Soccer Betting - Finland Veikkausliiga

History - Facts - Teams - Winners - Standings

The 30th best football league in Europe is the Finland top division league, the Veikkausliiga. The league was founded under this name in 1990, due to their main sponsor Veikkaus Oy, which is the national betting agency in charge of lotteries and sports betting in Finland.

Although Veikkausliiga was founded in 1990, football was already played in 1890s in the South of Finland, where was brought by English men as it happened in many other European countries.

The tournament itself had been played for over a century, for it was originally founded in 1908 when it was determine by cup competition. From 1930 to 1989 was known as Mestaruussarja, which in English means Championship series and it was holded between 8 clubs in the first years, but as time passed more clubs were included finishing with 12 in 1989. When Veikkausliiga was founded the number of clubs reached the 14, amount that has been kept until today.

Since Finland has such a cold climate the premier league's tournament is played during completely opposite time to most of the other European countries' premier competitions, including the UEFA Champions League and others managed by this association. Therefore summer time is football time in Finland, having the league seasons last a little more than six months, usually commencing on April and finishing on October.

The Finnish football is divided in: Veikkausliiga as the Premier League; then Ykkönen, the First Division that holds 14 teams as well as the highes; and the lowest division, which is played regionally is the Second Division named Kakkonen, with 42 teams.

Veikkausliiga plays in the two-legged format, meaning that every club plays againts the rest one game at home and another as visitor. At the end of the campaign the team at the bottom is relegated to Ykkönen for the next season, and the champion of it replaces the one gone in Veikkausliiga. Meanwhile, the number 13th from Premier and the runner-up from first division have a second chance to stay or be promoted to Premier League respectively, having relegation playoffs.