FC Lahti

FC Lahti is a Finnish professional football club based in the city of Lahti. It currently plays in the Finnish second tier Ykkösliiga, after relegating from Veikkausliiga 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.

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.

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

Updated 20 July 2018

Notes

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

As of 28 March 2025^[4]

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

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

Updated 27 November 2023.

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.

• 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 – 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)

• Official website (in Finnish)