The 2008-09 Primera División season was the 118th season of top-flight professional football in Argentina and the nineteenth season in which the Apertura and Clausura system is used.

Boca Juniors won the Apertura championship for their 29th national title after a three team playoff with Tigre and San Lorenzo. The Clausura championship was won by Vélez Sársfield for their 7th national title. Gimnasia y Esgrima (J) and San Martín (T) were relegated to the Primera B Nacional.

The format for the 2008-09 season remained unchanged. The season was split into two tournaments called Apertura and Clausura. Each tournament was contested by the same 20 teams in a single round-robin format. The champions of each tournament is determined by points. If the tops teams would be tied at points at the end of each tournament, a playoff would be held at a neutral site. Relegation was determined at the end of the season.

San Martín (T)

GBA

Colón

Gimnasia y Esgrima (J)

Godoy Cruz

Newell's Old Boys

Rosario Central

Estudiantes (LP)

Gimnasia y Esgrima (LP)

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Locations of the 2009−10 Primera División teams outside Greater Buenos Aires

Argentinos Juniors

Arsenal

Banfield

Boca Juniors

Huracán

Independiente

Racing

Lanús

River Plate

San Lorenzo

Tigre

Vélez Sarsfield

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Locations of the 2009−10 Primera División teams within Greater Buenos Aires

Olimpo and San Martín (SJ) were relegated at the end of the 2007–08 Primera División season. They were replaced by Godoy Cruz and San Martín (T), both of whom were promoted from the Primera B Nacional.

Gimnasia y Esgrima (J) and Racing played the relegation/promotion playoffs against Unión and Belgrano, respectively. Both Gimnasia and Esgrima (J) and Racing won their playoff matches and retained their status in top-flight football.

Club	Manager	Kit manufacturer	Main sponsor
Argentinos Juniors	Claudio Borghi	Diadora	Liderar Seguros
Arsenal	Jorge Burruchaga	Mitre	Liderar Seguros
Banfield	Julio César Falcioni	Nanque	Bingo Lomas
Boca Juniors	Abel Alves	Nike	Megatone
Colón	Antonio Mohamed	Puma	Flecha Bus
Estudiantes (LP)	Alejandro Sabella	Topper	RCA
Gimnasia y Esgrima (J)	Héctor Arzubialde	Dunlop	Banco Macro
Gimnasia y Esgrima (LP)	Leonardo Madelón	Puma/Kappa	La Nueva Seguros
Godoy Cruz	Diego Cocca	Athix	Mendoza
Huracán	Ángel Cappa	Kappa	Motomel
Independiente	Américo Gallego	Umbro	Grupo Marquez
Lanús	Luis Zubeldía	Signia	Bingo Lanús
Newell's Old Boys	Roberto Sensini	Topper	Frigorífico Paladini
Racing	Ricardo Caruso Lombardi	Penalty	Banco Macro
River Plate	Néstor Gorosito	Adidas	Petrobras
Rosario Central	Miguel Ángel Russo	Kappa	Frigorífico Paladini
San Lorenzo	Diego Simeone	Lotto	Walmart
San Martín (T)	Carlos Roldán	Kappa	Refinor
Tigre	Diego Cagna	Diadora	Banco Macro
Vélez Sarsfield	Ricardo Gareca	Penalty	Tarjeta Shopping

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Apertura changes
Huracán	Claudio Úbeda	Resigned	Sep. 14, 2008	Héctor Martínez (interim)	Sep. 15, 2008	20th
Estudiantes (LP)	Roberto Sensini	Resigned	Sep. 17, 2008	Leonardo Astrada	Sep. 20, 2008	18th
Gimnasia y Esgrima (LP)	Guillermo Sanguinetti	Resigned	Sep. 29, 2008	Leonardo Madelón	Oct. 2, 2008	12th
Independiente	Claudio Borghi	Resigned	Oct. 5, 2008	Miguel Ángel Santoro	Oct. 6, 2008	15th
Rosario Central	Pablo Sánchez	Sacked	Oct. 6, 2008	Gustavo Alfaro	Oct. 10, 2008	19th
Godoy Cruz	Daniel Oldrá	Resigned	Oct. 28, 2008	Diego Cocca	Oct. 29, 2008	18th
Huracán	Héctor Martínez (interim)	End of contract	Nov. 3, 2008	Ángel Cappa	Nov. 4, 2008	15th
River Plate	Diego Simeone	Resigned	Nov. 9, 2008	Gabriel Rodríguez (interim)	Nov. 10, 2008	20th
Vélez Sarsfield	Hugo Tocalli	Resigned	Dec. 3, 2008	Pedro Larraquy (interim)	Dec. 4, 2008	6th
Inter-tournament changes
Argentinos Juniors	Néstor Gorosito	Resigned	Dec. 14, 2008	Claudio Vivas	Dec. 27, 2008	11th (A)
Vélez Sarsfield	Pedro Larraquy (interim)	End of contract	Dec. 15, 2008	Ricardo Gareca	Dec. 16, 2008	9th (A)
River Plate	Gabriel Rodríguez (interim)	End of contract	Dec. 15, 2008	Néstor Gorosito	Dec. 23, 2008	20th (A)
Newell's Old Boys	Fernando Gamboa	Resigned	Dec. 16, 2008	Roberto Sensini	Dec. 22, 2008	5th (A)
Clausura changes
Racing	Juan Manuel Llop	Sacked	Feb. 21, 2009	Ricardo Caruso Lombardi	Feb. 24, 2009	20th
Rosario Central	Gustavo Alfaro	Sacked	Feb. 28, 2009	Reinaldo Merlo	Mar. 2, 2009	18th
Gimnasia y Esgrima (J)	Omar Labruna	Resigned	Mar. 10, 2009	Héctor Arzubialde	Mar. 11, 2009	19th
Estudiantes (LP)	Leonardo Astrada	Resigned	Mar. 11, 2009	Alejandro Sabella	Mar. 15, 2009	18th
Independiente	Miguel Ángel Santoro	Resigned	Mar. 21, 2009	Américo Gallego	Mar. 27, 2009	8th
Banfield	Jorge Burruchaga	Resigned	Mar. 22, 2009	Julio César Falcioni	Mar. 23, 2009	9th
San Lorenzo	Miguel Ángel Russo	Resigned	Apr. 9, 2009	Diego Simeone	Apr. 16, 2009	10th
Rosario Central	Reinaldo Merlo	Resigned	Apr. 14, 2009	Miguel Ángel Russo	Apr. 16, 2009	9th
Arsenal	Daniel Garnero	Sacked	Apr. 25, 2009	José Rizzo (interim)	Apr. 26, 2009	16th
Arsenal	José Rizzo (interim)	End of contract	May 4, 2009	Jorge Burruchaga	May 5, 2009	18th
Argentinos Juniors	Claudio Vivas	Resigned	May 23, 2009	Claudio Borghi	Jun. 2, 2009	20th
Boca Juniors	Carlos Ischia	Resigned	Jun. 16, 2009	Abel Alves (interim)	Jun. 17, 2009	15th

The Torneo Apertura (English: Opening Tournament) was played between August 6 to December 14, 2008. The champions earned a spot in the 2009 Copa Libertadores.

Since San Lorenzo, Tigre and Boca Juniors ended the tournament with the same number of points, a three-way playoff was played to determine the champions.

2008 Torneo Apertura playoff

December 17, 2008

Round 1

Tigre	1–2	San Lorenzo
Lázzaro 76'	Report	Barrientos 18' Bergessio 20'

Vélez Sarsfield Stadium, Buenos Aires

Referee: Saúl Laverni

December 20, 2008

Round 2

San Lorenzo	1–3	Boca Juniors
Solari 61'	Report	Viatri 45' Palacio 77' Chávez 90'

Racing Stadium, Avellaneda

Referee: Héctor Baldassi

San Lorenzo

Boca Juniors

GK 1 Agustín Orión DF 2 Adrián González DF 20 Gastón Aguirre   DF 16 Nicolás Bianchi Arce DF 11 Aureliano Torres MF 10 Pablo Barrientos MF 28 Cristian Ledesma MF 4 Juan Manuel Torres MF 6 Santiago Solari (1) FW 7 Andrés Silvera (2) FW 15 Gonzalo Bergessio   Substitutes: FW 18 Santiago Hirsig (1) FW 22 Cristian G. Chávez (2) GK 12 Nereo Champagne DF 30 Fernando Meza DF 3 Germán Voboril MF 32 Salvador Reynoso Manager: Miguel Ángel Russo

GK 12 Javier García DF 4 Hugo Ibarra DF 2 Julio César Cáceres DF 6 Juan Forlín (1) DF 3 Claudio Morel MF 22 Fabián Vargas (2) MF 5 Sebastián Battaglia MF 23 Jesús Dátolo MF 10 Román Riquelme FW 18 Luciano Figueroa (3) FW 27 Lucas Viatri Substitutes: DF 13 Facundo Roncaglia (1) MF 21 Cristian M. Chávez (2) FW 14 Rodrigo Palacio (3) GK 25 Josué Ayala MF 15 Álvaro González DF 33 Ezequiel Muñoz MF 28 Nicolás Gaitán FW 17 Ricardo Noir FW 7 Pablo Mouche Manager: Carlos Ischia

December 23, 2008

Round 3

Boca Juniors	0–1	Tigre
	Report	Lázzaro 68'

Racing Stadium, Avellaneda

Referee: Sergio Pezzotta

Boca Juniors

Tigre

GK 12 Javier García  69' DF 4 Hugo Ibarra DF 13 Facundo Roncaglia  33' DF 2 Julio César Cáceres DF 3 Claudio Morel MF 21 Cristian Manuel Chávez MF 5 Sebastián Battaglia MF 23 Jesús Dátolo  45' MF 11 Leandro Gracián FW 18 Luciano Figueroa  55' FW 27 Lucas Viatri Substitutes: GK 25 Josué Ayala  69'  90' MF 15 Álvaro González  45' FW 14 Rodrigo Palacio  55' 89' DF 33 Ezequiel Muñoz MF 24 Exequiel Benavídez MF 28 Nicolás Gaitán FW 17 Ricardo Noir Manager: Carlos Ischia

GK 1 Daniel Islas DF 27 Luis Ardente DF 14 Pablo Jerez DF 23 Norberto Paparatto DF 6 Rodolfo Arruabarrena (1) MF 15 Sebastián Rosario (2) MF 17 Matías Giménez (3) MF 10 Martín Morel MF 8 Jonathan Blanco FW 7 Carlos Luna FW 9 Leandro Lázzaro Substitutes: FW 31 Mauro Villegas (1) FW 15 Leonel Altobelli (2) FW 18 Sebastián Rusculleda (3) GK 21 Lucas Abud DF 29 Pablo Fontanello DF 2 Damián Leyes DF 4 José San Román Manager:

Pos	Player	Team	Goals
1	José Sand	Lanús	15
2	Martín Morel	Tigre	13
3	Esteban Fuertes	Colón	11
4	Alejandro Gómez	Arsenal	8
	Mauro Boselli	Estudiantes (LP)
6	Rubén Ramírez	Colón	7
	Lucas Viatri	Boca Juniors
	Pablo Barrientos	San Lorenzo
	Leonel Núñez	Independiente
	Carlos Luna	Tigre

Source: Scorer Stats (in Spanish)

The Torneo Clausura (English: Closing Tournament) began on February 6, 2009 and ended on July 5, 2009. The champions earned a spot in the 2010 Copa Libertadores.

Pos	Player	Team	Goals
1	José Sand	Lanús	13
2	Daniel Montenegro	Independiente	12
	Esteban Fuertes	Colón
4	Hernán López	Vélez Sarsfield	11
	Carlos Luna	Tigre
6	Santiago Silva	Banfield	9
7	Leandro Caruso	Godoy Cruz	8
	Radamel Falcao	River Plate
	Gonzalo Bergessio	San Lorenzo
10	Javier Pastore	Huracán	7
	Martín Palermo	Boca Juniors

Source: AFA

Relegation from the Primera Division was determined on the basis of performance over the last three seasons. Every club had its points earned divided by the number of matches played and an average (Spanish: promedio) was determined. The clubs who finished in 17th and 18th played a relegation play-off against the 3rd and 4th placed clubs in Primera B Nacional. The clubs who finished in 19th and 20th were directly relegated to Primera B Nacional.

Source:AFA

Gimnasia y Esgrima (LP) remained in the Argentine First Division after a 3–3 aggregate tie by virtue of a "sports advantage". In case of a tie in goals, the team from the First Division gets to stay in it. Rosario Central won 2–1 and stayed in the Argentine First Division, while Belgrano does not get promoted and remains in Argentine Nacional B.

The Apertura champions qualified for the 2009 Copa Libertadores and the Clausura champions qualified to the 2010 Copa Libertadores. The last two Argentina spots for the 2009 Copa Libertadores were determined by the sum of all points obtained in the past three tournaments.

Qualification for the 2009 Copa Sudamericana was determined from an aggregate table of the Apertura and Clausura tournaments. The top four teams in the aggregate table qualified; Boca Juniors and River Plate were invited every year till this season, regardless of their standings in the season.

• 2008–09 in Argentine football

• Asociación del Fútbol Argentino (AFA) website (in Spanish)
• Season regulations (in Spanish)