2015–16 Danish Superliga

The 2015–16 Danish Superliga season was the 26th season of the Danish Superliga, which decides the Danish football championship. Midtjylland were the defending champions.

Danish Superliga

Season	2015–16
Champions	Copenhagen
Relegated	Hobro
Champions League	Copenhagen
Europa League	SønderjyskE Midtjylland Brøndby
Matches played	198
Goals scored	549 (2.77 per match)
Top goalscorer	Lukas Spalvis (18)
Biggest home win	AaB 6–0 Hobro (1 November 2015)
Biggest away win	Hobro 0-6 Viborg (5 March 2016)
Highest scoring	Esbjerg 4–4 Hobro (22 November 2015) Copenhagen 6–2 AaB (13 March 2016)
Longest winning run	SønderjyskE (5)
Longest unbeaten run	Copenhagen (9)
Longest winless run	Hobro (9)
Longest losing run	Hobro (5)
← 2014–15 2016–17 →

As Denmark dropped from nineteenth to twenty-second place in the 2015 UEFA association coefficient rankings at the end of the 2014–15 season, the champion of the league will qualify for the UEFA Champions League; that club will commence its campaign in the second qualifying round. Furthermore, the second and third-place clubs will enter the UEFA Europa League in the first qualifying round.^[1]

Only one team was relegated after the season due to the Superliga expanding to 14 teams from the beginning of the 2016–17 season.^[2]

Teams

FC Vestsjælland and Silkeborg IF finished the 2014–15 season in 11th and 12th place, respectively, and were relegated to the 2015–16 1st Division.

The relegated teams were replaced by 2014–15 1st Division champions Viborg FF and the runners-up AGF.

A new sponsorship agreement for Randers Stadium was presented on 22 September 2015, when the Fårup-based fertilizer company BioNutria acquired the naming rights for the stadium from AutoC, effectively changing the name of the home field of Randers FC from AutoC Park Randers to BioNutria Park Randers.^[3] Last in the season, the stadium of FC Nordsjælland changed its official name to Right to Dream Park following a naming rights agreement with the young academy Right to Dream, taking effect on 27 April 2016.^[4]

Stadia and locations

AaB

AGF

Brøndby IF

Esbjerg fB

FC Midtjylland

FC Nordsjælland

Hobro IK

OB

Randers FC

SønderjyskE

Viborg FF

FC Copenhagen

Locations of the Danish Superliga 2015–16 teams

Club	Location	Stadium	Turf	Capacity	2014–15 position
AaB	Aalborg	Nordjyske Arena	Natural	13,797	5th
AGF	Aarhus	Ceres Park	Natural	20,032	1D, 2nd
Brøndby IF	Brøndby	Brøndby Stadium	Natural	29,000	3rd
Esbjerg fB	Esbjerg	Blue Water Arena	Natural	18,000	8th
FC Copenhagen	Copenhagen	Telia Parken	Natural	38,065	2nd
FC Midtjylland	Herning	MCH Arena	Natural	11,800	1st
FC Nordsjælland	Farum	Farum Park (until 26 April 2016) Right to Dream Park (from 27 April 2016)[4]	Artificial	9,900	6th
Hobro IK	Hobro	DS Arena	Natural	7,500	7th
OB	Odense	TRE-FOR Park	Natural	15,633	9th
Randers FC	Randers	AutoC Park Randers (until 21 September 2015) BioNutria Park Randers (from 22 September 2015)[3]	Natural	12,000	4th
SønderjyskE	Haderslev	Sydbank Park	Natural	10,000	10th
Viborg FF	Viborg	Energi Viborg Arena	Natural	9,566	1D, 1st

Personnel and sponsoring

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players and Managers may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Head coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
AaB	Lars Søndergaard	Rasmus Würtz	hummel	Spar Nord
AGF	Glen Riddersholm	Steffen Rasmussen	hummel	Ceres
Brøndby IF	Aurelijus Skarbalius	Thomas Kahlenberg	hummel	Bet25.dk
Esbjerg fB	Jonas Dal	Hans Henrik Andreasen	Nike	Sydenergi
F.C. Copenhagen	Ståle Solbakken	Thomas Delaney	adidas	Carlsberg
FC Midtjylland	Jess Thorup	Kristian Bak Nielsen	Nike	Hessel
FC Nordsjælland	Kasper Hjulmand	Patrick Mtiliga	Diadora	DHL
Hobro IK	Ove Pedersen	Mads Justesen	Puma	DS Gruppen, Spar Nord
OB	Kent Nielsen	Hallgrímur Jónasson	hummel	Carlsberg
Randers FC	Colin Todd	Christian Keller	Puma	Verdo
SønderjyskE	Jakob Michelsen	Niels Lodberg	hummel	Frøs Herreds Sparekasse
Viborg	Johnny Mølby	Mikkel Rask	Nike	Andelskassen

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
AaB	Kent Nielsen	End of contract and signed by OB	1 June 2015[5]	Lars Søndergaard	1 July 2015[6]	Pre-Season
OB	Ove Pedersen	End of contract	1 June 2015[7]	Kent Nielsen	1 July 2015[7]	Pre-Season
SønderjyskE	Lars Søndergaard	End of contract and signed by AaB	1 June 2015[6]	Jakob Michelsen	1 July 2015[8]	Pre-Season
Viborg FF	Aurelijus Skarbalius	Mutual consent	6 June 2015[9]	Johnny Mølby	9 June 2015[10]	Pre-Season
FC Midtjylland	Glen Riddersholm	Resigned	26 June 2015[11]	Jess Thorup	12 July 2015[12]	Pre-Season
Esbjerg fB	Niels Frederiksen	Sacked	10 August 2015[13]	Michael Mex Pedersen (interim)	10 August 2015	12th
Esbjerg fB	Michael Mex Pedersen	End of tenure as caretaker	20 October 2015	Jonas Dal	20 October 2015[14]	10th
Hobro IK	Jonas Dal	Signed by Esbjerg fB	20 October 2015[14]	Lars Justesen (interim)	20 October 2015	12th
Hobro IK	Lars Justesen	End of tenure as caretaker	24 November 2015	Ove Pedersen	24 November 2015[15]	12th
AGF	Morten Wieghorst	Sacked	5 December 2015[16]	Glen Riddersholm	6 December 2015[17]	9th
FC Nordsjælland	Ólafur Kristjánsson	Sacked	15 December 2015[18]	Kasper Hjulmand	1 January 2016[18]	8th
Brøndby IF	Thomas Frank	Resigned	9 March 2016[19]	Aurelijus Skarbalius	9 March 2016[20]	5th

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Copenhagen (C)	33	21	8	4	62	28	+34	71	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round[a]
2	SønderjyskE	33	19	5	9	56	36	+20	62	Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round
3	Midtjylland	33	17	8	8	57	33	+24	59	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
4	Brøndby	33	16	6	11	43	37	+6	54
5	AaB	33	15	5	13	56	44	+12	50
6	Randers	33	13	8	12	45	43	+2	47
7	Odense	33	14	4	15	50	52	−2	46
8	Viborg	33	11	7	15	34	42	−8	40
9	Nordsjælland	33	11	5	17	35	51	−16	38
10	AGF	33	8	13	12	47	49	−2	37
11	Esbjerg	33	7	9	17	38	64	−26	30
12	Hobro (R)	33	4	6	23	26	70	−44	18	Relegation to the Danish 1st Division

Source: DBU, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Head-to-head goals scored; 7) Head-to-head away goals scored; 8) Play-off on neutral ground (only if rankings are important for medals, teams for relegation or teams for UEFA competitions); 9) Draw.^[21][22]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Copenhagen qualified for the Europa League second qualifying round by winning the 2015–16 Danish Cup. However, since they already qualified for European competition based on their league position, the spot awarded to the cup winners was passed down the league.

Positions by round

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33
Copenhagen	1	1	1	2	2	2	3	2	1	3	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
SønderjyskE	3	6	8	5	3	4	2	5	4	2	4	3	3	5	6	5	4	4	4	3	2	2	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Midtjylland	3	3	2	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	4	3	5	4	4	3	3	4	4	3	3	3	3	3
Brøndby	8	10	12	11	9	7	4	6	9	6	8	6	4	3	4	4	5	5	5	5	5	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	4	4	4	4
AaB	6	4	5	8	7	3	6	7	6	7	5	4	6	4	3	3	2	2	2	2	4	3	2	2	4	4	3	3	4	5	5	5	5
Randers FC	11	7	7	7	6	8	5	4	3	4	3	5	5	6	5	6	6	6	6	6	7	9	7	7	7	7	7	6	7	6	6	6	6
OB	1	1	4	4	5	9	8	8	7	9	6	8	8	9	8	8	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	7	6	7	7	7	7
Viborg FF	9	9	6	6	8	6	9	11	11	10	11	11	10	10	10	10	9	10	10	9	8	7	8	8	9	9	8	8	8	8	8	10	8
Nordsjælland	9	12	10	10	11	10	10	9	8	5	7	9	7	7	7	7	8	8	8	8	9	8	9	9	8	8	9	9	9	9	9	8	9
AGF	5	4	3	3	4	5	6	3	5	8	9	7	9	8	9	9	10	9	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	11	11	10	10	10	10	9	10
Esbjerg fB	6	8	11	12	10	11	11	10	10	11	10	10	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	10	10	11	11	11	11	11	11
Hobro	11	11	9	8	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12

Source: Weltfussball

Results

Matchday 1–11 Home \ Away AaB AGF BIF EfB FCK FCM FCN HIK OB RFC SJE VFF AaB 4–1 1–1 0–2 5–1 0–2 5–0 AGF 2–3 2–1 0–0 3–2 1–2 Brøndby 1–1 1–0 0–0 0–2 1–2 1–0 Esbjerg fB 1–2 1–1 4–2 0–2 0–4 Copenhagen 4–2 2–2 1–1 1–0 3–0 1–0 Midtjylland 2–0 0–0 0–1 2–0 1–0 2–0 Nordsjælland 2–1 2–0 0–2 1–2 1–5 0–2 Hobro 0–1 0–3 2–2 1–3 1–1 OB 2–2 1–0 3–0 2–3 2–0 Randers FC 3–3 0–2 3–0 2–1 1–0 0–1 SønderjyskE 1–3 1–2 3–0 4–0 2–1 Viborg FF 1–0 0–0 0–4 2–1 0–1 Source: Danish Football Association (in Danish) Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matchday 12–33 Home \ Away AaB AGF BIF EfB FCK FCM FCN HIK OB RFC SJE VFF AaB 2–2 3–0 1–2 0–2 0–0 1–0 6–0 0–1 3–2 1–2 2–0 AGF 2–0 1–1 5–1 0–0 2–1 3–0 1–1 2–1 0–2 0–0 1–2 Brøndby 0–2 2–1 0–0 0–0 2–1 2–1 1–0 1–0 1–0 1–2 0–1 Esbjerg fB 1–2 2–1 2–3 1–4 0–2 2–1 4–4 0–2 1–0 0–1 1–0 Copenhagen 6–2 2–1 2–0 2–1 5–3 2–0 3–1 4–1 4–0 1–0 0–0 Midtjylland 1–1 1–1 2–0 5–1 0–1 4–1 3–0 2–0 2–1 3–2 2–4 Nordsjælland 3–0 3–3 0–2 0–0 2–0 2–1 2–1 0–1 2–2 1–2 1–0 Hobro 0–2 3–1 0–2 2–2 4–2 1–4 0–1 0–2 0–0 1–2 0–6 OB 3–2 2–2 2–5 2–1 0–1 1–1 3–1 0–1 0–1 1–2 5–1 Randers FC 0–0 4–1 0–2 3–1 1–1 1–2 1–0 2–0 1–1 1–1 1–3 SønderjyskE 1–2 2–2 3–1 2–0 1–2 3–2 3–1 2–0 3–1 1–1 2–0 Viborg FF 0–2 1–0 0–2 4–2 1–1 1–1 1–1 1–0 0–1 2–3 0–0 Source: Danish Football Association (in Danish) Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top goalscorers

Rank	Goalscorer	Team	Goals
1	Lukas Spalvis	AaB	18
2	Nicolai Jørgensen	Copenhagen	15
3	Federico Santander	Copenhagen	14
	Rasmus Festersen	OB
	Morten Rasmussen	AGF
6	Martin Pušić	FC Midtjylland	13
7	Johan Absalonsen	SønderjyskE	12
	Thomas Enevoldsen	AaB
	Anders K. Jacobsen	OB
	Mikael Ishak	Randers FC
11	Jeppe Curth	Viborg FF	10
12	Bruninho	Nordsjælland	9
	Mayron George	Hobro IK
	Tommy Bechmann	SønderjyskE
	Nicolaj Madsen	SønderjyskE
	Teemu Pukki	Brøndby IF

Updated to games played on May 30, 2016
Source: fifa.com