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SM-liiga is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland, and generally regarded as one of the top leagues in Europe. It was constituted in 1975 to replace SM-sarja, which was fundamentally an amateur league. more...

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SM-liiga has an agreement of cooperation with Finnish ice hockey federation Suomen Jääkiekkoliitto. SM is a common abbreviation for Suomen mestaruus, "Finnish championship".

At the moment, there are 14 teams. SM-liiga was closed in 2000 so that no team can be relegated to or promoted from the lower leagues without approval of the board of SM-liiga. The board have committed themselves to promote the first winner of Mestis (the second highest competition) that meets certain standards.

In 2007, all of the SM-Liiga's 14 teams were put into an Electronic Arts-produced ice hockey video game, NHL 2007, along with Sweden's Elitserien, the Czech Republic's Extraliga, and Germany's DEL. These clubs, including one Swiss team, have again appeared in the latest release of the series.

History

SM-liiga was constituted in 1975 to concentrate the development of top level Finnish ice hockey, and pave the way towards professionalism. Its predecessor SM-sarja, being an amateur competition, had its disadvantages, which were perceived as impeding Finland's rise to the highest ranks of ice hockey.

One of the main problems was that the governing of SM-sarja was based on the annual meeting of Finnish ice hockey federation Suomen Jääkiekkoliitto, where all important issues were decided by vote. Since all clubs registered under Jääkiekkoliitto had the right to vote, the many amateur clubs prevailed over the few business-like clubs. Therefore, the concentrated development of top-level Finnish ice hockey proved arduous, even impossible. The new SM-liiga was to be run by a board consisting of its participating clubs only, and have an agreement of cooperation with Jääkiekkoliitto.

SM-sarja was also outdated on its own, as it was run according to amateur principles. Clubs were not supposed to pay their players beyond compensation for lost wages. However, by the 1970s many clubs were already run like businesses, and recruited players through a contract of employment, paying their wages secretly and often evading taxes. However, in 1974, accounting reform in Finland extended book-keeping standards to cover sports clubs, and the lackings were exposed in audit raids. SM-liiga was to allow wages for players and clubs were also put under a tighter supervision. They were to establish their own association for SM-liiga ice hockey only, separating their commitments from junior activities and other sports. Copies of all player contracts were to be sent to SM-liiga to provide players with adequate security, such as insurance and pensions.

SM-sarja had other limits for players. According to amateur ideals, no player could represent more than one club within one season. Personal sponsorship was also forbidden. To discourage trading, a system of quarantine was in force. SM-liiga stripped the limitations for players, replaced quarantine with a then-modest transfer payment, and introduced the transfer list. Players wanting a transfer were to sign up, and SM-liiga would distribute the right of negotiations to clubs. In practice the list was not successful, as both parties often worked their way around the formalities.