One of the strongest hockey leagues in Europe is Finland's Liiga. Today, we share with you its rise from humble beginnings in the country, to the formation of the fully professonal league in 1975, and up to the 14-team circuit it is now.

by Kalle Mantere

The history of the Finnish SM-liiga, or just plain "Liiga" as its called these days, is long. From it's first touchdown in Finnish territory in 1899, it has gathered much interest around the country. Back then nobody knew anything about ice hockey, but still the enthusiasm around the sport was clear.

National league formed

The popularity of hockey in Finland began to grow in the 1920s and soon it was clear that a national league would have to be formed. In 1928 the Finnish Ball Association took the job of arranging the first Finnish SM-sarja season. The first season was played in a “cup” format and it had only six teams competing; the first-ever Finnish champion was Viipurin Reipas. Only one of the teams from that first season, IFK Helsinki, still plays in the elite league.

In it's early years, Ilves Tampere was the league's dominant team, collecting nine championships between 1936 and 1952, and making history by staying undefeated for three and and a half years between 1945 and 1948. Ilves had a prominant player named Aarne Honkavaara, later called “the grand old man of Finnish hockey”, in their roster, which would become an influence to the Finnish national team and in the SM-liiga, which was formed in 1975. Honkavaara would win a total of nine championships wearing the yellow, black and green of Ilves Tampere.

During the late 1940s, the league had only three to six teams fighting for the championship. The league missed three seasons due to World War II. In 1940 and 1942 the seasons were cancelled and in February 1944, it was abandoned after the bombing of Helsinki destroyed first the rink in Kaisaniemi and later all railway lines to Tampere, ruining the chance of playing the last final of the season. As a result, he league decided that the 1944 championship would not be given to any team.

Baby steps toward professionalism

Even though the league was played according to amateur principals in its early years, professionalism litfed it's head around the 1960s. The city of Tampere still had a firm grip on championships, with Ilves and Tappara winning most of the trophies. A total of 17 championships went to the region of Pirkanmaa between 1945 and 1966, with Ilves collecting 10 of them and Tappara, and its predecessor TBK, winning seven.

As the sport grew bigger and bigger, teams were forced to treat themselves as corporations, more or less. Advertisements started appearing on jerseys and ice surfaces started to have logos, just so that the organisations could keep up with the growing sport. In the mid '70s it was clear that something had to be done. The SM-liiga was constituted the next season, becoming the first professional sports league in the country. Its purpose was to pave the way to professionalism and to concentrate the development of top-level Finnish hockey.

Only a few players made their living from hockey in the '70s, but still players like Matti Hagman, the first Finnish-born and -trained player to play in a Stanley Cup Final, and Veli-Pekka Ketola rose up from the junior ranks of their respected teams and were among the first wave of Finns heading to North America. Most of the players, especially the young players in the league, would settle for a contract without pay.

From the start to the future

In 1975, the SM-liiga picked up where the SM-sarja had left off. There were some changes made, the biggest being the introduction of playoffs. Financial changes were also made, as gate receipts and other income were pooled during the playoffs and distributed as placement bonuses.

Compared to modern numbers, the combined attedance for the first 11 regular seasons were not that impressive. The number of games was increased over the years, but it wasn't until the 1990s, when attendances and future star players started to rise to the surface.

Jokerit Helsinki and TPS Turku dominated the '90s in Finnish hockey. Both had several players that would eventually end up in the NHL. Jokerit, with the help of Teemu Selänne, and TPS, with Jere Lehtinen, Saku Koivu and Miikka Kiprusoff, combined for a total of 13 championships between 1988 and 2002. TPS was the dominant one with eight titles, six of which came under the head coach Hannu Jortikka. The only team to win championship other than TPS or Jokerit was IFK Helsinki, who took the championship in 1997.

They say all good must come to an end, and 2004 a new dominant team rose its head. Kärpät Oulu, in just its fourth season back in the league after 11 years away, won the second championship in its history and would go on to win three more in the next four years.

As much of Europe battled with economic crises early in the new millenium, the league closed its doors to new teams in 2000. Relegations and promotions would now only happen by the judgment of the board of the SM-liiga. The intent of the ruling was that teams battling with financial difficulties would have the chance to rebuild without fear of being relegated. This decision had an astonishing side-effect. For several seasons, teams that lost their chances to advance in the playoffs early in the season sold their high-salary star players and gave up on the season as early as December, infuriating their fans and sometimes even sponsors of the team.

To counteract this, the league implemented a new playoff format in the spring of 2004. A play-in round, or as its called in the Finnish media, ”pity playoffs”, was added to allow the teams seeded seventh through 10th after regular season the chance o advance to the quarter-finals.

Over the years the Finnish league has developed several future NHL players. In fact, in the last five years, 15 players have gone in the first or second round of the NHL Entry Draft, with Mikael Granlund, Alexander Barkov Jr. and Olli Määttä leading the way. If that is some sort of an indicator, then the league is doing just fine for now and for the years to come.

Clubs in the 2014/15 Finnish Liiga season

CHL clubs in bold. "Top league" includes SM-sarja (1928-1975) and SM-liiga (1975-present).

Sport Vaasa was promoted by the board of the league after Jokerit Helsinki (7th in 2013/14) left the league to join KHL.

2013/14 Finnish League leading scorers

Finnish League, year-by-year