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.

Veikkausliiga
Season2008
ChampionsInter Turku
1st Finnish title
RelegatedKooTeePee
Champions LeagueInter Turku
Europa LeagueHonka
Lahti
HJK (via domestic cup)
Goals scored482
Average goals/game2.65
Top goalscorerFinland Aleksandr Kokko
Finland Henri Myntti
(13 goals both)
Biggest home winHonka 7–0 Haka
Lahti 8–1 KuPS
Biggest away winJaro 0–4 Haka
Haka 0–4 Inter Turku
TPS 0–4 Inter Turku
VPS 0–4 Inter Turku
KooTeePee 0–4 MYPA
Highest scoringLahti 8–1 KuPS
2007
2009

Promotion and relegation

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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

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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

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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[a]
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
Source: veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish)
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:
  1. ^ HJK won the Finnish Cup 2008, thereby qualifying for the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.

Relegation play-offs

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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.

FC Viikingit1 – 2KuPS
Jäntti   12' Report
(in Finnish)
Koljonen   28'
Venäläinen   32'

KuPS0 – 0FC Viikingit
Report
(in Finnish)

Results

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

Top goalscorers

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Source: veikkausliiga.com (in Finnish)

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

Annual awards

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Source: Veikkausliigan parhaat kaudella 2008 nimetty (in Finnish)

Players' Association's awards

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Veikkausliiga's awards

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