# 2002 Veikkausliiga

The 2002 season was the 72nd completed season of Finnish Football League Championship, known as the Veikkausliiga. At the same time it was the 13th season of the Veikkausliiga. This season three teams could promote from the 2nd division and only one would relegate, because the Veikkausliiga would extend its number of participating teams from 12 to 14, starting the 2003 season.

## Overview

The Veikkausliiga is administered by the Finnish Football Association and the competition's 2002 season was contested by 12 teams. Following the Preliminary Stage, the higher eight teams progressed to the Championship Group while the lower four teams competed in the promotion/relegation group with the higher 4 teams from the Ykkönen. HJK Helsinki won the championship and qualified for the 2003–04 UEFA Champions League qualification round, while the second and third placed teams qualified for the first qualification round of the 2003–04 UEFA Cup. The fourth placed team qualified for the UEFA Intertoto Cup 2002, while VPS Vaasa were relegated to the Ykkönen.

## Participating clubs

In 2002 there were 12 participants in the Veikkausliiga:
* Allianssi Vantaa - previously Atlantis Helsinki
* FC Jazz Pori
* FC Hämeenlinna - Promoted from Ykkönen
* FC Lahti
* Haka Valkeakoski
* HJK Helsinki
* Inter Turku
* Jaro Pietarsaari - Promoted from Ykkönen
* KuPS Kuopio
* MyPa 47 Anjalankoski
* Tampere United
* VPS Vaasa

## Preliminary stage
### Table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | HJK Helsinki | 22 | 15 | 3 | 4 | 36 | 16 | +20 | 48 | Qualification to Championship group |
| 2 | MyPa Anjalankoski | 22 | 12 | 7 | 3 | 43 | 20 | +23 | 43 | Qualification to Championship group |
| 3 | Haka Valkeakoski | 22 | 11 | 5 | 6 | 31 | 18 | +13 | 38 | Qualification to Championship group |
| 4 | Allianssi Vantaa | 22 | 10 | 4 | 8 | 35 | 36 | −1 | 34 | Qualification to Championship group |
| 5 | FC Inter Turku | 22 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 28 | 17 | +11 | 32 | Qualification to Championship group |
| 6 | Tampere United | 22 | 7 | 11 | 4 | 23 | 15 | +8 | 32 | Qualification to Championship group |
| 7 | FC Lahti | 22 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 23 | 26 | −3 | 32 | Qualification to Championship group |
| 8 | Jaro Jakobstad | 22 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 23 | 36 | −13 | 26 | Qualification to Championship group |
| 9 | KuPS Kuopio | 22 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 26 | 30 | −4 | 24 | Qualification to Relegation group |
| 10 | FC Hämeenlinna | 22 | 3 | 9 | 10 | 23 | 34 | −11 | 18 | Qualification to Relegation group |
| 11 | VPS Vaasa | 22 | 4 | 5 | 13 | 21 | 39 | −18 | 17 | Qualification to Relegation group |
| 12 | FC Jazz Pori | 22 | 4 | 4 | 14 | 17 | 42 | −25 | 16 | Qualification to Relegation group |

### Results

| Home \ Away | ALL | HAK | HÄM | HJK | INT | JAR | JAZ | KUP | LAH | MYP | TAM | VPS |
| AC Allianssi | | 0–3 | 2–1 | 2–2 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 5–2 | 4–2 | 2–0 | 2–3 | 1–1 | 6–1 |
| FC Haka | 4–0 | | 1–1 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–3 | 1–1 | 2–1 |
| Hämeenlinna | 2–2 | 0–1 | | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 3–0 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 2–4 |
| HJK Helsinki | 2–0 | 0–3 | 4–1 | | 1–0 | 4–2 | 1–0 | 4–0 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 |
| Inter Turku | 1–0 | 1–0 | 4–1 | 0–1 | | 3–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 3–0 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 5–1 |
| Jaro | 3–2 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 0–4 | 2–0 | | 2–0 | 0–0 | 0–3 | 0–3 | 2–0 | 2–1 |
| Jazz | 0–1 | 0–3 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 0–5 | 0–1 | | 2–2 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 |
| KuPS | 4–0 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 2–2 | 7–1 | | 1–2 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 0–2 |
| Lahti | 1–2 | 0–0 | 2–2 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 3–2 | 2–1 | | 2–1 | 0–2 | 0–0 |
| MyPa | 4–0 | 2–1 | 3–3 | 3–0 | 1–1 | 5–1 | 1–3 | 2–0 | 3–1 | | 0–0 | 3–0 |
| Tampere United | 0–0 | 2–2 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 3–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 3–0 | 1–1 | 0–1 | | 2–1 |
| VPS | 0–1 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 0–2 | 2–2 | 3–1 | 1–2 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | |

## Final stage
### Championship group
#### Table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | HJK Helsinki (C) | 29 | 20 | 5 | 4 | 51 | 21 | +30 | 65 | Qualification to Champions League first qualifying round |
| 2 | MyPa Anjalankoski | 29 | 17 | 9 | 3 | 57 | 25 | +32 | 60 | Qualification to UEFA Cup qualifying round |
| 3 | Haka Valkeakoski | 29 | 15 | 7 | 7 | 51 | 30 | +21 | 52 | Qualification to UEFA Cup qualifying round |
| 4 | Allianssi Vantaa | 29 | 12 | 5 | 12 | 39 | 44 | −5 | 41 | Qualification to Intertoto Cup first round |
| 5 | Tampere United | 29 | 8 | 15 | 6 | 31 | 24 | +7 | 39 | Qualification to Intertoto Cup first round |
| 6 | FC Inter Turku | 29 | 9 | 9 | 11 | 33 | 29 | +4 | 36 | |
| 7 | Jaro Jakobstad | 29 | 10 | 6 | 13 | 34 | 46 | −12 | 36 | |
| 8 | FC Lahti | 29 | 9 | 6 | 14 | 25 | 44 | −19 | 33 | |

#### Results

| Home \ Away | ALL | HAK | HJK | INT | JAR | MYP | LAH | TAM |
| AC Allianssi | | | | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–3 | 1–0 | |
| FC Haka | 2–1 | | 1–1 | | 4–2 | | | 1–1 |
| HJK Helsinki | 1–0 | | | | 2–0 | 2–2 | | 3–2 |
| Inter Turku | | 2–5 | 0–1 | | | | | 0–2 |
| Jaro | | | | 1–1 | | | 4–1 | 3–1 |
| MyPa | | 5–3 | | 2–0 | 1–0 | | 1–0 | |
| Lahti | | 0–4 | 0–5 | 0–2 | | | | |
| Tampere United | 1–1 | | | | | 0–0 | 1–1 | |

### Relegation group
#### Table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Promotion or relegation |
| 1 | KuPS Kuopio | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 14 | 4 | +10 | 16 | |
| 2 | TPS Turku (P) | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 9 | +1 | 15 | Promotion to Veikkausliiga |
| 3 | FC Hämeenlinna | 7 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 11 | |
| 4 | FC Jokerit (P) | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 13 | 13 | 0 | 10 | Promotion to Veikkausliiga |
| 5 | FC Jazz Pori | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 5 | +1 | 9 | |
| 6 | FC KooTeePee (P) | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 11 | −3 | 9 | Promotion to Veikkausliiga |
| 7 | VPS Vaasa (R) | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 12 | −6 | 9 | Relegation to Ykkönen |
| 8 | TP-47 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 9 | −3 | 7 | |

## Leading scorers

| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
| 1 | Mika Kottila | HJK Helsinki | 18 |
| 2 | Valeri Popovitch | Haka Valkeakoski | 17 |
| 3 | Petteri Kaijasilta | Allianssi Vantaa | 13 |
| 3 | Saku Puhakainen | MyPa 47 Anjalankoski | 13 |
| 5 | Richard Teberio | Inter Turku | 11 |

## Footnotes

* ↑ "Finland 2002". RSSSF. 2002. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
* 1 2 3 4 "Finland - List of League First Level Tables". RSSSF. 2002. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
* ↑ "Finland - List of Topscorers (Mestaruussarja/Veikkausliiga)". RSSSF. 2001. Retrieved 5 January 2012.