The Bandyliiga (; 'Bandy League') is the top level of men's

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The international governing body for bandy is ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...

. The league was founded in 1908 as the Jääpallon SM-sarja ('Bandy Finnish Championship Series') and the present name has been used since the 1991–92 season. Bandyliiga is organized by the Finnish Bandy Association () and the current chairman is Mika Mutikainen. The 2021–22 Bandyliiga season marked the 112th season in which the Finnish Championship was contested and comprised nine teams. Veiterä are the reigning Finnish Champions, having won the 2022 Bandyliiga playoffs.

History

The competitive side of men's bandy in Finland was organized in 1907 and the first Finnish Championship series was played in the winter of 1908. The very first title was won by

Polyteknikkojen Urheiluseura Aalto University Sports Club, AaltoUS, ( Finnish ''Aalto-yliopiston urheiluseura''), formerly known as ''Polyteknikkojen urheiluseura'' (‘Polytechnics Sports Club’) or PUS, is a Finnish sports club founded in Helsinki in 1903. The club was ...

, who beat

IFK Helsingfors HIFK, the Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors (IFK, Helsingfors) Registered association (Finland), rf (officially abbreviated IFK Helsingfors, colloquially often Helsingfors IFK or Helsingin IFK ) is a multi-sport association based in Hels ...

in the final match with a score of 8–3. The championship was decided as a cup competition until 1931. The league was played as single

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament (or all-go-away-tournament) is a competition in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & C. Me ...

with various numbers of divisions up until the 1969–70 season, when the current double round-robin format was introduced. The season was split into regular season and playoffs in the 1976–77 season. The competition has been played every year since 1908, with the exceptions of 1918, 1940 and 1942, when the competition was cancelled first due to

Finnish civil war The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper '' Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil ...

and then due to

Winter War The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...

and the

Continuation war The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet-Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944, as part of World War II.; sv, fortsättningskriget; german: Fortsetzungskrie ...

. An unofficial wartime league was played during those years. In 2008 Bandyliiga celebrated its 100th anniversary with a grand final match of the season, when Oulun Luistinseura beat

Tornion Palloveikot Tornion Palloveikot, ''Torneå PV'' or ''ToPV'' is a Finnish sports club in Tornio, founded in 1935. The club is mainly active playing bandy but also floorball and used to have a section for association football too. The club's home games are nowa ...

in a penalty shoot-out and claimed the Finnish championship. The 2014–15 season of Bandyliiga ended with

Mikkelin Kampparit Mikkelin Kampparit is a bandy club in Mikkeli, Finland. The team colours are black and white. The club was founded in 1972, the same year as when Finland's Bandy Association separated from the Finnish Football Association The Football Associatio ...

taking their second championship title.

Kampparit Mikkelin Kampparit is a bandy club in Mikkeli, Finland. The team colours are black and white. The club was founded in 1972, the same year as when Finland's Bandy Association separated from the Finnish Football Association The Football Association ...

beat HIFK 6–3 in the final, played in HIFK's homeground

Kallio Ice Rink Kallio (; sv, Berghäll; literally " the rock") is a district and a neighbourhood in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, located on the eastern side of the Helsinki peninsula about one kilometre north from the city centre. It is one of the mo ...

. The 2016–17 season ended with Veiterä taking their fifth championship title (first since 1980). Veiterä beat Akilles 3–5 in the final, played in Akilles' homeground in

Porvoo Porvoo (; sv, Borgå ; la, Borgoa) is a city and a municipality in the Uusimaa region of Finland, situated on the southern coast about east of the city border of Helsinki and about from the city centre. Porvoo was one of the six medieval to ...

Teams

2021–22 season

Source:

Recent champions

References

Content in this article was translated from the existing Finnish Wikipedia article at :fi:Bandyliiga; see its history for attribution.

External links

Bandyliiga official website
(in Finnish)
Finnish Bandy Association
(in Finnish) Bandy competitions in Finland

Bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The international governing body for bandy is ...