# 2008 Veikkausliiga

The 2008 season of Veikkausliiga was the 78th season of top-tier football in Finland. It started on 27 April 2008 and ended on 26 October 2008. The defending champions were Tampere United.

## Promotion and relegation

AC Oulu finished at the bottom of the 2007 season and therefore were relegated to Ykkönen. Their place was taken by Ykkönen champions KuPS. 13th placed Veikkausliiga team FC Viikingit and Ykkönen runners-up RoPS competed in a two-legged relegation play-offs for one spot in 2008 Veikkausliiga. RoPS won 2–1 on aggregate and therefore were promoted to Veikkausliiga.

## 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 | 10,000 | Job Dragtsma |
| FF Jaro | Jakobstad | Jakobstads Centralplan | 5,000 | Mika Laurikainen |
| FC KooTeePee | Kotka | Arto Tolsa Areena | 4,780 | Tommi Kautonen |
| KuPS | Kuopio | Magnum Areena | 3,500 | Kai Nyyssönen |
| FC Lahti | Lahti | Lahden Stadion | 15,000 | Ilkka Mäkelä |
| IFK Mariehamn | Mariehamn | Wiklöf Holding Arena | 1,600 | Pekka Lyyski |
| MYPA | Anjalankoski | Saviniemi | 4,067 | Janne Lindberg |
| RoPS | Rovaniemi | Keskuskenttä | 4,000 | Valeri Bondarenko |
| Tampere United | Tampere | Ratina Stadion | 17,000 | Ari Hjelm |
| TPS | Turku | Veritas Stadion | 10,000 | John Allen |
| VPS | Vaasa | Hietalahti Stadium | 4,600 | Tomi Kärkkäinen |

## League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | FC Inter (C) | 26 | 15 | 9 | 2 | 46 | 12 | +34 | 54 | Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round |
| 2 | FC Honka | 26 | 15 | 5 | 6 | 46 | 23 | +23 | 50 | Qualification to Europa League second qualifying round |
| 3 | FC Lahti | 26 | 15 | 3 | 8 | 44 | 24 | +20 | 48 | Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round |
| 4 | HJK | 26 | 14 | 5 | 7 | 47 | 29 | +18 | 47 | Qualification to Europa League second qualifying round |
| 5 | MYPA | 26 | 11 | 9 | 6 | 33 | 21 | +12 | 42 | |
| 6 | TPS | 26 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 45 | 36 | +9 | 42 | |
| 7 | Tampere United | 26 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 41 | 34 | +7 | 36 | |
| 8 | Haka | 26 | 10 | 5 | 11 | 31 | 37 | −6 | 35 | |
| 9 | FF Jaro | 26 | 10 | 5 | 11 | 36 | 47 | −11 | 35 | |
| 10 | RoPS | 26 | 8 | 6 | 12 | 31 | 37 | −6 | 30 | |
| 11 | VPS | 26 | 6 | 11 | 9 | 18 | 29 | −11 | 29 | |
| 12 | IFK Mariehamn | 26 | 7 | 5 | 14 | 24 | 40 | −16 | 26 | |
| 13 | KuPS (O) | 26 | 4 | 7 | 15 | 26 | 56 | −30 | 19 | Qualification to relegation play-offs |
| 14 | FC KooTeePee (R) | 26 | 1 | 5 | 20 | 14 | 57 | −43 | 8 | Relegation to Ykkönen |
* ↑ HJK won the Finnish Cup 2008, thereby qualifying for the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.

### Relegation play-offs

KuPS and Ykkönen runners-up FC Viikingit competed in a two-legged play-offs for one spot in Veikkausliiga 2009. KuPS won 2–1 on aggregate and thereby retained their league spot for 2009.

## Results

| Home \ Away | HAK | HJK | HON | INT | JAR | KTP | KPS | LAH | MAR | MYP | RPS | TAM | TPS | VPS |
| Haka | | 2–3 | 1–2 | 0–4 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 3–0 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 0–3 | 3–1 | 1–1 | 1–2 | 1–0 |
| HJK | 1–2 | | 0–2 | 3–2 | 2–3 | 6–1 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 4–0 | 1–1 | 3–2 | 5–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| FC Honka | 7–0 | 1–0 | | 1–1 | 3–1 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 3–4 | 2–2 | 1–2 |
| FC Inter | 1–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | | 2–0 | 3–0 | 4–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 2–2 | 3–0 | 2–0 |
| FF Jaro | 0–4 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | | 2–1 | 3–2 | 2–2 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 1–4 | 2–3 | 2–2 |
| FC KooTeePee | 0–2 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 1–4 | | 1–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–4 | 0–2 | 1–3 | 0–2 | 0–0 |
| KuPS | 0–1 | 3–2 | 1–2 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 2–0 | | 2–3 | 3–1 | 1–4 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 0–3 | 0–0 |
| FC Lahti | 1–0 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 8–1 | | 2–1 | 4–0 | 3–0 | 2–2 | 4–1 | 1–0 |
| IFK Mariehamn | 2–1 | 0–2 | 3–2 | 1–1 | 1–2 | 4–2 | 1–1 | 0–1 | | 0–0 | 2–1 | 1–4 | 2–1 | 0–2 |
| MYPA | 1–1 | 1–3 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 3–0 | 2–0 | 4–1 | 2–0 | 0–2 | | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 |
| RoPS | 1–2 | 2–0 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 1–3 | 3–0 | 4–0 | 2–2 | 3–1 | 1–1 | | 2–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 |
| Tampere United | 1–1 | 1–2 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 4–2 | 2–0 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 0–2 | 5–0 | | 1–1 | 1–1 |
| TPS | 2–0 | 1–3 | 2–1 | 0–4 | 4–0 | 4–1 | 3–3 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 2–2 | 1–0 | | 6–1 |
| VPS | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–4 | 0–4 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–3 | |

## Top goalscorers

Source: veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish)
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
| 1 | Aleksandr Kokko | Honka | 13 |
| 1 | Henri Myntti | Tampere United | 13 |
| 3 | Mikko Hyyrynen | Jaro | 11 |
| 3 | Toni Lehtinen | Haka | 11 |
| 3 | Mikko Paatelainen | TPS | 11 |
| 3 | Rafael | Lahti | 11 |
| 8 | Jarno Parikka | HJK | 9 |
| 8 | Hermanni Vuorinen | Honka | 9 |
| 10 | Tarmo Neemelo | MYPA | 8 |
| 10 | Mika Ojala | Inter Turku | 8 |
| 10 | Paulus Roiha | HJK | 8 |

## Annual awards

Source: Veikkausliigan parhaat kaudella 2008 nimetty (in Finnish)

### Players' Association's awards

* Player of the Year: Dominic Chatto (Inter Turku)
* Young player of the Year: Aleksandr Kokko (Honka)
* Referee of the Year: Tero Nieminen

### Veikkausliiga's awards

* Goalkeeper of the Year: Patrick Bantamoi (Inter Turku)
* Defender of the Year: Jos Hooiveld (Inter Turku)
* Midfielder of the Year: Mika Ojala (Inter Turku)
* Attacker of the Year: Aleksandr Kokko (Honka)