The 2008–09 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione season was the thirty-first

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

league season of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Lega Pro Seconda Divisione since its establishment in 1978, and the first since the renaming from Serie C2 to Lega Pro. It was divided into two phases: the

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of ...

, played from September 2008 to May 2009, and the playoff phase from May to June 2009. It was composed of 54 teams divided into three divisions of 18 teams each, whose teams were divided geographically. Teams only played other teams in their own division, once at home and once away for a total of 34 matches each. Teams finishing first in the regular season, plus one team winning the playoff round from each division were promoted to

Lega Pro Prima Divisione Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1. Before the 1978 ...

; teams finishing last in the regular season, plus two relegation playoff losers from each division were relegated to

Serie D The Serie D () is the top level of semi-professional football in the country. The fourth tier of the Italian league system, the competition sits beneath the third professional league, Serie C. It is administered by the Lega Nazionale Dilettant ...

. In all, six teams were promoted to Lega Pro Prima Divisione, and nine teams were relegated to Serie D.

Events

Start of season

The league was to feature six teams relegated from Serie C1 in 2007–08;

Lecco Lecco (, , ; lmo, label= Lecchese, Lècch ) is a city of 48,131 inhabitants in Lombardy, northern Italy, north of Milan. It lies at the end of the south-eastern branch of Lake Como (the branch is named ''Branch of Lecco'' / ''Ramo di Lecco''). ...

Manfredonia Manfredonia is a town and commune of Apulia, Italy, in the province of Foggia, from which it is northeast by rail. Manfredonia is situated on the coast, facing east, to the south of Monte Gargano, and gives its name to the gulf to the east of ...

, Pro Patria, Lanciano, Martina, and Sangiovannese. Four vacancies were created with the re-admission of Pro Patria, Lanciano, and Lecco to Lega Pro Prima Divisione in 2008-09, and the non-admission of Martina. It featured nine teams promoted from

2007–08 Serie D The 2007–08 Serie D was the sixty edition of the top level Italian non-professional football championship. It represented the fifth tier in the Italian football league system. It was composed by 162 teams divided into nine divisions of 18 teams ...

; Alessandria, Aversa Normanna,

Como Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label= Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Its proximity to Lake Como and to the Alps h ...

, Figline,

Fortitudo Cosenza Cosenza Calcio S.r.l. is an Italian football club, based in Cosenza, Calabria. Currently the team plays in . Found in 2011 as Nuova Cosenza Calcio as the phoenix club of Cosenza Calcio 1914 S.r.l., the spiritual successor of the original Cose ...

, Giacomense, Isola Liri, Itala San Marco, and Sangiustese. The remaining 39 teams were to come from the group of teams that played in

2007–08 Serie C2 The 2007–08 Serie C2 season was the thirtieth football (soccer) league season of Italian Serie C2 since its establishment in 1978 . It was divided into two phases: the regular season, played from September 2007 to May 2008, and the playoff pha ...

that were neither relegated nor promoted. Of those, Nuorese (9th in Girone A),

Sassari Torres Torres is an Italian football club based in the city of Sassari. It plays in Serie C, the third division of the Italian football league system. Re-founded in 2017, the club is the continuation of the Società per l'Educazione Fisica Torres, bor ...

(13th in Girone A),

Teramo Teramo (; nap, label= Abruzzese, Tèreme ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Abruzzo, the capital of the province of Teramo. The city, from Rome, is situated between the highest mountains of the Apennines ( Gran Sasso d'Itali ...

(8th in Girone B), and Castelnuovo (15th in Girone B) were banned or failed to register, creating four more vacancies. A fifth vacancy from this group was created when

SPAL Società Polisportiva Ars et Labor, commonly known as S.P.A.L. (), is a professional football club based in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The team plays in Serie B, the second tier of the Italian football league system. Founded in 1907, sinc ...

, which lost in last year's promotional play-offs, was admitted to Lega Pro Prima Divisione anyway to fill a vacancy. In all, nine vacancies were created. They were filled as follows: * Sambonifacese -

Playoff winner (Serie D/C 3rd) * Colligiana -

Playoff runner-up (Serie D/E 2nd) *

Montichiari Montichiari ( Brescian: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy. It received the honorary title of city with a presidential decree on December 27, 1991. The town is home to the Gabriele D'Annunzio airport (Italian: ''A ...

Playoff semi-finalist (Serie D/D - 2nd) *

Alghero Alghero (; ca, label= Alguerese, L'Alguer ; sc, S'Alighèra ; sdc, L'Aliera ) is a city of about 45,000 inhabitants in the Italian insular province of Sassari in northwestern Sardinia, next to the Mediterranean Sea. The city's name comes from ...

Playoff semi-finalist (Serie D/G - 4th) *

Barletta Barletta () is a city, '' comune'' of Apulia, in south eastern Italy. Barletta is the capoluogo, together with Andria and Trani, of the Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani. It has a population of around 94,700 citizens. The city's territory be ...

best second-placed team in group phase of playoffs (Serie D/H - 2nd) *

Rovigo Rovigo (, ; egl, Ruig) is a city and ''comune'' in the Veneto region of Northeast Italy, the capital of the eponymous province. Geography Rovigo stands on the low ground known as Polesine, by rail southwest of Venice and south-southwest of P ...

- a loser in Serie C2/B play-outs and originally destined to play in Serie D * Andria - a loser in Serie C2/C play-outs and originally destined to play in Serie D * Val di Sangro - a loser in Serie C2/C play-outs and originally destined to play in Serie D *

Pizzighettone Pizzighettone ( Pizzighettonese: ) is a ''comune'' of the Province of Cremona in the Italian region Lombardy. The main population centre is located on the river Adda and is divided into two parts: Pizzighettone on the east bank and Gera on the ...

- which finished last in Serie C2/A and originally destined to play in Serie D Considering all changes, the final team list includes only 2 teams that played in Serie C1 last year, 38 teams that played in Serie C2, and 14 teams that played in

Promotions

Two of the three division champions were playing in Serie D in 2007–08. Figline and Cosenza won direct promotion to Lega Pro Prima Divisione for the 2009–10 season by winning Girone B and Girone C respectively. The year before they had been division champions in their respective Serie D divisions, and have thus both been promoted twice in consecutive years.

Varese Varese ( , , or ; lmo, label= Varesino, Varés ; la, Baretium; archaic german: Väris) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 has reached 80,559. It is the c ...

won direct promotion by winning Girone A. Varese played in Lega Pro Seconda Divisione/C2 for three years after winning promotion from Serie D in the 2005–06 season.

Relegations

Teams

On August 14, 2008 the following clubs were confirmed to be competing in the division:

Girone A

Girone B

Girone C

League tables

Girone A

Girone B

Girone C

Promotion and relegation playoffs

Girone A

Promotion

:''Promotion playoff semifinals'' :''First legs played May 31, 2009; return legs played June 7, 2009'' :''Promotion playoff finals'' :''First leg played June 14, 2009; return leg played June 21, 2009'' :''Como promoted to

Relegation

:''Relegation playoffs'' :''First legs played May 31, 2009; return legs played June 7, 2009'' :''Montichiari and Valenzana relegated to

Girone B

Promotion

Relegation

:''Relegation playoffs'' :''First legs played May 31, 2009; return legs played June 7, 2009'' :''Cuoiocappiano and Poggibonsi relegated to

Girone C

Promotion

Relegation

:''Relegation playoffs'' :''First legs played May 31, 2009; return legs played June 7, 2009'' :''Isola Liri and Val di Sangro relegated to

References

External links

Lega Pro Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:2008-09 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione Lega Pro Seconda Divisione seasons

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...