SJK Seinäjoki on Sunday sealed their first-ever Veikkausliiga championship with a 2-0 victory over FF Jaro. RoPS Rovaniemi ended up in second place after winning their final game 4-1 away at FC Lahti, while reigning champions HJK finished in third place.
All of the top three had started the final day with a chance of the title, but SJK were in the driving seat. They started the day top of the league, a point ahead of RoPS in second, and had a home game against bottom club FF Jaro.
They just needed to win that game to be certain of the trophy, and were on course right from the start when Mehmet Hetemaj scored a header from a corner after just 62 seconds. The rest of the match became quite nervy for the hosts, especially in the second half, before Roope Riski added a second goal in the 89th minute.
SJK will now enter the qualifiers for the Champions League in 2016-17, and hope to move into a new stadium in time for the 2016 season. The Seinäjoki team was only formed in 2007 following a merger of several local clubs, before rising through the divisions to reach Veikkausliiga.
Their coach Simo Valakari was recently linked with Scottish club Motherwell, but stayed to win his first championship as a coach and now gets a chance to compete in Europe.
HJK and RoPS will compete in the 2016-16 Europa League, along with Ålanders IFK Mariehamn who won the Finnish Cup.
FF Jaro have been relegated to the First Division, and will be replaced by PS Kemi who won that division this year, while second-bottom KTP Kotka will play a relegation play-off against PK-35 Vantaa to decide the final place in next year's Veikkausliiga. All those decisions will have to be verified by the licensing committee, which will look at each clubs facilities and finances before granting permission to play in the top flight.
