2009–10 Portuguese Liga

The 2009–10 Portuguese Liga season (also known as Liga Sagres due to sponsorship reasons) is the 76th season of top-tier football in Portugal. It began on 16 August 2009 and will end on 9 May 2010. FC Porto are the defending champions for the fourth consecutive time.

[edit] Changes to 2008–09

[edit] Team changes

Trofense have been relegated to the Liga de Honra after finishing the 2008–09 season in 16th and last place. Trofense were to be accompanied by Belenenses, who finished in 15th place. Belenenses were ending a ten-year stretch in the Portuguese top-level league, while Trofense returned to the Liga da Honra after just one year in the top flight.

However, Estrela de Amadora, who finished last season in 11th place, have been relegated for economic problems to the Liga Vitalis. Therefore, Belenenses' relegation has been reversed and they will participate in the Liga Sagres once more.^[4]

The relegated teams will be replaced by Liga Vitalis 2008–09 champions Olhanense and runners-up União de Leiria. Olhanense will return to the top-flight after 34 years, while Leiria will be back after a one-year hiatus.

[edit] Structural changes

Based on UEFA coefficients, Portugal finished in 10th place of the UEFA country ranking after the 2008–09 season^[5] As a result, the Portuguese league will lose one qualification spot for the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League. The third-placed team will now qualify for the third qualification round instead of the play-off round. The fourth-placed team will enter the competition in the second qualification round while the fifth place will not initially qualify for any European competitions via league placement. However, this may change during the course of the season depending on the league performance of both 2009–10 Cup of Portugal finalists.

[edit] Team overview

Académica

Braga

Guimarães

Leiria

Leixões

Naval

Olhanense

P. Ferreira

Porto

Rio Ave

Setúbal

Madeira Islands
 (see below)

Belenenses

Benfica

Sporting

Location of teams in Liga Sagres 2009–10

Marítimo

Nacional

Location of teams in Liga Sagres 2009–10

[edit] Stadia and locations

[edit] Personnel and sponsoring

[edit] Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing	Manner	Date	Table	Incoming	Date
Naval 1º de Maio	Ulisses Morais [6]	Sacked	7 September 2009	15th	Augusto Inácio [7]	12 September 2009
Vitória de Setúbal	Carlos Azenha [8]	Resigned	14 September 2009	16th	Quim1 [9]	17 September 2009
Marítimo	Carlos Carvalhal [10]	Resigned	28 September 2009	11th	Mitchell van der Gaag [11]	28 September 2009
Académica de Coimbra	Rogério Gonçalves [12]	Resigned	3 October 2009	16th	André Villas Boas [13]	14 October 2009
Vitória de Guimarães	Nelo Vingada [14]	Resigned	7 October 2009	12th	Paulo Sérgio [15]	16 October 2009
Paços de Ferreira	Paulo Sérgio [16]	Left to sign with Vitória Guimarães	16 October 2009	10th	Ulisses Morais [17]	16 October 2009
União de Leiria	Manuel Fernandes [18]	Left to sign with Vitória de Setúbal	20 October 2009	9th	Lito Vidigal	22 October 2009
Vitória de Setúbal	Quim	Replaced	21 October 2009	15th	Manuel Fernandes [19]	21 October 2009
Sporting CP	Paulo Bento [20]	Resigned	6 November 2009	7th	Leonel Pontes 2	6 November 2009
Sporting CP	Leonel Pontes	End of caretaker spell	15 November 2009	8th	Carlos Carvalhal [21]	15 November 2009

¹ Interim coach Quim.
² Interim coach Leonel Pontes managed the team for 1 match, of 10th round.

[edit] League table

Updated to games played on 21 December 2009
Source: Liga Sagres (Liga Portugal)
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th head-to-head goals scored; 5th goal difference; 6th goals scored.
The winner of the 2009–10 Taça de Portugal will earn a place in the play-off round of the UEFA Europa League.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (Q) = Qualified to respective phase of tournament; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Head-to-Head: used when two or more teams need the head-to-head rules to break a tie.

[edit] Results

Updated to games played on 21 December 2009
Source: Liga Sagres (Liga Portugal)
¹The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

[edit] Top goalscorers

Position	Player	Club	Goals
1	Óscar Cardozo	Benfica	14
2	Edgar	Nacional	8
	Falcao	Porto	8
4	Saviola	Benfica	7
5	João Tomás	Rio Ave	6
6	Carlão	União de Leiria	5
	Baba Diawara	Marítimo	5
	Farías	Porto	5
	Kerrouche	Naval 1º de Maio	5
	Sougou	Académica de Coimbra	5
	Varela	Porto	5
	William	Paços de Ferreira	5

Updated to games played on 4 December 2009
Source: Liga Sagres - Match Statistics (Portuguese)

[edit] SJPF Player of the Month

Month	Player	Club
September [22]	Alan	Sporting de Braga
October [23]	Djalma	Marítimo
November [24]	João Tomás	Rio Ave
December
January
February
March
April

[edit] See also

• 2009–10 Liga de Honra
• Taça de Portugal 2009–10
• List of transfers of Portuguese Liga 2009-10 season

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official webpage (Portuguese)
• Official regulation (Portuguese)