Liiga: Difference between revisions

Liiga
Current season, competition or edition:; 2024–25 Liiga season
Formerly	SM-sarja (1933–1975); SM-liiga (1975–2013)
Sport	Ice hockey
Founded	1975; 49 years ago
First season	1975–76
CEO	Mikko Pulkkinen
Motto	Se on totta (It's for real)
No. of teams	16
Country	Finland
Most recent; champion(s)	Tappara (13th title) ; (2023–24)
Most titles	Tappara (13 titles)
TV partner(s)	Telia Company, TV5
Level on pyramid	Level 1
Relegation to	Mestis
International cup(s)	Champions Hockey League
Related; competitions	Naisten Liiga
Official website	Liiga.fi

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Revision as of 09:54, 8 September 2024

The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish,^[1]^[2] is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league comprises 16 teams from all around Finland with relegation and promotion between the Mestis.^[3]^[4] The winner of the Liiga playoffs is awarded the Kanada-malja at the end of each season.^[5]

Teams from the Liiga participate in the IIHF's annual Champions Hockey League (CHL), competing for the European Trophy. Participation is based on the strength of the various leagues in Europe (excluding the European/Asian Kontinental Hockey League). Going into the 2023–24 CHL season, the Liiga was ranked the No. 3 league in Europe, allowing them to send their top four teams to compete in the CHL.^[6]

The Liiga was established in 1975 to replace the former SM-sarja, which was fundamentally an amateur competition. The Liiga is not directly overseen by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association, but the league and association have an agreement of cooperation. SM is a common abbreviation for Suomen mestaruus, "Finnish Champion".

History

Logo of the SM-liiga from 2005 to 2013

Logo of the SM-liiga from 1984 to 1997

The SM-liiga was constituted in 1975 to concentrate the development of top-level Finnish ice hockey, and pave the way towards professionalism. Its predecessor, the SM-sarja, being an amateur competition, had its disadvantages, which were perceived as impeding Finland's rise to the highest ranks of ice hockey.^{[citation needed]} SM-liiga hired Kalervo Kummola as its first chief executive officer, who served until 1987.^[7]^[8]

One of the main problems was that the governing of the SM-sarja was based on the annual meeting of the Finnish Ice Hockey Association, where all important issues were decided by vote. Since all clubs registered under the Finnish Ice Hockey Association had the right to vote, the many amateur clubs prevailed over the few business-like clubs. Therefore, the concentrated development of top-level Finnish ice hockey by the motivated and financially capable clubs proved arduous. The new SM-liiga was to be run by a board consisting of its participating clubs only and to have an agreement of cooperation with the Finnish Ice Hockey Association.^{[citation needed]}

The SM-sarja was also outdated on its own, as it was run according to amateur principles. Clubs were not supposed to pay their players beyond compensation for lost wages. However, by the 1970s many clubs were already run like businesses and recruited players through a contract of employment, paying their wages secretly and often evading taxes. However, in 1974, accounting reform in Finland extended book-keeping standards to cover sports clubs, and shortfalls were exposed in audit raids. The SM-liiga was to allow wages for players, and clubs were also put under a tighter supervision. They were to establish their own association for SM-liiga ice hockey only, separating their commitments from junior activities and other sports. Copies of all player contracts were to be sent to the SM-liiga to provide players with adequate security, such as insurance and pensions.^{[citation needed]}

The SM-sarja had other limits for players. According to amateur ideals, no player could represent more than one club within one season. Personal sponsorship was also forbidden. To discourage trading, a system of quarantine was in force. The SM-liiga stripped the limitations for players, replaced quarantine with a then-modest transfer payment, and introduced the transfer list. Players wanting a transfer were to sign up, and the SM-liiga would distribute the right of negotiations to clubs. In practice, the list was not successful, as both parties often worked their way around the formalities.^{[citation needed]}

These changes led to a transition towards professional ice hockey as the league became semi-professional. Only a few players would make a livelihood out of ice hockey in Finland in the 1970s, and many players, especially the young, would settle for a contract in the SM-liiga without a wage.^{[citation needed]}

A major financial development for professional ice hockey in Finland was the introduction of playoffs. Gate receipts and other income from playoffs were pooled and distributed as a placement bonus. Although playoffs were the standard way of determining the champions in North American professional sports, at the time they were not common in Europe.^{[citation needed]}

The SM-liiga was established rather hastily. The required changes were initiated at the 1974 annual meeting, and the SM-liiga was launched for the 1975–76 season. It was the first Finnish professional sports league, and its solutions were untried. However, there had been a mounting demand for these changes, as the popularity of ice hockey had been rising in the previous decade.^{[citation needed]}

The SM-liiga picked up where the SM-sarja left off with its 10 clubs. The four best of the regular season were to proceed to the playoffs. The system of promotion and relegation from the SM-sarja remained in force: last-placed teams of the regular season had to qualify for their position in the SM-liiga against the best teams of the second-highest series.^{[citation needed]}

The combined attendance for the first eleven regular seasons hovered around 900,000. In 1986–87, the number of games for each team was increased from 36 to 44, reaching its current level of 56 games in 2000–01, and the SM-liiga was expanded to 12 clubs for the 1988–89 season. The general popularity of ice hockey strengthened through international success of the Finland men's national ice hockey team, and the combined attendance climbed through the 1990s to about 1.8 million. This prompted an increase in the profitability of the ice hockey business and the completion of the transition to full professionalism. By the mid-1990s, all players were full-time, and by 2000, most clubs had reformed into limited companies. In late 1990s and early 2000s the SM-liiga was the strongest hockey league in Europe and the second strongest in the world. At that time many Finnish, Czech and North American players made their professional breakthroughs in Finland. Particularly HIFK, Jokerit and TPS had many former and future NHL players in their rosters during the 1990s and early 2000s.^{[citation needed]}

Since the 2000–01 season, the SM-liiga has been closed, meaning that relegations and promotions take place only by the judgment of the board of the SM-liiga. The only such promotion took place instantly in 2000. Without the threat of relegation, the weaker clubs were supposed to be able to recuperate and improve. This had, however, a side effect: clubs with a losing record that had lost their hopes of reaching the playoffs often disposed of high-salary star players, letting down their supporters. To counteract this, the playoffs were expanded to the best 10 clubs each season from among the 13 total in the league.^{[citation needed]}

The league changed its marketing name to just Liiga for the 2013–14 season, and introduced a new logo to match.^[9]

Today, there are 16 teams in the league. Nowadays the SM-liiga is considered one of the strongest leagues in Europe along with the SHL and behind the KHL.^[10]

Clubs

Originally, the SM-liiga had 10 teams. After multiple relegations, promotions and expansions in the league, as of the 2024–25 season there is 16 teams from 15 different cities. Tappara, Ilves, HIFK and TPS are the only teams to never be relegated out of the league while Ässät and Lukko have gone down a tier only for one season. Kiekko-Espoo, Sport, Jukurit and KooKoo have all been promoted to the league without an another team being relegated.

List of clubs

The team names are usually the traditional name of the club. All clubs are commonly known by the name of their team. Oy and Ab are the abbreviations for limited company in Finnish and Swedish respectively.

Teams in the 2023–24 SM-liiga season

Team name	Club's registered name	Location	Home venue	Capacity	2023–24 season standing (playoffs)	Titles SM-liiga	Titles overall
HIFK	Oy HIFK Hockey Ab	Helsinki	Helsinki Ice Hall	8,200	6th (7th)	4	7
HPK	HPK Liiga Oy	Hämeenlinna	Patria-areena	5,360	14th (did not qualify)	2	2
Ilves	Ilves-Hockey Oy	Tampere	Nokia Arena	12,700	2nd (5th)	1	16
Jukurit	Jukurit HC Oy	Mikkeli	Ikioma Areena	4,200	5th (6th)	0	0
JYP	JYP Jyväskylä Oy	Jyväskylä	Synergia-areena	4,437	13th (did not qualify)	2	2
KalPa	KalPa Hockey Oy	Kuopio	Olvi Arena	5,300	7th (4th)	0	0
Kiekko-Espoo	Kiekko-Espoo Oy	Espoo	Espoo Metro Areena	6,982	4th (3rd) in Mestis (promoted)	0	0
KooKoo	KooKoo Hockey Oy	Kouvola	Lumon arena	5,950	12th (did not qualify)	0	0
Kärpät	Oulun Kärpät Oy	Oulu	Oulun Energia Areena	6,300	4th (3rd)	8	8
Lukko	Rauman Lukko Oy	Rauma	Kivikylän Areena	4,500	8th (9th)	1	2
Pelicans	Lahden Pelicans Oy	Lahti	Isku Areena	4,403	3rd (2nd)	0	0
SaiPa	Liiga-SaiPa Oy	Lappeenranta	Kisapuisto	4,820	15th (did not qualify)	0	0
Sport	Hockey-Team Vaasan Sport Oy	Vaasa	Vaasa Arena	5,185	10th (10th)	0	0
Tappara	Tamhockey Oy	Tampere	Nokia Arena	12,700	1st (1st)	13	20
TPS	HC TPS Turku Oy	Turku	Gatorade Center	10,500	9th (8th)	10	11
Ässät	HC Ässät Pori Oy	Pori	Isomäki Ice Hall	6,150	11th (did not qualify)	2	3

Past participants

Relegated

Teams relegated were relegated to second-tier Mestis in the year shown, and are there today unless noted otherwise.

FoPS (relegated 1977, now FPS in third-tier Suomi-sarja)
KOOVEE (relegated 1980)
JoKP (relegated 1992, now Kiekko-pojat)
TuTo (relegated 1996, now TUTO Hockey)

Withdrew from league

Jokerit (left after the 2013–14 season to join the KHL; currently in Mestis)

SM-liiga timeline

1970					1980										1990										2000										2010										2020
75 76	76 77	77 78	78 79	79 80	80 81	81 82	82 83	83 84	84 85	85 86	86 87	87 88	88 89	89 90	90 91	91 92	92 93	93 94	94 95	95 96	96 97	97 98	98 99	99 00	00 01	01 02	02 03	03 04	04 05	05 06	06 07	07 08	08 09	09 10	10 11	11 12	12 13	13 14	14 15	15 16	16 17	17 18	18 19	19 20	20 21	21 22	22 23	24 25
HIFK
Ilves
Tappara
TPS
Ässät
Jokerit
Lukko
KOOVEE
Sport
FoPS
	Kiekkoreipas														Hockey-Reipas	Reipas Lahti								Pelicans
		Kärpät
					SaiPa
								HPK
										JyP HT												JYP
											KalPa
												KooKoo
														JoKP
																	Kiekko-Espoo						Blues																									Kiekko-Espoo
																			TuTo
																																									Jukurit

Format

Regular season: All teams play 60 matches. Each match consists of 60 minutes regulation time, and in the event of a tie, the winner is decided by a three-on-three sudden death, 5-minute overtime. Ties after overtime are decided by a shootout, where each team has three shooters in the beginning. If the game is tied after three shooters, the shootout will be decided by individual shooters against one another until one scores and the other does not.

The 2010–11 season also saw the inaugural Talviklassikko outdoor game at Helsinki's Olympic Stadium. In the Helsinki derby, HIFK defeated Jokerit 4–3.^[11]

Scoring: A win in regulation time is worth three points, a win by sudden death overtime two points, a loss by sudden death overtime one point and a loss in regulation time zero points. Teams will be ranked by points, and teams tied by points are ranked by the greater number of wins in regulation.

Playoffs: The four best teams at the conclusion of regular season proceed directly to quarter-finals. Teams placing between fifth and twelfth (inclusive) will play preliminary play-offs best-out-of-five – the four winners take the last four slots to quarter-finals. Starting from the season 2024–2025 all series since then are best-of-seven. Losers of the semi-finals play a bronze medal match. Teams are paired up for each round according to regular season results so that the highest-ranking team will play against the lowest-ranking, second highest against the second lowest, and so on. Higher-ranking teams play the first match at home, then by turns away, home, away, etc. Each playoff match consists of a 60-minute regulation time which in the event of a tie is followed by extra 20-minute periods of 5-on-5 sudden death overtime, in which the first team to score wins.^[12]

Relegation: The 16th and 15th placed teams will play in the playout series to decide which team plays against the Mestis champion.

Scheduling: The regular season begins around mid-September. It takes a one-and-half-week break around the end of October to the beginning of November, when Team Finland competes in Karjala Tournament. There is a one-week Christmas break. During Winter Olympic years, a break is reserved for the Winter Olympic Games. The regular season is completed around mid-March and preliminary playoffs ensue almost immediately. The playoffs are completed by mid-April, so that all players are available for the World Championships.

Winner

The winners of the playoffs receive gold medals and the Kanada-malja, the championship trophy of the Liiga. The winners of the regular season receive a trophy (Harry Lindbladin muistopalkinto) as well, though it is considered less prestigious than the bronze medals of the playoffs, similar to the difference in the National Hockey League between the status of the Stanley Cup and the Presidents' Trophy.

Previous winners

Previous SM-liiga winners

1976 – TPS
1977 – Tappara
1978 – Ässät
1979 – Tappara
1980 – HIFK
1981 – Kärpät
1982 – Tappara
1983 – HIFK
1984 – Tappara
1985 – Ilves
1986 – Tappara
1987 – Tappara
1988 – Tappara
1989 – TPS
1990 – TPS
1991 – TPS
1992 – Jokerit
1993 – TPS
1994 – Jokerit
1995 – TPS
1996 – Jokerit
1997 – Jokerit
1998 – HIFK
1999 – TPS
2000 – TPS
2001 – TPS
2002 – Jokerit
2003 – Tappara
2004 – Kärpät
2005 – Kärpät
2006 – HPK
2007 – Kärpät
2008 – Kärpät
2009 – JYP
2010 – TPS
2011 – HIFK
2012 – JYP
2013 – Ässät
2014 – Kärpät
2015 – Kärpät
2016 – Tappara
2017 – Tappara
2018 – Kärpät
2019 – HPK
2020 – (cancelled)
2021 – Lukko
2022 - Tappara
2023 - Tappara
2024 - Tappara

All time statistical leaders

Top 10 regular-season scoring leaders

These are the top-ten regular season point-scorers in SM-liiga history. Figures are updated after each completed SM-liiga regular season.

* – current player

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games Played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points

Points
Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts
Janne Ojanen	C	876	283	516	799
Arto Javanainen	C	688	462	330	792
Ville Vahalahti	LW	977	260	427	687
Kristian Kuusela	LW	1107	280	458	738
Jari Lindroos	C	649	230	432	662
Esa Keskinen	C	478	215	443	658
Matti Hagman	C	432	217	432	649
Risto Jalo	C	594	275	409	646
Juha-Pekka Haataja	RW	881	256	326	582
Raimo Helminen	C	751	161	420	581

Top 10 regular-season scoring leaders (imports)

These are the top-ten regular season point-scorers for import players in SM-liiga history. Figures are updated after each completed SM-liiga regular season.

* – current player