By the numbers - the 2008/09 Scottish Football season

The Scottish football season finally came to a halt as Rangers win the Scottish Cup following their 1-0 victory over Falkirk last Saturday.

The promotion and relegation fixtures have been played; St Johnstone, Raith Rovers, Ayr United, Stenhousemuir and Dumbarton are all preparing for life in a higher division following their promotions, while for Inverness Caley Thistle, Clyde, Airdrie United, Queens Park and Stranraer next season will mean having to adjust to life in a lower league.

So what better time to conclude the 2008/09 season in Scotland than with some tasty statistics, lovingly hand-compiled and fact-checked, sort of.

11

is the number of seasons in the SPL since its inception in 1998. Celtic lead the winners table, with 6 wins. This years champions Rangers trail the Parkhead with 5 wins.

27 is the number of goals scored by Scotland's top scorer, Rangers' Kris Boyd. He´s scored 11 more than Scott McDonald of Celtic, his nearest rival for the Tartan Boot (if such a thing exists). Boyd also leads the table for number of hattricks scored this season, 2.

52 is the total number of domestic league wins for this years champions Rangers. In winning the league for the 52nd time since 1891 following their 3-0 win at Tannadice on the final day of the season, Rangers continue to hold the world record for the number of domestic league honours. Having also won the Scottish Cup last weekend, they will need only one more win to equal Celtic's total number of wins in the worlds second oldest Cup competition; the Hoops have won it 33 times.

15 stands for the number of managers who lost their job one way or the other over the course of the year. It began with John McCormack's resignation from Albion Rovers in July and ended with Mixu Paateleinen’s resignation from Hibs on the 28th May of this year. Other high profile departures included Jimmy Calderwood (Aberdeen, pictured left), Gordon Strachan (Celtic), Craig Brewster (Inverness Caley) and Roberto Landi (Livingston).

548 represents the number of goals scored this season in the SPL, down 62 from last season. The most goals scored in one game are the 8 racked up in the fixture between Rangers and Hamilton on the 6th December which the Ibrox side won 7-1. Across the other three senior leagues in Scotland, the most goals outside of the SPL where scored in the Third Division (497) and the lowest, 443, in the First Division. However, these totals are dwarfed by the total number of goals scored in the Highland League - a stunning 789!

Oh, and speaking of Highland League...

Zero is the number of games won by Highland League side Fort William this season. The Fort outdid themselves, scoring the same amount of goals (16) and conceding fewer (121), but last season they managed to win a game. Their one solitary point during the 2008/09 campaign came thanks to a 1-1 draw against Wick Academy.

23 is the number of points between second placed Celtic and third placed Hearts. Not so much a gulf as an ocean of difference when you consider that this gap is five more than the combined points gap between the second and third placed teams across Divisions One, Two and Three.

14 is for Manuel Pascali of Kilmarnock, who leads the yellow-card table having seen it produced 14 times this season, but somehow managing not to get sent off all year. In contrast, Marius Zaliukas (right) of Hearts received the most red cards this season - four.

Interestingly, had the Fair Play League not been restricted to the SPL it would be Brechin City, not Motherwell playing in the Europa League. The Angus side picked up only 37 yellow cards and 1 red card all season, which is a whopping 13 fewer than the team that finished top of the Fair Play league, Celtic.

7 is the number of times Perth-based St. Johnstone have won the First division title; they secured their latest promotion when they beat Morton 3-1 at McDiarmid Park on May 29th, putting the Saints back in the top flight for the first time since 1997 when they where founder members of the SPL the following year.

212 is the number of goals you would have missed if you left every Scottish Football League game 10 minutes early.

1286 represents the average attendance across the First, Second and Third divisions. This total is down 23 from last season, suggesting perhaps that football is as popular as ever (or not) despite the credit crunch. The best supported team this year outside the SPL was Dundee. Troubled Stranraer, relegated back to the Third Division and facing an uncertain future had the lowest average attendance, with only 303 paying punters coming through the turnstiles every week.

Right, that just about wraps it up for another year in Scottish football. We hope you enjoyed our coverage so far - we´ll be back over the summer with the latest transfer news, gossip and scandal. Until then, see ye efter!

Europe: The Final Countdown (Part 5)

France / Ligue 1

Bordeaux are the new Ligue 1 champions following their 1-0 win over Caen at the weekend. Yoan Gouffran's goal after 49 minutes not only sealed his team's first championship win in ten years but also confirmed Caen's relegation to Ligue 2.

Olympique Marseille went into their final game knowing they could only win Ligue 1 if they beat Stade Rennes and Bordeaux lost to Caen. To Marseille's credit, they kept their side of the bargain by beating Rennes 4-0, but it was to prove ultimately futile.

Both Bordeaux and Marseille now take their place in the Champions League for 2009/10 while outgoing champions Lyon ensured a place in the qualifiers by finishing third after a goalless draw at Toulouse.

Alain Casanova's side ended a remarkable campaign with a fourth-placed finish that means they'll be taking part in the Europa League next season. Quite a turnaround for Toulouse who last season finished just one place above the relegation zone.

Lille are the last team to earn a shot at European glory next season. They'll enter the Europa League qualifying round thanks to a 3-2 win over Nancy which left them level on points with Toulouse and PSG (who miss out on Europe due to goal difference).

At the foot of the table, there was an exciting finish as next-to-bottom Nantes won against the odds 2-1 at home to Auxerre but sadly for them they were relegated anyway. After a 'will-they-won't-they' saga that's lasted for several weeks, Saint Etienne picked up an excellent 4-0 win over Valenciennes to reach safety and Le Mans scrambled to a vital 1-1 draw at Lorient.

With Caen losing to Bordeaux, it meant they were confirmed as the third team to go down to Ligue 2 and they, along with Nantes and Le Havre will be replaced next season by Lens, Montpellier and Boulogne who come up to Ligue 1. Particularly notable, there, is the inclusion of Boulogne who have just reached the top flight for the first time in their 111 year history, so congratulations to them.

Italy / Serie A

A pair of 2-0 wins for Juventus and Milan ensured the former snatched second place in the final Serie A table ahead of the latter.

Juve's victory at home to Lazio was earned on the back of two goals from Vincenzo Iaquinta who ended the season with twelve in total. Over at Fiorentina, however, the home side only just managed to hang on to fourth place as Kaka and Alexandre Pato bagged one each to give Chelsea-bound coach Carlo Ancelotti a fitting send-off.

Luckily for Fiorentina, their head-to-head record over Genoa was good enough to keep them in fourth place, especially given Genoa's final day 4-0 win over relegated Lecce. By way of consolation, Genoa (along with Roma) go into the hat for next season's Europa League competition.

As mentioned last week, the final relegation spot was due to go to either Bologna or Torino with Il Toro arguably facing the tougher task of having to beat Roma to stay up. And so it proved to be despite Tommaso Vailatti putting Torino 1-0 up after just nine minutes. In the end, however, Roma's fight-back proved too much as Menez, Vucinic and Totti all got their names on the scoresheet to run out as eventual 3-2 winners.

With Bologna predictably winning at Catania, Torino finish up as the third team (along with Lecce and Reggina) to drop into Serie B after a three-year run in the top flight. Coming up to take their place in Serie A next season are Bari and Parma along with the winner of the promotion play-offs which will feature Livorno, Brescia, Empoli and Grosseto.

Spain / La Liga

Sevilla finally confirmed their place in the Champions League next season with a 2-0 away win at Numancia... mind you, they left it a bit late. Diego Perotti finally came up with the first goal for his side with only two minutes left on the clock, and even then there was still time for a Juan Carlos Moreno own goal to double the margin of victory.

That win for Sevilla ensures a third place finish in this season's Primera Division while Atletico Madrid are left to settle for fourth despite a 3-0 victory over Almeria. One of those goals was scored by Diego Forlan who ended 2008/09 as leading scorer with 32 in total. That averages out at about a goal per game where he's concerned - a fabulous achievement and one which will have the Atletico fans licking their lips with anticipation for next season.

At the bottom, the battle to avoid the last relegation place was lost by Real Betis after an amazing escape act by Sporting Gijon and Osasuna. Both teams won 2-1 in their final games to finish with 43 points - one more than Betis and Getafe. In the end, the margin of defeat for Real Betis was agonisingly just a single goal as they and Getafe both played out 1-1 draws in their respective matches against Racing Santander and Real Valladolid.

So it's Real Betis, Numancia and Recreativo Huelva that fall through the trap door to be replaced by three as-yet-unknown teams (they're still playing out the last few weeks in the Segunda Division) although Deportivo Xerez currently lead the way there and look likely to be one of the promoted sides.

And that just about wraps up our end-of-season focus on what's happening in the major European leagues. We hope you'll agree it's been fascinating seeing how matters were concluded across the continent... let's hope we get more of the same next season!

And the winners are...

Now that the dust has finally settled on another fine football season, it's time to announce the winners of SPAOTP's two online competitions.

Back in July 2008, we invited you all to take part in our Fantasy Premier League and 'I Know The Score' League, both run in conjunction with the official Premier League website. Once again, we had a terrific response from all of you resulting in a record 121 players taking part in the former, and after 38 weeks of ardent battling we are delighted to announce that the winning team was Leeds from the Front, managed by Chris Gordon.

Chris amassed a total of 2,134 points (averaging over 56 per week) and finished 10 clear of Graham Matthews' Nowt Since '68 in second. In third place was Riverdale FC, managed by James Dutra, with 2,083 points.

Congratulations to all of them and indeed all of you who took part. Thanks to your efforts, the SPAOTP.com mini-league was finally ranked 389th out of 140,784 which, we think you'll agree, is something to be very proud of.

Over in the 'I Know The Score' mini-league, we're delighted to announce that two old friends of SPAOTP ended up at the top of the pile. The outright champion was Tokyo Toffeeman who ended the season on 2,485 points - just fifteen clear of ChrissMari who put in a last ditch challenge with 200 points on the final gameweek. Had she not predicted Hull would get a draw against Man United on the last Sunday, she might have just snatched victory but that's just us being pedantic... ;-) Third place went to minty83 who ended up with a creditable 2,390 points.

Once again, congratulations to the winner, Tokyo Toffeeman, and our thanks to everyone that took part. We hope we can call on your participation again next season!

Bundesbag: Any other business

And lo, the German club football season did come to a halt. Last week the Bundesbag took you through the final round of what has been a vintage season for the Bundesliga. If you followed us for the last ten months as a novice, you picked the right season to get involved. You may not encounter a campaign quite as exciting as this one but the Bundesliga will still be relied upon to produce unpredictable results and unlikely heroes in the future.

This season has featured so many wonderful protagonists: Jurgen Klinsmann and his failed revolution at Bayern Munich; Andrei Voronin's one man crusade to win the title for unfancied Hertha; Ralf Ragnick, Dietmar Hopp, Vedad Ibisevic, Carlos Eduardo and the rest of the Hoffenheim gang who lit up the Hinrunde with their ambition and breathtaking football; Artur Wichniarek who lost his father shortly before the start of the season and went on to score 13 of Bielefeld's 29 goals (a statistic which, alas for him, was not enough to keep his team up); Jurgen Klopp who took a tired and listless Dortmund squad to the verge of European competition; Martin Jol whose Hamburg team, unlike his craven contemporaries in the Premier League, tried to win every competition and very nearly blew the lot.

But ultimately, the season belongs to Wolfsburg. Ninth at the Winter Break, champions in May and destroying pretty match everything in their path to the top. Their front pairing of Edin Dzeko and Grafite scored more goals in a season than any other strike partnership in the history of the Bundesliga. You know you've achieved something special when you've broken a record held by Gerd Muller. Daily Mail readers and disciples of Samuel P Huntington may be interested to learn that Dzeko is a Muslim and Grafite a confirmed Christian.

However, the Bundesbag's Order Of Merit (were such a thing to exist) goes to the coach Felix Magath. Turfed out by Bayern after winning two domestic doubles in succession, he exacted his revenge by reducing his former employers to also rans and must have taken great satisfaction as he watched his team demolish the Bavarians 5-1 in April, a match that proved to be the signature performance of this truly great football team.

Another contender for this fictional award was Hans Meyer who did for 'Gladbach what he has a reputation for and that was rescue them from relegation. Meyer last performed this feat with Nurnberg. However, after a while things started to unravel and they were relegated last season. Perhaps with that in mind Mayer has stepped down as coach (no doubt with a handsome bonus for his trouble) citing the need for a new broom.

Nurnberg themsleves are back in the Bundesliga after a 5-0 (gerd) mullering of Cottbus in the two legged relegation play-off. Joining them are Freiburg and Mainz who both gained promotion automatically.

Finally, the German Cup was won by Bremen who beat Leverkusen thanks to a single goal by Mesut Ozil who has some big shoes to fill now that Diego has gone to Juventus.

That's it. The Bundesbag will pop back from time to time over the close season if there is anything exciting to remark upon. Plus we've resurrected the old Bundesbag Twitter ID which will keep you up to date with any snippets of information that comes our way. Then we'll be back for a new season in August. We hope you have enjoyed SPAOTP's coverage and hope to see you again, as semi-legendary commentator Gary Preston might say, "...when the whistle blows for another exciting season in the Bundesliga."