Syrian Premier League

Season	2008–09
Champions	Al-Karamah
Relegated	Al-Futowa Hutteen
AFC Cup	Al-Karamah Al-Ittihad
Arab Champions League	Al-Jaish Al-Nawair
Top goalscorer	Mohamed Al Zeno (17)
← 2007–08 2009–10 →

The 2008–09 Syrian Premier League is the 38th season of the Syrian Premier League, Syria's premier football league. The season began on 10 October 2008 and finished on 12 June 2009.

Afrin and Al-Horriya were relegated from the previous season. Al-Wathba and Omyyah moved up from the Syrian League 1st Division.

At the end of the campaign, defending champions Al-Karamah were level on 52 points with Al-Ittihad and therefore were required to have a one off playoff match to determine the league champions.^[1]

Al-Futowa and Hutteen were relegated and would be replaced by Afrin and Al-Jazeera for the 2009–10 Syrian Premier League campaign.

Syrian international Mohamed Al Zeno finished the campaign as leading goalscorer with 17 goals.

Al-Karamah and Al-Majd entered the AFC Cup 2009 tournament. A tournament for second ranked Asian nations.

During the domestic Syrian league season, only the group phases of this prestigious tournament is played until the knockout rounds which will take place in the next Syrian season.

Al-Majd comfortably qualified with one game to spare to reach the knockout rounds whilst Al-Karamah had somewhat of a shaky start and after 5 games find themselves in 3rd position.

Al-Ittihad and Al-Taliya entered the Arab Champions League but Al-Taliya found the going tough, being thumped by Raja Casablanca of Morocco in the first round.

Al-Ittihad went one round better but got beat by Wydad Casablanca, also of Morocco.

5th and 6th placed teams Al-Wathba and Al-Majd had a one match playoff at the end of the season due to both clubs finishing the regular season on 37 points. Al-Wathba won the tie 3–2 to claim 5th position in the final standings.

12 June 2009

20:00 UTC+3

Al-Ittihad	1–2	Al-Karamah
Otto 21' (pen.)		Hamwi 71' Mando 90+5'

Al-Assad Stadium, Latakia

Attendance: 30,000

Referee: Muhsen Basma (Syria)

Al-Ittihad

Al-Karamah

Al-Ittihad: GK 1 Mahmoud Karkar DF 5 Omar Hemidi DF 6 Majd Homsi  60'  62' DF 30 Abdulkader Dakka DF 32 Bakri Tarrab MF 14 Wael Ayan  65' MF 17 Mahmoud Al Amenah MF 19 Yehya Al Rashed  81' MF 99 Adel Abdullah FW 12 Otto FW 18 Anas Sari (c)  53' Substitutes: FW 10 Abdul Fattah Al Agha  53' DF 21 Yousef Sheikh Al-Eshreh  62' MF 4 Khaled Al Zaher  81' Manager: Hussain Afash

Al-Karamah: GK 1 Mosab Balhous  90+7' DF 4 Hassan Abbas (c) DF 13 Belal Abduldaim DF 14 Anas Al Khouja MF 25 Feras Esmaeel  55' MF 16 Tamer Haj Mohamad  26' MF 21 Aatef Jenyat  55' MF 15 Alaa Al Shbli  44' MF 11 Fahd Aodi FW 9 Mohamad Hamwi FW 26 Hani Al Taiar Substitutes: MF 10 Iyad Mando  90+5'  55' MF 3 Yasser Shahen  55' Manager: Mohammad Kwid

17 goals

• Mohamed Al Zeno (Al-Majd)

14 goals

• Abdul Fattah Al Agha (Al-Ittihad)

12 goals

• Ibrahim Al Hasan (Jableh)
• Omar Al Soma (Al-Futowa)

11 goals

• Maher Al Sayed (Al-Wahda)
• Ali Ghalium (Al-Wathba)
• Samer Yazji (Omayya)
• Obode Efe (Teshrin)

10 goals

• Majed Al Haj (Al-Jaish)
• Anas Sari (Al-Ittihad)
• Oday Al-Jafal (Al-Futowa)
• Amar Zakour (Omayya)

Team	Outgoing manager	Date Outgoing	Reason of departure	Replaced by	Date of Replacement
Al-Wahda Damascus	Emad Shouman	August 26, 2008	Change of manager for new season	Nizar Mahrous	August 26, 2008
Al-Wahda Damascus	Nizar Mahrous	February 4, 2009	Left to go to Al-Faisaly[2]	Assaf Khalefah

• Details at fifa.com
• Details at goalzz.com
• Details at rsssf.com
• Details at soccerway.com