2009–10 Croatian First Football League

The 2009–10 Croatian First Football League (officially known as the T-Com Prva HNL for sponsorship reasons) was the nineteenth season of the Croatian First Football League, the national championship for men's association football teams in Croatia, since its establishment in 1992. It began on 24 July 2009 and ended on 13 May 2010. Dinamo Zagreb were the defending champions, having won their eleventh championship title (and fourth consecutive title) the previous season, and they defended the title again, after a goalless draw with Hajduk Split on 1 May 2010.

T-Com Prva HNL

Season	2009–10
Champions	Dinamo Zagreb 12th Croatian title 16th domestic title
Relegated	Croatia Sesvete Međimurje
Champions League	Dinamo Zagreb
Europa League	Hajduk Split Cibalia Šibenik
Matches played	240
Goals scored	649 (2.7 per match)
Top goalscorer	Davor Vugrinec (18)
Biggest home win	Dinamo Z. 7–1 Istra 1961
Biggest away win	Međimurje 1–5 Rijeka
Highest scoring	Dinamo Z. 7–1 Istra 1961
Average attendance	1,871
← 2008–09 2010–11 →

The format was changed from previous season in that the league was expanded from 12 to 16 clubs.

Promotion and relegation from 2008–09

Due to the expansion, no teams were directly relegated following the 2008–09 season.

Four teams from 2008–09 Druga HNL earned direct promotion. These were champions Istra 1961, runners-up Karlovac, third-placed Lokomotiva and fifth-placed Međimurje. Fourth-placed team Slavonac CO had to step back from promotion after they were not able to find a suitable ground.^[1]

Croatia Sesvete as last-placed team had to compete in a two-legged play-off against the sixth-placed team from Druga HNL, Hrvatski Dragovoljac. After a scoreless first leg, Croatia Sesvete retained their Prva HNL status by winning the second leg, 2–1.^[2]

Overview

Teams

Team	Head coach	Team captain	2008–09 result	Kitmaker	Shirt sponsor
Cibalia	Stanko Mršić	Boris Leutar	8th	Jako	Croatia osiguranje
Croatia Sesvete	Goran Jerković	Saša Mus	12th	Diadora
Dinamo Zagreb	Krunoslav Jurčić	Igor Bišćan	1st	Diadora	INA, Croatia osiguranje
Hajduk Split	Stanko Poklepović	Srđan Andrić	2nd	Umbro	INA
Inter Zaprešić	Ilija Lončarević	Tomislav Šarić	9th	Legea	Hidrocommerce
Istra 1961	Zoran Vulić	Dalibor Pauletić	2. HNL, 1st	Legea	Puris, Favorit pivo
Karlovac	Igor Pamić	Matija Štefančić	2. HNL, 2nd	Legea
Lokomotiva	Roy Ferenčina	Željko Sopić	2. HNL, 3rd	Legea
Međimurje	Tomislav Ivković	Mario Darmopil	2. HNL, 5th	Legea
Osijek	Tomislav Steinbrückner	Domagoj Vida	7th	Legea	Croatia osiguranje
Rijeka	Nenad Gračan	Fausto Budicin	3rd	Jako	Croatia osiguranje
Slaven Belupo	Zlatko Dalić	Dalibor Poldrugač	4th	Adidas	Belupo
Šibenik	Branko Karačić	Arijan Ademi	6th	Jako
Varteks	Samir Toplak	Miljenko Mumlek	10th	Legea	Croatia osiguranje
Zadar	Dalibor Zebić	Jakov Surać	11th	Jako
NK Zagreb	Igor Štimac	Ivan Parlov	5th	Legea

Stadia and locations

Since most Druga HNL stadiums failed to meet the licensing requirements for top-level football, the Croatian Football Federation announced on 8 May 2008 that clubs who are likely to win promotion berths have agreed to lease stadiums approved for top-flight football. Below is the list of all the stadiums which are licensed to be used in the Prva HNL, along with their home clubs and the promoted clubs who secured rights to use them as "guests" until their own grounds have sufficiently been upgraded to host top-level matches.^[3]

Cibalia

Inter

Istra 1961

Hajduk

Karlovac

Osijek

Rijeka

S. Belupo

Šibenik

Međimurje

Varteks

Zadar

Zagreb
Cr. Sesvete

Dinamo
Lokomotiva

Locations of teams in 2009–10 Prva HNL

Stadium	City	Home club	Licensed club(s)	Capacity
Stadion HNK Cibalia	Vinkovci	Cibalia		9,920
ŠRC Zaprešić	Zaprešić	Inter Zaprešić		4,528
Kranjčevićeva	Zagreb	NK Zagreb	Croatia Sesvete	8,850
Kantrida	Rijeka	Rijeka		10,275
Poljud	Split	Hajduk Split		35,000
Stadion Varteks	Varaždin	Varteks		10,800
Maksimir	Zagreb	Dinamo Zagreb	Lokomotiva	37,168
Gradski vrt	Osijek	Osijek		19,500
Gradski stadion	Koprivnica	Slaven Belupo		4,000
Šubićevac	Šibenik	Šibenik		8,000
Stanovi	Zadar	Zadar		5,860
Branko Čavlović-Čavlek	Karlovac	Karlovac		12,000
SRC Mladost	Čakovec	Međimurje		8,000
Veruda	Pula	Istra 1961		3,000

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Slaven Belupo	Mile Petković	Mutual consent	31 May 2009 [4]	Milivoj Bračun	9 June 2009 [5]	Pre-season
Hajduk Split	Ante Miše	Resigned	2 August 2009 [6]	Ivica Kalinić	3 August 2009 [7]	12th
Šibenik	Ivica Kalinić	Resigned	3 August 2009 [8]	Branko Karačić	11 August 2009 [9]	5th
Slaven Belupo	Milivoj Bračun	Mutual consent	6 August 2009 [10]	Zlatko Dalić	8 August 2009 [11]	6th
Hajduk Split	Ivica Kalinić	Mutual consent	18 August 2009	Edoardo Reja	18 August 2009 [12]	13th
Croatia Sesvete	Anto Petrović	Sacked	1 September 2009	Nenad Gračan	1 September 2009 [13]	15th
NK Zagreb	Luka Pavlović	Resigned	11 September 2009 [14]	Igor Štimac	14 September 2009[15]	16th
Rijeka	Robert Rubčić	Resigned	21 September 2009 [16]	Zoran Vulić	22 September 2009[17]	7th
Međimurje	Mario Ćutuk	Sacked	8 October 2009 [18]	Srećko Bogdan	9 October 2009[19]	11th
Istra 1961	Elvis Scoria	Mutual consent	2 November 2009 [20]	Valdi Šumberac		14th
Rijeka	Zoran Vulić	Resigned	10 November 2009 [21]	Nenad Gračan	10 November 2009[22]	7th
Croatia Sesvete	Nenad Gračan	Resigned	10 November 2009[22]	Anto Petrović		15th
Croatia Sesvete	Anto Petrović	Resigned	24 November 2009[23]	Adolf Pinter	19 January 2010[24]	16th
Varteks	Dražen Besek	Mutual consent	26 December 2009[25]	Damir Jagačić	4 January 2010[26]	11th
Hajduk Split	Edoardo Reja	Signed by Lazio	9 February 2010[27]	Stanko Poklepović	12 February 2010[28]	7th
Istra 1961	Valdi Šumberac	Sacked	28 February 2010[29]	Zoran Vulić	28 February 2010[29]	15th
Croatia Sesvete	Adolf Pinter	Sacked	5 March 2010[30]	Goran Jerković	5 March 2010[30]	16th
Varteks	Damir Jagačić	Sacked	15 March 2010[31]	Samir Toplak	15 March 2010[31]	11th
Međimurje	Srećko Bogdan	Sacked	2 April 2010[32]	Tomislav Ivković	3 April 2010[32]	12th
Inter Zaprešić	Borimir Perković	Sacked	11 April 2010[33]	Ilija Lončarević	11 April 2010[32]	12th

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Dinamo Zagreb (C)	30	18	8	4	70	20	+50	62	Qualification to Champions League second qualifying round
2	Hajduk Split	30	17	7	6	50	21	+29	58	Qualification to Europa League third qualifying round[a]
3	Cibalia	30	16	9	5	46	20	+26	57	Qualification to Europa League second qualifying round
4	Šibenik	30	14	8	8	34	37	−3	50	Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round
5	Osijek	30	13	8	9	49	36	+13	47
6	Karlovac	30	12	11	7	32	23	+9	47
7	Slaven Belupo	30	11	10	9	44	45	−1	43
8	Lokomotiva	30	12	6	12	35	38	−3	42
9	Rijeka	30	10	10	10	49	44	+5	40
10	Varteks	30	9	9	12	36	43	−7	36
11	Istra 1961	30	9	8	13	31	40	−9	35
12	Zadar	30	9	7	14	27	41	−14	34
13	Inter Zaprešić	30	10	3	17	36	50	−14	33[b]
14	NK Zagreb[c]	30	9	6	15	43	49	−6	33[b]
15	Međimurje (R)	30	8	5	17	37	61	−24	29	Relegation to Croatian Second Football League
16	Croatia Sesvete (R)	30	3	5	22	30	81	−51	14

Source: Sportnet.hr
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
For deciding champions, qualification to UEFA Europa League and relegation: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th head-to-head away goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Hajduk Split won the 2009–10 Croatian Cup and thus qualified for the third qualifying round of the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League.
2. Head-to-head record: Inter Zaprešić–NK Zagreb 1–3, NK Zagreb–Inter Zaprešić 0–3.
3. Despite finishing 14th NK Zagreb eventually avoided relegation as only two second level clubs were granted first division licences by the Croatian Football Federation.

Results

Home \ Away	CIB	CRS	DIN	HAJ	INT	IST	KAR	LOK	MEĐ	OSI	RIJ	SLA	ŠIB	VAR	ZAD	ZAG
Cibalia		5–0	2–0	0–0	2–0	0–0	2–2	1–0	3–0	1–1	1–0	2–0	4–3	4–0	2–0	1–0
Croatia Sesvete	0–3		2–5	2–5	3–1	2–2	0–3	1–2	2–1	1–2	1–2	1–1	1–2	2–2	1–2	1–4
Dinamo Zagreb	1–1	6–0		0–0	3–1	7–1	1–1	1–0	4–0	5–0	6–0	6–0	5–0	2–1	0–0	1–1
Hajduk Split	2–1	6–0	2–1		2–2	1–0	1–0	1–0	4–1	1–0	1–1	5–0	0–1	2–0	0–1	2–0
Inter Zaprešić	1–0	1–2	0–1	0–3		1–0	0–1	4–2	2–1	0–3	3–0	2–0	0–1	1–1	4–3	1–3
Istra 1961	0–0	1–0	0–0	0–1	2–0		2–0	3–1	1–2	1–3	2–0	2–0	1–2	0–1	2–0	2–1
Karlovac	3–0	0–0	1–3	1–0	1–0	1–1		0–1	2–0	1–0	2–0	0–0	0–2	1–1	2–0	0–0
Lokomotiva	2–0	3–2	0–1	2–1	0–1	2–1	0–0		1–3	2–2	3–0	1–1	0–0	2–0	1–0	1–0
Međimurje	0–2	2–1	1–4	1–1	2–1	4–2	1–1	0–3		1–1	1–5	1–1	4–0	0–0	3–0	4–2
Osijek	2–0	0–0	0–1	1–1	4–2	3–0	0–1	3–0	3–1		1–0	0–1	3–0	1–1	3–0	5–3
Rijeka	1–1	4–2	2–2	2–0	3–1	2–0	1–1	6–0	4–0	1–1		2–3	0–1	3–3	3–2	3–1
Slaven Belupo	1–1	4–0	0–1	2–1	5–2	3–0	1–3	1–0	3–2	5–2	1–1		2–2	2–3	2–1	2–0
Šibenik	0–2	2–0	2–1	0–1	0–0	1–1	1–0	0–0	1–0	2–2	1–0	0–0		2–1	1–1	3–1
Varteks	1–1	4–1	1–2	0–3	2–1	0–2	0–1	2–1	3–0	1–2	1–1	0–0	5–1		1–0	1–0
Zadar	0–3	2–0	0–0	1–2	0–1	1–1	1–1	1–1	2–0	2–1	1–1	1–0	2–1	2–0		1–0
NK Zagreb	0–1	4–2	1–0	1–1	0–3	1–1	4–2	2–4	2–1	1–0	1–1	3–3	0–2	3–0	4–0

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

Top goalscorers

As of 13 May 2010; Source: HRnogomet.com

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Davor Vugrinec	NK Zagreb	18
2	Senijad Ibričić	Hajduk Split	17
3	Asim Šehić	Istra 1961	15
4	Nino Bule	Lokomotiva	14
	Mario Mandžukić	Dinamo Zagreb
6	Bojan Golubović	Međimurje	13
	Pedro Morales	Dinamo Zagreb
8	Milan Badelj	Dinamo Zagreb	11
	Miljenko Mumlek	Varteks
	Ermin Zec	Šibenik

Transfers

• List of Croatian football transfers summer 2009
• List of Croatian football transfers winter 2009–10

See also

• 2009–10 Croatian Football Cup
• 2009–10 Croatian Second Football League