2007–08 Serbian SuperLiga

2007–08 Serbian SuperLiga
The 2007–08 Serbian SuperLiga (known as the Meridian SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons) was the second since its establishment in 2006. Red Star Belgrade were the defending SuperLiga champions, having won their twenty-fifth national title the season before.
The SuperLiga changed its format from this season. The League was no longer divided into a playoff and play-out group midway through the campaign. Instead the 12 teams played each other three times in a conventional league format. For the SuperLiga's inaugural season and this one the league had been named the Meridian SuperLiga. This however, was the last season that Meridian Bank had sponsorship rights to the SuperLiga. The rights to the Serbian SuperLiga were bought by Jelen and starting from the 2008–09 season the league was known as the Jelen SuperLiga.
European placing
Like in many previous seasons, the allocation of European spots based on the final 2007–08 league and cup standings turned out to be messy.
According to the propositions, the second UEFA Cup spot is supposed to go to the Serbian Cup winner. However, since the Cup was won by FK Partizan, a club that also won the league, the second UEFA Cup spot went to the 2007–08 Serbian Cup finalist FK Zemun. This created problems, since FK Zemun couldn't obtain the UEFA licence for the year due to poor financial situation at the club, and their UEFA Cup spot went to the 4th placed league team - Borac Čačak. Now, since Borac Čačak earned a 2008 Intertoto Cup berth based on finishing 4th in the league, they now passed their Intertoto Cup spot down to 9th placed OFK Beograd because Napredak Kruševac, Čukarički, Mladost Lučani, and Hajduk Kula (5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th placed teams in the league, respectively) didn't want it.
This created a bizarre situation whereby a team that finished fourth from the bottom barely avoiding relegation playoff (OFK Beograd) still got to play in the 2008 Intertoto Cup.
Participating clubs and their stadia
The following twelve clubs competed in the 2007–08 Serbian SuperLiga season.
League table
Results
The schedule consists of three rounds. During the 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 the first two rounds, giving every team a third game against each opponent for a total of 33 games per team.
First and second round
Third round
Top scorers
Hat-tricks
Winning squad
Champions: PARTIZAN BELGRADE (coach: Miroslav Đukić until 18 round, Slaviša Jokanović from 18 round)
Players(League matches/league goals)
Zoran Tošić (32/8)
Lamine Diarra (31/12)
Đorđe Lazić (30/6)
Almani Moreira (28/7)
Darko Maletić (28/0)
Stevan Jovetić (27/12)
Juca (25/5)
Nemanja Rnić (25/0)
Darko Božović (24/0)
Ivan Obradović (19/0)
Aleksandar Lazevski (16/2)
Žarko Lazetić (15/1)
Nikola Mitrović (15/0)
Nenad Đorđević (14/6)
Ednilson (14/0)
Mladen Božović (10/0)
Srđa Knežević (10/0)
Milan Vještica (9/0)
Marko Jovanović (9/0)
Dragan Čadikovski (7/2)
Slaven Stjepanović (7/1)
Marko Ćetković (6/0)
Milovan Sikimić (5/0)
Risto Lakić (2/0)
Relegation playoff
The third-placed team form the bottom in 2007–08 SuperLiga (FK Smederevo) plays the winner of the 4-team playoff consisting of 3rd to 6th placed teams from 2007 to 2008 Serbian First League (FK Rad). The playoff has a home-and-away tie format
7 June 2008, FK Rad - FK Smederevo 3:1
11 June 2008, FK Smederevo - FK Rad 2:1
Promoted teams
The following teams were promoted to the Meridian SuperLiga at the end of the 2007–08 season:
Javor Ivanjica - Serbian First League champion
Jagodina - Serbian First League runner-up
Rad - Winner of the playoffs against Smederevo
Relegated teams
The following teams were relegated to the Serbian First League at the end of the 2007–08 season based on their performance:
Bežanija - Automatically relegated after finishing the season in the 12th position (last place).
Banat Zrenjanin - Automatically relegated after finishing in the 11th position (second last place).
Smederevo - As a result of finishing 10th (third place from the bottom) entered and lost relegation playoffs against FK Rad (a team that won the chance to compete for promotion from First League amongst the 4 teams that finished 3rd to 6th inclusive)
However, following speculation on 29 June 2008 that 7th placed SuperLiga team - Mladost from Lučani - might decline the opportunity to compete in 2008–09 SuperLiga season due to lacking the funds required to compete at the top level, the official confirmation of their decision came on 2 July 2008. The possibility of Mladost Lučani being relegated two levels down to Srpska Liga as punishment was initially talked about, nut the club was eventually moved only one level down to First League for the 2008–09 season.
By the decision of Serbian Football Association (FSS), the relegated team that ended up keeping its SuperLiga status as a result of Mladost's withdrawal became 11th placed Banat Zrenjanin, not the 10th placed FK Smederevo. The FA made the decision based on their opinion that Banat Zrenjanin has better support of the sponsors and its community (city of Zrenjanin) than does FK Smederevo.
The decision caused a lot of controversy and protest from FK Smederevo officials who claimed they should've been given the opportunity to retain the SuperLiga status after Mladost's withdrawal. They even launched an official appeal with UEFA, but it got rejected.
So, in the end, the three 2007–08 SuperLiga teams that will not compete in the 2008–09 SuperLiga season are:
Bežanija
Mladost Lučani
Smederevo
References
External links
UEFA Site
Serbian Superliga Site
Tables and results at RSSSF
Serbian SuperLiga seasons
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Serbia