–0
HIFK	2–0		0–0						1–3	1–1		0–3
HJK	0–2	1–0	4–0	1–1		4–0		2–1
IFK Mariehamn				1–0			0–0	0–1	2–3	1–0	1–1
Ilves		1–2		1–3	1–0			2–0	1–0
KTP				1–0					3–1	0–4	1–3	0–0
KuPS	1–1	1–0	2–0		0–1							0–0
RoPS	1–1				2–1		0–0		2–1			2–1
SJK				4–1	3–0		2–1		1–0	0–1		3–2
VPS	0–0	3–1	2–1		1–2	1–0	1–0

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

Relegation play-offs

28 October 2015

PK-35 Vantaa	0–0	KTP
	Report

Myyrmäen jalkapallostadion, Vantaa

Attendance: 2,050

Referee: Mikko Mörö

31 October 2015

KTP	2–3	PK-35 Vantaa
Äijälä 72' (pen.) Kaivonurmi 76'	Report	García 24' Ositashvili 39' (o.g.) Couñago 64'

Arto Tolsa Areena, Kotka

Attendance: 3,470

Referee: Ville Nevalainen

PK-35 Vantaa won 3–2 on aggregate.

Statistics

Top scorers

Source: veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish)

As of 26 October 2015.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Aleksandr Kokko	RoPS	17
2	Juho Mäkelä	VPS	16
3	Akseli Pelvas	SJK	14
4	Matheus Alves	FC Lahti	12
5	Mika Lahtinen	Ilves	10
6	Pekka Sihvola	HIFK	9
7	Erfan Zeneli	HJK	8
	Atomu Tanaka	HJK	8
	Demba Savage	HJK	8
	Dever Orgill	IFK Mariehamn	8
	Roope Riski	SJK	8
12	Toni Lehtinen	SJK	6
	Joni Aho	FC Inter	6
	Ville Salmikivi	HIFK	6
	Ousman Jallow	HJK	6
	Ilari Äijälä	KTP	6
	Guy Gnabouyou	FC Inter	6
18	7 players		5
25	13 players		4
38	24 players		3
62	34 players		2
96	62 players		1

Awards

Month	Coach of the Month	Player of the Month
April^[7]	Job Dragtsma (FC Inter)	Vahid Hambo (FC Inter)
May^[8]	Juha Malinen (RoPS)	Mihkel Aksalu (SJK)
June^[9]	Juha Malinen (RoPS)	Aleksandr Kokko (RoPS)
July^[10]	Toni Korkeakunnas (FC Lahti)	Mika Hilander (Ilves)
August^[11]	Keith Armstrong (Ilves)	Mika Hilander (Ilves)
September^[12]	Job Dragtsma (FC Inter)	Antti Okkonen (RoPS)
October^[13]	Simo Valakari (SJK)	Aleksandr Kokko (RoPS)

Annual awards

Award^[14]	Winner	Club
Player of the Year	Aleksandr Kokko	RoPS
Goalkeeper of the Year	Mihkel Aksalu	SJK
Defender of the Year	Faith Obilor	RoPS
Midfielder of the Year	Moshtagh Yaghoubi	RoPS
Striker of the Year	Aleksandr Kokko	RoPS
Breakthrough of the Year	Kaan Kairinen	Inter Turku
Coach of the Year	Simo Valakari	SJK

References

^ Liigalisenssikomitea päätti Veikkausliigalisensseistä kaudelle 2015
^ "Keith Armstrong on Ilveksen uusi valmentaja". Ilves (in Finnish). Ilves. 24 October 2014. Archived from the original on 26 October 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
^ "VPS on irtisanonut päävalmentajansa". VPS (in Finnish). VPS. 29 June 2015. Archived from the original on 15 July 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
^ "Ilves kiittää Armstrongia hyvin tehdystä työstä". Ilves (in Finnish). Ilves. 7 October 2015. Archived from the original on 15 October 2015. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
^ "Marco Baruffato toimii päävalmentajana loppukauden". Ilves (in Finnish). Ilves. 14 October 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2015.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
^ "Veikkausliiga 2015 - Season rules". Scoresway. Archived from the original on 13 February 2019. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
^ Vahid Hambo huhtikuun kuukauden pelaaja (in Finnish)
^ SJK:n Mihkel Aksalu toukokuun pelaaja (in Finnish)
^ Aleksandr Kokko kesäkuun pelaaja (in Finnish)
^ Mika Hilander Veikkausliigan heinäkuun pelaaja (in Finnish)
^ [1] (in Finnish)
^ [2] (in Finnish)
^ [3] (in Finnish)
^ Kai (2015-10-30). "Tässä ovat Captain's Ball -futisgaalan kaikki palkitut tahot". SuomiFutis (in Finnish). Retrieved 2023-01-02.

External links

Official site (in Finnish)
Escape To Suomi

[table_note_res_EL1Qcup0.024893438455133-6] IFK Mariehamn qualified for the UEFA Europa League first qualifying round by winning the 2015 Finnish Cup.

[1] Liigalisenssikomitea päätti Veikkausliigalisensseistä kaudelle 2015

[2] "Keith Armstrong on Ilveksen uusi valmentaja". Ilves (in Finnish). Ilves. 24 October 2014. Archived from the original on 26 October 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2014.

[3] "VPS on irtisanonut päävalmentajansa". VPS (in Finnish). VPS. 29 June 2015. Archived from the original on 15 July 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2015.

[4] "Ilves kiittää Armstrongia hyvin tehdystä työstä". Ilves (in Finnish). Ilves. 7 October 2015. Archived from the original on 15 October 2015. Retrieved 8 October 2015.

[5] "Marco Baruffato toimii päävalmentajana loppukauden". Ilves (in Finnish). Ilves. 14 October 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2015.^{[permanent dead link‍]}

[7] "Veikkausliiga 2015 - Season rules". Scoresway. Archived from the original on 13 February 2019. Retrieved 14 July 2015.

[8] Vahid Hambo huhtikuun kuukauden pelaaja (in Finnish)

[9] SJK:n Mihkel Aksalu toukokuun pelaaja (in Finnish)

[10] Aleksandr Kokko kesäkuun pelaaja (in Finnish)

[11] Mika Hilander Veikkausliigan heinäkuun pelaaja (in Finnish)

[12] [1] (in Finnish)

[13] [2] (in Finnish)

[14] [3] (in Finnish)

[15] Kai (2015-10-30). "Tässä ovat Captain's Ball -futisgaalan kaikki palkitut tahot". SuomiFutis (in Finnish). Retrieved 2023-01-02.

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2015 Veikkausliiga