The 2009–10 Primera División season is the eighty-first season of top-flight professional football in Argentina. A total of 20 teams are competing in the season. The season started on August 21, 2009.

[edit] Changes from 2008–09

The major changes for this season apply to international qualification. For the 2010 Copa Libertadores, the average for the past two tournaments will be taken into account, instead of the past three. For the 2010 Copa Sudamericana, River Plate and Boca Juniors will be no longer be invited without merit. Their open berths will be up for qualification to any team, including themselves.

On August 21, the AFA revoked the television broadcasting contract with TyC in the hopes of increasing revenue to help the financially struggling clubs.^[1][2] On August 18, the AFA and the Argentine government struck a deal to broadcast the season for free on non-cable channels, which allowed the season to start on the 21st.^[3]

[edit] Club information

Twenty teams will participate in the 2009–10 season. Eightteen teams from last season remain for this season. Gimnasia (Jujuy) and San Martín de Tucumán were relegated at the end of the 2008–09 season. They were replaced by Chacarita Juniors and Atlético Tucumán, both of whom were promoted from the Primera B Nacional. Rosario Central and Gimnasia (La Plata) played the relegation/promotion playoffs against Belgrano and Atlético de Rafaela, respectively. Both Gimnasia (La Plata) and Rosario Central won their playoff matches and retained their status in top-flight football.

Atlético Tucumán

Buenos Aires

Colón

Estudiantes

Gimnasia (La Plata)

Godoy Cruz

Newell's Old Boys

Rosario Central

Locations of the 2009−10 Primera División teams outside Greater Buenos Aires.

Banfield

Tigre

Argentinos Juniors

Arsenal

Boca Juniors

Chacarita Juniors

Huracán

Independiente, Racing

Lanús

River Plate

San Lorenzo

Vélez Sársfield

Locations of the 2009−10 Primera División teams within Greater Buenos Aires.

1.^ The first match Independiente played in Estadio Libertadores de América after reconstruction was on October 28, 2009. Prior to that, Independiente used Estadio Ciudad de Lanús.

[edit] Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Pre-season changes
Boca Juniors	Abel Álvez (interim)	End of contract	Jul. 5, 2009	Alfio Basile	Jul. 6, 2009	N/A
Rosario Central	Miguel Ángel Russo	Resigned	Jul. 13, 2009	Ariel Cuffaro Russo	Jul. 22, 2009	N/A
Apertura changes
Chacarita Juniors	Ricardo Zielinski	Resigned	Sept. 20, 2009	Fernando Gamboa	Sept. 21, 2009 [4]	20th
River Plate	Néstor Gorosito	Resigned	Oct. 4, 2009 [5]	Leonardo Astrada	Oct. 6, 2009 [6]	16th
Racing	Ricardo Caruso Lombardi	Resigned	Oct. 8, 2009 [7]	Juan Barbas (interim)	Oct. 10, 2009 [8]	18th
Atlético Tucumán	Héctor Rivoira	Resigned	Nov. 2, 2009 [9]	Salvador Mónaco (interim) & Ricardo Salomón (interim)	Nov 4, 2009 [10]	17th
Racing	Juan Barbas (interim)	End of contract	Nov. 2, 2009	Claudio Vivas	Nov. 3, 2009 [11]	18th
Godoy Cruz	Diego Cocca	Sacked	Nov. 3, 2009 [12]	Daniel Oldrá (interim)	Nov. 3, 2009	15th
Godoy Cruz	Daniel Oldrá (interim)	End of contract	Nov. 8, 2009 [13]	Enzo Trossero	Nov. 9, 2009	15th
Atlético Tucumán	Salvador Mónaco (interim) & Ricardo Salomón (interim)	End of contract	Nov. 11, 2009	Osvaldo Sosa	Nov 11, 2009 [14]	14th
Huracán	Ángel Cappa	Resigned	Nov. 24, 2009 [15]	Jesús Martínez (interim)	Nov 25, 2009	19th

[edit] Transfers

[edit] Torneo Apertura

The Torneo Apertura was scheduled to begin on August 16, 2009 and end on December 13, 2009. However, the AFA delayed the start of the tournament until August 21, 2009 due to financial debts in some clubs.^[1][2][3]

[edit] Standings

Updated to games played on November 23, 2009
Source: AFA
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th head-to-head goals.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (Q) = Qualified to respective phase of tournament; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.

[edit] Results

Updated to games played on November 23, 2009
Source: RSSSF
¹The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

[edit] Top ten goalscorers

Pos	Player	Team	Goals
1	Santiago Silva	Banfield	12
2	Federico Nieto	Colón	10
3	Mauro Boselli	Estudiantes	9
4	Joaquín Boghossian	Newell's Old Boys	8
	Darío Gandín	Independiente	8
6	Diego Buonanotte	River Plate	6
	Esteban Fuertes	Colón	6
	Gabriel Hauche	Argentinos Juniors	6
9	Jonathan Cristaldo	Vélez Sársfield	5
	Carlos Luna	Tigre	5
	Facundo Parra	Chacarita Juniors	5

Updated as of games played on November 23, 2009.
Source: AFA (Spanish)

[edit] Torneo Clausura

The Torneo Clausura is scheduled to begin on January 31, 2010.

[edit] Relegation

[edit] International qualification

See also: Clubs in international competitions

[edit] Copa Libertadores

The first two of Argentina's five allocated berths to the 2010 Copa Libertadores will go to the 2009 Clausura champion (Vélez Sársfield) and the this season's Apertura champion. The remaining three berths will go to the teams with the best average of the past two tournaments^[2]. Additionally, Estudiantes has a berth as the defending Copa Libertadores champion.

Updated to games played on November 23, 2009.
Source: AFA.

1.^ Only teams that did not play in the promotional/relegation playoffs are eligible to play in the 2010 Copa Libertadores. This leaves Gimnasia (La Plata) and Rosario Central ineligible for the competition.

[edit] Copa Sudamericana

Qualification for the 2010 Copa Sudamericana is determined by an aggregate table of the Apertura 2009 and Clausura 2010 tournaments. The top six teams in the aggregate table qualify. Boca Juniors and River Plate will no longer be invitees to the tournament without merit.

Updated to games played on November 23, 2009
Source: AFA
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th head-to-head goals.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (Q) = Qualified to respective phase of tournament; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• 2009–10 in Argentine football

[edit] External links

• Season regulations (Spanish)