2008–09 Israeli Premier League Information & 2008–09 Israeli Premier League Links at HealthHaven.com

Israeli Premier League
Season	2008–09
Champions	Maccabi Haifa; 6th Premier League title; 11th top-flight title
Relegated	Hakoah Amidar Ramat Gan; Ironi Kiryat Shmona
Champions League	Maccabi Haifa (second qualifying round)
Europa League	Hapoel Tel Aviv (third qualifying round); Maccabi Netanya (second qualifying round); Bnei Yehuda (first qualifying round)
Goals scored	432
Average goals/game	2.18
Top goalscorer	Barak Yitzhaki; Shimon Abuhatzira; Eliran Atar; (All with 14 goals)
Biggest home win	Hapoel Tel Aviv 4–0 Beitar Jerusalem (9 February 2009); Beitar Jerusalem 4–0 Hakoah Ramat Gan (4 April 2009)
Biggest away win	8 games with a win by 3 goals
Highest scoring	Hakoah Ramat Gan 2–4 Beitar Jerusalem (20 September 2008); F.C. Ashdod 4–2 Bnei Sakhnin (8 November 2008); F.C. Ashdod 3–3 Maccabi Netanya (20 December 2008); (6 goals)
	← 2007–08 2009–10 →

The 2008–09 Israeli Premier League season began on 30 August 2008, and ended on 1 June 2009. Beitar Jerusalem were the defending champions, having won their 6th league title the previous year.

Two teams from Liga Leumit were promoted at the end of the previous season: Hakoah Amidar Ramat Gan and Hapoel Petah Tikva. The two teams relegated were Hapoel Kfar Saba and Maccabi Herzliya.

At a 24 June 2008 IFA administration meeting^[1] it was decided that the league would be expanded to 16 clubs for the following season. Due to the expansion, only one team was relegated directly to Liga Leumit, while five clubs were promoted. The eleventh-ranked team played in a play-off match against the sixth-ranked team from Liga Leumit.

Maccabi Haifa clinched their 11th title after a 0–2 win against Maccabi Netanya on 23 May 2009.

[edit] Stadia

Club	Stadium	Capacity
Beitar Jerusalem	Teddy Stadium	21,600
Bnei Yehuda	Bloomfield Stadium	15,700
Hapoel Tel Aviv
Maccabi Tel Aviv
Maccabi Haifa	Kiryat Eliezer Stadium	14,002
Hakoah Ramat Gan	Winter Stadium	08,000
Maccabi Netanya	Sar-Tov Stadium	07,500
F.C. Ashdod	Yud-Alef Stadium	07,420
Hapoel Petah Tikva	Petah Tikva Municipal Stadium	06,768
Maccabi Petah Tikva	Petah Tikva Municipal Stadium	06,768
Ironi Kiryat Shmona	Kiryat Shmona Municipal Stadium	05,200
Bnei Sakhnin	Doha Stadium	05,000

[edit] League table

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Maccabi Haifa (C)	33	19	10	4	49	24	+25	67	2009–10 UEFA Champions League Second qualifying round
2	Hapoel Tel Aviv	33	17	10	6	49	28	+21	61	2009–10 UEFA Europa League Third qualifying round
3	Beitar Jerusalem	33	16	12	5	47	28	+19	057^1,2
4	Maccabi Netanya	33	14	12	7	40	32	+8	54	2009–10 UEFA Europa League Second qualifying round ¹
5	Bnei Yehuda	33	14	7	12	38	31	+7	49	2009–10 UEFA Europa League First qualifying round ¹
6	Maccabi Tel Aviv	33	11	11	11	36	35	+1	44
7	Maccabi Petah Tikva	33	8	15	10	26	33	−7	39
8	F.C. Ashdod	33	10	8	15	41	48	−7	38
9	Bnei Sakhnin	33	7	12	14	26	41	−15	33
10	Hapoel Petah Tikva	33	8	7	18	30	42	−12	31
11	Hakoah Ramat Gan (R)	33	6	11	16	26	46	−20	29	Qualification to relegation play-offs
12	Ironi Kiryat Shmona (R)	33	6	9	18	24	44	−20	27	Relegation to Liga Leumit

Source: Israel Football Association
Rules for classification: 1^st points; 2^nd goal difference; 3^rd matches won; 4^th goals scored; 5^th head-to-head; 6^th decision match.
¹Beitar Jerusalem did not obtain the license for competing in next year's European competitions because they failed to meet their commitments to UEFA.^[2] Since Beitar won the cup and the cup runners-up are league champions Maccabi Haifa, all Europa League spots were awarded to teams according to their league positions. Since Beitar also finished third in the league, Europa League spots were given to league runners-up Hapoel Tel Aviv, fourth-placed Maccabi Netanya and fifth-placed Bnei Yehuda.
²Beitar Jerusalem were deducted two points due to Beitar fans pitch invasion the previous year against Maccabi Herzliya^[3] and one point due to racist calls from Beitar fans.^[4]
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (Q) = Qualified to respective phase of tournament; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.

[edit] Positions by round

Team \ Round	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33
Maccabi Haifa	1	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	2	1	1	1	1
Hapoel Tel Aviv	4	7	7	5	7	7	4	4	4	5	3	3	3	3	3	3	2	3	2	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	2	1	2	2	2	2
Beitar Jerusalem	12	12	6	7	9	9	6	9	7	4	6	6	6	4	4	5	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Maccabi Netanya	6	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	2	3	2	3	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Bnei Yehuda	10	8	11	11	12	11	12	10	11	12	10	9	8	9	7	7	6	5	5	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Maccabi Tel Aviv	2	3	3	3	3	4	5	7	6	8	8	8	9	8	9	9	8	8	7	8	9	9	8	8	8	7	6	6	6	7	6	6	6
Maccabi Petah Tikva	5	4	4	4	4	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	5	6	6	4	5	6	6	5	6	6	7	7	7	6	7	7	7	6	7	8	7
F.C. Ashdod	11	5	8	9	8	8	9	8	5	7	5	7	7	5	5	6	7	7	8	7	7	7	6	6	6	8	8	8	8	8	8	7	8
Bnei Sakhnin	8	9	12	12	11	12	10	11	12	10	11	11	11	11	10	11	11	10	10	10	11	11	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	9	10	10	9
Hapoel Petah Tikva	7	10	5	8	6	5	7	5	8	6	7	5	4	7	8	8	9	9	9	9	8	8	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	10	9	9	10
Hakoah Ramat Gan	3	6	9	10	10	10	11	12	10	11	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	11	11	11	11	11	12	12	11
Ironi Kiryat Shmona	9	11	10	6	5	6	8	6	9	9	9	10	10	10	11	10	10	11	11	11	10	10	11	11	11	12	12	12	12	12	11	11	12

Source: Israel Football Association

[edit] Results

F.C. Ashdod

Maccabi Haifa

Maccabi Netanya

Beitar Jerusalem

Maccabi Petah Tikva

Hapoel Petah Tikva

Ironi Kiryat Shmona

Bnei Sakhnin

Hapoel Tel Aviv

Maccabi Tel Aviv

Bnei Yehuda

Hakoah Ramat Gan

Location of teams in the Israeli Premier League 2008–09

The schedule consisted of three rounds. During 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 first two rounds, giving every team a third game against each opponent for a total of 33 games per team.

[edit] First and second round

Home \ Away¹	BEI	BnS	BnY	FCA	HRG	HPT	HTA	IKS	MHA	MNE	MPT	MTA
Beitar Jerusalem		0–0	1–0	3–2	3–0	2–2	0–2	2–2	1–1	2–1	1–1	0–0
Bnei Sakhnin	0–0		0–2	0–2	0–1	0–3	1–0	1–0	0–1	0–1	2–1	2–3
Bnei Yehuda	0–3	2–0		1–0	2–2	1–0	3–0	0–1	0–1	1–1	1–0	3–2
F.C. Ashdod	1–2	4–2	0–2		3–2	4–1	1–0	2–0	1–3	3–3	1–1	1–0
Hakoah Ramat Gan	2–4	0–0	0–1	1–1		0–1	2–2	1–0	0–3	1–2	2–2	0–1
Hapoel Petah Tikva	0–2	1–1	1–0	2–1	1–0		0–2	3–0	1–4	0–0	0–1	0–1
Hapoel Tel Aviv	4–0	1–0	2–0	2–0	3–0	3–2		1–1	0–0	2–1	1–1	2–0
Ironi Kiryat Shmona	1–0	1–2	0–2	1–1	0–2	0–0	0–0		1–0	0–3	0–0	1–2
Maccabi Haifa	0–0	2–1	1–0	3–1	2–0	1–0	2–2	1–1		2–3	3–1	3–2
Maccabi Netanya	1–2	1–1	2–2	2–1	2–2	3–1	0–0	2–1	2–0		0–0	1–0
Maccabi Petah Tikva	0–1	1–0	0–0	2–3	1–0	2–1	1–1	2–1	2–0	1–1		0–0
Maccabi Tel Aviv	0–0	1–1	2–1	2–2	0–0	1–2	1–3	0–1	1–1	0–1	0–0

Source: Israel Football Association
¹The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

[edit] Third round

Key numbers for pairing determination (number marks position after 22 games):

Rounds
23rd	24th	25th	26th	27th	28th	29th	30th	31st	32nd	33rd
3 – 12 4 – 2 5 – 1 6 – 11 7 – 10 8 – 9	12 – 9 10 – 8 11 – 7 1 – 6 2 – 5 3 – 4	4 – 12 5 – 3 6 – 2 7 – 1 8 – 11 9 – 10	12 – 10 11 – 9 1 – 8 2 – 7 3 – 6 4 – 5	5 – 12 6 – 4 7 – 3 8 – 2 9 – 1 10 – 11	12 – 11 1 – 10 2 – 9 3 – 8 4 – 7 5 – 6	6 – 12 7 – 5 8 – 4 9 – 3 10 – 2 11 – 1	1 – 12 2 – 11 3 – 10 4 – 9 5 – 8 6 – 7	12 – 7 8 – 6 9 – 5 10 – 4 11 – 3 1 – 2	2 – 12 3 – 1 4 – 11 5 – 10 6 – 9 7 – 8	12 – 8 9 – 7 10 – 6 11 – 5 1 – 4 2 – 3

Home \ Away¹	BEI	BnS	BnY	FCA	HRG	HPT	HTA	IKS	MHA	MNE	MPT	MTA
Beitar Jerusalem		3–0	2–2	2–1	4–0		2–1					2–0
Bnei Sakhnin			3–1	3–2					0–0	0–0		0–3
Bnei Yehuda					1–0	2–1		0–0	0–1	2–0	1–1
F.C. Ashdod			0–3			1–0		2–0	0–3	0–0
Hakoah Ramat Gan		1–1		0–0		1–0		1–0				1–1
Hapoel Petah Tikva	0–0	2–2					0–1				2–0	1–2
Hapoel Tel Aviv		1–1	2–1	1–0	3–2					1–2		1–1
Ironi Kiryat Shmona	2–0	0–2				1–1	1–3				1–2
Maccabi Haifa	1–1				2–0	2–1	1–0	2–1			0–0
Maccabi Netanya	1–0				0–0	1–0		1–3	0–2		1–2
Maccabi Petah Tikva	0–2	0–0		0–0	0–2		1–2					0–3
Maccabi Tel Aviv			2–1	1–0				3–2	1–1	0–1

Source: Israel Football Association
¹The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

[edit] Relegation playoff

Hakoah Ramat Gan, as the 11th-placed team, faced the 6th-placed Liga Leumit team Maccabi Ahi Nazareth in a two-legged playoff. Hakoah Ramat Gan lost both games and were relegated to Liga Leumit.

2 June 2009 20:30 UTC+2	Maccabi Ahi Nazareth	2 – 1	Hakoah Ramat Gan	Ilut Stadium, Ilut Referee: Alon Yefet
	Ayeli 41' Silvas 48'	Report	For 42'	Ilut Stadium, Ilut Referee: Alon Yefet

6 June 2009 19:00 UTC+2	Hakoah Ramat Gan	1 – 2	Maccabi Ahi Nazareth	Winter Stadium, Ramat Gan Referee: Eitan Tabrizi
	For 23'	Report	Jida 46' Ayeli 76'	Winter Stadium, Ramat Gan Referee: Eitan Tabrizi

[edit] Season statistics

[edit] Scoring

First goal of the season: Yossi Shivhon for Maccabi Tel Aviv against Bnei Yehuda, 5th minute (30 August 2008)^[5]
Last goal of the season: Lior Rafaelov for Maccabi Haifa against Beitar Jerusalem, 58th minute (1 July 2009)^[6]
First own goal of the season: Nir Davidovich (Maccabi Haifa) for F.C. Ashdod, 57th minute (30 August 2008)^[7]
Fastest goal in a match: 39 seconds – Thembinkosi Fanteni for Maccabi Haifa against Maccabi Tel Aviv (27 October 2008)^[8]
Goal scored at the latest point in a match: 90+5 minutes – Barak Badash for Hakoah Ramat Gan against Bnei Yehuda (13 September 2008)^[9]
Widest winning margin: 4 goals:
- Hapoel Tel Aviv 4–0 Beitar Jerusalem (9 February 2009)^[10]
- Beitar Jerusalem 4–0 Hakoah Ramat Gan (4 April 2009)^[11]

Most goals in a match: 6 goals:
- Hakoah Ramat Gan 2–4 Beitar Jerusalem (20 September 2008)^[12]
- F.C. Ashdod 4–2 Bnei Sakhnin (8 November 2008)^[13]
- F.C. Ashdod 3–3 Maccabi Netanya (20 December 2008)^[14]

[edit] Discipline

First yellow card of the season: Tamir Kahlon for Bnei Yehuda against Maccabi Tel Aviv, 6th minute (30 August 2008)^[5]
First red card of the season: Ronny Gafney for Maccabi Haifa against F.C. Ashdod, 59th minute (30 August 2008)^[7]
Most yellow cards in a match: 12 yellow cards – Beitar Jerusalem against Maccabi Haifa (28 September 2008)^[15]
Most red cards in a match: 4 red cards – F.C. Ashdod against Ironi Kiryat Shmona (13 September 2008)^[16]
Most cards in a match: 15 cards (12 yellow and 3 red) – Beitar Jerusalem against Maccabi Haifa (28 September 2008)^[15]

[edit] Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals^[17]
1	Barak Yitzhaki	Beitar Jerusalem	14
	Shimon Abuhatzira	Hapoel Petah Tikva	14
	Eliran Atar	Bnei Yehuda	14
4	Samuel Yeboah	Hapoel Tel Aviv	13
5	Dimitar Makriev	F.C. Ashdod	11
5	Thembinkosi Fanteni	Maccabi Haifa	11
7	David Revivo	F.C. Ashdod	10
7	Pedro Galván	Bnei Yehuda	10
9	Maor Buzaglo	Maccabi Tel Aviv	09
9	Lior Rafaelov	Maccabi Haifa	09
Total			432
Average per game			2.18