2007–08 Serbian SuperLiga


The 2007–08 Serbian SuperLiga season 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.

Participating clubs and their stadia

The following twelve clubs competed in the 2007–08 Serbian SuperLiga season.
TeamStadiumCapacity
Crvena zvezdaStadion Crvena Zvezda55,000
PartizanPartizan Stadium32,710
VojvodinaKarađorđe Stadium20,000
BanatKarađorđev Park Stadium18,700
SmederevoFortress Stadium17,200
OFK BeogradOmladinski Stadion16,000
Hajduk KulaStadion Hajduk12,000
NapredakKruševac Stadium10,811
BežanijaStadion Bežanije9,350
Mladost LučaniStadion Mladost8,000
Borac ČačakČačak Stadium7,600
ČukaričkiČukarički Stadion6,600

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

Champions: PARTIZAN BELGRADE
Players
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 didn't want it.
This created a bizarre situation whereby a team that finished fourth from the bottom barely avoiding relegation playoff still got to play in the 2008 Intertoto Cup.

Top scorers

Hat-tricks

Relegation playoff

The third-placed team form the bottom in 2007–08 SuperLiga plays the winner of the 4-team playoff consisting of 3rd to 6th placed teams from 2007–08 Serbian First League. The playoff has a home-and-away tie format
The following teams were promoted to the Meridian SuperLiga at the end of the 2007–08 season:
The following teams were relegated to the Serbian First League at the end of the 2007–08 season based on their performance:
However, following speculation on June 29, 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 July 2, 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, 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 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: