The Vaahteraliiga (Maple League) founded in 1980 is the highest level of
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
in
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 B ...
played under
American Football Association of Finland
American Football Association of Finland (Finnish: Suomen Amerikkalaisen Jalkapallon Liitto, abbreviated SAJL) is the national governing body of American football in Finland. It was founded in 1979 and it is a founding member of the European Federa ...
. The winner of the Vaahteraliiga is the Finnish champion. The Vaahteraliiga season is played in summer, with a schedule usually from May to September.
History
The first season of the Vaahteraliiga was played in 1980. The name ''Vaahteraliiga'' ("Maple League") comes from the name of the championship trophy ''Vaahteramalja'' ("Maple Bowl"), which was donated to the newly formed association by the embassy of
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
in Finland. Vaahteraliiga is managed by
American Football Association of Finland
American Football Association of Finland (Finnish: Suomen Amerikkalaisen Jalkapallon Liitto, abbreviated SAJL) is the national governing body of American football in Finland. It was founded in 1979 and it is a founding member of the European Federa ...
– SAJL. It is government approved non-profit organization governing both American football and flag football activities in Finland.
The most successful team all-time are the
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
with a total of 17 championships, including a then-record six consecutive first-place finishes from 1995-2000. This record was tied by
Porvoo Butchers
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 ...
as they also won six consecutive championships between 2005 and 2010. In the early years
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...
and it surrounding towns were loaded with Maple League teams and they seemed to almost monopolize the championship. The first team outside the Helsinki metropolitan area to win the championship were the
Seinäjoki Crocodiles
Seinäjoki Crocodiles are an American football team from Seinäjoki, Finland. The team plays in the Finnish Maple League and it has also played in the European Football League. The Crocodiles are one of the top teams in Finland and Europe.
Ac ...
in 2001, ending the 21-year
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...
area supremacy. Since then, however, those teams have only won the championship twice.
Turku Trojans
Turku Trojans is one of the oldest American football teams in Finland, established in 1982. Turku Trojans have played in the Maple League Vaahteraliiga (highest level) in Finland operated by American Football Association of Finland. Finnish cham ...
have the most Maple Bowl losses. Having qualified for the game ten times, their only win is from their last visit in 2003.
The 2016 season of Vaahteraliiga was planned to see 8 teams competing, as
Tampere Saints
Tampere Saints is an American football club in the city of Tampere, Finland. Its men's senior team currently play in American Football Association of Finland, SAJL second highest league Finnish 1st Division (American football), 1st division.
H ...
and
Wasa Royals Wasa may refer to any of the following:
*Wasa, British Columbia, a settlement in the East Kootenay region of British Columbia
*Wasa Lake, a place in British Columbia, Canada
*Wasabröd, a brandname used by the Swedish company AB Wasabröd
*IK Wasa, ...
were promoted from 1st Division. Helsinki 69ers did not start the season, so the 2016 season had 7 teams. The 2017 season also has 7 teams, as TAFT was relegated after finishing last, and I-division winner Hämeenlinna Huskies were promoted to Maple League.
Current teams
*
Butchers
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale food establishm ...
,
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 ...
*
Crocodiles
Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to include all extant memb ...
Crusaders
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...
,
Lohja
Lohja (; sv, Lojo) is a city and municipality in the Uusimaa region of Finland. The city has a population of 47,518 (2017), and it covers an area of of which , or 8.3 percent, is water. The population density of Lohja is . The municipality is b ...
*
Roosters
The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...
,
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...
*
Eagles
Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, jus ...
,
Kotka
Kotka (; ; la, Aquilopolis) is a city in the southern part of the Kymenlaakso province on the Gulf of Finland. Kotka is a major port and industrial city and also a diverse school and cultural city, which was formerly part of the old Kymi parish ...
Wolverines
The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscu ...
,
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...
Updated for 2022 season.
League license
Vaahteraliiga has had a different number of teams during its tenure. In recent years the number has been around seven and eight. This is partly because of league license system enforced by SAJL. In addition to competitive status teams have to reach certain economical and organisational standards. This in turn means that at the end of each season it cannot be said to a certainty which teams will eventually play in the league the next year as teams need to apply for the license. SAJL checks the applications and grants licenses to maximum eight teams according to their seed in the previous season. Teams from the 1st division title game, Spaghetti Bowl, are the only division teams eligible to apply for the license.
The system was put in place largely to ensure long-term planning and sensible running of clubs. The system has already shown its cruelty as teams with no alarming difficulties in competitiveness have been relegated due to lack of management and/or economical difficulties.
Playing format
Regular season
League schedule is highly dependent on the number of teams. During seasons of eight teams teams are divided into two pools. Teams play against the teams in the same pool twice, home and away, and teams from the other pool once so that each team has ten games, five home and five away. Despite the pools teams are considered as one conference and they are seeded in one conference.
In a seven-team league teams face each team twice, home and away, with a total of 12 games.
Post season
After the regular season the four best teams advance to the post season with seed #1 facing #4 and #2 facing #3 in a single-game play-off. Winners will play in the Maple Bowl for the national title. As of 2006, there hasn't been a game for the bronze medal; they are simply awarded to the losing team of the semi-finals with better seed.
Champions
*1980 – Poli, Espoo
*1981 – Majs, Helsinki
*1982 –
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
*1983 –
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
*1987 –
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
*1988 –
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
*1996 –
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
*1997 –
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
*1998 –
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
*
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...
–
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
*
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
–
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
Seinäjoki Crocodiles
Seinäjoki Crocodiles are an American football team from Seinäjoki, Finland. The team plays in the Finnish Maple League and it has also played in the European Football League. The Crocodiles are one of the top teams in Finland and Europe.
Ac ...
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
Turku Trojans
Turku Trojans is one of the oldest American football teams in Finland, established in 1982. Turku Trojans have played in the Maple League Vaahteraliiga (highest level) in Finland operated by American Football Association of Finland. Finnish cham ...
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
Porvoo Butchers
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 ...
Porvoo Butchers
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 ...
Porvoo Butchers
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 ...
*
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
–
Porvoo Butchers
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 ...
Porvoo Butchers
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 ...
Porvoo Butchers
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 ...
Helsinki Wolverines
Helsinki Wolverines is a Finnish American football club based in Helsinki and was founded in 1995. The clubs Top Men's Team plays in the Vaahteraliiga of the American Football Association of Finland which is the highest ranking level of American ...
*
2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...
–
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
*
2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...
–
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
*
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
–
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
*
2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...
–
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
*
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...
–
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
*
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...
–
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
*
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
–
Helsinki Roosters
Helsinki Roosters is an American football team based in Helsinki, Finland. The team plays in the Vaahteraliiga in Finland and their home field is the Helsinki Velodrome.
History
Roosters were founded in 1979 and the club is a founding member of ...
*
2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...
–
Kuopio Steelers
Kuopio Steelers (formerly known as Varkaus Steelers) are an American football team originally from Varkaus, Finland in years 1991-2005,2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...
–
Kuopio Steelers
Kuopio Steelers (formerly known as Varkaus Steelers) are an American football team originally from Varkaus, Finland in years 1991-2005,2022
File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...
–
Kuopio Steelers
Kuopio Steelers (formerly known as Varkaus Steelers) are an American football team originally from Varkaus, Finland in years 1991-2005,Official website