2008–09 Croatian First Football League

The 2008–09 Croatian First Football League (officially known as the T-Com Prva HNL for sponsorship reasons) was the eighteenth season of the Croatian First Football League, the national championship for men's association football teams in Croatia, since its establishment in 1992. It started on 27 July 2008 and ended on 31 May 2009. Dinamo Zagreb were the defending champions, having won their twelfth championship title the previous season, and they defended the title again, after a win against Slaven Belupo on 17 May 2009.

T-Com Prva HNL

Season	2008–09
Champions	Dinamo Zagreb 11th Croatian title 15th domestic title
Relegated	None
Champions League	Dinamo Zagreb
Europa League	Hajduk Split Rijeka Slaven Belupo
Matches played	198
Goals scored	522 (2.64 per match)
Top goalscorer	Mario Mandžukić (16)
Biggest home win	Dinamo 6–0 Cibalia
Biggest away win	Varteks 1–6 Dinamo
Highest scoring	Rijeka 6–2 Slaven B.
Average attendance	3,067
← 2007–08 2009–10 →

Promotion and relegation

Međimurje were automatically relegated to Druga HNL as they finished last in the previous season, while Croatia Sesvete were automatically promoted from Druga HNL after winning the 2007–08 title. In a two-legged playoff between Inter Zaprešić and Hrvatski dragovoljac, the former kept their Prva HNL status by beating Hrvatski dragovoljac with 2–0 on aggregate (2–0, 0–0).

League expansion

In June 2007 Igor Štimac, president of Association of Prva HNL clubs, proposed a future expansion of Prva HNL from 12 to 16 clubs, starting from 2008–09 season. However, although a majority of club representatives supported that proposal, no strict agreement or final decision was made. On HNS meeting in late August 2007 it was decided to postpone the decision for late 2007 or even 2008 and that the expansion would not be possible before the 2009–10 season.

For more than a year nothing explicit was stated on that matter. Finally, on a regular HNS meeting in February 2009 HNS Secretary Zorislav Srebrić stated that club licensing would decide whether the 2009–10 season would feature 12 or 16 teams. Theoretically, if only 15 teams obtained Prva HNL license, league would have featured 12 teams. The deadline for submitting the license was 1 May 2009. On 8 May 2009 HNS declared that all 19 clubs that applied for the license were awarded with it and would be in possibility to enter the league in 2009–10, now expanded to 16 clubs. Also, on 26 May 2009 HNS received official confirmations from all 19 clubs in which they expressed their will to compete in next year's Prva HNL, what means that none of the clubs would withdraw from the league. However, despite their guarantee to compete in Prva HNL, Slavonac eventually withdrew although they finished fourth and earned direct access to 2009–10 Prva HNL. Their place was taken by Međimurje while sixth-placed Hrvatski Dragovoljac competed in a relegation play-offs.

Stadiums and locations

After the death of Hrvoje Ćustić during a game played at Zadar's Stanovi Stadium in March 2008, it was decided that the stadia for the 2008–09 season would have to pass a closer inspection to be deemed fit for first-league football. Since only 9 stadia managed to meet the requirements and obtain first-league license from the Croatian Football Federation, it was announced in May 2008 that some of the teams (Cibalia, Croatia Sesvete, Zadar and NK Zagreb) would have to share stadia and temporarily play their home games at other venues. Just before Round 1 kicked off, Cibalia managed to bring their stadium to standard, and in August, just before round 5, Zadar secured the licence to play their games at Stanovi Stadium.

C. Sesvete
Dinamo
NK Zagreb

Cibalia

Hajduk

Inter

Osijek

Rijeka

Sl. Belupo

Šibenik

Varteks

Zadar

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Location of teams in 2008–09 Prva HNL

Stadia and personnel

Team	Manager1	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Cibalia	Stanko Mršić	Vinkovci	Stadion HNK Cibalia	9,920
Croatia Sesvete	Milan Đuričić	Zagreb	Stadion Kranjčevićeva	8,850
Dinamo Zagreb	Krunoslav Jurčić	Zagreb	Stadion Maksimir	37,168
Hajduk Split	Ante Miše	Split	Stadion Poljud	35,000
Inter Zaprešić	Borimir Perković	Zagreb	Stadion ŠRC Zaprešić	4,528
Osijek	Tomislav Steinbrückner	Osijek	Stadion Gradski vrt	19,500
Rijeka	Robert Rubčić	Rijeka	Stadion Kantrida	10,275
Slaven Belupo	Mile Petković	Koprivnica	Gradski stadion u Koprivnici	4,000
Šibenik	Ivica Kalinić	Šibenik	Stadion Šubićevac	8,000
Varteks	Dražen Besek	Varaždin	Stadion Varteks	10,800
Zadar	Dalibor Zebić	Zadar	Stadion Stanovi	5,860
NK Zagreb	Luka Pavlović	Zagreb	Stadion Kranjčevićeva	8,850

• ¹ On final match day of the season, played on 31 May 2009.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
NK Zagreb	Miroslav Blažević	Mutual consent	10 May 2008	Luka Pavlović	11 May 2008	Pre-season
Dinamo Zagreb	Zvonimir Soldo	Resigned	14 May 2008	Branko Ivanković	20 May 2008	Pre-season
Slaven Belupo	Krunoslav Jurčić	Resigned	14 May 2008	Mile Petković	26 May 2008	Pre-season
Hajduk Split	Robert Jarni	Sacked	24 May 2008	Goran Vučević	25 May 2008	Pre-season
Croatia Sesvete	Zlatko Kranjčar	Resigned	18 June 2008	Ljupko Petrović	2 July 2008	Pre-season
Rijeka	Zlatko Dalić	Sacked	1 July 2008	Mladen Ivančić	7 July 2008	Pre-season
Osijek	Ilija Lončarević	Sacked	26 September 2008	Tomislav Steinbrückner	26 September 2008	10th
Zadar	Dalibor Zebić	Resigned	28 September 2008	Ivica Datković	9 October 2008	12th
Rijeka	Mladen Ivančić	Resigned	8 October 2008	Robert Rubčić	13 October 2008	7th
Inter Zaprešić	Milivoj Bračun	Resigned	20 October 2008	Borimir Perković	20 October 2008	11th
Hajduk Split	Goran Vučević	Resigned	26 October 2008	Ante Miše	21 November 2008	3rd
Cibalia	Srećko Lušić	Sacked	10 November 2008	Stanko Mršić	14 November 2008	11th
Dinamo Zagreb	Branko Ivanković	Mutual consent	24 November 2008	Marijan Vlak	24 November 2008	1st
Croatia Sesvete	Ljupko Petrović	Resigned	7 December 2008	Zlatko Kranjčar	30 December 2008	10th
Zadar	Ivica Datković	Mutual consent	21 December 2008	Dalibor Zebić	30 December 2008	12th
Croatia Sesvete	Zlatko Kranjčar	Resigned	21 February 2009	Milan Đuričić	3 May 2009	10th
Dinamo Zagreb	Marijan Vlak	Sacked	5 March 2009	Krunoslav Jurčić	5 March 2009	2nd

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Dinamo Zagreb (C)	33	23	5	5	71	26	+45	74	Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round
2	Hajduk Split	33	21	5	7	59	25	+34	68	Qualification to Europa League third qualifying round
3	Rijeka	33	17	5	11	50	44	+6	56	Qualification to Europa League second qualifying round
4	Slaven Belupo	33	16	7	10	46	39	+7	55	Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round
5	NK Zagreb	33	13	8	12	38	39	−1	47
6	Šibenik	33	13	7	13	44	35	+9	46
7	Osijek	33	10	11	12	40	41	−1	41
8	Cibalia	33	10	8	15	33	53	−20	38
9	Inter Zaprešić	33	9	9	15	41	50	−9	36
10	Varteks	33	10	5	18	41	55	−14	35
11	Zadar	33	7	8	18	28	49	−21	29
12	Croatia Sesvete (O)	33	6	8	19	31	66	−35	25	Qualification to relegation play-off

Source: Sportnet.hr
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners
Notes:

Relegation play-off

Due to the expansion of Prva HNL to 16 clubs in the 2009–10 season, four clubs from 2008–09 Druga HNL were automatically promoted. Those should have been top four clubs, but since Slavonac withdrew their direct access spot was taken by fifth-placed Međimurje. Therefore, the 12th placed Croatia Sesvete played a two-legged relegation play-off against the 6th placed team of Druga HNL, Hrvatski Dragovoljac. Croatia Sesvete won 2–1 on aggregate and thereby earned a spot in the 2009–10 season.

11 June 2009

18:00 CEST

Hrvatski Dragovoljac	0 – 0	Croatia Sesvete
Ercegović  58'  84'	Report (in Croatian)

Stadion Maksimir, Zagreb

Attendance: 2,000

Referee: Domagoj Ljubičić (Osijek)

---

14 June 2009

20:00 CEST

Croatia Sesvete	2 – 1	Hrvatski dragovoljac
Vojnović 10'  41'  62' Čižmek 90'	Report (in Croatian)	Janjetović 67'

Stadion Kranjčevićeva, Zagreb

Attendance: 2,500

Referee: Ivan Bebek (Rijeka)

Results

The schedule consisted of three rounds. During the first two rounds, each team played each other once home and away for a total of 22 matches. The pairings of the third round were then set according to the standings after the first two rounds, giving every team a third game against each opponent for a total of 33 games per team.

Home \ Away	CIB	CRS	DIN	HAJ	INT	OSI	RIJ	SLA	ŠIB	VAR	ZAD	ZAG	CIB	CRS	DIN	HAJ	INT	OSI	RIJ	SLA	ŠIB	VAR	ZAD	ZAG
Cibalia		3–1	1–1	1–1	4–3	0–3	3–1	0–0	2–0	1–0	1–0	0–1		3–0	3–4			1–1			2–1	2–1
Croatia Sesvete	1–1		0–1	1–0	1–3	1–1	0–1	0–0	0–0	4–0	3–1	1–4			0–4		0–3	1–1			0–1	2–1
Dinamo Zagreb	6–0	6–1		0–2	3–1	1–0	2–0	1–0	3–0	2–1	2–0	3–1					1–0	0–0	4–0	2–0			2–0	0–1
Hajduk Split	2–0	1–0	2–0		3–3	3–1	2–0	3–1	1–0	1–1	1–0	4–0	2–0	5–0	2–2						2–0	0–1		2–0
Inter Zaprešić	1–2	3–2	1–3	0–4		0–1	2–2	0–0	2–3	2–3	3–1	1–1	0–0			0–2			3–0	1–0			2–2
Osijek	2–0	4–2	0–2	1–2	2–1		2–2	0–0	1–3	2–1	3–0	0–2				1–0	1–1		1–2	1–2			1–0
Rijeka	1–0	2–1	1–0	3–1	0–1	0–0		2–0	0–1	2–1	2–1	0–1	2–0	3–2		2–1				6–2		4–1		2–0
Slaven Belupo	1–0	4–0	2–0	1–2	1–0	4–2	2–1		3–1	2–3	2–1	2–0	1–1	5–1		1–1					1–0	2–1		2–1
Šibenik	4–0	0–1	2–2	1–2	1–1	1–1	3–0	3–0		2–0	1–0	1–1			0–2		4–0	2–1	0–1				0–0	2–1
Varteks	3–0	2–1	0–1	0–2	1–0	0–0	3–3	2–3	2–1		2–0	2–1			1–6		0–1	2–3			2–2		0–0	1–2
Zadar	2–1	1–2	2–3	1–0	1–1	2–2	0–3	1–1	1–0	1–0		2–1	3–1	1–1		0–3			3–1	0–1
NK Zagreb	0–0	1–1	2–2	3–0	0–1	2–1	1–1	2–0	0–4	0–3	0–0		4–0	0–0			1–0	1–0					3–1

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

Top goalscorers

Source: HRnogomet.com (in Croatian)

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Mario Mandžukić	Dinamo Zagreb	16
2	Nikola Kalinić	Hajduk Split	15
3	Anas Sharbini	Rijeka	14
	Bojan Vručina	Slaven Belupo
	Ermin Zec	Šibenik
6	Senijad Ibričić	Hajduk Split	12
	Ahmad Sharbini	Rijeka
8	Goran Mujanović	Varteks	11
	Ilija Sivonjić	Inter Zaprešić / Dinamo Zagreb
	Davor Vugrinec	NK Zagreb

Transfers

• List of Croatian football transfers winter 2008–09

See also

• 2008–09 Croatian Football Cup
• 2008–09 Croatian Second Football League

External links

• Season statistics at HRNogomet
• 2008–09 in Croatian Football at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
• Official website (in Croatian)