Finnish Liiga - TheSportsDB.com

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Name
Finnish Liiga

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Poster

Established
1975 (49 years old)

First Recorded Event
2020-10-01

Current Season
2024-2025

Sport
Sport Icon

Ice Hockey

Location
Finland

Gender
Male

TV Rights

Logo

Upcoming

02 Nov	SaiPa	-	Assat	3:00pm
02 Nov	Vaasan Sport	-	Hämeenlinna	3:00pm
02 Nov	TPS Turku	-	Tappara	2:00pm
02 Nov	Oulun Kärp�	-	IFK Helsinki	3:00pm
02 Nov	Lukko	-	Pelicans	3:00pm
02 Nov	KooKoo	-	Ilves	3:00pm
02 Nov	KalPa	-	JYP	3:00pm
02 Nov	Jukurit	-	Kiekko-Espoo	3:00pm
13 Nov	Assat	-	KooKoo	4:30pm
13 Nov	JYP	-	Lukko	4:30pm
Results
01 Nov	Pelicans	6 - 3	KooKoo
01 Nov	Hämeenlinna	0 - 4	Lukko
01 Nov	JYP	4 - 3	KalPa
01 Nov	Assat	4 - 1	Tappara
01 Nov	IFK Helsinki	2 - 3	Oulun Kärp�
01 Nov	Kiekko-Espoo	2 - 1	Jukurit
31 Oct	Vaasan Sport	4 - 1	Ilves
30 Oct	SaiPa	5 - 2	Jukurit
30 Oct	KalPa	1 - 4	Tappara
30 Oct	Assat	4 - 1	KooKoo

Description
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The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagues of the Champions Hockey League and currently allocated five spots - the maximum number - based on success in previous editions. It was created in 1975 to replace the SM-sarja, which was fundamentally an amateur league. The SM-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 championship".

The SM-liiga formerly had a system of automatic promotion and relegation in place between itself and the Mestis, the second highest level of competition in Finland, but the automatic system was ended in 2000. The league was opened in 2005 and allowed KalPa to get a promotion. In 2009, a new system was introduced and it includes the last placed SM-liiga team facing the Mestis champion in a best of seven playout series. In 2013, the relegation system was abandoned again and replaced by a procedure in which successful clubs of Mestis may apply for a promotion if they fulfill definite financial criteria. Since 2013, Jokerit joined the KHL and Espoo Blues went bankrupt, but Sport, KooKoo and Jukurit were promoted. Therefore Liiga is a competition of 15 teams since the 2016–17 season.

Seasons