2020 Veikkausliiga

Veikkausliiga 2020
Season information
Winners	HJK 30th title
Relegated	RoPS TPS
Continental cup qualifiers
Champions League	HJK
Europa Conference League	KuPS Turku FC Honka
Season statistics
Matches played	132
Goals scored	372
Average	2.82 (per match)
Top goalscorer	Roope Riski (16 goals)
Biggest home win	HJK 6–1 Mariehamn (30 August 2020)
Biggest away win	Mariehamn 0–5 HJK (1 November 2020)
Highest scoring	Ilves 4–3 Mariehamn (1 July 2020) HJK 6–1 Mariehamn (30 August 2020) HIFK 4–3 HJK (10 September 2020)
← 2019	2021 →

The 2020 Veikkausliiga was the ninetieth season of top-tier football in Finland with KuPS being the defending champions.

The league was originally scheduled to start on 11 April. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Veikkausliiga was postponed to June, and later on it was postponed again to 1 July 2020. The season finished on 4 November 2020.

Format

Initially, Veikkausliiga would continue the same format as the 2019 season. However, on 28 October 2020, it was decided to cancel the championship and relegation round due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland, and the regular season standings after 22 rounds would be considered final.

Teams

VPS were relegated to Ykkönen after finishing at the bottom of the 2019 season. Their place was taken by Ykkönen champions FC Haka.

KPV as 11th-placed team lost their Veikkausliiga spot after losing to second-placed Ykkönen team TPS in a relegation/promotion playoff.

Stadia and locations

Club	Location	Stadium	Turf	Capacity
FC Haka	Valkeakoski	Tehtaan kenttä	Artificial	3,516
FC Honka	Espoo	Tapiolan Urheilupuisto	Natural	6,000
FC Inter	Turku	Veritas Stadion	Natural	10,000
FC Lahti	Lahti	Lahden Stadion	Natural	15,000
HIFK	Helsinki	Bolt Arena	Artificial	10,770
HJK	Helsinki	Bolt Arena	Artificial	10,770
IFK Mariehamn	Mariehamn	Wiklöf Holding Arena	Artificial	4,000
Ilves	Tampere	Tammelan Stadion	Natural	5,040
KuPS	Kuopio	Savon Sanomat Areena	Artificial	5,000
RoPS	Rovaniemi	Rovaniemen keskuskenttä	Artificial	4,000
SJK	Seinäjoki	OmaSP Stadion	Artificial	6,000
TPS	Turku	Veritas Stadion	Natural	10,000

League table

Regular season

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	HJK  (C)	22	14	6	2	53	17	+36	48	Qualification to Champions League first qualifying round
2	FC Inter	22	12	5	5	36	17	+19	41	Qualification to Europa Conference League first qualifying round
3	KuPS	22	12	5	5	39	26	+13	41
4	FC Honka	22	9	10	3	26	17	+9	37
5	Ilves	22	10	6	6	37	29	+8	36
6	FC Lahti	22	8	8	6	33	30	+3	32
7	SJK	22	8	5	9	27	29	−2	29
8	HIFK	22	8	4	10	29	33	−4	28
9	IFK Mariehamn	22	6	5	11	29	43	−14	23
10	Haka	22	5	7	10	25	41	−16	22
11	TPS  (R)	22	6	3	13	23	39	−16	21	Qualification to Relegation play-offs
12	RoPS  (R)	22	1	2	19	15	51	−36	5	Relegation to Ykkönen

Source: Veikkausliiga (Finnish), Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

European competition

Five teams would originally play for a spot in the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League first qualifying round, but this was cancelled and the spot would be awarded based on regular season position.

Relegation play-offs

11 November 2020 (2020-11-11) 18:30 EET (UTC+2)	KTP	0–0	TPS	Arto Tolsa Areena Attendance: 1,315 Referee: Mattias Gestranius

14 November 2020 (2020-11-14) 16:00 EET (UTC+2)	TPS	1–1	KTP	Veritas Stadion Attendance: 2,469 Referee: Dennis Antamo
	Muzaci  58'		Mäkijärvi  83'

1–1 on aggregate. KTP won on away goals.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Roope Riski	HJK	16
2	Albion Ademi	IFK Mariehamn	14
3	Timo Furuholm	Inter Turku	10
4	Jasin-Amin Assehnoun	FC Lahti	9
	Tim Väyrynen	HJK
6	Lauri Ala-Myllymäki	Ilves	7
	Jean Marie Dongou	FC Honka
	Naatan Skyttä	Ilves
	Aniekpeno Udo	KuPS
10	Dimitry Imbongo	FC Lahti	6
	Ilmari Niskanen	KuPS
	Salomo Ojala	FC Haka

Football in Finland

League competitions FAF Cup competitions Veikkausliiga (tier 1) Finland Finnish Cup Ykkönen (tier 2) {U-21) (U-19) (U-17) Finnish League Cup Kakkonen (tier 3) · Kolmonen (tier 4) List of clubs Nelonen (tier 5) · Vitonen (tier 6) List of competitions Kutonen (tier 7) · Seiska (tier 8) List of venues