2015 Esiliiga

Estonian football league season for second division

Football league season

Esiliiga
Season	2015
Champions	Flora II (2nd title)
Promoted	Tarvas
Relegated	Vaprus Kuressaare
Matches played	180
Goals scored	658 (3.66 per match)
Top goalscorer	Eduard Golovljov (41 goals)
Biggest home win	Levadia II 13–1 Kuressaare (20 September 2015)
Biggest away win	Vaprus 0–9 Infonet II (20 September 2015)
Highest scoring	Levadia II 13–1 Kuressaare (20 September 2015)
Longest winning run	10 games Levadia II
Longest unbeaten run	12 games Levadia II
Longest winless run	9 games Tallinna Kalev
Longest losing run	6 games Santos Tallinna Kalev
← 2014 2016 →

The 2015 Esiliiga was the 25th season of the Esiliiga, second-highest Estonian league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992. The season started on 8 March 2015 and concluded on 8 November 2015.

Flora II won the league on the last day of the season, finishing with 72 points. It was their second league title.

Tarvas finished 4th and were promoted to the Meistriliiga for the first time in their history. Tallinna Kalev finished 6th and qualified to the promotion play-offs but were beaten by Tammeka 2–4 on aggregate.

Santos finished 8th but avoided the relegation play-offs after Sillamäe Kalev II withdrew. Vaprus and Kuressaare were the bottom two teams and were relegated to the Esiliiga B.

Teams

Kuressaare

Flora II
Infonet II
Levadia II
Nõmme Kalju II
Tallinna Kalev

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Locations of the 2015 Esiliiga teams

Stadia

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Flora II	Tallinn	A. Le Coq Arena	10,340^[1]
Infonet II	Tallinn	Lasnamäe KJH Stadium	400^[2]
Irbis	Kiviõli	Kiviõli Stadium	180^[3]
Kuressaare	Kuressaare	Kuressaare linnastaadion	1,000^[4]
Levadia II	Tallinn	Maarjamäe Stadium	30^[5]
Nõmme Kalju II	Tallinn	Hiiu Stadium	330^[6]
Santos	Tartu	Tamme Stadium	1,750^[7]
Tallinna Kalev	Tallinn	Kalev Central Stadium	11,500^[8]
Tarvas	Rakvere	Rakvere linnastaadion	1,785^[9]
Vaprus	Vändra	Vändra Stadium	307^[10]

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Flora II	Jürgen Henn	Sten Sinisalu	Nike	Tele2^[11]
Infonet II	Sergei Bragin	Jevgeni Gurtšioglujants	Joma	Infonet
Irbis	Erik Šteinberg	Sergei Kostin	Adidas
Kuressaare	Pelle Pohlak	Sander Viira	Joma	Saaremaa Lihatööstus
Levadia II	Argo Arbeiter	Kaspar Mutso	Adidas	Viimsi Keevitus
Nõmme Kalju II	Zaur Tšilingarašvili		Adidas	Optibet^[12]
Santos	Siim Säesk	Taavi Vellemaa	Uhlsport	Värska
Tallinna Kalev	Marko Pärnpuu	Ando Hausenberg	Jako
Tarvas	Valeri Bondarenko	Kaarel Saar	Joma	Aqva
Vaprus	Ranet Lepik	Karel Otto	Macron	Møller Auto Pärnu

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Tallinna Kalev	Sergei Zamogilnõi	Contract expired	8 November 2014	Pre-season	Marko Pärnpuu	25 November 2014^[13]
Santos	Algimantas Liubinskas	Contract expired	31 December 2014	Pre-season	Siim Säesk	1 January 2015

Results

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	Flora II^[a] (C)	36	22	6	8	76	40	+36	72
2	Levadia II^[a]	36	22	5	9	118	57	+61	71
3	Infonet II^[a]	36	20	6	10	108	48	+60	66
4	Tarvas (P)	36	12	11	13	52	53	−1	47	Promotion to Meistriliiga
5	Tallinna Kalev	36	13	7	16	47	59	−12	46	Qualification for the promotion play-offs
6	Nõmme Kalju II^[a]	36	14	4	18	50	56	−6	46
7	Irbis	36	13	5	18	60	87	−27	44
8	Santos (O)	36	12	6	18	56	83	−27	42	Qualification for the relegation play-offs
9	Vaprus (R)	36	11	5	20	43	80	−37	38	Relegation to Esiliiga B
10	Kuressaare (R)	36	10	7	19	48	95	−47	37	Relegation to Esiliiga B

Source: Estonian Football Association (in Estonian)
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Play-off (only if deciding champion); 3) Less matches awarded against; 4) Matches won; 5) Head-to-head points; 6) Head-to-head goal difference; 7) Goal difference; 8) Goals scored; 9) Away goals scored; 10) Fairplay ranking.^[14]
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Reserve teams are ineligible for promotion.

Result tables

First half of the season

Home \ Away	FLO	INF	IRB	KUR	LEV	NÕM	SAN	TAL	TAR	VAP
Flora II		3–1	1–1	1–0	3–2	3–1	4–0	1–3	3–3	3–0
Infonet II	3–1		5–0	3–1	3–0	2–0	1–2	1–0	1–1	2–1
Irbis	1–1	4–2		3–1	0–5	0–0	7–3	4–1	0–2	0–3
Kuressaare	3–0	4–4	1–3		2–0	1–0	2–2	1–0	0–0	4–0
Levadia II	0–0	2–2	6–1	3–3		3–0	5–0	8–3	2–0	4–3
Nõmme Kalju II	0–1	0–3	4–0	0–1	1–2		0–4	0–2	1–0	1–2
Santos	2–0	2–3	0–2	1–2	2–5	1–2		3–1	5–1	1–0
Tallinna Kalev	1–0	0–2	3–0	3–0	3–2	1–3	2–2		0–0	2–1
Tarvas	3–4	0–0	5–1	3–1	4–3	2–0	1–1	1–2		0–2
Vaprus	0–4	1–0	0–2	5–0	2–4	0–5	1–3	1–1	2–1

Updated to match(es) played on 8 November 2015. Source: Esiliiga
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Second half of the season

Home \ Away	FLO	INF	IRB	KUR	LEV	NÕM	SAN	TAL	TAR	VAP
Flora II		3–1	3–1	6–0	1–0	2–1	6–0	4–1	1–1	0–1
Infonet II	2–3		12–1	10–1	3–4	3–3	0–1	4–1	5–1	5–2
Irbis	3–1	1–4		4–2	3–4	0–1	2–3	1–0	3–0	5–1
Kuressaare	0–3	2–1	0–1		3–6	2–3	1–3	1–1	0–1	2–2
Levadia II	0–2	1–0	1–1	13–1		5–1	7–0	5–1	3–0	6–3
Nõmme Kalju II	1–2	0–3	4–2	2–0	1–0		2–0	0–1	1–1	1–3
Santos	2–5	0–4	5–1	0–2	1–1	1–2		1–3	2–2	2–1
Tallinna Kalev	0–1	2–2	2–1	1–2	0–1	2–2	2–0		0–2	0–1
Tarvas	2–0	0–2	1–1	6–1	3–1	1–2	3–1	0–0		1–0
Vaprus	0–0	0–9	0–0^[a]	1–1	1–4	0–5	0–0	1–2	2–0

Source: Esiliiga
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:

^ FA awarded Vaprus a win after Irbis forfeited the match.

Play-offs

Promotion play-offs

Tallinna Kalev, who finished 6th, faced Tammeka, the 9th-placed 2015 Meistriliiga side for a two-legged play-off. The winner on aggregate score after both matches earned entry into the 2016 Meistriliiga. Tammeka won 4–2 on aggregate.

First leg

18 November 2015

19:00 (GMT+2)

Tammeka	4–1	Tallinna Kalev
Kiidron 55' Tiirik 59' Hurt 64' Paju 89'	Report	Larin 54'

Tamme Stadium, Tartu

Attendance: 151

Referee: Kristo Tohver

Second leg

21 November 2015

13:00 (GMT+2)

Tallinna Kalev	1–0	Tammeka
Wahl 50'	Report

Kalev Central Stadium, Tallinn

Attendance: 54

Referee: Eiko Saar

Relegation play-offs

Santos, who finished 8th, were supposed to face Sillamäe Kalev II, the 3rd-placed 2015 Esiliiga B side for a two-legged play-off. However, the play-offs were abandoned after Sillamäe Kalev II withdrew and Santos retained their Esiliiga spot for the 2016 season.^[15]

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals^[16]
1	Eduard Golovljov	Infonet II	41
2	Mark Oliver Roosnupp	Levadia II	21
2	Juhan Jograf Siim	Flora II	21
4	Nikita Koger	Levadia II	19
4	Henry Rohtla	Levadia II	19
6	Sergei Akimov	Tarvas	16
6	Vitali Gussev	Irbis	16
8	Sander Laht	Kuressaare	14
8	Aleksei Mamontov	Irbis	14
10	Jevgeni Gurtšioglujants	Infonet II	13
10	Silver Alex Kelder	Tallinna Kalev	13

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month
Month	Manager	Club	Player	Club
March^[17]	Argo Arbeiter	Levadia II	Joonas Ljaš	Tarvas
April^[18]	Marko Pärnpuu	Tallinna Kalev	Sergei Akimov	Tarvas
May^[19]	Erik Šteinberg	Irbis	Mark Oliver Roosnupp	Levadia II
June^[20]	Pelle Pohlak	Kuressaare	Hans Naano	Vaprus
July^[21]	Marko Pärnpuu	Tallinna Kalev	Herol Riiberg	Flora II
August^[22]	Argo Arbeiter	Levadia II	Eduard Golovljov	Infonet II
September^[23]	Argo Arbeiter	Levadia II	Taavi Vellemaa	Santos
October^[24]	Jürgen Henn	Flora II	Karel Otto	Vaprus

Annual awards

Player of the Season

Eduard Golovljov was named Player of the Season.^[25]

References

^ "A. Le Coq Arena staadion ja tribüünihoone" (in Estonian). Spordiregister.ee.
^ "Lasnamäe Kergejõustikuhalli spordiväljakud" (in Estonian). Spordiregister.ee.
^ "Kiviõli linna staadion" (in Estonian). Spordiregister.ee.
^ "Kuressaare Linnastaadion" (in Estonian). Spordiregister.ee.
^ "Maarjamäe jalgpallikeskus" (in Estonian). Spordiregister.ee.
^ "Hiiu Staadion ja palliväljakud" (in Estonian). Spordiregister.ee.
^ "Tamme staadion" (in Estonian). Eesti Spordiregister.
^ "Kalevi Keskstaadion" (in Estonian). Eesti Spordiregister.
^ "Rakvere staadion" (in Estonian). Eesti Spordiregister.
^ "Vändra alevi staadion" (in Estonian). Eesti Spordiregister.
^ "Flora sai koondisega sama sponsori". Soccernet.ee. 25 September 2014. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
^ "Nõmme Kalju sõlmis Eesti klubijalgpalli ühe suurima lepingu". jkkalju.ee. 7 February 2014. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
^ "Pärnpuust saab Kalevi peatreener" (in Estonian). Soccernet.ee. 25 November 2014.
^ "Eesti 2015. a meistrivõistluste Premium ja Esiliiga juhend" (PDF) (in Estonian). Estonian Football Association. 25 November 2014. p. 12. Retrieved 12 July 2015.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ "Tartu FC Santos mängib Esiliigas ka uuel hooajal" (in Estonian). Estonian Football Association. 10 November 2015.
^ "MÄNGUDE AJALUGU" (in Estonian). Estonian Football Association.
^ "Premium liiga kuu parimad on Hurt ja Kallaste" (in Estonian). Estonian Football Association. 2 April 2015.
^ "Premium liiga parimateks valiti Terehhov ja Zahovaiko" (in Estonian). Estonian Football Association. 6 May 2015.
^ "Premium liiga maikuu parimateks valiti Lillevere ja Teever" (in Estonian). Estonian Football Association. 5 June 2015.
^ "Juuni parimateks valiti Marko Kristal ja Jevgeni Harin" (in Estonian). Estonian Football Association. 1 July 2015.
^ "Premium liiga kuu parimateks valiti Terehhov ja Luts" (in Estonian). Estonian Football Association. 6 August 2015.
^ "Premium liiga kuu parima tiitli said Kristal ja Teever" (in Estonian). Estonian Football Association. 9 September 2015.
^ "Premium liiga kuu parimad tulevad Transist ja Levadiast" (in Estonian). Estonian Football Association. 2 October 2015.
^ "Hurt ja Sappinen teenisid kuu parima autasu" (in Estonian). Estonian Football Association. 5 November 2015.
^ "Premium liiga parimaks mängijaks valiti Ingemar Teever" (in Estonian). Estonian Football Association. 22 November 2015.