The season was played as a round-robin tournament. It began on 31 July 2009 and concluded on 15 May 2010. The champions were Lech Poznań.
Teams
Due to several non-competitive events between last and this season, the team exchange among the two highest football divisions of Poland was only partially determined by the 2008–09 league tables.
ŁKS Łódź were denied a license by the Polish FA because of financial issues.[4] ŁKS filed several appeals against this decision, but were eventually left without any success.[citation needed]
First League 2008–09 champions Widzew Łódź were not permitted to advance by the Polish FA after their involvement in the Polish corruption scandal.[5] The club had its initial appeals rejected, however, an Arbitration Tribunal later returned a verdict in the club's favor which led the club to file a request for immediate reinstatement to the Ekstraklasa.[6]
The decisions had a significant influence on the relegation and promotion of teams. As a consequence of their revoked license, ŁKS were put in last place of the 2008–09 Ekstraklasa standings and directly relegated to the First League. They were joined by Górnik Zabrze as 15th-placed team. Both teams were replaced with First League 2008–09 runners-up Zagłębie Lubin and third-placed Korona Kielce.
Because of the controversy surrounding both teams from Łódź, the Polish FA was forced to postpone the originally planned relegation/promotion play-off in June 2009[citation needed] and eventually decided to cancel it completely.[citation needed]
^Jagiellonia Białystok were docked ten points at the start of the 2009–10 season as a consequence of the club's involvement in a corruption scandal.[8]