2008–09 Czech First League

The 2008–09 Czech First League, known as the Gambrinus liga for sponsorship reasons, was the sixteenth season of Czech Republic's top-tier of football. It began on 2 August 2008 and ended on 30 May 2009. Slavia Prague were the defending champions. Slavia secured their 17th title overall after a 3–1 win away against Viktoria Žižkov in 28th round. They were the first club to defend Czech title since the 2000–01 season.

Czech First League

Season	2008–09
Champions	Slavia Prague
Relegated	Zlín Viktoria Žižkov
Champions League	Slavia Prague Sparta Prague
Europa League	Liberec Olomouc Teplice (via Domestic Cup)
Matches played	240
Goals scored	582 (2.43 per match)
Top goalscorer	Andrej Kerić (15)
Biggest home win	Jablonec 6–1 Zlín Slavia Prague 5–0 Bohemians Slavia Prague 5–0 Kladno Sparta Prague 5–0 Kladno Viktoria Plzeň 5–0 Zlín
Biggest away win	9 matches Zlín 2–5 Ostrava Ostrava 1–4 Viktoria Plzeň České Budějovice 1–4 Sparta Prague Mladá Boleslav 1–4 Liberec Sparta Prague 1–4 Slavia Prague Mladá Boleslav 0–3 Sparta Prague Příbram 0–3 Teplice Zlín 0–3 Slavia Prague Viktoria Žižkov 0–3 Ostrava
Highest scoring	Ostrava 5–4 Bohemians
Highest attendance	20,500[1] Sparta Prague 1–4 Slavia Prague (6 October 2008)
Lowest attendance	853[1] Viktoria Žižkov 0–2 Viktoria Plzeň (30 May 2009)
Average attendance	4,664[1]
← 2007–08 2009–10 →

Promotion and relegation

Most and Bohemians 1905 were relegated to the second division after finishing last and second to last, respectively, in the previous season.

FK Bohemians Prague (Střížkov) (as champions) and 1. FK Příbram (as runners-up) were promoted from the second division.

Stadia and locations

Prague

Ostrava

Brno

České Budějovice

Jablonec

Kladno

Příbram

Mladá Boleslav

Olomouc

Liberec

Teplice

Viktoria Plzeň

Zlín

Prague teams:
FC Bohemians
Slavia Prague
Sparta Prague
Viktoria Žižkov

Location of clubs in the 2008–09 Czech First League

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Český Budějovice	Jan Kmoch	Sacked	26 August 2008[2]	Pavel Tobiáš	27 August 2008[3]
Viktoria Žižkov	Stanislav Griga	Sacked	4 September 2008[4]	Josef Csaplár
Zlín	Josef Mazura	Sacked		Stanislav Levý
Plzen	Jaroslav Šilhavý	Sacked	6 October 2008[5]	Pavel Vrba	8 October 2008[6]
Sparta Prague	Vítězslav Lavička	Sacked		Jozef Chovanec
Brno	Petr Uličný	Sacked	29 October 2008[7]	Miroslav Beránek	10 December 2008
Viktoria Žižkov	Josef Csaplár	Sacked		Zdeněk Ščasný
Zlín	Stanislav Levý	Sacked		Ladislav Minář	29 December 2008
Ostrava	Karel Večeřa	Sacked	20 April 2009[8]	Verner Lička	20 April 2009[8]
Pribram	Massimo Morales	Sacked	4 May 2009[9]	Petr Čuhel	4 May 2009

• ^1 Zlin manager Josef Mazura was relieved of his duties after the 7th round of matches; Ladislav Minář took over as caretaker manager until the appointment of Stanislav Levý before the 12th round.^[10]
• ^2 Brno appointed Aleš Křeček to the position of caretaker manager after the 11th round of matches until Miroslav Beránek took over in the winter break.^[10]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Slavia Prague (C)	30	18	8	4	57	25	+32	62	Qualification for Champions League third qualifying round
2	Sparta Prague	30	16	8	6	48	25	+23	56
3	Slovan Liberec	30	14	10	6	41	28	+13	52	Qualification for Europa League third qualifying round
4	Sigma Olomouc	30	13	9	8	39	36	+3	48	Qualification for Europa League second qualifying round
5	Jablonec	30	14	4	12	43	37	+6	46[a]
6	Mladá Boleslav	30	12	10	8	39	38	+1	46[a]
7	Teplice	30	12	7	11	33	25	+8	43[b]	Qualification for Europa League play-off round[c]
8	Viktoria Plzeň	30	11	10	9	45	38	+7	43[b]
9	Baník Ostrava	30	11	6	13	38	36	+2	39
10	Dynamo České Budějovice	30	7	15	8	30	37	−7	36
11	Brno	30	9	8	13	32	36	−4	35
12	Příbram	30	9	7	14	30	40	−10	34
13	Bohemians Prague (Střížkov)	30	10	4	16	33	46	−13	34
14	Kladno	30	8	7	15	21	41	−20	31
15	Tescoma Zlín (R)	30	7	8	15	26	49	−23	29	Relegation to Czech 2. Liga
16	Viktoria Žižkov (R)	30	5	7	18	27	45	−18	22

Source: Fortuna liga
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head goals scored; 5) goal difference; 6) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Jablonec ahead of Mladá Boleslav on head-to-head record; Jablonec–Mladá Boleslav 1–1, Mladá Boleslav–Jablonec 1–2.
2. Teplice ahead of Viktoria Plzeň on head-to-head record; Teplice–Viktoria Plzeň 3–0, Viktoria Plzeň–Teplice 1–1.
3. Teplice won the 2008–09 Czech Cup and qualified for the play-off round of the UEFA Europa League.

Results

Home \ Away	OST	BOH	BRN	ČBU	JAB	KLA	MLA	PŘI	SIG	SLA	LIB	SPA	TEP	ZLI	VPL	VŽI
Baník Ostrava		5–4	0–0	0–0	3–1	1–0	0–2	2–0	1–1	2–3	0–0	2–0	1–0	1–3	1–4	0–0
Bohemians Prague (Střížkov)	1–0		1–2	2–0	4–3	3–1	2–1	1–0	1–2	0–0	2–0	4–3	1–0	1–0	0–2	0–0
Brno	2–0	0–0		1–1	1–0	2–0	0–2	1–2	1–2	1–0	4–1	0–2	1–1	3–0	1–2	0–2
Dynamo České Budějovice	3–2	0–0	1–1		2–1	3–0	1–1	2–2	1–1	2–2	2–0	1–4	3–0	1–0	1–1	3–2
Jablonec	2–1	2–1	2–0	2–0		1–1	1–1	4–0	1–0	1–2	0–1	1–0	0–2	6–1	3–0	2–0
Kladno	0–1	1–0	1–0	0–0	1–2		0–1	1–0	2–0	2–1	0–0	0–2	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–0
Mladá Boleslav	0–2	1–0	2–4	0–0	1–2	2–1		3–1	2–1	0–0	1–4	0–3	1–0	1–0	1–1	0–0
Příbram	2–1	2–1	0–1	3–0	2–0	2–0	1–1		2–1	0–0	1–2	1–1	0–3	3–0	2–2	3–0
Sigma Olomouc	2–1	3–0	1–1	1–1	1–1	1–3	2–2	4–1		1–0	2–1	0–1	2–1	1–1	2–1	2–0
Slavia Prague	1–0	5–0	2–1	2–0	2–0	5–0	3–3	1–0	3–0		2–2	1–1	3–1	1–0	3–2	2–1
Slovan Liberec	0–0	2–1	0–0	2–0	3–0	2–0	3–3	1–0	0–1	2–1		3–0	1–0	2–1	1–1	2–1
Sparta Prague	1–0	1–0	4–0	0–0	3–2	5–0	1–0	3–0	1–1	1–4	1–1		0–0	2–0	2–0	2–0
Teplice	1–0	1–0	1–0	4–0	3–0	2–1	2–3	0–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	0–0		2–0	3–0	2–0
Tescoma Zlín	2–5	2–0	2–1	0–0	0–1	0–0	0–2	2–0	1–1	0–3	3–3	2–1	1–1		2–0	1–0
Viktoria Plzeň	1–3	3–1	3–2	1–1	1–1	1–0	2–0	0–0	4–0	1–1	0–2	1–1	1–1	5–0		3–2
Viktoria Žižkov	0–3	4–2	1–1	2–1	0–1	2–2	1–2	2–0	1–2	1–3	0–0	1–2	3–0	1–1	0–2

Source: Fortuna liga
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top goalscorers

Final standing^[11]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Andrej Kerić	Slovan Liberec	15
2	Daniel Huňa	Příbram	11
	Tomáš Necid	Slavia Prague
4	David Lafata	Jablonec	10
	Riste Naumov	Viktoria Žižkov
	Michal Papadopulos	Mladá Boleslav
7	Tijani Belaïd	Slavia Prague	9
	Michal Ordoš	Sigma Olomouc
	Tomáš Sedláček	České Budějovice
10	Roman Dobeš	Bohemians Prague (Střížkov)	8
	Pavel Horváth	Viktoria Plzeň
	Marek Kincl	Bohemians Prague (Střížkov)

See also

• 2008–09 Czech Cup
• 2008–09 Czech 2. Liga