The 2009–10 season is the 130th season of competitive football in England.

The season began on 8 August 2009 for the Championship, League One and League Two and 15 August 2009 for the Premier League. The season will finish on 2 May 2010 for the Football League Championship, and 9 May 2010 for the other three Divisions. ^[1][2]

[edit] Promotion and relegation (pre-season)

Teams promoted to Premier League 2009–10

• Wolverhampton Wanderers
• Birmingham City
• Burnley

Teams relegated from Premier League 2008–09

• Newcastle United
• Middlesbrough
• West Bromwich Albion

Teams promoted to Football League Championship 2009–10

• Leicester City
• Peterborough United
• Scunthorpe United

Teams relegated from Football League Championship 2008–09

• Norwich City
• Southampton (will start on −10 points)
• Charlton Athletic

Teams promoted to Football League One 2009–10

• Brentford
• Exeter City
• Wycombe Wanderers
• Gillingham

Teams relegated from Football League One 2008–09

• Northampton Town
• Crewe Alexandra
• Cheltenham Town
• Hereford United

Teams promoted to Football League Two 2009–10

• Burton Albion
• Torquay United

Teams relegated from Football League Two 2008–09

• Chester City (will start on −25 points)
• Luton Town

[edit] Managerial changes

Notes

• ¹ Sampson was named caretaker-manager following Gray's departure on 8 September, and appointed full-time on 5 October.

[edit] Diary of the season

• 1 July 2009: Cristiano Ronaldo completes his world record £80million move from Manchester United to Real Madrid.

• 26 July 2009: An England XI defeats a Germany XI 3-2 at St James's Park, Newcastle, in a charity match which raises money for the cancer charity of former England manager Sir Bobby Robson. Sir Bobby, who has fought the illness since 1992 and gone into remission four times, attends the match in a wheelchair.

• 31 July 2009: Sir Bobby Robson dies aged 76.

• 14 August 2009: Bryan Gunn becomes the first managerial casualty of the season when his contract is terminated by Norwich City in League One. [1]

• 15 August 2009: The new Premier League season kicks off, with the highlight of the opening day coming at Goodison Park where Arsenal trounce Everton 6-1 in the biggest opening day victory at this level for 15 years. Burnley's return to the top flight after 33 years away begins on a low note when an own goal by Stephen Jordan contributes to a 2-0 defeat against Stoke City.

• 19 August 2009: Newly promoted Burnley achieve a shock 1-0 home win over Manchester United, with the only goal of the game coming from veteran striker Robbie Blake.

• 23 August 2009: The highlight of the second weekend of the Premier League season comes when Burnley achieve another shock 1-0 win, this time over Everton after Louis Saha missed a penalty.

• 25 August 2009: Some of the worst scenes of football hooliganism in years are witnessed in West Ham United's 3-1 home win over Millwall in the Football League Cup second round. Fans invaded the pitch twice and there was widespread violence in the stands and also on the streets surrounding Upton Park, including one incident in which a man suffered stab wounds.

• 27 August 2009: Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham Hotspur manager, suggests that West Ham United and Millwall should never be allowed to play each other in a cup competition again.

• 31 August 2009: The first month of the Premier League season ends with Chelsea as leaders, level on 12 points with second placed Tottenham Hotspur. Defending champions Manchester United are third, with underdogs Stoke City standing fourth after a strong start to the season. [2]

• 9 September 2009: England secure qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup after a 5-1 win over Croatia at Wembley Stadium.

• 20 September 2009: The Manchester derby at Old Trafford produces one of the most thrilling games of the current Premier League season as United beat City 4-3 thanks to a stoppage time winner by Michael Owen. [3]

• 30 September 2009: Manchester United and Chelsea are level on 18 points at the top of the Premier League, three points ahead of their nearest rivals Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur. Arsenal and Manchester City complete the top six. Portsmouth are bottom of the table after starting the season with a record seven successive defeats, joined in the relegation zone by West Ham United and Hull City. [4]

• 2 October 2009: Sheffield United striker Jordan Robertson is jailed for 2 years and 8 months on a charge of causing death by dangerous driving in relation to a fatal car crash on the M1 motorway in December 2008. [5]

• 21 October 2009: Gareth Southgate's contract is terminated after three years as manager of Middlesbrough, despite them standing fourth in the Football League Championship a season after relegation from the Premier League. [6]

• 26 October 2009: Gordon Strachan is appointed as Middlesbrough's new manager, five months after quitting Celtic. [7] [8]

• 29 October 2009: Wigan Athletic striker Marlon King has his contract terminated by the club after receiving an 18-month prison sentence for assaulting a woman in a nightclub. It is the second time that King has been in convicted and sent to prison, [9] having also received an 18-month prison sentence in 2002, when convicted of driving a stolen car. [10]

• 31 October 2009: October draws to a close with Chelsea now two points ahead of Manchester United, with the rest of the top four unchanged from the end of last month. Portsmouth remained bottom from the end of last month, but have now gained their first seven points of the season, while West Ham United and Hull City complete the bottom three once again. [11]

• 30 November 2009: November ends with Chelsea two points ahead of Manchester United and with a game in hand, while the only change to the rest of the top six is that Aston Villa have displaced Liverpool who are now seventh. Portsmouth remain bottom, now joined in the relegation zone by Wolverhampton Wanderers and Bolton Wanderers. [12]

[edit] National team

The home team is on the left column; the away team is on the right column.

[edit] Friendly matches^[44]

12 August 2009	Netherlands	2 – 2	England	Amsterdam ArenA, Amsterdam Attendance: 50,000 Referee: Nicola Rizzoli (Italy)
	Kuyt  10' van der Vaart  38'	(Report)	Defoe  49', 77'

5 September 2009	England	2 – 1	Slovenia	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 67,232 Referee: Jonas Eriksson (Sweden)
	Lampard  31' (pen.) Defoe  63'	(Report)	Ljubijankič  85'

14 November 2009	England	0 – 1	Brazil	Khalifa International Stadium, Doha Attendance: 50,000 Referee: Abdou Abdulrahman (Qatar)
		(Report)	Nilmar  48'

[edit] World Cup qualifiers

England is currently in Group 6 of the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification process.^[45]

9 September 2009	England	5 – 1	Croatia	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 87,319 Referee: Alberto Undiano Mallenco (Spain)
	Lampard  7' (pen.), 59' Gerrard  18', 66' Rooney  77'	(Report)	Eduardo  72'

10 October 2009	Ukraine	1 – 0	England	Dnipro Stadium, Dnipropetrovsk Attendance: 40,000
	Nazarenko  27'	(Report)

14 October 2009	England	3 – 0	Belarus	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 76,897
	Crouch  4', 76' Wright-Phillips  59'	(Report)

[edit] Deaths

• 12 July 2009 – Tommy Cummings, 80, defender who made 479 appearances for Burnley and managed Mansfield Town and Aston Villa.^[46]

• 21 July 2009 – Dai Lawrence, 62, former full-back who played four seasons for Swansea City in the late 1960s.^[47]

• 31 July 2009 – Sir Bobby Robson, 76, former inside-forward and manager. As a player, he played for Fulham and West Bromwich Albion, and won 20 caps for England. As manager, he reached even greater heights, being appointed to Ipswich Town in 1969 and over the next 13 years taking them to FA Cup and UEFA Cup glory (also finishing second in the league in his final 2 seasons as manager), before leaving in 1982 to manage England for eight years during which they reached the quarter-final of the World Cup in 1986 and to the semi-final in 1990, only losing on penalties. He later managed PSV Eindhoven of Holland, FC Porto of Portugal and FC Barcelona of Spain, before returning home to manage his boyhood favourites Newcastle United from 1999 to 2004, during which time they qualified for Europe on three occasions. He was knighted for his services to football in 2002. His death came after a 17-year battle against cancer which had gone into remission four times.^[48]

• 2 August 2009 – Joe Livingstone, 67, former striker who scored 42 goals in 82 appearances for Carlisle United, and also played for Middlesbrough and Hartlepool United.^[49]

• 9 August 2009 – Tommy Clinton, 83, former defender who spent eight seasons at Everton, and was capped three times by the Republic of Ireland. Also played briefly for Blackburn Rovers and Tranmere Rovers.^[50]

• 19 August 2009 – Bobby Thomson, 65, full-back capped eight times by England. He played 278 league games for Wolverhampton Wanderers, 110 for Luton Town and also played for Birmingham City, Walsall, Port Vale, and in the United States.^[51]

• 13 September 2009 – Paul Shirtliff, 46, former defender who played in The Football League for Sheffield Wednesday and Northampton Town, and also had a long career at non-league level.^[52]

• 24 September 2009 – Terry Bly, 73, former striker who most notably holds the post-war single-season goalscoring record in The Football League, having scored 52 goals for Peterborough United in 1960–61. Also played for Norwich City, Coventry City and Notts County.^[53]

• 26 September 2009 – Geoff Barrowcliffe, 77, former Derby County full-back who spent 16 seasons with the Rams, playing more than 500 first-team games. He also played for several non-league clubs including Ilkeston Town and Boston United.^[54]

• 5 October 2009 – Tommy Capel, 87, former inside-forward who most notably played five seasons for Nottingham Forest, where he scored 72 goals in 162 appearances. Also played for Manchester City, Chesterfield, Birmingham City, Coventry City and Halifax Town.^[55]

• 12 October 2009 – Stan Palk, 87, former inside-forward who played for Liverpool and Port Vale in the immediate post-war years.^[56]

• 21 October 2009 – John Jarman, 78, former Barnsley and Walsall wing-half, who later worked as a coach for Wolverhampton Wanderers, West Bromwich Albion, Mansfield Town and Derby County.^[57]

• 22 October 2009 – Ray Lambert, 87, former Wales international full-back who played more than 300 games for Liverpool, where he won the 1946–47 league title.^[58]

• 2 November 2009 – Keith Kettleborough, 74, former inside-forward who spent the majority of his career with Rotherham United and Sheffield United, and also had a spell as player-manager at Doncaster Rovers.^[59]

• 7 November 2009 – Billy Ingham, 57, former Burnley midfielder who spent eleven years with the Clarets, playing more than 250 games for the club before finishing his career with a spell at Bradford City.^[60]

• 15 November 2009 – Ray Charnley, 74, former Blackpool striker who is one of the Seasiders' most prolific scorers of all time, with 222 goals in 407 appearances for the club. He won one England cap while at Blackpool, and also played for Morecambe, Wrexham and Bradford Park Avenue.^[61]

• 23 November 2009 – Tony Parry, 64, former central defender who spent the majority of his nine-year professional career with Hartlepool United, and also had a brief spell with Derby County before dropping down to non-league football.^[62]

• 25 November 2009 - Mike Tiddy, 80, former winger who began his career at Torquay United before making over 100 appearances with Cardiff City and Brighton & Hove Albion as well as making over 50 apperances for Arsenal.^[63][64]

• 1 December 2009 – Neil Dougall, 88, inside-forward or wing-half who played nearly 100 games for Birmingham City and more than 300 for Plymouth Argyle, a club he later managed. Capped once for Scotland.^[65]

• 14 December 2009 – Alan A'Court, 75, former Liverpool winger who spent 13 seasons with the Reds, playing 382 games, before finishing his career at Tranmere Rovers. He was also capped five times by England, and played for his country in the 1958 World Cup.^[66]

• 20 December 2009 – Jack Brownsword, 86, former left-back who spent nearly his entire career with Scunthorpe United, playing a club-record 597 league appearances for the Iron between 1950 and 1964. Also had a brief spell with Hull City prior to joining Scunthorpe.^[67]

• 22 December 2009 – Albert Scanlon, 74, former Manchester United winger and Busby Babe who survived the Munich Air Disaster. Played 115 league games for the Red Devils, and was a member of the 1955–56 and 1956–57 championship-winning sides. Later played for Newcastle United, Lincoln City and Mansfield Town.^[68]

[edit] See also

• Category:Football (soccer) clubs 2009–10 season

[edit] References