FC Lahti is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

football club based in the city of

Lahti Lahti (; sv, Lahtis) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is the capital of the region of Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme) and its growing region is one of the main economic hubs of Finland. Lahti is situated on a bay at the southern e ...

. It currently plays in the Finnish Premier League (''

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga (; sv, Tipsligan) is the premier division of Finnish football, the highest tier of the Finnish football league structure, comprising the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agency Veikka ...

'') after placing first in the Finnish First Division (''

Ykkönen ''Ykkönen'' ( Finnish for 'Number One'; sv, Ettan) is the second highest level of the Finnish football league system (after the Veikkausliiga), although it is the highest league managed by the Football Association of Finland. The teams also pla ...

'') during season 2011. The homeground of FC Lahti is

Lahden Stadion Lahti Stadium ( fi, Lahden stadion) is a multi-use stadium in Lahti, Finland. In Winter the stadium is used in cross-country skiing and biathlon. In summer it is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of FC Lahti. The ...

. FC Lahti is famous of being the local team of the most successful Finnish player,

Jari Litmanen Jari Olavi Litmanen (; born 20 February 1971) is a Finnish former footballer. He was the first-choice captain of the Finland national team between 1996 and 2008 in an international career that ran from 1989 to 2010. Litmanen is widely consider ...

, who played for the club in two stints in 2004 and 2009–10. In his youth years and the start of his career, he played in

Reipas Lahti Reipas Lahti is a sports club based in Lahti, Finland. It is involved in various of ball games and also other sports. The club emerged in the late 1940s, when the inhabitants of Viipuri had mostly been relocated in Lahti, after evacuation during ...

History

FC Lahti was founded in 1996 when two rival clubs from Lahti –

FC Kuusysi FC Kuusysi (Finnish for ''FC sixty-nine'') is a football club in Lahti, Finland. Its men's team is currently playing in the fourth tier of Finnish football (''Kolmonen''), and its women's team is playing in Kakkonen. The homeground of FC Kuusysi ...

and

(founded in Viipuri and moved to Lahti after Viipuri was ceded to

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

in 1947) – decided to merge. Also, the reserve club FC Pallo-Lahti was formed, but it was closed down after a couple of seasons due to economic difficulties. Both Reipas and Kuusysi controlled the junior section of the club. FC Lahti played its first season in 1997, in the southern group of

, the second tier of

Finnish football ) , country = Finland , sport = association football , noncountry = , teamlabel1 = , nationalteam = Men's national team Women's national team , teamlabel2 = , repteam = , nickname = , first ...

. It finished second in the first half of the split league format Ykkönen but was placed third in the final half, behind

FC Haka FC Haka is a Finnish football club based in the industry town of Valkeakoski. It is currently competing in Finland's premier division of football, Veikkausliiga. It is one of the most successful clubs in Finland, with nine Finnish championshi ...

and PK-35, both of which were promoted to

. The next season, 1998, saw success and FC Lahti finally gained promotion to the highest tier. They were relegated at the end of the 2010 season but bounced back after just one season in

. In the premier division, Lahti has not yet achieved the success of Kuusysi and Reipas. In 2007 Lahti won the

Finnish League Cup The Finnish League Cup was a knock-out football competition contested annually during the pre-season in winter by teams from Veikkausliiga. The league cup was abolished after the 2016 tournament and replaced with the Finnish Cup group stage startin ...

. In 2008 FC Lahti was third in the Veikkausliiga final table and was placed in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

qualification rounds for season 2009. FC Lahti repeated the success in 2014 by finishing third for the second time in their history. The club qualified to the Europa League qualifiers for the third time in 2018 when the club finished fourth in the table the season before.

Honours

**Winners: 2007,

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 ...

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 ...

**Runners-up: 2004, 2005 *

Finnish Cup The Finnish Cup ( fi, Suomen cup; sv, Finlands cup) is Finland's main national cup competition in football. This yearly competition is open for all member clubs of the FA of Finland and has been played since 1955. The winner qualifies for the ...

**Runners-up: 2002

FC Lahti in Europe

''As of 20 July 2018'' ;Notes * 1Q: First qualifying round * 2Q: Second qualifying round * 3Q: Third qualifying round

Season to season

Players

Current squad

Management

''As of 26 June 2022.''

FC Lahti Akatemia

FC Lahti's reserve team played its last season in

Kakkonen Kakkonen or II divisioona is the third level in the Finnish football league system, league system of Finnish football and comprises 36 Finland, Finnish football (soccer), football teams. The II divisioona was introduced in 1973 and in the mid-1 ...

in 2017. After they were relegated to

Kolmonen Kolmonen or III divisioona is the fourth level in the league system of Finnish football and comprises 104 Finnish football teams. The III divisioona was introduced in 1973 and in the mid-1990s became known as the Kolmonen (''Number Three'' in E ...

for the season 2018 the team's activity was taken over by its administrational parent club

Managers

* Esa Pekonen (1 January 1998 – 31 December 1999) * Jari Pyykölä (27 August 1999 – 31 December 2001) * Harri Kampman (1 January 2002 – 31 December 2005) *

Antti Muurinen Antti Muurinen (born March 4, 1954) is a Finnish football coach. Muurinen is probably best known as the head coach of the Finnish national team. He led Finland in qualifying campaigns for the 2002 World Cup, Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup, f ...

(1 January 2006 – 10 October 2007) * Luciano (10 October 2007 – 31 December 2007) * Ilkka Mäkelä (1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010) *

Tommi Kautonen Tommi "Auge" Kautonen (born 24 December 1971 in Lahti, Finland) is a Finnish football manager and former player who is the head coach of Finland national under-21 football team. As a player Kautonen played as a midfielder for Reipas Lahti, FC H ...

(1 January 2011 – 4 June 2013) *

Juha Malinen Juha is a masculine given name of Finnish origin derived from Johannes (or John in English language contexts). Notable people with the name include: * Juha Alén * Juha Gustafsson * Juha Hakola * Juha Harju * Juha Haukkala * Juha Hautamäki * J ...

(5 June 2013 – 31 December 2013) * Toni Korkeakunnas (1 January 2014 – 30 September 2018) *

Sami Ristilä Sami Ristilä (born 15 August 1974) is a Finnish football manager and former player. Player career Ristilä was born in Valkeakoski. Before he joined Drogheda Ristilä played for MyPa, SC Neukirchen, FC Zwolle and FC Haka. He played an impor ...

(1 October 2018 – 31 December 2019) * Ilir Zeneli (1 January 2020 – 23 June 2022) * Mikko Mannila (26 June 2022 – present)

References

External links

Official website
{{Veikkausliiga

Sport in Lahti 1996 establishments in Finland