Liiga (WFAC)

The Liiga, known as SM-liiga from 1975 to 2013, and colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is ranked by the IIHF as the third strongest league in Europe. It was created in 1975 to replace the SM-sarja, which was fundamentally an amateur league. The SM-liiga is not directly overseen by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association, but the league and association have an agreement of cooperation. SM is a common abbreviation for Suomen mestaruus, "Finnish championship". On 9 August 2013, the league dropped the SM, and simply became Liiga.

There league comprises 14 teams. The SM-liiga formerly had a system of automatic promotion and relegation in place between itself and the Mestis, the second highest level of competition in Finland, but the automatic system was ended in 2000. The league was opened in 2005 and allowed KalPa to get a promotion. In 2009 a new system was introduced and it includes the last placed SM-liiga team facing the Mestis champion in a best of seven playout series. Since 2013 the Liiga has been a closed league and there is no relegation.