# 2010 Veikkausliiga

The 2010 Veikkausliiga was the 80th season of top-tier football in Finland. It began on 16 April 2010 and ended on 23 October 2010.

## Teams

RoPS finished at the bottom of the 2009 season and were relegated to Ykkönen. Their place was taken by Ykkönen champions AC Oulu. 13th-placed Veikkausliiga team JJK and Ykkönen runners-up KPV competed in a two-legged relegation play-offs for one spot in this season. JJK won 5–3 on aggregate and thereby retained their league position.

## Team summaries

| Club | Location | Stadium | Capacity | Manager | Kitmaker |
| AC Oulu | Oulu | Castrén | 4,000 | Juha Malinen | Umbro |
| FC Honka | Espoo | Tapiolan Urheilupuisto | 6,000 | Mika Lehkosuo | Kappa |
| FC Inter | Turku | Veritas Stadion | 9,372 | Job Dragtsma | Nike |
| FC Lahti | Lahti | Lahden Stadion | 15,000 | Ilkka Mäkelä | Umbro |
| FF Jaro | Jakobstad | Jakobstads Centralplan | 5,000 | / Alexei Eremenko Sr. | Errea |
| Haka | Valkeakoski | Tehtaan kenttä | 3,516 | Sami Ristilä | Umbro |
| HJK | Helsinki | Sonera Stadium | 10,770 | Antti Muurinen | Adidas |
| IFK Mariehamn | Mariehamn | Wiklöf Holding Arena | 4,000 | Pekka Lyyski | Puma |
| JJK | Jyväskylä | Harjun stadion | 3,000 | Kari Martonen | Legea |
| KuPS | Kuopio | Kuopion keskuskenttä | 5,000 | Esa Pekonen | Puma |
| MYPA | Myllykoski, Kouvola | Saviniemi | 4,167 | Janne Lindberg | Puma |
| Tampere United | Tampere | Ratina Stadion | 17,000 | Ari Hjelm | Puma |
| TPS | Turku | Veritas Stadion | 9,372 | Marko Rajamäki | Puma |
| VPS | Vaasa | Hietalahti Stadium | 4,600 | Tommi Pikkarainen | Umbro |

## League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | HJK (C) | 26 | 15 | 7 | 4 | 43 | 19 | +24 | 52 | Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round |
| 2 | KuPS | 26 | 15 | 3 | 8 | 45 | 36 | +9 | 48 | Qualification to Europa League second qualifying round |
| 3 | TPS | 26 | 13 | 6 | 7 | 46 | 30 | +16 | 45 | Qualification to Europa League second qualifying round |
| 4 | FC Honka | 26 | 12 | 5 | 9 | 42 | 34 | +8 | 41 | Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round |
| 5 | FF Jaro | 26 | 11 | 5 | 10 | 42 | 34 | +8 | 38 | |
| 6 | FC Inter | 26 | 10 | 7 | 9 | 34 | 32 | +2 | 37 | |
| 7 | Tampere United | 26 | 10 | 4 | 12 | 37 | 46 | −9 | 34 | |
| 8 | Haka | 26 | 9 | 6 | 11 | 30 | 38 | −8 | 33 | |
| 9 | MYPA | 26 | 7 | 11 | 8 | 36 | 39 | −3 | 32 | |
| 10 | VPS | 26 | 8 | 7 | 11 | 29 | 40 | −11 | 31 | |
| 11 | AC Oulu | 26 | 8 | 6 | 12 | 31 | 44 | −13 | 30 | |
| 12 | IFK Mariehamn | 26 | 7 | 7 | 12 | 38 | 43 | −5 | 28 | |
| 13 | JJK (O) | 26 | 8 | 3 | 15 | 34 | 41 | −7 | 27 | Qualification to relegation play-offs |
| 14 | FC Lahti (R) | 26 | 5 | 11 | 10 | 26 | 37 | −11 | 26 | Relegation to Ykkönen |
* ↑ TPS were the winners of the 2010 Finnish Cup competition and qualified for the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.

### Relegation play-offs

The 13th placed team of 2010 Veikkausliiga and the runners-up of the 2010 Ykkönen will compete in a two-legged play-offs for one spot in the 2011 Veikkausliiga. JJK won the playoffs by 3-1 and remained again in Veikkausliiga.

## Results

| Home \ Away | HAK | HJK | HON | INT | JAR | JJK | KPS | LAH | MAR | MYP | ACO | TAM | TPS | VPS |
| Haka | | 0–3 | 2–0 | 1–3 | 4–3 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 |
| HJK | 1–1 | | 0–1 | 2–2 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 1–2 | 0–0 | 3–1 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 2–0 | 3–0 |
| FC Honka | 4–2 | 3–1 | | 1–1 | 3–1 | 2–3 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 3–0 | 3–1 | 3–4 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 0–0 |
| FC Inter | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 | | 2–0 | 3–2 | 1–3 | 1–3 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 0–2 | 1–2 | 1–0 |
| FF Jaro | 5–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 0–1 | | 1–3 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 3–2 | 1–2 | 2–2 | 1–3 | 3–2 |
| JJK | 1–2 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 0–3 | 1–2 | | 1–3 | 2–2 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 6–1 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 0–1 |
| KuPS | 1–0 | 0–5 | 0–2 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 2–0 | | 1–1 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 6–2 | 2–1 | 1–2 |
| FC Lahti | 0–1 | 0–1 | 2–4 | 1–1 | 1–3 | 0–0 | 2–1 | | 1–1 | 0–2 | 0–3 | 0–1 | 1–3 | 2–1 |
| IFK Mariehamn | 2–3 | 1–2 | 2–2 | 3–0 | 0–0 | 3–2 | 1–2 | 2–2 | | 1–2 | 0–2 | 2–3 | 2–1 | 0–3 |
| MYPA | 2–1 | 1–1 | 2–2 | 3–2 | 0–1 | 2–4 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 2–1 | | 1–1 | 3–0 | 2–2 | 2–2 |
| AC Oulu | 1–1 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 2–5 | 1–2 | 0–0 | 1–1 | | 3–0 | 0–2 | 1–1 |
| Tampere United | 2–1 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 1–4 | 0–2 | 1–3 | 0–0 | 3–4 | 1–1 | 3–1 | | 1–1 | 3–0 |
| TPS | 1–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 2–2 | 0–3 | 2–0 | 3–0 | 3–2 | 1–4 | 3–0 | 5–0 | 4–3 | | 1–1 |
| VPS | 2–1 | 0–3 | 1–3 | 0–3 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 1–4 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 0–3 | |

## Monthly awards

| Month | Coach of the Month | Player of the Month |
| April | Kari Martonen (JJK) | Janne Korhonen (Haka) |
| May | Esa Pekonen (KuPS) | Miikka Ilo (KuPS) |
| June | Job Dragtsma (FC Inter) | Henri Lehtonen (FC Inter) |
| July | Pekka Lyyski (IFK Mariehamn) | Tamás Gruborovics (IFK Mariehamn) |
| August | Marko Rajamäki (TPS) | Roope Riski (TPS) |
| September | / Alexei Eremenko Sr. (FF Jaro) | Toni Kolehmainen (TPS) |
| October | Sami Ristilä (Haka) | Dudu (KuPS) |

## Players of the year

Source: veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish)
| Position | Player |
| Best Goalkeeper | Jukka Lehtovaara (TPS) |
| Best Defender | Juhani Ojala (HJK) |
| Best Midfielder | Miikka Ilo (KuPS) |
| Best Striker | Juho Mäkelä (HJK) |
| Best Player | Medo (HJK) |