Finnish Liiga

Badge

Poster

Established
1975 (50 years old)

First Recorded Event
2020-10-01

Current Season
2025-2026

Current Round

Sport
Sport Icon

Ice Hockey

Location
Finland

Gender
Male

TV Rights

Logo

Upcoming
05 Dec	Assat	4:30pm	Ilves
05 Dec	HPK	4:30pm	Tappara
05 Dec	Jukurit	4:30pm	SaiPa
05 Dec	Kärpät	4:30pm	HIFK
05 Dec	KooKoo	4:30pm	Kiekko-Es
05 Dec	Lukko	4:30pm	TPS Turku
05 Dec	Pelicans	4:30pm	Vaasan Sp
05 Dec	JYP	5:30pm	KalPa
09 Dec	Assat	4:30pm	Jukurit
09 Dec	TPS Turku	4:30pm	JYP
Results
04 Dec	Ilves	3 - 2	HPK
04 Dec	KalPa	5 - 3	Vaasan Sp
03 Dec	TPS Turku	5 - 0	Kiekko-Es
03 Dec	Tappara	6 - 3	JYP
03 Dec	Pelicans	2 - 4	KooKoo
03 Dec	HIFK	4 - 2	Assat
29 Nov	Vaasan Sp	2 - 5	KalPa
29 Nov	SaiPa	4 - 1	Kiekko-Es
29 Nov	Pelicans	5 - 1	Kärpät
29 Nov	HIFK	2 - 3	Jukurit

Description

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