Upon its return from the September international break, the 12-team Veikkausliiga will effectively become two divisions of six teams, all of whom have different ambitions and objectives to reach before the season ends in early November.
The top six will now contest the Championship Group, while the bottom six find themselves in the Relegation Group, with all the action getting underway this weekend.
Check out Flashscore's guide below to find out what has happened so far, what each team is fighting for and how the latter stages of the Veikkausliiga season comes together.
Championship Group
Points from the Regular Season will be carried over to the Championship Group, where the strongest six will face each other home and away once more in the hope of becoming league champions.
Having missed out on the Championship Group entirely in 2024, Inter Turku finished top of the pile in the Regular Season this time, amassing 46 points from their 22 matches.
However, Inter's lead is a narrow one - Ilves finished second with one point fewer, then there is another gap of just one point to title holders KuPS and record champions HJK Helsinki, while sitting on 41 points are SJK, meaning only five points separate the top five teams, with another 30 points on offer.
That is despite Inter going unbeaten over the first 19 matches of the season, before unexpectedly losing back-to-back fixtures and only holding onto top spot with a win on the final day.
Their blip, coupled with a resurgence in form from early pacesetters SJK means there are five teams with their eyes still on the Veikkausliiga trophy.
Finishing sixth in the Regular Season and making up the Championship Group are Gnistan, who secured their top-half finish on the final day. With only 28 points, it will take some doing for the Helsinki side to challenge for fifth place, let alone the title, but taking sixth place has at least guaranteed survival.
The race for Europe
The most straightforward thing to note as far as European places are concerned, is that the league champions will earn themselves a place in the UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds for the 2026/27 season.
The teams finishing second and third will qualify for the UEFA Conference League (UECL) qualifying rounds for the 2026/27 season.
However, on 20th September, HJK and KuPS will play each other in the 2025 Finnish Cup Final, the winner of which will also earn a spot in the UECL qualifiers.
Should the Finnish Cup winner also finish in the top three of the Veikkausliiga, then the extra UECL place is given to the team who finishes fourth in the league.
This marks a change from recent seasons, which saw the teams finishing beween third and sixth in the Championship Group, and first and second in the Relegation Group, take part in a series of Playoff matches to earn a place in the UECL.
Relegation Group
With no Europe to dream of this time around, it's all about survival for the six teams contesting the Relegation Group.
As with the Championship Group, points are carried over, but teams will only face their five competitors once each.
In the best positions are VPS - who missed out on a top-six place on the final day two weeks ago - and Jaro, who beat Gnistan on matchday 22 to move level with VPS on 25 points, but had left it too late to catch Gnistan.
Avoiding defeat over the opening two rounds of the Relegation Group will all but ensure survival for both, but looking over their shoulders are Mariehamn on 21 points and AC Oulu on 18. For now, they are clear of 11th-placed Haka on 16 and last-placed KTP, on 14.
The team finishing bottom will be relegated to the second-tier Ykkosliiga, while the team finishing 11th will face a Playoff with the team finishing second in the league below.
A win on the final day took Oulu out of the bottom two for the first time in months, but Haka and KTP are both in dreadful form and will need to produce something sooner rather than later to save themselves.
Follow the climax of the Veikkausliiga on Flashscore
All the action restarts with four matches this Saturday 13th September, two in each half of the league, before the remaining two fixtures on Sunday.
With such fine margins separating the top five and the bottom four, everything is up for grabs in what is already one of the best Veikkausliiga seasons for years.
