# 2009 Veikkausliiga

The 2009 Veikkausliiga was the 79th season of top-tier football in Finland. It began on 18 April 2009 and ended on 17 October 2009. Inter Turku were the defending champions.
The championship was won by HJK Helsinki, who came out on top of a three-team race which also involved Honka Espoo and TPS Turku. On the bottom end of the table, RoPS were relegated to the Ykkönen while JJK will have to compete in a two-legged relegation play-off.

## Promotion and relegation

KooTeePee finished at the bottom of the 2008 season and were relegated to Ykkönen. Their place was taken by Ykkönen champions JJK. 13th placed Veikkausliiga team KuPS and Ykkönen runners-up competed in a two-legged relegation play-offs for one spot in 2009 Veikkausliiga. KuPS won 2–1 on aggregate and thereby retained their league position.

## Overview

| Club | Location | Stadium | Capacity | Manager |
| FC Haka | Valkeakoski | Tehtaan kenttä | 3,516 | Olli Huttunen |
| HJK | Helsinki | Finnair Stadium | 10,770 | Antti Muurinen |
| FC Honka | Espoo | Tapiolan Urheilupuisto | 6,000 | Mika Lehkosuo |
| FC Inter | Turku | Veritas Stadion | 9,372 | Job Dragtsma |
| FF Jaro | Jakobstad | Jakobstads Centralplan | 5,000 | Mika Laurikainen |
| JJK | Jyväskylä | Harjun stadion | 3,000 | Ville Priha |
| KuPS | Kuopio | Magnum Areena | 3,500 | Kai Nyyssönen |
| FC Lahti | Lahti | Lahden Stadion | 14,465 | Ilkka Mäkelä |
| IFK Mariehamn | Mariehamn | Wiklöf Holding Arena | 1,600 | Pekka Lyyski |
| MYPA | Myllykoski, Kouvola | Saviniemi | 4,167 | Janne Lindberg |
| RoPS | Rovaniemi | Keskuskenttä | 3,400 | Mika Lumijärvi |
| Tampere United | Tampere | Ratina Stadion | 17,000 | Ari Hjelm |
| TPS | Turku | Veritas Stadion | 9,372 | Pasi Rautiainen |
| VPS | Vaasa | Hietalahti Stadium | 4,600 | Petri Vuorinen |

### Managerial changes

| Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Replaced by | Date of appointment | Position in table |
| VPS | Tomi Kärkkäinen | Resigned | 15 May 2009 | Petri Vuorinen | 15 May 2009 | 14th |
| RoPS | Valeri Bondarenko | Sacked | 27 May 2009 | Mika Lumijärvi Zeddy Saileti | 27 May 2009 | 14th |
| FF Jaro | Mika Laurikainen | Sacked | 18 August 2009 | Alexei Eremenko Sr. | 18 August 2009 | |
| Haka | Olli Huttunen | Sacked | 7 September 2009 | Sami Ristilä | 7 September 2009 | 5th |
| RoPS | Mika Lumijärvi | Sacked | 7 October 2009 | Zeddy Saileti Jorma Turpeenniemi | 7 October 2009 | 14th |

## League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | HJK (C) | 26 | 14 | 10 | 2 | 45 | 21 | +24 | 52 | Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round |
| 2 | FC Honka | 26 | 13 | 10 | 3 | 65 | 29 | +36 | 49 | Qualification to Europa League second qualifying round |
| 3 | TPS | 26 | 13 | 10 | 3 | 46 | 20 | +26 | 49 | Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round |
| 4 | IFK Mariehamn | 26 | 10 | 13 | 3 | 30 | 21 | +9 | 43 | |
| 5 | FC Inter | 26 | 11 | 7 | 8 | 38 | 30 | +8 | 40 | Qualification to Europa League third qualifying round |
| 6 | Haka | 26 | 10 | 7 | 9 | 40 | 35 | +5 | 37 | |
| 7 | Tampere United | 26 | 11 | 4 | 11 | 31 | 31 | 0 | 37 | |
| 8 | VPS | 26 | 10 | 5 | 11 | 30 | 36 | −6 | 35 | |
| 9 | MYPA | 26 | 9 | 7 | 10 | 32 | 30 | +2 | 34 | Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round |
| 10 | FF Jaro | 26 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 33 | 34 | −1 | 32 | |
| 11 | FC Lahti | 26 | 8 | 7 | 11 | 33 | 40 | −7 | 31 | |
| 12 | KuPS | 26 | 6 | 5 | 15 | 29 | 53 | −24 | 23 | |
| 13 | JJK (O) | 26 | 3 | 7 | 16 | 25 | 52 | −27 | 16 | Qualification to relegation play-offs |
| 14 | RoPS (R) | 26 | 4 | 4 | 18 | 21 | 66 | −45 | 16 | Relegation to Ykkönen |
* ↑ Inter Turku qualified for the third qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League by winning the 2009 Finnish Cup.
* ↑ Finland was among the best three associations in the UEFA Fair Play ranking and thus received an additional spot in the first qualifying round of the Europa League.

### Relegation play-offs

JJK as 13th placed team of 2009 Veikkausliiga and KPV as runners-up of the 2009 Ykkönen competed in a two-legged play-offs for one spot in the 2010 Veikkausliiga. JJK won the play-offs by 5–3 and remained in Veikkausliiga.

## Results

| Home \ Away | HAK | HJK | HON | INT | JAR | JJK | KPS | LAH | MAR | MYP | RPS | TAM | TPS | VPS |
| Haka | | 1–2 | 1–1 | 2–2 | 0–0 | 2–4 | 3–0 | 3–0 | 5–1 | 2–3 | 3–1 | 1–0 | 0–3 | 0–1 |
| HJK | 3–3 | | 1–1 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 5–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 4–0 | 1–0 | 2–2 | 2–0 |
| FC Honka | 2–0 | 1–1 | | 2–3 | 5–1 | 5–2 | 4–1 | 2–2 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 9–0 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 3–0 |
| FC Inter | 0–2 | 1–1 | 2–1 | | 1–0 | 3–0 | 2–3 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 4–0 | 2–2 | 2–0 | 0–1 |
| FF Jaro | 1–0 | 0–2 | 3–5 | 0–1 | | 5–1 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 3–0 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–3 |
| JJK | 0–0 | 1–1 | 2–3 | 1–0 | 0–2 | | 1–2 | 2–1 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 2–2 | 1–1 | 1–2 |
| KuPS | 5–1 | 0–3 | 0–4 | 0–2 | 2–2 | 2–0 | | 1–1 | 2–2 | 0–2 | 3–0 | 1–2 | 0–3 | 3–3 |
| FC Lahti | 2–4 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 1–3 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 1–0 | | 1–1 | 0–1 | 4–1 | 2–1 | 2–4 | 0–0 |
| IFK Mariehamn | 2–1 | 0–0 | 2–2 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 3–0 | 2–0 | | 0–0 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 |
| MYPA | 0–2 | 1–0 | 1–3 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 4–0 | 1–2 | 2–2 | 1–2 | | 4–0 | 4–1 | 2–2 | 0–2 |
| RoPS | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–2 | 0–2 | 5–3 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 | | 1–5 | 0–4 | 2–3 |
| Tampere United | 1–1 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 3–2 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 3–1 | | 0–2 | 1–0 |
| TPS | 1–2 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 3–0 | 5–2 | 0–0 | 3–1 | 3–2 | 1–0 | | 2–0 |
| VPS | 0–1 | 3–4 | 2–5 | 2–2 | 1–2 | 3–2 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 0–2 | |

## Monthly awards

| Month | Coach of the Month | Player of the Month |
| April | Pekka Lyyski (IFK Mariehamn) | Hermanni Vuorinen (Honka) |
| May | Olli Huttunen (Haka) | Sebastian Strandvall (Haka) |
| June | Mika Laurikainen (Jaro) | Jens Nygård (VPS) |
| July | Pasi Rautiainen (TPS) | Jukka Lehtovaara (TPS) |