The 2008-09 Primera División season was the 80th season of top-flight professional football in Argentina and the nineteenth season in which the Apertura and Clausura system is used.

Boca Juniors won the Apertura championship for their 23rd national title after a three team playoff with Tigre and San Lorenzo. The Clausura championship was won by Vélez Sársfield for their 7th national title. Gimnasia de Jujuy and San Martin de Tucuman were relegated to the Primera B Nacional.

Format

The format for the 2008-09 season remains unchanged. The season will be split into two tournaments called Apertura and Clausura. Each tournament will be contested by the same 20 teams in a single round-robin format. The champion of each tournament will be determined by points. Should the tops teams be tied at points at the end of each tournament, a playoff will be held at a neutral site. Relegation is determined at the end of the season.

Club information

Club	City	Stadium	Capacity
Argentinos Juniors	Buenos Aires	Diego Armando Maradona	24,800
Arsenal	Sarandí	Julio H. Grondona	16,300
Banfield	Banfield	Florencio Solá	40,500
Boca Juniors	Buenos Aires	Alberto J. Armando	49,000
Colón	Santa Fe	Brigadier General Estanislao López	32,500
Estudiantes	La Plata	Jorge Luis Hirschi	23,000
Gimnasia	Jujuy	23 de Agosto	24,000
Gimnasia	La Plata	Juan Carlos Zerillo	24,544
Godoy Cruz	Mendoza	Malvinas Argentinas	40,268
Huracán	Buenos Aires	Tomás Adolfo Ducó	48,314
Independiente	Avellaneda	Libertadores de América	52,823
Lanús	Lanús	Ciudad de Lanús - Néstor Díaz Pérez	46,619
Newell's Old Boys	Rosario	Newell's Old Boys	38,095
Racing Club	Avellaneda	Presidente Juan Domingo Perón	51,000
River Plate	Buenos Aires	Monumental Antonio V. Liberti	65,645
Rosario Central	Rosario	Dr. Lisandro de la Torre	41,824
San Lorenzo	Buenos Aires	Pedro Bidegain	43,494
San Martín	Tucumán	La Cuidadela	35,000
Tigre	Victoria	Monumental de Victoria	26,282
Vélez Sársfield	Buenos Aires	José Amalfitani	49,540

Promotion and relegation

Olimpo and San Martín de San Juan were relegated at the end of the 2007–08 Primera División season. They were replaced by Godoy Cruz and San Martín de Tucumán, both of whom were promoted from the Primera B Nacional.

Gimnasia de Jujuy and Racing played the relegation/promotion playoffs against Unión de Santa Fe and Belgrano, respectively. Both Gimnasia de Jujuy and Racing won their playoff matches and retained their status in top-flight football.

Managerial changes

This is a list of the managerial changes in the Primera División made during the season.

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
	Claudio Ubeda	Resigned	Sep. 14, 2008	Héctor Martínez (interim)	Sep. 15, 2008	20th (A)
	Roberto Sensini	Resigned	Sep. 17, 2008	Leonardo Astrada	Sep. 20, 2008	18th (A)
	Guillermo Sanguinetti	Resigned	Sep. 29, 2008	Leonardo Madelón	Oct. 2, 2008	12th (A)
	Claudio Borghi	Resigned	Oct. 5, 2008	Miguel Santoro	Oct. 6, 2008	15th (A)
	Pablo Sánchez	Sacked	Oct. 6, 2008	Gustavo Alfaro	Oct. 10, 2008	19th (A)
	Daniel Oldrá	Resigned	Oct. 28, 2008	Diego Cocca	Oct. 29, 2008	18th (A)
	Héctor Martínez (interim)	End of contract	Nov. 3, 2008	Ángel Cappa	Nov. 4, 2008	15th (A)
	Diego Simeone	Resigned	Nov. 9, 2008	Gabriel Rodríguez (interim)	Nov. 10, 2008	20th (A)
	Hugo Tocalli	Resigned	Dec. 3, 2008	Pedro Larraquy (interim)	Dec. 4, 2008	6th (A)
	Nestor Gorosito	Resigned	Dec. 14, 2008	Claudio Vivas	Dec. 27, 2008	11th (A)
	Pedro Larraquy (interim)	End of contract	Dec. 15, 2008	Ricardo Gareca	Dec. 16, 2008	9th (A)
	Gabriel Rodríguez (interim)	End of contract	Dec. 15, 2008	Nestor Gorosito	Dec. 23, 2008	20th (A)
	Juan Manuel Llop	Sacked	Feb. 21, 2009	Ricardo Caruso Lombardi	Feb. 24, 2009	20th (C)
	Gustavo Alfaro	Sacked	Feb. 28, 2009	Reinaldo Merlo	Mar. 2, 2009	18th (C)
	Omar Labruna	Resigned	Mar. 10, 2009	Héctor Arzubialde	Mar. 11, 2009	19th (C)
	Leonardo Astrada	Resigned	Mar. 11, 2009	Alejandro Sabella	Mar. 15, 2009	18th (C)
	Miguel Santoro	Resigned	Mar. 21, 2009	Américo Gallego	Mar. 27, 2009	8th (C)
	Jorge Burruchaga	Resigned	Mar. 22, 2009	Julio Falcioni	Mar. 23, 2009	9th (C)
	Miguel Ángel Russo	Resigned	Apr. 9, 2009	Diego Simeone	Apr. 16, 2009	10th (C)
	Reinaldo Merlo	Resigned	Apr. 14, 2009	Miguel Ángel Russo	Apr. 16, 2009	9th (C)
	Daniel Garnero	Sacked	Apr. 25, 2009	José Rizzo (interim)	Apr. 26, 2009	16th (C)
	José Rizzo (interim)	End of contract	May 4, 2009	Jorge Burruchaga	May 5, 2009	18th (C)
	Claudio Vivas	Resigned	May 23, 2009	Claudio Borghi	Jun. 2, 2009	20th (C)
	Carlos Ischia	Resigned	Jun. 16, 2009	Abel Alvez (interim)	Jun. 17, 2009	15th (C)

Transfers

Torneo Apertura

The Torneo Apertura ( ) was played between August 6 to December 14, 2008. The champion will earn a spot in the 2009 Copa Libertadores.

Standings

Results

Championship playoff

Since San Lorenzo, Tigre and Boca Juniors ended the tournament with the same number of points, a three-way playoff was played to determine the champion.

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Top-ten goalscorers

Pos	Player	Team	Goals
1	José Sand	Lanús	15
2	Martín Morel	Tigre	13
3	Esteban Fuertes	Colón	11
4	Alejandro Gómez	Arsenal	8
	Mauro Boselli	Estudiantes
6	Rubén Ramírez	Colón	7
	Lucas Viatri	Boca Juniors
	Pablo Barrientos	San Lorenzo
	Leonel Núñez	Independiente
	Carlos Luna	Tigre

Updated as of games played on December 14, 2008.
Source: Scorer Stats

Torneo Clausura

The Torneo Clausura ( ) began on February 6, 2009 and ended on July 5, 2009. The champion will earn a spot in the 2010 Copa Libertadores.

Standings

Results

Top-ten goalscorers

Pos	Player	Team	Goals
1	José Sand		13
2	Daniel Montenegro		12
	Esteban Fuertes
4	Hernán López		11
	Carlos Luna
6	Santiago Silva		9
7	Leandro Caruso		8
	Radamel Falcao
	Gonzalo Bergessio
10	Javier Pastore		7
	Martín Palermo

Updated as of games played on July 5, 2009.
Source: AFA

Relegation

Relegation from the Primera Division is determined on the basis of performance over the last three seasons. Every club has its points earned divided by the number of matches played and an average ( ) is determined. The clubs who finish in 17th and 18th play a relegation play-off against the 3rd and 4th placed clubs in Primera B Nacional. The clubs who finish in 19th and 20th are directly relegated to Primera B Nacional.

Pos	Team	2006–07 Pts.	2007–08 Pts.	2008–09 Pts.	Total Pts	Total Pld	Avg
1		83	70	61	214	114	1.877
2		81	69	57	207	114	1.815
3		73	64	63	200	114	1.754
4		59	56	73	190	114	1.666
5		56	59	66	181	114	1.587
6		71	66	41	178	114	1.561
7		0	56	62	118	76	1.552
8		0	52	58	110	76	1.447
9		62	51	46	159	114	1.394
10		57	59	39	155	114	1.359
11		46	45	57	148	114	1.298
12		0	0	49	49	38	1.289
13		46	61	37	145	114	1.271
14		35	56	52	143	114	1.254
15		49	40	52	141	114	1.236
16		39	54	46	139	114	1.219
17		52	41	40	133	114	1.166
18		40	36	55	131	114	1.149
19		0	0	40	40	38	1.052
20		43	35	38	116	114	1.017

Updated as of July 5, 2009; Source: AFA

	Relegation play-off match
	Relegated to the Primera B Nacional

Relegation/promotion playoffs

International qualification

Copa Libertadores

The Apertura champion qualifies to the 2009 Copa Libertadoresand the Clausura champion qualifies to the 2010 Copa Libertadores. The last two Argentina spots for the 2009 Copa Libertadoreswere determined by a combined average (points earned divided by games played) of the past three tournaments.

Copa Sudamericana

Qualification for the 2009 Copa Sudamericanais determined from an aggregate table of the Apertura and Clausura tournaments. The top four teams in the aggregate table qualify; Boca Juniorsand River Plateare invited every year, regardless of their standings in the season.

See also

• 2008–09 in Argentine football

External links

• Asociación del Fútbol Argentino (AFA) website
• Season regulations

Relegation/promotion playoff 1
Relegation/promotion playoff 2
Pos
	Team
2007 Apertura
2008 Clausura
2008 Apertura
Total
Avg
Pts
Pld
Pts
Pld
Pts
Pld
Pts
Pld
1
Boca Juniors
31	19
39	19
39	19
109
57
1.912
2
San Lorenzo
29	19
35	19
39	19
103
57
1.807
3
Estudiantes
30	19
39	19
28	19
97
57
1.702
4
Tigre
34	19
22	19
39	19
95
57
1.667
5
Lanús
38	19
18	19
37	19
93
57
1.632
6
Newell's Old Boys
27	19
29	19
31	19
87
57
1.526
7
Vélez Sársfield
27	19
32	19
26	19
85
57
1.491
8
Argentinos Juniors
31	19
30	19
23	19
84
57
1.474
9
River Plate
23	19
43	19
14	19
80
57
1.404
10
Arsenal
26	19
25	19
28	19
79
57
1.386
11
Independiente
28	19
31	19
18	19
77
57
1.351
12
Banfield
32	19
22	19
23	19
77
57
1.351
13
Huracán
30	19
22	19
20	19
72
57
1.263
14
Godoy Cruz
0	0
0	0
23	19
23
19
1.211
15
Colón
22	19
23	19
23	19
68
57
1.193
16
Gimnasia
19	19
17	19
27	19
63
57
1.105
17
Racing
25	19
15	19
22	19
62
57
1.088
18
San Martín
0	0
0	0
20	19
20
19
1.053
19
Rosario Central
14	19
27	19
15	19
56
57
0.982
20
Gimnasia
20	19
15	19
21	19
54
57
0.947
Qualified to the Second Stage
Qualified to the First Stage
Already qualified as the 2007 Apertura, 2008 Clausura, or 2008 Apertura champion.