2008–09 Argentine Primera División season

The 2008-09 Primera División season was the 118° season of top-flight professional football in Argentina and the nineteenth season in which the Apertura and Clausura system is used.

Boca Juniors won the Apertura championship for their 23rd national title after a three team playoff with Tigre and San Lorenzo. The Clausura championship was won by Vélez Sársfield for their 7th national title. Gimnasia (Jujuy) and San Martin (Tucumán) were relegated to the Primera B Nacional.

Format

The format for the 2008-09 season remained unchanged. The season is split into two tournaments called Apertura and Clausura. Each tournament is contested by the same 20 teams in a single round-robin format. The champion of each tournament is determined by points. Should the tops teams be tied at points at the end of each tournament, a playoff is held at a neutral site. Relegation is determined at the end of the season.

Club information

San Martín (T)

Buenos Aires

Colón

Estudiantes

Gimnasia (La Plata)

Gimnasia (Jujuy)

Godoy Cruz

Newell's Old Boys

Rosario Central

Locations of the 2009−10 Primera División teams outside Greater Buenos Aires

Banfield

Tigre

Argentinos Juniors

Arsenal

Boca Juniors

Huracán

Independiente, Racing

Lanús

River Plate

San Lorenzo

Vélez Sársfield

Locations of the 2009−10 Primera División teams within Greater Buenos Aires

Promotion and relegation

Olimpo and San Martín (San Juan) were relegated at the end of the 2007–08 Primera División season. They were replaced by Godoy Cruz and San Martín de Tucumán, both of whom were promoted from the Primera B Nacional.

Gimnasia (Jujuy) and Racing played the relegation/promotion playoffs against Unión and Belgrano, respectively. Both Gimnasia (Jujuy) and Racing won their playoff matches and retained their status in top-flight football.

Managerial changes

This is a list of the managerial changes in the Primera División made during the season.

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Huracán	Claudio Ubeda	Resigned	Sep. 14, 2008	Héctor Martínez (interim)	Sep. 15, 2008	20th (A)
Estudiantes (LP)	Roberto Sensini	Resigned	Sep. 17, 2008	Leonardo Astrada	Sep. 20, 2008	18th (A)
Gimnasia y Esgrima (LP)	Guillermo Sanguinetti	Resigned	Sep. 29, 2008	Leonardo Madelón	Oct. 2, 2008	12th (A)
Independiente	Claudio Borghi	Resigned	Oct. 5, 2008	Miguel Santoro	Oct. 6, 2008	15th (A)
Rosario Central	Pablo Sánchez	Sacked	Oct. 6, 2008	Gustavo Alfaro	Oct. 10, 2008	19th (A)
Godoy Cruz	Daniel Oldrá	Resigned	Oct. 28, 2008	Diego Cocca	Oct. 29, 2008	18th (A)
Huracán	Héctor Martínez (interim)	End of contract	Nov. 3, 2008	Ángel Cappa	Nov. 4, 2008	15th (A)
River Plate	Diego Simeone	Resigned	Nov. 9, 2008	Gabriel Rodríguez (interim)	Nov. 10, 2008	20th (A)
Vélez Sarsfield	Hugo Tocalli	Resigned	Dec. 3, 2008	Pedro Larraquy (interim)	Dec. 4, 2008	6th (A)
Argentinos Juniors	Nestor Gorosito	Resigned	Dec. 14, 2008	Claudio Vivas	Dec. 27, 2008	11th (A)
Vélez Sarsfield	Pedro Larraquy (interim)	End of contract	Dec. 15, 2008	Ricardo Gareca	Dec. 16, 2008	9th (A)
River Plate	Gabriel Rodríguez (interim)	End of contract	Dec. 15, 2008	Nestor Gorosito	Dec. 23, 2008	20th (A)
Racing	Juan Manuel Llop	Sacked	Feb. 21, 2009	Ricardo Caruso Lombardi	Feb. 24, 2009	20th (C)
Rosario Central	Gustavo Alfaro	Sacked	Feb. 28, 2009	Reinaldo Merlo	Mar. 2, 2009	18th (C)
Gimnasia y Esgrima (J)	Omar Labruna	Resigned	Mar. 10, 2009	Héctor Arzubialde	Mar. 11, 2009	19th (C)
Estudiantes (LP)	Leonardo Astrada	Resigned	Mar. 11, 2009	Alejandro Sabella	Mar. 15, 2009	18th (C)
Independiente	Miguel Santoro	Resigned	Mar. 21, 2009	Américo Gallego	Mar. 27, 2009	8th (C)
Banfield	Jorge Burruchaga	Resigned	Mar. 22, 2009	Julio Falcioni	Mar. 23, 2009	9th (C)
San Lorenzo	Miguel Ángel Russo	Resigned	Apr. 9, 2009	Diego Simeone	Apr. 16, 2009	10th (C)
Rosario Central	Reinaldo Merlo	Resigned	Apr. 14, 2009	Miguel Ángel Russo	Apr. 16, 2009	9th (C)
Arsenal	Daniel Garnero	Sacked	Apr. 25, 2009	José Rizzo (interim)	Apr. 26, 2009	16th (C)
Arsenal	José Rizzo (interim)	End of contract	May 4, 2009	Jorge Burruchaga	May 5, 2009	18th (C)
Argentinos Juniors	Claudio Vivas	Resigned	May 23, 2009	Claudio Borghi	Jun. 2, 2009	20th (C)
Boca Juniors	Carlos Ischia	Resigned	Jun. 16, 2009	Abel Alvez (interim)	Jun. 17, 2009	15th (C)

Transfers

Torneo Apertura

The Torneo Apertura (English: Opening Tournament) was played between August 6 to December 14, 2008. The champion earned a spot in the 2009 Copa Libertadores.

Standings

Updated to games played on December 14, 2008.
Source: RSSSF
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd goals scored; 4th head-to-head points; 5th head-to-head goal difference; 6th head-to-head goals scored. This does not apply to defining the champion. If two or more teams are tied in point at the end of the tournament, a playoff will be held at a neutral venue within 72 hours for the championship
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Results

Updated to games played on December 14, 2008.
Source: RSSSF
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Championship playoff

Since San Lorenzo, Tigre and Boca Juniors ended the tournament with the same number of points, a three-way playoff was played to determine the champion.

Source: RSSSF
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Tigre v San Lorenzo

December 17, 2008

Tigre	1–2	San Lorenzo
Lázzaro  76'	Report	Barrientos  18' Bergessio  20'

Estadio José Amalfitani, Buenos Aires Referee: Saúl Laverni

San Lorenzo v Boca Juniors

December 20, 2008

San Lorenzo	1–3	Boca Juniors
Solari  61'	Report	Viatri  45' Palacio  77' Chávez  90'

Estadio Presidente Juan Domingo Perón, Avellaneda Referee: Héctor Baldassi

Boca Juniors v Tigre

December 23, 2008

Boca Juniors	0–1	Tigre
	Report	Lázzaro  68'

Estadio Presidente Juan Domingo Perón, Avellaneda Referee: Sergio Pezzotta

Top-ten goalscorers

Pos	Player	Team	Goals
1	José Sand	Lanús	15
2	Martín Morel	Tigre	13
3	Esteban Fuertes	Colón	11
4	Alejandro Gómez	Arsenal	8
	Mauro Boselli	Estudiantes
6	Rubén Ramírez	Colón	7
	Lucas Viatri	Boca Juniors
	Pablo Barrientos	San Lorenzo
	Leonel Núñez	Independiente
	Carlos Luna	Tigre

Updated as of games played on December 14, 2008.
Source: Scorer Stats (in Spanish)

Torneo Clausura

The Torneo Clausura (English: Closing Tournament) began on February 6, 2009 and ended on July 5, 2009. The champion earned a spot in the 2010 Copa Libertadores.

Standings

Source: AFA
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd goals scored; 4th head-to-head points; 5th head-to-head goal difference; 6th head-to-head goals scored. This does not apply to defining the champion. If two or more teams are tied in point at the end of the tournament, a playoff will be held at a neutral venue within 72 hours for the championship
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Results

Updated to games played on July 5, 2009.
Source: RSSSF
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top-ten goalscorers

Pos	Player	Team	Goals
1	José Sand	Lanús	13
2	Daniel Montenegro	Independiente	12
	Esteban Fuertes	Colón
4	Hernán López	Vélez Sarsfield	11
	Carlos Luna	Tigre
6	Santiago Silva	Banfield	9
7	Leandro Caruso	Godoy Cruz	8
	Radamel Falcao	River Plate
	Gonzalo Bergessio	San Lorenzo
10	Javier Pastore	Huracán	7
	Martín Palermo	Boca Juniors

Updated as of games played on July 5, 2009.
Source: AFA

Relegation

Relegation from the Primera Division is determined on the basis of performance over the last three seasons. Every club has its points earned divided by the number of matches played and an average (Spanish: promedio) is determined. The clubs who finish in 17th and 18th play a relegation play-off against the 3rd and 4th placed clubs in Primera B Nacional. The clubs who finish in 19th and 20th are directly relegated to Primera B Nacional.

Updated as of July 5, 2009; Source:AFA

Relegation/promotion playoffs

Gimnasia y Esgrima (LP) remains in the Argentine First Division after a 3 - 3 aggregate tie by virtue of a "sports advantage". In case of a tie in goals, the team from the First Division gets to stay in it. Rosario Central wins 2-1 and stays in the Argentine First Division, while Belgrano does not get promoted and remains in Argentine Nacional B.

International qualification

Copa Libertadores

The Apertura champion qualifies to the 2009 Copa Libertadores and the Clausura champion qualifies to the 2010 Copa Libertadores. The last two Argentina spots for the 2009 Copa Libertadores were determined by the sum of all points obtained in the past three tournaments.

1. Boca Juniors qualified as the 2008 Apertura champion.
2. Lanus qualified as the 2007 Apertura champion.
3. River Plate qualified as the 2008 Clausura champion.

Copa Sudamericana

Qualification for the 2009 Copa Sudamericana is determined from an aggregate table of the Apertura and Clausura tournaments. The top four teams in the aggregate table qualify; Boca Juniors and River Plate were invited every year till this season, regardless of their standings in the season.

Source: AFA
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th head-to-head goals
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

See also

• 2008–09 in Argentine football

External links

• Asociación del Fútbol Argentino (AFA) website (in Spanish)
• Season regulations (in Spanish)