FC Lahti is a Finnish professional

football club In association football, a football club (or association football club, alternatively soccer club) is a sports club that acts as an entity through which association football teams organise their sporting activities. The club can exist either as ...

based in the city of

Lahti Lahti (; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Päijät-Häme. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Lahti is approximately , while the Lahti sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mo ...

. It currently plays in the Finnish second tier

Ykkösliiga ''Ykkösliiga'' (English language, English: ''"League One"''; ) is the second highest level of the Finnish football league system (after the Veikkausliiga), managed by the Football Association of Finland. The teams in Ykkösliiga also play a pre-s ...

, after relegating from

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga () is a professional association football league in Finland and the highest level of the Finnish football league system. The league comprises the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agenc ...

after the 2024 season. The homeground of Lahti is Toolpoint Arena. 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 The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

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 ''Ykkönen'' (Finnish language, Finnish for 'Number One'; , previously I divisioona) is the third highest level of the Finnish football league system (after the Veikkausliiga and Ykkösliiga), managed by the Football Association of Finland. Until ...

, 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 Haka (, ; singular ''haka'', in both Māori language, Māori and New Zealand English) are a variety of ceremonial dances in Māori culture. A performance art, hakas are often performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the f ...

and PK-35, both of which were promoted to

. 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

. 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 (in Finnish: ''Liigacup''), is a knock-out football competition contested annually during the pre-season in winter by teams from Veikkausliiga. The competition is notably the only football competition in Europe which is most ...

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

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

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

**Winners: 2007,

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

**Runners-up: 2004, 2005 *

Finnish Cup The Finnish 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 UEFA Europa Conference League ...

**Runners-up:

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

Crest and colours

Kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors

FC Lahti in Europe

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

Season to season

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

Management

''Updated 27 November 2023.''

FC Lahti Akatemia

Lahti's reserve team played its last season in

Kakkonen Kakkonen or II divisioona is the fourth level in the league system of Finnish football and comprises 36 Finnish football teams. Until the end of 2023, ''Kakkonen'' was the third-highest level in Finland, but after the creation of new second-t ...

in 2017. After they were relegated to

Kolmonen Kolmonen or III divisioona is the fifth level in the Finnish football league system, league system of Finnish football and comprises 108 Finland, Finnish football (soccer), football teams. The III divisioona was introduced in 1973 and in the mi ...

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 Juha Malinen (born 16 July 1958) is a Finnish association football, football coach with a total of 20 seasons at the highest level. Malinen most recently managed Veikkausliiga club Kotkan Työväen Palloilijat, KTP. Managerial career Malinen wa ...

(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 – 31 August 2023) * Toni Lindberg (31 August 2023 – 20 June 2024) * Ricardo Duarte (21 June 2024 – 20 December 2024) * Gonçalo Pereira (20 December 2024 – present)

References

External links

* {{Veikkausliiga

Sport in Lahti 1996 establishments in Finland