 | |
| Season | 2008–09 |
|---|---|
| Dates | 8 August 2008 – 30 May 2009 |
| Champions | Wisła Kraków (13th Ekstraklasa title 12thPolish title) |
| Relegated | Górnik Zabrze ŁKS (license revoked) |
| Champions League | Wisła Kraków |
| Europa League | Lech Poznań (viaPolish Cup) Legia Warsaw Polonia Warsaw |
| Matches | 240 |
| Goals | 524 (2.18 per match) |
| Top goalscorer | Paweł Brożek Takesure Chinyama (19 goals each) |
| Biggest home win | 7 matches with 4–0 |
| Biggest away win | Polonia B. 0–4Polonia W. (13 September 2008) ŁKS 0–4Wisła (17 May 2009) |
| Highest scoring | ŁKS 4–3Cracovia (6 March 2009) |
| Highest attendance | 40,000[1] Ruch 0–1Górnik (28 February 2009) |
| Total attendance | 1,764,696[2] |
| Average attendance | 7,353 0.3%[3] |
2009–10 → | |
The2008–09 Ekstraklasa was the 83rd season ofthe Polish Football Championship, the 75th season ofthe highest tier domestic division in thePolish football league system since its establishment in1927 and the 1st season of theEkstraklasa under its current title. The league is operated by the EkstraklasaS.A.
The season was played as around-robin tournament. It began on 8 August 2008 and concluded on 30 May 2009. The season was originally scheduled to start on 25 July 2008. However, the first two rounds of games were postponed because of legal uncertainties about the number of teams in the competition following an association-wide corruption scandal. Each team played a total of 30 matches, half at home and half away.
Wisła Kraków won the league for the second time in a row and for the 12th time in their history after defeatingŚląsk Wrocław 2–0 in the final match of the season.Legia Warsaw finished as runners-up and qualified for the second qualifying round of2009–10 UEFA Europa League.Lech Poznań finished third and qualified for the third qualifying round of the Europa League after winning thePolish Cup.Polonia Warsaw also managed to earn a spot in Europe by finishing fourth, thereby qualifying for the first qualifying round of the Europa League.Paweł Brożek of Wisła Kraków andTakesure Chinyama of Legia Warsaw finished as joint topscorers with 19 goals in the season.
On the bottom end of the table, relegation was once again subject to several non-competitive events. On competitive criteria,Górnik Zabrze andCracovia would have been relegated to theI liga, whileArka Gdynia would have had to compete in the relegation play-offs. However,ŁKS Łódź were denied a license for the 2009–10 season and thus were automatically relegated. The club appealed the decision without any success. Since ŁKS city rivalsWidzew were also denied of promoting from the First League and appealed this decision, thus creating uncertainties about the First League play-off participant, thePolish FA decided in June to postpone the relegation play-offs to an unknown date before eventually cancelling the matches completely. (see below).
Due to the corruption scandal several teams fromlast season have been punished with relegation. Those teams includeZagłębie Lubin,Korona Kielce andZagłębie Sosnowiec.[4] Lubin and Kielce were relegated to theFirst League while Sosnowiec were demoted an additional level to theSecond League because they also finished the season in 16th and last place, a regular demotion spot.Widzew Łódź, who ended the season in 15th place, originally were going to be penalized as well.[5] However, the club successfully appealed the decision in front of thePolish Olympic Committee,[6] so they were assigned to the First League as a regularly demoted club.
Promotion to this year's Ekstraklasa was earned by I liga championsLechia Gdańsk, runners-upŚląsk Wrocław, 3rd placedPiast Gliwice and 4th placedArka Gdynia.
Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski has been sold to an owner of I liga's clubPolonia Warsaw. The two clubs merged, with Grodzisk's players and Ekstraklasa license transferred to Polonia.[7] The merger concluded a series of negotiations between Grodzisk and other clubs. The initially planned merger withŚląsk Wrocław was eventually denied by the latter after several months of discussions. Grodzisk chairman Zbigniew Drzymała then started conversations withPogoń Szczecin, which were quickly stopped without an agreement as well, before eventually coming to an agreement with Polonia.
*Stadiums are under redevelopment
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wisła Kraków(C) | 30 | 19 | 7 | 4 | 53 | 21 | +32 | 64 | Qualification toChampions League second qualifying round |
| 2 | Legia Warsaw | 30 | 18 | 7 | 5 | 52 | 17 | +35 | 61 | Qualification toEuropa League second qualifying round |
| 3 | Lech Poznań | 30 | 16 | 11 | 3 | 51 | 24 | +27 | 59 | Qualification toEuropa League third qualifying round[a] |
| 4 | Polonia Warsaw | 30 | 15 | 9 | 6 | 40 | 23 | +17 | 54[b] | Qualification toEuropa League first qualifying round |
| 5 | GKS Bełchatów | 30 | 17 | 3 | 10 | 40 | 28 | +12 | 54[b] | |
| 6 | Śląsk Wrocław | 30 | 11 | 12 | 7 | 40 | 34 | +6 | 45 | |
| 7 | Polonia Bytom | 30 | 10 | 5 | 15 | 30 | 46 | −16 | 35 | |
| 8 | Jagiellonia Białystok | 30 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 28 | 34 | −6 | 34[c] | |
| 9 | Ruch Chorzów | 30 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 22 | 32 | −10 | 34[c] | |
| 10 | Piast Gliwice | 30 | 9 | 6 | 15 | 17 | 26 | −9 | 33 | |
| 11 | Lechia Gdańsk | 30 | 9 | 5 | 16 | 30 | 44 | −14 | 32[d] | |
| 12 | Odra Wodzisław | 30 | 8 | 8 | 14 | 23 | 40 | −17 | 32[d] | |
| 13 | Arka Gdynia | 30 | 7 | 9 | 14 | 27 | 39 | −12 | 30[e] | |
| 14 | Cracovia | 30 | 7 | 9 | 14 | 24 | 40 | −16 | 30[e] | |
| 15 | Górnik Zabrze(R) | 30 | 7 | 8 | 15 | 20 | 33 | −13 | 29 | Relegation toI liga |
| 16 | ŁKS Łódź[f](R) | 30 | 10 | 5 | 15 | 27 | 43 | −16 | 35 |
| Home \ Away | ARK | CRA | BEŁ | GÓR | JAG | LPO | LGD | LEG | ŁKS | ODR | PIA | PBY | PWA | RUC | ŚLĄ | WIS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arka Gdynia | 2–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 4–0 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 1–3 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 3–3 | 0–1 | |
| Cracovia | 0–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 3–1 | 0–3 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | |
| GKS Bełchatów | 1–1 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 2–3 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–2 | 3–0 | 0–0 | 3–1 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 0–0 | |
| Górnik Zabrze | 2–2 | 0–2 | 2–3 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 0–3 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 1–1 | |
| Jagiellonia Białystok | 3–0 | 2–0 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 0–3 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 4–0 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 2–2 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 2–2 | 0–2 | |
| Lech Poznań | 0–0 | 2–2 | 2–3 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | |
| Lechia Gdańsk | 2–1 | 2–0 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 3–1 | 0–3 | 2–3 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 2–4 | |
| Legia Warsaw | 2–0 | 4–0 | 3–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 4–0 | 3–1 | 3–1 | 2–2 | 4–1 | 4–0 | 2–1 | |
| ŁKS Łódź | 3–0 | 4–3 | 0–2 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–3 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0–4 | |
| Odra Wodzisław | 0–0 | 2–1 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 4–1 | 1–1 | 3–0 | 0–0 | 0–2 | |
| Piast Gliwice | 1–2 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–2 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 1–1 | |
| Polonia Bytom | 2–1 | 1–0 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 4–1 | 1–0 | 2–3 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 0–4 | 0–3 | 1–1 | 1–1 | |
| Polonia Warsaw | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 3–3 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–3 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 3–0 | 0–2 | |
| Ruch Chorzów | 0–0 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 1–3 | 1–2 | 1–0 | |
| Śląsk Wrocław | 2–1 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 3–0 | 4–0 | 0–1 | 3–0 | 0–1 | 3–1 | 2–1 | |
| Wisła Kraków | 4–0 | 4–1 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 1–0 | 1–4 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 3–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 2–0 |
The relegation play-offs were cancelled after a series of appeals over the question in which division bothŁKS Łódź andFirst League 2008–09 championsWidzew Łódź will play in the 2009-10 season. Originally, Arka Gdynia as 14th-placed team (sports court decisions excluded) of the Ekstraklasa and Korona Kielce as 3rd-placed team of the First League were scheduled to play in a two-legged play-off for a spot inEkstraklasa 2009–10. However, thePolish FA were forced to postpone the series to an unknown later date[11] due to the appeals and, after the issues could not be settled in time, eventually decided not to hold any matches.
