Serbian Superliga

Countries	Serbia
Confederation	UEFA
Founded	1923
Number of teams	16
Relegation to	Serbian First League
Level on pyramid	Level 1
Domestic cup(s)	Lav Kup
International cup(s)	Champions League Europa League
Current champions	Partizan (2008–09)
Most championships	Red Star (25 titles)
Website	http://www.superliga.rs
Serbian Superliga 2009–10

Serbian SuperLiga (Serbian: Супер Лига Србије / Super Liga Srbije) is a Serbian professional league for football clubs. At the top of the Serbian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 16 clubs, operating a system of promotion and relegation with the Serbian First League (Prva liga Srbija, second Serbian football tier). The SuperLiga was formed during summer 2004 as the country's top football league competition in Serbia and Montenegro. Since summer 2006 after the secession of Montenegro from Serbia, the league only has Serbian clubs.

Serbian clubs used to compete in the Yugoslav First League. This competition was formed in 1923 and lasted until 2003. After the downfall of SFR Yugoslavia in 1991 a new Yugoslavia would be formed that would be named FR Yugoslavia with Montenegro and Serbia. They kept the name Yugoslavia until 2003 when the country changed its name to Serbia and Montenegro: this union lasted until 2006 when Montenegro gained independence and formed its own league, the Montenegrin First League.

The current SuperLiga champions are Partizan. UEFA currently ranks the league 21st in Europe.^[1] The league was known as Meridian SuperLiga from Autumn 2004 until Summer 2008. The league's current official sponsor is beer maker Jelen pivo, thus resulting in the league's official name to be Jelen SuperLiga.

[edit] Format

The SuperLiga began as a league with a playoff system in an attempt to boost ratings and improve competition. After the first season however, the SuperLiga changed its format. The 2007-08 season was the first to be played in a more traditional format. The league no longer divided into a playoff and playout group midway through the campaign. Instead, the 12 teams began playing each other three times in a more conventional league format. After two seasons with that format the Football Association of Serbia decided to add 4 teams to the SuperLiga. The 2009-10 season will be the first with a 16 team league played in a conventional league format of one home and one away match rather than the previous 3 match encounters. This drops the match schedule from 33 rounds to 30.

The champion of the SuperLiga begins its UEFA Champions League campaign in the second round of qualifying as a seeded team. The second and third placed teams qualify for the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League. The Serbian Cup winner qualifies for the third qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League. Since the UEFA Intertoto Cup is now abolished, the 4th placed team has a chance to qualify for the Europa League is both Cup finalists are already qualified for Europe thru League position.

[edit] History

The SuperLiga was a part of the Yugoslav First League after its creation in 1992 as the country was still known as Yugoslavia. In 2003, Yugoslavia was renamed to Serbia and Montenegro and the football league followed suit. The First League of Serbia and Montenegro contained 16 teams, but the current SuperLiga has only 12 in an attempt to bring up the level of play. The Football Association of Serbia questioned their decision prior to the 2007-08 season but have decided that there would be no changes in the number of teams for that season. The following season brought up the number of teams back to 16.

[edit] Recent Seasons

[edit] Top scorers

All-time top scorers in the SuperLiga
(SuperLiga goals only)

Rank	Player	Goals
1	Lamine Diarra	38
2	Nenad Milijaš	33
3	Dušan Tadić	25
4	Dragan Mrđa	22
5	Ranko Despotović	21
6	Andrija Kaluđerović	20
7	Nikola Simić	20
8	Srđan Baljak	18
9	Aleksandar Jevtić	18
10	Almami Moreira	17
As of 22 November 2009 (Bold denotes players still in SuperLiga), (Italics denotes players still playing professional football).

[edit] Members for 2009–10

The following 16 clubs will compete in the Jelen SuperLiga during the 2009–10 season.

[edit] Sponsorship

The SuperLiga currently has three major sponsors.

• Jelen pivo is the league's general sponsor.
• Nike is the league's official ball.
• Western Union is a sponsorship partner.

[edit] UEFA Ranking

UEFA Country Ranking for league participation in 2010–11 European football season (Previous year rank in italics)

• 17 (17) Bulgarian A PFG
• 18 (15) Czech Gambrinus liga
• 19 (18) Norwegian Tippeligaen
• 20 (20) Austria Bundesliga
• 21 (21) Serbian SuperLiga
• 22 (22) Israeli Premier League
• 23 (28) Cypriot First Division
• 24 (23) Allsvenskan

[edit] Foreign players

See List of foreign football players in Serbia

[edit] See also

• List of football clubs in Serbia
• Serbia national football team

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website (Serbian)
• Unofficial website (Serbian)