Lahti

Full name	Football Club Lahti[1][2]
Nickname(s)	Mustat kuhnurit (The Black Drones)
Founded	1996 (1996)
Ground	Lahden Stadion, Lahti
Capacity	14,500 (7,465 seated)
Chairman	Mika Halttunen
Manager	Toni Lindberg
League	Veikkausliiga
2023	Veikkausliiga, 10th of 12
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

Lahden Stadion

Lahden Stadion – Aerial view

FC Lahti is a Finnish football club based in the city of Lahti. It currently plays in the Finnish Premier League (Veikkausliiga) after placing first in the Finnish First Division (Ykkönen) during season 2011. The homeground of Lahti is Lahden Stadion. Lahti is famous of being the local team of the most successful Finnish player, Jari Litmanen, 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.

History

Lahti was founded in 1996 when two rival clubs from Lahti – Kuusysi and Reipas Lahti (founded in Viipuri and moved to Lahti after Viipuri was ceded to USSR in 1947) – decided to merge. Also, the reserve club 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.

Lahti played its first season in 1997, in the southern group of Ykkönen, the second tier of Finnish football. It finished second in the first half of the split league format Ykkönen, but was placed third in the final half, behind Haka and PK-35, both of which were promoted to Veikkausliiga. The next season, in 1998, saw success and 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 Ykkönen.

In the premier division, Lahti has not yet achieved the success of Kuusysi and Reipas. In 2007, Lahti won the Finnish League Cup. In 2008 Lahti was third in the Veikkausliiga final table and was placed in the UEFA Europa League qualification rounds for season 2009. 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

• Finnish League Cup
  • Winners: 2007, 2013, 2016
  • Runners-up: 2004, 2005
• Finnish Cup
  • Runners-up: 2002

Crest and colours

FC Lahti in Europe

Updated 20 July 2018

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2009–10	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Dinamo Tirana	4–1	0–2	4–3
		2Q	Gorica	2–0	0–1	2–1
		3Q	Club Brugge	1–1	2–3	3–4
2015–16	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Elfsborg	2–2	0–5	2–7
2018–19	UEFA Europa League	1Q	FH	0–3	0–0	0–3

Notes

• 1Q: First qualifying round
• 2Q: Second qualifying round
• 3Q: Third qualifying round

Season to season

Players

Current squad

As of 22 December 2023^[4]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 3 DF  FIN Daniel Koskipalo 5 MF  POR Bubacar Djaló 6 MF  FIN Samuel Pasanen 10 MF  FIN Eemeli Virta (vice-captain) 14 DF  FIN Eemil Laamanen 16 DF  FIN Julius Tauriainen 17 MF  FIN Tommi Jäntti 18 MF  FIN Viljami Jokiranta 19 FW  FIN Onni Hänninen 20 MF  FIN Marius Könkkölä

No. Pos. Nation Player 23 MF  FIN Vilho Huovila 26 DF  BRA Pablo Andrade 29 DF  FIN Akseli Puukko 30 GK  FIN Anton Munukka 31 GK  FIN Osku Maukonen — MF  FIN Otso Koskinen — DF  FIN Riku Selander — DF  FIN Matias Vainionpää — DF  FIN Mikko Viitikko (on loan from Trelleborg) — GK  NGA Josh Oluwayemi

Management

Updated 27 November 2023.

Name Role Toni Lindberg Head Coach Ivan Piñol Assistant Coach Mika Heino Fitness Coach Joni Kallioinen Talent Coach Mikko Poutiainen Physiotherapist Erno Jokinen Physiotherapist Pekka Penttinen Kit Manager Janne Kaartti Masseur Jussi Juurikka Team Manager

FC Lahti Akatemia

Lahti's reserve team played its last season in Kakkonen in 2017. After they were relegated to Kolmonen for the 2018 season, the team's activity was taken over by its administrational parent club Kuusysi.

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 (1 January 2006 – 10 October 2007)
• Luciano (10 October 2007 – 31 December 2007)
• Ilkka Mäkelä (1 January 2008 – 31 December 2010)
• Tommi Kautonen (1 January 2011 – 4 June 2013)
• Juha Malinen (5 June 2013 – 31 December 2013)
• Toni Korkeakunnas (1 January 2014 – 30 September 2018)
• Sami Ristilä (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 (in Finnish)