2007–08 Serbian SuperLiga

The 2007–08 Serbian SuperLiga season (known as the Meridian SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons) was the second since its establishment in 2006. Red Star Belgrade were the defending SuperLiga champions, having won their twenty-fifth national title the season before.

Meridian SuperLiga
Season2007–08
ChampionsPartizan
1st SuperLiga title
20th domestic title
RelegatedBežanija
Mladost Lučani
Smederevo
Champions LeaguePartizan (second qualifying round)
UEFA CupRed Star
Vojvodina
Borac Čačak
Matches played198
Goals scored452 (2.28 per match)
Top goalscorerNenad Jestrović (13)
Biggest home winRed Star 5–0 Napredak (2 April 2008)
Vojvodina 5–0 Borac Čačak (30 April 2008)
Biggest away winBanat 0–4 Napredak (3 May 2008)
Highest scoringBežanija 6–2 Banat (29 March 2008)
Location of teams in the Serbian SuperLiga 2007–08

The SuperLiga changed its format from this season. The League was no longer divided into a playoff and play-out group midway through the campaign. Instead the 12 teams played each other three times in a conventional league format. For the SuperLiga's inaugural season and this one the league had been named the Meridian SuperLiga. This however, was the last season that Meridian Bank had sponsorship rights to the SuperLiga. The rights to the Serbian SuperLiga were bought by Jelen and starting from the 2008–09 season the league was known as the Jelen SuperLiga.

Participating clubs and their stadia

The following twelve clubs competed in the 2007–08 Serbian SuperLiga season.

Team Stadium Capacity
Crvena zvezdaStadion Crvena Zvezda55,000
PartizanPartizan Stadium32,710
VojvodinaKarađorđe Stadium20,000
BanatKarađorđev Park Stadium18,700
SmederevoFortress Stadium17,200
OFK BeogradOmladinski Stadion16,000
Hajduk KulaStadion Hajduk12,000
NapredakKruševac Stadium10,811
BežanijaStadion Bežanije9,350
Mladost LučaniStadion Mladost8,000
Borac ČačakČačak Stadium7,600
ČukaričkiČukarički Stadion6,600

League table
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation
1 Partizan (C) 33 24 8 1 63 23 +40 80 Qualification for Champions League second qualifying round
2 Red Star 33 21 12 0 65 22 +43 75 Qualification for UEFA Cup second qualifying round
3 Vojvodina 33 18 8 7 53 33 +20 62 Qualification for UEFA Cup first qualifying round
4 Borac Čačak 33 12 10 11 29 33 −4 46
5 Napredak 33 11 8 14 25 33 −8 41
6 Čukarički 33 10 10 13 31 32 −1 40
7 Mladost Lučani 33 8 14 11 32 41 −9 38
8 Hajduk Kula 33 8 13 12 25 31 −6 37
9 OFK Beograd 33 9 9 15 31 45 −14 36 Qualification for Intertoto Cup second round
10 Smederevo 33 10 6 17 33 44 −11 36 Qualification for relegation play-off
11 Banat (R) 33 6 10 17 34 57 −23 28 Relegation to Serbian First League
12 Bežanija (R) 33 5 4 24 31 58 −27 19
Source:
(C) Champion; (R) Relegated.

Results

The schedule consists 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.

First and second round
Home \ Away BAN BEŽ BOR ČUK HAJ NAP MLA OFK PAR RSB SME VOJ
Banat Zrenjanin 2–1 2–1 1–3 1–2 0–1 0–0 2–1 0–2 2–2 2–3 1–1
Bežanija 6–2 1–2 1–2 1–0 2–1 0–0 1–2 0–2 0–1 2–0 0–1
Borac Čačak 0–0 4–1 1–1 2–0 1–0 2–0 2–0 0–1 0–0 0–2 2–4
Čukarički 2–1 0–2 0–0 1–1 0–0 2–0 0–2 0–3 0–1 2–2 1–0
Hajduk Kula 0–0 1–0 0–0 1–1 2–0 2–2 1–0 0–1 0–2 3–1 1–2
Napredak Kruševac 0–2 1–0 0–0 0–2 1–0 0–1 2–0 0–2 0–1 3–1 0–1
Mladost 1–1 3–0 1–0 2–1 0–0 1–1 2–2 1–4 1–1 3–2 0–1
OFK Beograd 0–2 1–0 2–0 0–3 3–1 1–1 1–1 0–1 0–2 1–2 0–0
Partizan 4–2 2–0 0–0 1–1 2–1 3–1 4–0 5–1 2–2 1–0 3–3
Red Star Belgrade 2–0 2–0 4–0 0–0 1–1 1–1 2–2 2–0 4–1 1–0 1–1
Smederevo 0–1 2–1 0–1 1–0 1–0 1–1 0–0 0–1 1–1 2–5 1–0
Vojvodina 1–0 3–1 1–2 0–0 1–0 2–0 2–1 1–1 0–1 1–1 2–1
Source: soccerway.com
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
 SuperLiga 2007–08 Winners 
Partizan
20th title

Champions: PARTIZAN BELGRADE (coach: Miroslav Đukić until 18 round, Slaviša Jokanović from 18 round)

Players(League matches/league goals)

Like in many previous seasons, the allocation of European spots based on the final 2007–08 league and cup standings turned out to be messy.

According to the propositions, the second UEFA Cup spot is supposed to go to the Serbian Cup winner. However, since the Cup was won by FK Partizan, a club that also won the league, the second UEFA Cup spot went to the 2007–08 Serbian Cup finalist FK Zemun. This created problems, since FK Zemun couldn't obtain the UEFA licence for the year due to poor financial situation at the club, and their UEFA Cup spot went to the 4th placed league team - Borac Čačak. Now, since Borac Čačak earned a 2008 Intertoto Cup berth based on finishing 4th in the league, they now passed their Intertoto Cup spot down to 9th placed OFK Beograd because Napredak Kruševac, Čukarički, Mladost Lučani, and Hajduk Kula (5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th placed teams in the league, respectively) didn't want it.

This created a bizarre situation whereby a team that finished fourth from the bottom barely avoiding relegation playoff (OFK Beograd) still got to play in the 2008 Intertoto Cup.

Top scorers
Rank Player Team Goals
1 Nenad Jestrović Red Star
13
2 Lamine Diarra Partizan 12
Stevan Jovetić Partizan
Predrag Ranđelović Bežanija
5 Gojko Kačar Vojvodina
11

Hat-tricks
Hat-tricks
PlayerForAgainstResultDate
Nenad JestrovićSmederevoRed Star2-511 November 2007
Misdongarde BetolngarRed StarNapredak5–02 April 2008
Nenad MilijašRed StarBežanija4-112 April 2008

Relegation playoff

The third-placed team form the bottom in 2007–08 SuperLiga (FK Smederevo) plays the winner of the 4-team playoff consisting of 3rd to 6th placed teams from 2007–08 Serbian First League (FK Rad). The playoff has a home-and-away tie format

  • June 7, 2008, FK Rad - FK Smederevo 3:1 [1][2]
  • June 11, 2008, FK Smederevo - FK Rad 2:1

The following teams were promoted to the Meridian SuperLiga at the end of the 2007–08 season:

Relegated teams

The following teams were relegated to the Serbian First League at the end of the 2007–08 season based on their performance:

  • Bežanija - Automatically relegated after finishing the season in the 12th position (last place).
  • Banat Zrenjanin - Automatically relegated after finishing in the 11th position (second last place).
  • Smederevo - As a result of finishing 10th (third place from the bottom) entered and lost relegation playoffs against FK Rad (a team that won the chance to compete for promotion from First League amongst the 4 teams that finished 3rd to 6th inclusive)

However, following speculation on June 29, 2008 that 7th placed SuperLiga team - Mladost from Lučani - might decline the opportunity to compete in 2008–09 SuperLiga season due to lacking the funds required to compete at the top level,[3] the official confirmation of their decision came on July 2, 2008.[4] The possibility of Mladost Lučani being relegated two levels down to Srpska Liga as punishment was initially talked about, nut the club was eventually moved only one level down to First League for the 2008–09 season.

By the decision of Serbian Football Association (FSS), the relegated team that ended up keeping its SuperLiga status as a result of Mladost's withdrawal became 11th placed Banat Zrenjanin, not the 10th placed FK Smederevo. The FA made the decision based on their opinion that Banat Zrenjanin has better support of the sponsors and its community (city of Zrenjanin) than does FK Smederevo.

The decision caused a lot of controversy and protest from FK Smederevo officials who claimed they should've been given the opportunity to retain the SuperLiga status after Mladost's withdrawal. They even launched an official appeal with UEFA, but it got rejected.[5]

So, in the end, the three 2007–08 SuperLiga teams that will not compete in the 2008–09 SuperLiga season are:

References
  1. Rad pobedio Smederevo 3:1 u prvoj utakmici baraža, Blic, June 7, 2008
  2. "Rad pobedio Smederevo u prvoj utakmici Baraža". Studio B. 7 June 2008. Archived from the original on 9 October 2011. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  3. Lučanci istupaju iz MSL!?, MTS Mondo, June 29, 2008
  4. Mladost iz Lučana napustila Superligu, MTS Mondo, July 2, 2008
  5. UEFA odbila žalbu Smedereva, MTS Mondo, August 6, 2008
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