The 2007–08 Super League Greece was the 72nd season of the highest football league of Greece and the second under the name Super League. The season began on 1 September 2007 and ended on 20 April 2008. The defending champions were Olympiacos. Asteras Tripolis, Veria and Levadiakos were promoted from Beta Ethniki in the previous season.
Postponement On 25 August, the Super League and the Hellenic Football Federation decided to postpone the opening fixtures scheduled for that weekend (25 and 26 August) due to the ongoing fire disaster in the south of Greece (especially in the Peloponnese and Euboea). The championship started on 1 September 2007. Matchday 2 was carried out on the weekend of 21–22 September due to UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying matches (8 September) and Greek legislative election (16 September).
On 20 February 2008 UEFA president Michel Platini presented the Hellenic Football Federation with a CHF 1 million cheque to help finance the rebuilding of football facilities damaged by the fires in Greece that summer.
Teams
Promoted from2006–07 Beta Ethniki Relegated from2006–07 Super League Greece Asteras TripolisLevadiakosVeria KerkyraEgaleoIonikos
Stadiums and personnel
Team Manager Location Stadium Capacity AEK Athens Nikos Kostenoglou Athens Athens Olympic Stadium 69,638 AEL Georgios Donis Larissa Alcazar Stadium 13,108 Apollon Kalamarias Makis Katsavakis Thessaloniki Kalamaria Stadium 6,500 Aris Dušan Bajević Thessaloniki Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium 22,800 Asteras Tripolis Panagiotis Tzanavaras Tripoli Asteras Tripolis Stadium 4,200 Atromitos Paulo Campos Athens Peristeri Stadium 9,035 Ergotelis Nikos Karageorgiou Heraklion Pankritio Stadium 26,400 Iraklis Ángel Pedraza Thessaloniki Kaftanzoglio Stadium 27,560 Levadiakos Babis Tennes Livadeia Levadia Municipal Stadium 5,915 OFI Georgios Paraschos Heraklion Pankritio Stadium 26,400 Olympiacos José Segura Piraeus Karaiskakis Stadium 33,334 Panathinaikos José Peseiro Athens Leoforos Alexandras Stadium 16,003 Panionios Ewald Lienen Athens Nea Smyrni Stadium 11,700 PAOK Fernando Santos Thessaloniki Toumba Stadium 28,703 Skoda Xanthi Nikos Kechagias Xanthi Skoda Xanthi Arena 7,422 Veria Leonidas Yfantidis Veria Veria Stadium 5,373
Managerial changes TeamOutgoing managerDate of vacancyPosition in tableIncoming managerDate of appointment PAOK Georgios Paraschos 3 September 2007 14th Fernando Santos 3 September 2007 Aris Juan Carlos Oliva 4 September 2007 7th Dušan Bajević 7 September 2007 Veria Dimitris Kalaitzidis 12 October 2007 12th Ratko Dostanić 15 October 2007 Skoda Xanthi Emilio Ferrera 22 October 2007 6th Nikos Kechagias 22 October 2007 OFI Reiner Maurer 12 November 2007 13th Georgios Paraschos 16 November 2007 Veria Ratko Dostanić 10 December 2007 15th Giannis Matzourakis 12 December 2007 Iraklis Ivan Jovanović 17 December 2007 9th Ángel Pedraza 24 December 2007 AEK Athens Lorenzo Serra Ferrer 12 February 2008 3rd Nikos Kostenoglou 12 February 2008 Asteras Tripolis Paulo Campos 24 February 2008 5th Panagiotis Tzanavaras 25 February 2008 Levadiakos Georgi Vasilev 3 March 2008 13th Babis Tennes 5 March 2008 Olympiacos Takis Lemonis 11 March 2008 2nd José Segura 11 March 2008 Veria Giannis Matzourakis 11 March 2008 14th Panagiotis Tsalouchidis 13 March 2008 Veria Panagiotis Tsalouchidis 23 March 2008 15th Leonidas Yfantidis 23 March 2008 Atromitos Ángel Guillermo Hoyos 26 March 2008 12th Paulo Campos 27 March 2008
Regular season
League table
Results
Play-offs The play-off winner enters the UEFA Champions League's second qualifying round, a two-legged tier from which the winner advances to the 3rd round qualification of the UEFA Champions League. The winner of the Greek Football Cup automatically qualifies for the 2008–09 UEFA Cup, as well as the runners-up of the Super League play-off.
In the play-off for Champions League, the teams play each other in a home and away round robin. However, they do not all start with zero points. Instead, a weighting system applies to the teams' standing at the start of the play-off mini-league. The team finishing fifth in the Super League will start the play-off with zero points. The fifth place team's end of season tally of points is subtracted from the sum of the points that other teams have. This number is then divided by three to give the other teams the points with which they start the mini-league.
The teams started the play-offs with the following number of points: AEK Athens – 8 Panathinaikos – 7 Aris – 2 Panionios – 0
Play-off table
Top scorers
RankPlayerClubGoals1 Ismael Blanco AEK Athens192 Darko Kovačević Olympiacos173 Dimitris Salpingidis Panathinaikos154 Tomasz Radzinski Skoda Xanthi14 Rafik Djebbour Panionios6 Nikos Liberopoulos AEK Athens117 Lampros Choutos Panionios10 Predrag Đorđević Olympiacos9 Lucio Filomeno Asteras Tripolis9
Source: Galanis Sports Data
Awards
MVP and Best Goal Awards
Matchday MVP Best Goal Ref 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Sokratis Papastathopoulos (AEK Athens) Merkourios Karaliopoulos (Apollon Kalamarias ) 11th Georgios Georgiadis (PAOK) Ieroklis Stoltidis (Olympiacos) 12th Rafik Djebbour (Panionios) Darko Kovačević (Olympiacos) 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th Lazaros Christodoulopoulos (PAOK) Luciano Fonseca (Iraklis) 21st 22nd Maciej Bykowski (Veria) Rafał Grzelak (Skoda Xanthi) 23rd Koke (Aris) Hélder Postiga (Panathinaikos) 24th 25th 26th 27th 28th 29th 30th Ismael Blanco (AEK Athens) Lampros Choutos (Panionios)
Annual awards Annual awards were announced on 2 December 2008.
Award Winner Club Greek Player of the Season Dimitris Salpingidis Panathinaikos Foreign Player of the Season Darko Kovačević Ismael Blanco OlympiacosAEK Athens Young Player of the Season Sokratis Papastathopoulos AEK Athens Goalkeeper of the Season Antonis Nikopolidis Olympiacos Golden Boot Ismael Blanco AEK Athens Manager of the Season Dušan Bajević Aris
Attendances
Olympiacos drew the highest average home attendance in the 2007–08 edition of the Super League Greece.
References
External links Official Site of the League Super League Statistics