2008–09 IFA Premiership

IFA Premiership
Season	2008–09
Champions	Glentoran 23rd Irish title
Relegated	Bangor^[1]
UEFA Champions League	Glentoran
UEFA Europa League	Linfield Crusaders Lisburn Distillery
Matches played	228
Goals scored	619 (2.71 per match)
Biggest home win	Linfield 7–0 Institute
Biggest away win	Bangor 0–5 Crusaders Bangor 0–5 Linfield Crusaders 0–5 Linfield
Highest scoring	Dungannon Swifts 3–6 Crusaders
Highest attendance	9,500^[2] Linfield 3–0 Glentoran (26 December 2008)
Lowest attendance	76^[2] Bangor 1–3 Dungannon Swifts (25 April 2009)
Average attendance	858^[2]
← 2007–08 2009–10 →

The 2008–09 IFA Premiership (known as the JJB Sports Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the first season after a major overhaul of the league system in Northern Ireland, and the 108th season of Irish league football overall. It was scheduled to begin on 9 August 2008. However, the start of the league was delayed by a week due to a referees' strike.^[3]^[4] The season eventually began on 16 August 2008, and concluded on 2 May 2009. Linfield were the defending champions, but narrowly fell short of retaining the title as rivals Glentoran pipped them by a single point to win their 23rd league title overall.

Team changes from 2007–08

The league was reduced from sixteen to twelve teams as a result of the league system in Northern Ireland being restructured by the IFA.

Five of last season's sixteen Premier League teams failed to gain a place in the new twelve-team Premiership, and one new team - Bangor - gained entry from the IFA Intermediate League.

Of the five teams who missed out, three - Armagh City, Larne and Limavady United failed to obtain the necessary domestic licence. Portadown obtained a licence, but was controversially excluded because a club official missed a deadline for submitting an application form by several minutes. Finally, Donegal Celtic obtained a licence, but was ranked thirteenth in the entry list, and thus missed out by one place.

Team overview

Belfast

Belfast teams : Cliftonville
Crusaders
Glentoran
Linfield

Location of teams in the 2008-09 IFA Premiership

Location of the Belfast-based teams in the IFA Premiership 2008-09

Club	Stadium	Town/city	Capacity
Ballymena United	The Showgrounds	Ballymena	8,000 (4000 seats)
Bangor	Clandeboye Park	Bangor	4,000
Cliftonville	Solitude	Belfast	8,000 (2099 seats)
Coleraine	The Showgrounds	Coleraine	6,500 (1500 seats)
Crusaders	Seaview	Belfast	6,500
Dungannon Swifts	Stangmore Park	Dungannon	3,000 (300 seats)
Glenavon	Mourneview Park	Lurgan	5,500 (4000 seats)
Glentoran	The Oval	Belfast	15,250 (5000 seats)
Institute	YMCA Grounds	Drumahoe	4,000 (600 seats)
Linfield	Windsor Park	Belfast	20,400 (14,400 seats)
Lisburn Distillery	New Grosvenor Stadium	Lisburn	8,000 (2000 seats)
Newry City	The Showgrounds	Newry	6,500 (800 seats)

League table


Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Glentoran (C)	38	24	9	5	63	36	+27	81	Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round
2	Linfield	38	24	8	6	69	28	+41	80	Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round
3	Crusaders	38	16	14	8	63	45	+18	62	Qualification to Europa League second qualifying round ¹
4	Lisburn Distillery	38	15	11	12	53	41	+12	56	Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round ¹
5	Coleraine	38	15	6	17	46	51	−5	51
6	Cliftonville	38	12	14	12	52	48	+4	50

7	Institute	38	13	9	16	47	55	−8	48
8	Newry City	38	11	11	16	47	57	−10	44
9	Glenavon	38	11	8	19	49	63	−14	41
10	Ballymena United	38	11	8	19	39	57	−18	41
11	Bangor (R)	38	9	9	20	42	67	−25	36	Relegation to IFA Championship 1 ²
12	Dungannon Swifts (O)	38	8	11	19	49	71	−22	35	Qualification to Promotion/relegation play-off

Source: rsssf.com
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored; 4th head-to-head points; 5th head-to-head goal difference
¹Crusaders won the 2008–09 Irish Cup and qualified for the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League. Therefore the fourth placed team, Lisburn Distillery, also earned a spot in the Europa League.
²On 2 February 2009, Bangor announced that they would not be able to renew their Domestic License due to financial difficulties, and therefore would not compete in the 2009–10 IFA Premiership.^[1] Therefore, they were automatically relegated and the play-off place was passed down to the 12th-placed team, Dungannon Swifts.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.

Results

Matches 1–22

During matches 1–22 each team played every other team twice (home and away).

Home ╲ Away	Ballymena United !BYM	Bangor !BGR	Cliftonville !CLI	Coleraine !COL	Crusaders !CRU	Dungannon Swifts !DUN	Glenavon !GLA	Glentoran !GLT	Institute !INS	Linfield !LIN	Lisburn Distillery !LIS	Newry City !NEW
Ballymena United !Ballymena United		1–2	1–5	2–0	1–0	0–3	0–3	1–1	0–1	2–0	1–2	2–3
Bangor !Bangor	0–3		1–1	4–0	0–5	3–1	1–2	1–2	3–2	0–5	1–0	1–1
Cliftonville !Cliftonville	0–0	3–2		3–0	1–1	2–2	4–0	0–2	1–1	0–4	0–0	0–0
Coleraine !Coleraine	1–1	3–1	2–2		2–5	1–0	3–2	1–2	2–1	1–4	1–1	1–0
Crusaders !Crusaders	2–0	0–0	3–1	2–1		3–3	2–0	3–0	1–0	2–3	0–1	2–1
Dungannon Swifts !Dungannon Swifts	2–1	0–2	0–3	0–1	3–6		1–0	1–2	1–1	1–1	0–1	2–2
Glenavon !Glenavon	1–3	0–1	1–0	0–0	1–1	2–2		1–2	0–1	1–0	2–2	1–2
Glentoran !Glentoran	4–1	1–0	2–1	2–1	1–1	1–1	2–1		1–0	2–0	0–0	2–1
Institute !Institute	1–1	1–0	0–1	2–1	1–1	2–0	2–1	0–2		1–2	0–2	4–2
Linfield !Linfield	1–0	0–0	2–1	1–0	1–0	3–1	2–4	3–0	7–0		0–2	1–0
Lisburn Distillery !Lisburn Distillery	1–0	1–0	3–1	1–2	1–2	0–1	6–2	1–1	5–2	1–2		1–1
Newry City !Newry City	2–2	0–0	1–0	0–3	3–1	3–2	0–2	0–0	1–1	1–1	2–3

Source: rsssf.com
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 23–33

During matches 23–33 each team played every other team for the third time (either at home, or away).

Home ╲ Away	Ballymena United !BYM	Bangor !BGR	Cliftonville !CLI	Coleraine !COL	Crusaders !CRU	Dungannon Swifts !DUN	Glenavon !GLA	Glentoran !GLT	Institute !INS	Linfield !LIN	Lisburn Distillery !LIS	Newry City !NEW
Ballymena United !Ballymena United		2–0	1–3			1–2	1–2			0–3	1–0
Bangor !Bangor					1–4				2–2	0–1	0–0	4–2
Cliftonville !Cliftonville		2–1				1–1	2–1	1–3		1–2	3–1
Coleraine !Coleraine	0–1	3–1	0–0			2–1	2–1
Crusaders !Crusaders	0–0		4–2	2–1		2–2	2–2
Dungannon Swifts !Dungannon Swifts		3–2					1–1	0–2		0–1	1–4	1–2
Glenavon !Glenavon		2–3							1–3	1–4	1–0	2–0
Glentoran !Glentoran	1–2	3–1		1–3	1–1		2–0		4–2
Institute !Institute	0–0		0–2	1–0	2–2	3–0
Linfield !Linfield				0–1	0–0			1–0	1–0			1–1
Lisburn Distillery !Lisburn Distillery				2–0	2–0			0–3	1–2	0–0		3–1
Newry City !Newry City	0–1		0–1	0–4	0–1			0–1	2–1

Source: rsssf.com
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 34–38

During matches 34–38 each team played every other team in their half of the table once (either at home or away).

Section A

Home ╲ Away	Cliftonville !CLI	Coleraine !COL	Crusaders !CRU	Glentoran !GLT	Linfield !LIN	Lisburn Distillery !LIS
Cliftonville !Cliftonville		0–0	0–0
Coleraine !Coleraine			0–1	1–2	1–2	1–0
Crusaders !Crusaders				0–1	0–5	1–1
Glentoran !Glentoran	3–1				1–1	3–3
Linfield !Linfield	2–2					2–0
Lisburn Distillery !Lisburn Distillery	1–1

Source: rsssf.com
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Section B

Home ╲ Away	Ballymena United !BYM	Bangor !BGR	Dungannon Swifts !DUN	Glenavon !GLA	Institute !INS	Newry City !NEW
Ballymena United !Ballymena United					1–0	0–4
Bangor !Bangor	1–1		1–3	1–1
Dungannon Swifts !Dungannon Swifts	4–3				0–1
Glenavon !Glenavon	2–1		3–1
Institute !Institute		4–0		1–1		1–3
Newry City !Newry City		2–1	2–2	2–1

Source: rsssf.com
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Promotion/relegation play-off

The relegation/promotion system was slightly modified because Bangor, who withdrew from the next IFA Premiership season, eventually finished 11th. It meant that last placed Dungannon Swifts played a two-legged match against Donegal Celtic, runners-up of the 2008–09 IFA Championship, for one spot in the 2009–10 IFA Premiership. The score was 2–2 on aggregate, but Dungannon Swifts secured their spot in the following IFA Premiership season by winning on away goals.

Donegal Celtic v Dungannon Swifts

5 May 2009
19:45 BST

Donegal Celtic	2 – 1	Dungannon Swifts
Lyons 8' McDonald 87'	Report	Adamson 50'

Donegal Celtic Park, Belfast

Dungannon Swifts v Donegal Celtic

8 May 2009
19:45 BST

Dungannon Swifts	1 – 0	Donegal Celtic
Adamson 29'	Report

Stangmore Park, Dungannon

2–2 on aggregate. Dungannon Swifts won on away goals rule and remained in the IFA Premiership.

References

1 2 Official statement from Bangor Football Club
1 2 3 "Irish League Supporters Forum - Attendances". Irish League Supporters Forum. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
↑ All matches off as referees strike Belfast Telegraph
↑ IFA reach agreement with referees BBC Sport

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Domestic leagues	Albania Andorra Armenia '08 '09 Austria Azerbaijan Belarus '08 '09 Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark England Estonia '08 '09 Faroe Islands '08 '09 Finland '08 '09 France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland '08 '09 Israel Italy Kazakhstan '08 '09 Latvia '08 '09 Lithuania '08 '09 Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Montenegro Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway '08 '09 Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland '08 '09 Romania Russia '08 '09 San Marino Scotland Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden '08 '09 Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales

Domestic cups	Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark England Estonia Faroe Islands '08 '09 Finland '08 '09 France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland '08 '09 Israel Italy Kazakhstan '08 '09 Latvia '08 '09–'10 Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Montenegro Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway '08 '09 Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland '08 '09 Romania Russia San Marino Scotland Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden '08 '09 Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales

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UEFA competitions	Champions League (Qualifying rounds, Group stage, knockout phase, Final) UEFA Cup (Group stage, final phase, Final) Intertoto Cup Super Cup

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