2008–09 Bundesliga

The 2008–09 Bundesliga was the 46th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. The season began on 15 August 2008 with a 2–2 draw between defending champions Bayern Munich and Hamburger SV and ended with the last matches on 23 May 2009.^[5] VfL Wolfsburg secured their first national title in the last match after a 5–1 win at home against Werder Bremen.

Bundesliga

Season	2008–09
Dates	15 August 2008 – 23 May 2009
Champions	VfL Wolfsburg 1st Bundesliga title 1st German title
Relegated	Energie Cottbus (via play-off) Karlsruher SC Arminia Bielefeld
Champions League	VfL Wolfsburg Bayern Munich VfB Stuttgart
Europa League	Hertha BSC Hamburger SV Werder Bremen (via domestic cup)
Matches played	306
Goals scored	894 (2.92 per match)
Top goalscorer	Grafite (28)
Biggest home win	Dortmund 6–0 Bielefeld (16 May 2009)[1]
Biggest away win	Frankfurt 0–5 Bremen (13 May 2009)[2] Hannover 0–5 Wolfsburg (16 May 2009)[3]
Highest scoring	Bremen 5–4 Hoffenheim (27 September 2008)[4] (9 goals)
Average attendance	42,565
← 2007–08 2009–10 →

Fussball-Bundesliga Deutschland 2008-09

Changes from 2007–08

Structural changes

Starting with the 2008–09 season, two-legged relegation playoffs between the third last team of the Bundesliga and the third team of the 2. Bundesliga at the end of the regular season were re-introduced.

Due to the restructuring of European competitions, the third-placed team qualified for the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League, entering in a separate qualifying round for non-champions. The fourth-placed team and the winner of the 2008–09 DFB-Pokal qualified for the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League play-off round; the fifth-placed team qualified for the third qualifying round. The sixth-placed team did not qualify for any European competitions because the UEFA Intertoto Cup will not be continued after its final edition in 2008.

Promotion and relegation

1. FC Nürnberg, Hansa Rostock and MSV Duisburg finished the 2007–08 season in 16th through 18th place, respectively, and therefore were relegated to the 2. Bundesliga. They were replaced by the top three teams of 2007–08 2. Bundesliga: Borussia Mönchengladbach, 1899 Hoffenheim and 1. FC Köln, respectively.

Teams

Stadia and locations

Hertha BSC

Bielefeld

Bochum

Bremen

Cottbus

Dortmund

Frankfurt

Hamburg

Hannover

Hoffenheim

Karlsruhe

Köln

Leverkusen

Mönchengladbach

Bayern

Schalke

Stuttgart

Wolfsburg

Location of teams in the 2008–09 Fußball-Bundesliga

Team	Location	Venue	Capacity
Hertha BSC	Berlin	Olympic Stadium	74,228
Arminia Bielefeld	Bielefeld	Bielefelder Alm	28,008
VfL Bochum	Bochum	rewirpowerSTADION	31,328
Werder Bremen	Bremen	Weserstadion	42,358
Energie Cottbus	Cottbus	Stadion der Freundschaft	22,450
Borussia Dortmund	Dortmund	Westfalenstadion	80,708
Eintracht Frankfurt	Frankfurt	Commerzbank-Arena	52,300
Hamburger SV	Hamburg	HSH Nordbank Arena	57,274
Hannover 96	Hanover	AWD-Arena	49,000
1899 Hoffenheim	Sinsheim	Rhein-Neckar-Arena1	30,000
Karlsruher SC	Karlsruhe	Wildparkstadion	32,306
1. FC Köln	Cologne	RheinEnergieStadion	50,374
Bayer Leverkusen	Leverkusen	BayArena2	22,500
Borussia Mönchengladbach	Mönchengladbach	Borussia-Park	54,067
Bayern Munich	Munich	Allianz Arena	69,901
Schalke 04	Gelsenkirchen	Veltins-Arena	61,673
VfB Stuttgart	Stuttgart	Mercedes-Benz Arena	58,000
VfL Wolfsburg	Wolfsburg	Volkswagen Arena	30,122

Notes

1. 1899 Hoffenheim played their 2008 home matches at Carl-Benz-Stadion in Mannheim because their Rhein-Neckar-Arena had not yet been completed.
2. Bayer Leverkusen played their 2009 home matches at LTU-Arena in Düsseldorf because their BayArena was being upgraded to a capacity of 30,000.

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Head Coach	Team Captain	Kitmaker	Shirt sponsor
Hertha BSC	Lucien Favre	Arne Friedrich	Nike	Deutsche Bahn
Arminia Bielefeld	Jörg Berger	Rüdiger Kauf	Saller	Krombacher
VfL Bochum	Marcel Koller	Marcel Maltritz	Do You Football	KiK
Werder Bremen	Thomas Schaaf	Frank Baumann	Kappa	Citibank
Energie Cottbus	Bojan Prašnikar	Timo Rost	Saller	enviaM
Borussia Dortmund	Jürgen Klopp	Sebastian Kehl	Nike	Evonik
Eintracht Frankfurt	Friedhelm Funkel	Ioannis Amanatidis	Jako	Fraport
Hamburger SV	Martin Jol	David Jarolím	adidas	Emirates
Hannover 96	Dieter Hecking	Robert Enke	Under Armour	TUI
1899 Hoffenheim	Ralf Rangnick	Selim Teber	Puma	TV Digital
Karlsruher SC	Edmund Becker	Maik Franz	Jako	EnBW
1. FC Köln	Christoph Daum	Milivoje Novaković	Reebok	REWE
Bayer Leverkusen	Bruno Labbadia	Simon Rolfes	adidas	TelDaFax
Borussia Mönchengladbach	Hans Meyer	Filip Daems	Lotto	Kyocera
Bayern Munich	Jupp Heynckes1	Mark van Bommel	adidas	T-Home
Schalke 04	Mike Büskens, Youri Mulder and Oliver Reck2	Mladen Krstajić	adidas	Gazprom
VfB Stuttgart	Markus Babbel	Thomas Hitzlsperger	Puma	EnBW
VfL Wolfsburg	Felix Magath	Josué	Nike	Ein Herz Für Kinder*/Polo

Notes

1. Jupp Heynckes acted as caretaker for the remainder of the season.
2. Mike Büskens, Youri Mulder and Oliver Reck acted as caretakers for the remainder of the season.

• Ein Herz Für Kinder took the place of Volkswagen's sponsorship during the 2008–09 season to celebrate the 20th year of the Charity.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Bayer Leverkusen	Michael Skibbe	Sacked	30 June 2008[citation needed]	Bruno Labbadia	1 July 2008[citation needed]	Pre-season
Bayern Munich	Ottmar Hitzfeld	End of contract	30 June 2008[6]	Jürgen Klinsmann	1 July 2008[7]	Pre-season
Borussia Dortmund	Thomas Doll	Resigned	30 June 2008[citation needed]	Jürgen Klopp	1 July 2008[citation needed]	Pre-season
Hamburger SV	Huub Stevens	End of contract	30 June 2008[8]	Martin Jol	1 July 2008[9]	Pre-season
Schalke 04	Mike Büskens & Youri Mulder	Stepped down to assistant position	30 June 2008[10]	Fred Rutten	1 July 2008[10]	Pre-season
Borussia Mönchengladbach	Jos Luhukay	Sacked	5 October 2008[11]	Hans Meyer	18 October 2008[12]	18th
VfB Stuttgart	Armin Veh	Sacked	23 November 2008[13]	Markus Babbel	23 November 2008[13]	11th
Schalke 04	Fred Rutten	Sacked	26 March 2009[14]	Mike Büskens, Youri Mulder and Oliver Reck	1 April 2009[15]	8th
Bayern Munich	Jürgen Klinsmann	Sacked	27 April 2009[16]	Jupp Heynckes	27 April 2009[16]	3rd
Arminia Bielefeld	Michael Frontzeck	Sacked	17 May 2009[17]	Jörg Berger	19 May 2009[18]	16th

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	VfL Wolfsburg (C)	34	21	6	7	80	41	+39	69	Qualification to Champions League group stage
2	Bayern Munich	34	20	7	7	71	42	+29	67
3	VfB Stuttgart	34	19	7	8	63	43	+20	64	Qualification to Champions League play-off round
4	Hertha BSC	34	19	6	9	48	41	+7	63	Qualification to Europa League play-off round
5	Hamburger SV	34	19	4	11	49	47	+2	61	Qualification to Europa League third qualifying round
6	Borussia Dortmund	34	15	14	5	60	37	+23	59
7	1899 Hoffenheim	34	15	10	9	63	49	+14	55
8	Schalke 04	34	14	8	12	47	35	+12	50
9	Bayer Leverkusen	34	14	7	13	59	46	+13	49
10	Werder Bremen[lower-alpha 1]	34	12	9	13	64	50	+14	45	Qualification to Europa League play-off round
11	Hannover 96	34	10	10	14	49	69	−20	40
12	1. FC Köln	34	11	6	17	35	50	−15	39
13	Eintracht Frankfurt	34	8	9	17	39	60	−21	33
14	VfL Bochum	34	7	11	16	39	55	−16	32
15	Borussia Mönchengladbach	34	8	7	19	39	62	−23	31
16	Energie Cottbus (R)	34	8	6	20	30	57	−27	30	Qualification to relegation play-offs
17	Karlsruher SC (R)	34	8	5	21	30	54	−24	29	Relegation to 2. Bundesliga
18	Arminia Bielefeld (R)	34	4	16	14	29	56	−27	28

Source: kicker (in German)
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Werder Bremen qualified for the play-off round of the UEFA Europa League by winning the 2008–09 DFB-Pokal.

Results

Home \ Away	BSC	DSC	BOC	SVW	FCE	BVB	SGE	HSV	H96	TSG	KSC	KOE	B04	BMG	FCB	S04	VFB	WOB
Hertha BSC	—	1–1	2–0	2–1	0–1	1–3	2–1	2–1	3–0	1–0	4–0	2–1	1–0	2–1	2–1	0–0	2–1	2–2
Arminia Bielefeld	1–1	—	1–1	2–2	1–1	0–0	0–0	2–4	2–2	0–2	1–2	2–0	2–1	0–2	0–1	0–2	2–2	0–3
VfL Bochum	2–3	2–0	—	0–0	3–2	0–2	2–0	1–1	0–2	1–3	2–0	1–2	2–3	2–2	0–3	2–1	1–2	2–2
Werder Bremen	5–1	1–2	3–2	—	3–0	3–3	5–0	2–0	4–1	5–4	1–3	3–1	0–2	1–1	0–0	1–1	4–0	2–1
Energie Cottbus	1–3	2–1	1–1	2–1	—	0–1	2–3	1–2	3–1	0–3	1–0	0–2	3–0	0–1	1–3	0–2	0–3	2–0
Borussia Dortmund	1–1	6–0	1–1	1–0	1–1	—	4–0	2–0	1–1	0–0	4–0	3–1	1–1	2–1	1–1	3–3	3–0	0–0
Eintracht Frankfurt	0–2	1–1	4–0	0–5	2–1	0–2	—	2–3	4–0	1–1	2–1	2–2	0–2	4–1	1–2	1–2	2–2	0–2
Hamburger SV	1–1	2–0	3–1	2–1	2–0	2–1	1–0	—	2–1	1–0	2–1	0–1	3–2	1–0	1–0	1–1	2–0	1–3
Hannover 96	2–0	1–1	1–1	1–1	0–0	4–4	1–1	3–0	—	2–5	3–2	2–1	1–0	5–1	1–0	1–0	3–3	0–5
1899 Hoffenheim	0–1	3–0	0–3	0–0	2–0	4–1	2–1	3–0	2–2	—	4–1	2–0	1–4	1–0	2–2	1–1	0–0	3–2
Karlsruher SC	4–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	0–0	0–1	0–1	3–2	2–3	2–2	—	0–2	3–3	0–0	0–1	0–3	0–2	2–1
1. FC Köln	1–2	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–1	1–2	2–1	1–3	0–0	—	0–2	2–4	0–3	1–0	0–3	1–1
Bayer Leverkusen	0–1	2–2	1–1	1–1	1–1	2–3	1–1	1–2	4–0	5–2	0–1	2–0	—	5–0	0–2	2–1	2–4	2–0
Borussia Mönchengladbach	0–1	1–1	0–1	3–2	1–3	1–1	1–2	4–1	3–2	1–1	1–0	1–2	1–3	—	2–2	1–0	1–3	1–2
Bayern Munich	4–1	3–1	3–3	2–5	4–1	3–1	4–0	2–2	5–1	2–1	1–0	1–2	3–0	2–1	—	0–1	2–1	4–2
Schalke 04	1–0	0–0	1–0	1–0	4–0	1–1	1–0	1–2	3–0	2–3	2–0	1–0	1–2	3–1	1–2	—	1–2	2–2
VfB Stuttgart	2–0	0–0	2–0	4–1	2–0	2–1	2–0	1–0	2–0	3–3	3–1	1–3	0–2	2–0	2–2	2–0	—	4–1
VfL Wolfsburg	2–1	4–1	2–0	5–1	3–0	3–0	2–2	3–0	2–1	4–0	1–0	2–1	2–1	3–0	5–1	4–3	4–1	—

Source: DFB
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Relegation play-offs

Energie Cottbus, as the 16th-placed team, faced third-placed 2. Bundesliga team 1. FC Nürnberg for a two-legged playoff. Nürnberg won both matches on an aggregated score of 5–0 and thus secured promotion to the 2009–10 Bundesliga, while Cottbus were relegated to the 2009–10 2. Bundesliga.

After Energie were relegated, no teams from the former East Germany played in the Bundesliga until RB Leipzig earned promotion to the Bundesliga for 2016–17.

Energie Cottbus	0–3	1. FC Nürnberg
	Report (in German)	Boakye 13', 89' Eigler 56'

28 May 2009

18:00 CEST

Stadion der Freundschaft, Cottbus

Attendance: 22,000 (capacity crowd)

Referee: Florian Meyer (Braunschweig)

---

1. FC Nürnberg	2–0	Energie Cottbus
Eigler 29' Mintál 37'	Report (in German)

31 May 2009

15:30 CEST

Frankenstadion, Nuremberg

Attendance: 46,780 (capacity crowd)

Referee: Thorsten Kinhöfer (Herne)

Statistics

Top goalscorers Source: kicker.de (in German) Rank Player Club Goals 1 Grafite VfL Wolfsburg 28 2 Edin Džeko VfL Wolfsburg 26 3 Mario Gómez VfB Stuttgart 24 4 Patrick Helmes Bayer Leverkusen 21 5 Vedad Ibišević 1899 Hoffenheim 18 6 Claudio Pizarro Werder Bremen 17 7 Milivoje Novaković 1. FC Köln 16 8 Demba Ba 1899 Hoffenheim 14 Luca Toni Bayern Munich 14 10 Kevin Kurányi Schalke 04 13 Artur Wichniarek Arminia Bielefeld 13

Awards

Player of the Month

Month	Player	Team
August[19]	Artur Wichniarek	Arminia Bielefeld
September[20]	Mesut Özil	Werder Bremen
October[21]	Vedad Ibišević	1899 Hoffenheim
November[22]	Franck Ribéry	Bayern Munich
December[23]	Sami Khedira	VfB Stuttgart
February[24]	Mario Gómez	VfB Stuttgart
March[25]	Grafite	VfL Wolfsburg
April[26]	Mario Gómez	VfB Stuttgart
May[27]	Mario Gómez	VfB Stuttgart

References

1. "Archive 2008/2009: Borussia Dortmund – Arminia Bielefeld 6:0 (1:0)". dfb.de. 16 May 2009. Retrieved 16 May 2009.
2. "Archive 2008/2009: Eintracht Frankfurt – Werder Bremen 0:5 (0:0)". dfb.de. 13 May 2009. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
3. "Archive 2008/2009: Hannover 96 – VfL Wolfsburg 0:5 (0:3)". dfb.de. 16 May 2009. Retrieved 16 May 2009.
4. "Archive 2008/2009: Werder Bremen – 1899 Hoffenheim 5:4 (4:2)". dfb.de. 2 October 2008. Retrieved 29 April 2009.
5. "Bundesliga 2008/2009 » Schedule". WorldFootball.net. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
6. "Hitzfeld wird gehen – Kommt van Basten?". Kicker (in German). 24 December 2007. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
7. "Klinsmann: "Eine Ehre für mich"". Kicker (in German). 11 January 2008. Archived from the original on 10 December 2008. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
8. "Perfekt! Stevens 2008 zur PSV". Kicker (in German). 19 November 2007. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
9. "Jol neuer HSV-Coach". Kicker (in German). 13 May 2008. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
10. "Rutten bei S04 vorgestellt". Kicker (in German). 23 April 2008. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
11. "Luhukay entlassen – Ziege übernimmt vorerst". Kicker (in German). 5 October 2008. Archived from the original on 8 December 2008. Retrieved 19 January 2009.
12. "Meyer wieder in Gladbach". Kicker (in German). 19 October 2008. Retrieved 19 January 2009.
13. "Armin Veh und der VfB gehen getrennte Wege" (in German). vfb.de. 23 November 2008. Archived from the original on 24 May 2024. Retrieved 23 November 2008.
14. "Rutten muss gehen" (in German). Bundesliga. 26 March 2009. Archived from the original on 30 March 2009. Retrieved 26 March 2009.
15. "Mike Büskens, Youri Mulder und Oliver Reck trainieren Schalke 04" (in German). schalke04.de. 1 April 2009. Archived from the original on 12 July 2013. Retrieved 4 April 2009.
16. "FCB trennt sich von Jürgen Klinsmann" (in German). fcbayern.t-home.de. 27 April 2009. Archived from the original on 3 May 2009. Retrieved 27 April 2009.
17. "Arminia trennt sich von Michael Frontzeck" (in German). arminia-bielefeld.de. 17 May 2009. Archived from the original on 20 May 2009. Retrieved 17 May 2009.
18. "Bielefeld holt "Retter" Berger" (in German). Bundesliga. 19 May 2009. Retrieved 19 May 2009.
19. Die bisherigen Sieger – August 2008 Archived 8 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
20. Die bisherigen Sieger – September 2008 Archived 7 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
21. Die bisherigen Sieger – Oktober 2008 Archived 9 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
22. Die bisherigen Sieger – November 2008 Archived 9 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
23. Die bisherigen Sieger – Dezember 2008 Archived 7 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
24. Die bisherigen Sieger – Februar 2009 Archived 28 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
25. Die bisherigen Sieger – März 2009 Archived 28 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
26. Die bisherigen Sieger – April 2009 Archived 7 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
27. Die bisherigen Sieger – Mai 2009 Archived 7 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine (in German)

External links

• Official site Archived 20 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine (in German and English)
• Bundesliga on DFB page (in German and English)