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2008–09 IFA Premiership

Field	Value
competition	IFA Premiership
season	2008–09
winners	Glentoran
1st Premiership title
23rd Irish title
relegated	Bangor
continentalcup1	UEFA Champions League
continentalcup1 qualifiers	Glentoran
continentalcup2	UEFA Europa League
continentalcup2 qualifiers	Crusaders (via Irish Cup)
Linfield
Lisburn Distillery
league topscorer	Curtis Allen (19 goals)
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
matches	228
total goals	619
highest attendance	9,500
Linfield 3–0 Glentoran
(26 December 2008)
lowest attendance	76
Bangor 1–3 Dungannon Swifts
(25 April 2009)
average attendance	858
prevseason	2007–08
nextseason	2009–10

1st Premiership title 23rd Irish title Linfield Lisburn Distillery Bangor 0–5 Linfield Crusaders 0–5 Linfield Linfield 3–0 Glentoran (26 December 2008) Bangor 1–3 Dungannon Swifts (25 April 2009) The 2008–09 IFA Premiership (known as the JJB Sports Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the 1st season of the IFA Premiership, the highest level of league football in Northern Ireland (after a major overhaul of the league system), and the 108th season of Irish league football overall.

Glentoran were champions, winning the league for the 23rd time.

Summary

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. 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

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

Results

Matches 1–22

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

Matches 23–33

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

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

Section B

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.

McDonald

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

References

"Irish League Supporters Forum - Attendances". Irish League Supporters Forum.
[http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/local/all-matches-off-as-referees-strike-13934396.html All matches off as referees strike] Belfast Telegraph
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/irish/7551320.stm IFA reach agreement with referees] BBC Sport
[http://www.ifapremiership.com/news020209_2.htm Official statement from Bangor Football Club]

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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