The 2009–10 Super League Greece was the 74th season of the highest football league of Greece and the fourth under the name Super League. The league consisted of 16 teams. Participants are the 13 best teams from the 2008–09 season and three teams that have been promoted from the Beta Ethniki. On 11 April 2010, Panathinaikos defeated Iraklis 2–0 to secure their 20th Greek title and their first one in six years.[1]
Due to Greece having ascended in the UEFA league coefficient rankings,[2] the 2009–10 champions will enter 2010–11 UEFA Champions League at the group stage instead of the third qualifying round. Every other European spot remains unchanged, meaning that the winner of the European play-off group will reach the third qualifying round of the Champions League while the runners-up and third-placed team of this group will enter 2010–11 UEFA Europa League.
Source: Super League Greece Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Play-offs (neutral ground). (Note: Criterion 4 is only used if needed to decide champion, teams for relegation or teams for UEFA competitions). (C) Champions; (R) Relegated Notes:
Source: Super League Greece Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Play-offs
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 0 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 0 points. The fifth placed 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 five 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:
Olympiacos – 4 points ((64–46) / 5 = 3.6, rounded up to 4)
PAOK – 3 points ((62–46) / 5 = 3.2, rounded to 3)
AEK Athens – 1 point ((53–46) / 5 = 1.4, rounded to 1)
Source: Superleague Greece: Standings and Schedule Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head goals scored; 5) goal difference; 6) number of goals scored. Notes:
^ abcSince Aris lost the 2009–10 Greek Football Cup Final against Champions League-qualified Panathinaikos, all Europa League spots will be determined by the play-off group positions.