Football Journey

First Division. Two outstanding leaders and two outsiders – somewhat, a 50-50 representation of political changes and stubborn status quo. 3 teams relegated.
Olt (Scornicesti) – last with 12 points and relegated. And soon after that – dissolved, or at least that was what looked like, for the club was not in Second Division the next season.
Victoria (Bucharest) – 17th with 21 points. The club was dissolved after the Romanian Revolution – that was stands today in regard of ill-born Victoria, only a few years ago the second team of Dinamo (Bucharest). This club was never restored, unlike Olt.
Flacara (Moreni) – 16th with 28 points and relegated. Such a fate… they did very well in the previous season and qualified to play in the UEFA Cup. So, in the season they met FC Porto they also went down domestically.
SC Bacau (Bacau) – barely survived: 15th with 29 points.
Jiul (Petrosani) – lucky to escape relegation: 14th with 29 points.
Universitatea (Cluj) – also lucky: 13th with 29 points.
Arges (Pitesti) – one more happy survivor: 12th with 29 points.
Sportul Studentesc (Bucharest) – 11th with 30 points. Up: C.Pană, Lucaci, Cristea, Voicilă, Simionov, Răduță, Buțerchi, M.Popa
Middle: Mihale, Ciucă, Ion V.Ionescu (coach), V.Kraus (assistant coach), V.Zamfir (gk coach),
N.Andreescu (doctor), L.Buluș (maseur), V.Andrei (maseur), V.Iorgulescu, S.Răducanu
Bellow: Șumudică, A.Popa, Olteanu, Stănici, R.Lucescu, Manu, S.Dobre, G.Prodan, M.Mihail, Țârlea
Bihor (Oradea) – 10th with 30 points. Interesting scoring record: 61-61.
Top row from left: BALAJ CALIN ,ARPAD BUCICO ,VLADIMIR TAMAS ,TOMA IVAN ,VIOREL VANCEA ,PETER BERETCKI
Middle row: PAUL POPOVICI ,CHEREGI ,GABRIEL BRUCHENTAL ,MIRCEA BOLBA,ROBERT COSMOC,NICOLAE MURESAN,DANUT BABA ,TONI WEISEMBACHER ,DRAGAN DINU
Sitting: SERBAN CRAIU ,OVIDIU LAZAR ,ANDRAS BISZOK,ALEXANDRU TERHES, DUMITRU JIPA .
Farul (Constanta) – 9th with 31 points.
Corvinul (Hunedoara) – 8th with 32 points.
FCM Brasov (Brasov) – 7th with 35 points.
Inter (Sibiu) – 6th with 36 points.
Politehnica (Timisoara) – 5th with 41 points.
Petrolul (Ploesti) – 4th with 41 points.
Universitatea (Craiova) – 3rd with 44 points. Strong season, confirming their established leading status, but not near the battle for the title.
Dinamo and Steaua once again fought for supremacy and no wonder why: they had the best and already famous Romanian players.
Steaua (Bucharest) lost the championship by one point – 2nd with 56 points.
Dinamo (Bucharest) clinched the title with 57 points: 26 wins, 5 ties, 3 losses, 96-23. It was their 13th title. The squad surely deserved it. Their fans were happy, despite the ironic fact that they supported the club of the most hated Communist institution.

Romania. Ranked 15th presently. If Czechoslovakia had a ‘Velvet Revolution’, the fall of Communism in Romania was bloody. Football perhaps was not in the minds of most people, but it went on and from the distance of time presents a dry record looking absolutely normal. But behind the statistics the picture was quite turbulent, even fantastic. In a nutshell, Romania had talented and already well known abroad talented generation of players – now they were going to play in West in flocks. Miodrag Belodedici’s case was reversed – his sentence for running away from Romania voided, everything ‘normal’, he would not only go back to Romania without fear, but included again in the national team. Two clubs were severely punished as the sourest cases of Communist meddling in the sport, yet, the battle for the trophies in this championship was still between Steaua and Dinamo and one should pause here when speaking of political reforms and football. Yes, those were the leading Romanian clubs and from this angle nothing surprising the due was still head and shoulders above all other teams. But the leading clubs also were the most representative of Communist rule with all it’s twists and turns: Steaua belonged to the Army, but during the 1980s became almost a private toy of Nicolae Ceausescu’s son – reminding one of the early 1950s, when Stalin’s son made almost a private club of VVS (Moscow). Dinamo belonged to the Police – naturally, not to the Traffic Police, but the top layer of Police – the Securitate, the Romanian analogue of KGB. Both clubs, like everywhere in the Communist Europe, represented the most powerful and ominous Communist institutions. The rivalry between the institutions were large, vicious, behind the scene, and football was just another aspect of this battles for upper hand. In Romania, it was almost ironic, for Securitate served Nicolae Ceausescu and his family, the whole rule was based on the Secret Police, but since the son of the ruler ‘owned’ Steaua it was not easy at all to put down the rival club. So, both clubs fought perhaps more behind the scene than on the football field – using power, influence, intimidation, every dirty trick to top the rival. The picture of corruption was quite hidden, thanks to gifted generation of players in both clubs and real success, especially the international triumphs of Steaua. It was classic dilemma: everybody knew how corrupt and manipulated Romanian football was, yet, international success excused that, because success was a matter of national pride. The list of abuse and falsifications was so long and gross, it is almost impossible to say which element was the worst: the goal-scoring manipulations so a Romanian to get the Golden Shoe or the inclusion of Dinamo’s second team in the First Division, hastily re-naming it Victoria in order to play in the UEFA Cup. Or may be the sudden rise of Olt – representing the village where Ceausescu was born and supplying it was quite a big stadium as well.
Back in the 1950s the team of Stalin’s son, VVS (Moscow), was entirely dissolved with the first slight shift of political power – the ‘owner’ eventually went to prison, the top players, recruited by him – to other clubs, and VVS never existed again. During the fall Communism football everywhere in Eastern Europe went to similar ‘punishment’ of clubs created by the Communist rule and representing it. Since the model was Soviet, all such clubs were either belonging to the Police or to the Army and were hated. But… there was ‘but’: it was a problem of popularity. With time such clubs became popular – to a different degree, so the dismantling of Communist sport was tricky and generally unsuccessful, for even hated and not very popular clubs eventually survived. If in the early 1990’s Dynamo (Berlin), Dukla (Prague), Honved (Budapest), Dynamo (Zagreb) were renamed and went into sharp decline, nearing even complete dissolution, today all of them exist with their Communist names – it turned out there were enough supporters to keep them going or the trademark of the name, representing old success, became valuable enough with time. Generations of fans were brought up supporting the Communist name and not any other was able to substitute it – neither new (Dynamo Berlin becoming FC Berlin), nor old pre-Communist one (Honved Budapest revamping the name of the club once upon a time renamed Honved – Kispest Budapest). Many popular clubs simply had no other name, for they created entirely by the Communist rule (Crvena zvezda and Partizan Belgrade, CSKA Sofia) – the Romania case falls into this this category: Steaua and Dinamo were vastly popular, but they were not based on some old pre-Communist clubs. Renaming them would not work – the fans did not want that at all. The irony of life… exactly the leading clubs were the most representative of the hated Communist power, they committed most abuses and violations, yet, they were the most popular and justice… ended then and there. It was enough to remove direct Communist involvement and keep everything else, not even investigating well-known corruption and abuse of power associated with the clubs. So… investigation of crimes was directed elsewhere, for some justice had to be done, demanded to be done. And it was done… Victoria (Bucharest) was dissolved and soon after them Olt (Scornicesti) went down and disappeared… for a while. Victoria was artificial club belonging to Securitate, no doubt about it, but it only there second club – the prime one was Dinamo, which suddenly slipped out of sight, all vitriol directed towards Victoria and ‘justice’ was done, the guilty punished. No problem here – Victoria had no fans, an easy target. In view of the bloody events during the fall of Communism in Romania the perception of Steaua suddenly changed: the Army was ‘innocent’, for blood was spilled by Securitate. ‘Innocense’, with time would be transformed into the myth of resisting Communism – as if Ceausescu’s son resisted Communist power, represented by Securitate, backing up… Ceausescu family and its power over the country. Similar myths popped-up around East Europe – people believing that the arch-representatives of Communist rule and its abuses were actually resisting Communism and were the cradles of anti-Communism. Time played its role in that – the strongest clubs became the most popular clubs, new generations knew nothing else but those particular clubs, by 1990 new fans emerged in the classic manner: the father introduces his son to his club, then the son to his son and so on. Nothing can destroy popular club, only ungainly past will be replaced by plausible myths. So… nothing changed – looking back to already distant 1989-90 season one sees powerful Dinamo and Steaua. The greatest stars were found playing for either one or the other, so ‘objectively’ speaking – yes, those were really and truly the strongest and nothing to do with politics. No dirty laundry. But, yes, there was dirty laundry, Communist dirty laundry… yes, there was, but it belonged to our enemies. We were clean. Everything simplified by myth: Ceausescu’s son? If one supports Steaua, he was a hero making and keeping us strong despite the dirty tricks of Securitate. If one supports Dinamo the story is reversed – Securitate resisted the power hungry shit and his criminal abuses. If one supports another club, than the myth of constant victimization is established – the Communist clubs repressed everybody else and prevented us from glory. This is perhaps the most plausible myth, but it is still largely a myth, for even without totalitarian practices a player like Hagi would not stay with his original club, but move to the strongest. So, turmoil or not, politics or not, football was played in 1990 and the season ended as before: with the two biggest clubs way above the rest and entangled in familiar battle between themselves. The only difference was the ominous doubt that those clubs would stay strong on international level, for now every player was looking to play abroad and there were no more restrictions for doing so. It was still too early the map of Romanian football to change drastically. The top league was still of 18 teams, Second Division – still having 3 leagues of 18 teams each and the only new thing happened at the end of the season when Second Division relegation play-offs were staged, because Victoria (Bucharest) was dissolved, leaving one empty spot to be filled. A bit later another empty spot emerged because of the case of Olt (Scornicesti). Just as historic footnote:
CFR (Cluj), a club with long and successful past, was now out of First and Second Division football. This could be seen as the general decline of clubs related from start to the railroads: Rapid (Bucharest) was in Second Division, as well as other ‘railroad’ clubs – that is, to a point, the ‘genuine working class’ clubs, mostly originating from pre-Communist times.
Second Division. Three leagues of 18 teams, the winners promoted, the last 4 relegated. The old structure, however, not entirely the old one, for Serie III had 16 teams instead of 18 for some reason – very likely a result of political troubles – and only 2 teams were going down from it. Which eventually became only 1 directly team, for those ending 15th in every Second Division league went to relegation play-offs because of the empty spots left by Victoria and Olt. Typically, most clubs playing in the Second Division were obscure and only former to league members fought for top positions, hoping for promotion.
Serie I. Not only in this league one should be careful of the time: from today’s point of view, there were some familiar names – but that is because recently some clubs came to play top league football. Back in 1990 even in Romania nobody counted them for anything – Foresta (Falticeni), for instance. Most teams were absolutely obscure. At real time, only the top 4 ringed a bell because of playing in First Division before: Politehnica (Iasi), Otelul (Galati), Gloria (Buzau), and Progresul (Braila). Of them only two fought for first place – Gloria and Progresul. They ended with equal points and goal-difference decided the top position.
Otelul (Galati) was the best known name in Serie I, but they managed only 3rd place this season.
Progresul (Braila) clinched the first place: like Gloria (Buzau), they finished with 48 points. 22 wins, 4 ties, 8 losses. Gloria had 21 wins, 6 ties, 7 losses. Goal-difference benefited Progresul – their rivals ended with 63-32: +31, but Progresul was much better – 69-19: +50. Thus Progresul was promoted back to First Division after considerable absence from it, so it was great and highly promising season. The club had played under different names, so no wonder they were not really recognizable.
Serie II. Three recognizable names here: CS Targoviste, Chimia (Ramnicu Valcea), and best known club playing in the second level now: Rapid (Bucharest). Like in Serie I, only 2 teams competed for top position. Most clubs were anonymous:
FCM Caracal ended 7th. One of the typical Second Division clubs – entirely unfamiliar outside Romania and nobody paying much attention to them in the country itself.
The battle for first place was between Rapid and lesser known Drobeta.
Drobeta (Turnu Severin) had a great season, considering that they small and insignificant club playing second level football, but they were still not good enough to finish first: 2nd with 45 points. 7 points ahead of 3rd placed Unirea (Alba Iulia), but 4 points behind the winners.

Rapid (Bucharest) won the championship with 49 points: 22 wins, 5 ties, 7 losses, 61-32 scoring record. Not exactly dominating, but they still ended with good lead over their rivals and earned promotion. The return to top flight was relieve and even hope for the future in view of the political changes in the country: unlike Steaua and Dinamo, Rapid was old club which managed to navigate the years of Communsim quite well, which also helped them preserving considerable number of fans. Popular and with non-Communist past, they perhaps presented a chance for real transition – may be the old clubs, not fully tainted by Communism were coming back to ‘their rightful place’. Well, for the moment it was only climbing back to First Division. A start…
Serie III. The smallest league in the Second Division – only 16 teams for some reason – but with the biggest concentration of familiar names: if in the other two leagues only Rapid (Bucharest) was really successful in the past, in Serie III played teams which used to be strong once upon a time: CSM (Resita), UT (Arad), ASA (Turgu Mures), Gloria (Bistrita). Add Maramures (Baia Mare) which also plaued top league football now and then. But there was no drama – one team dominated the championship.
Gloria (Bistrita) dominated and won the championship. Well, it was true to the name… glory to Gloria. They left the next pursuer, UTA (Arad), 6 points behind. 18 wins, 9 ties, 7 losses, 87-40 scoring record, and 45 points.

The Czechoslovak Cup as usual opposed the winners of the Czech Cup and the Slovak Cup: Dukla Prague against Inter Bratislava this years, which somewhat evoked years gone and also gone reality. In a sense, the Communism was not giving up – both opponents were created by the Communist system. But football is still football. And there was nationalism playing bigger role now… This season Inter played stronger than Dukla, but Dukla had stronger squad. The clash ended undecided 1-1 after overtime and penalty shoot-out followed. In it Dukla prevailed 5-4.
Unlucky Inter… such a loss could be both lamented for ever or not lamented at all, but it brings – from the distance of time – a question: it could have been different future for Inter if they won the Cup. May have been… Than again, may not have been. The central thing is that it would have been great if Inter won: they hardly ever won trophies, even when they much stronger than this vintage. No luck.
Dukla Prague was lucky and prevailed. Not many were happy of their victory, especially in 1990, but it was good for the players – after all, there was significant talent in the squad deserving to win something and thus increase their marketing value. As statistics go, Dukla won its 8th Cup, adding one more trophy to their collection.

First Division. Two outsiders, both Slovak teams, and two strong leaders, but separated, so one team dominated the championship, like most of the 1980s. Still 2 points for a win.
ZVL Povazska Bystrica – the debutantes were clearly not up to the task: they finished last as hopeless outsiders with 12 points and were relegated immediately after promotion.
Spartak ZTS Trnava – also an outsider: 15th with 18 points and relegated. They won only 4 games this season, the least in the league. It was hard to believe Spartak was one of the strongest and most successful clubs in the 1960s and first half of the 1970s – so much they declined during the 1980s.
DAC Dunajska Streda – 14th with 24 points. Not in danger of relegation, but still they slipped down the table – which was not surprising since DAC was small small heroically playing top league football.
Dukla Banska Bystrica – 13th with 25 points. Nothing much as usual. They also signified the decline and thus firm secondary position of Slovak football in the 1980s – starting with them, Slovak clubs took the last 4 positions in the championship.

Zbrojovka Brno – 12th with 27 points. Zbrojovka sharply declined in the 1980s and struggled in Second Division – they just managed to return to top flight, but recovery is a long process, so for the moment the maximum was to stay in First Division and they achieved the goal.
Ruda Hvezda Cheb – 11th with 27 points. Their usual. Political changes were going to change the name of the club, so far a Communist symbol – ‘red star’.

Slavia Prague – 10th with 28 points. Popular, but still weak as they normally were for years, thus, bitter.
TJ Vitkovice – 9th with 29 points.
Sigma ZTS Olomouc – 8th with 31 points. Not bad.
Dukla Prague – 7th with 31 points. Perhaps the second strongest squad in the league, but political changes were against them – people did not like the prime symbol of Communist rule. Rightly or wrongly, the club suffered from that and this was practically their last strong season. There was more, but it was still in future.
Plastika Nitra – 6th with 34 points. Very strong season for a club traditionally meandering between First and Second divisions.
Slovan CHZJD Bratislava – 5th with 35 points. Nothing like the leading team were until the end of the 1970s, but keeping in mind that their decline lead them to Second Division, this season looked like full recovery was almost completed.
Bohemians CKD Prague – 4th with 35 points. Pretty much the last hurrah of the small endearing club – political changes affected them badly, although not because of the stigma plunging down Dukla to destruction.
Internacional Slovnaft ZTS Bratislava – 3rd with 37 points. On the surface, they seemingly recovered even better than rivals Slovan, but who would know what the future brings… this was almost the last time Inter succeeded. In the new reality they joined Dukla and Bohemians on the thorny road to oblivion, going even further down the their Czech counterparts.
Banik Ostrava OKD – 2nd with 41 points. Now, this was a traditionally strong club seemingly going to stay strong and smoothly moving from one political reality to another. Much stronger than most of the league, but not really capable to fight for the title and their squad tells why – good, but not exceptional. Dukla Prague had stronger squad, for example.
Sparta CKD Prague – well, no surprise they won: 21 wins, 4 ties, 5 losses, 77-27 scoring record, 46 points. They had the strongest and most balanced squad and not for the first time – Sparta dominated the 1980s, this was their 4th consecutive title, a team without a rival. Political changes were not going to affect them negatively, but rather positively, for they were old and popular club. The exodus of players to foreign lands was unlikely to weaken them either, for now they were going to make their own transfers – selling and buying. And with money there was little doubt who would be able to get the best new Czech talent. Sparta won its 22nd title this season – already they were the most successful Czechoslovakian club, so it was just adding more and more to their record, becoming practically unreachable.
Confident champions again and looking for even better future – the players for good foreign contracts, the club – for the next success.

Czechoslovakia – ranked 14th. Political changes – ‘the Velvet Revolution’ – dominated the country, but football was affected by them as well: sponsorship and shirt advertisement on one hand; larger and unrestricted export of players on the other hand. On the surface, football was the same as before – Sparta dominated, Dukla was still strong and not falling into disgrace this season. Slovak football was weaker than the Czech. There was good batch of talented players, now further motivated to play well so to get contracts with bigger foreign clubs.
Second Division – along with the Cup, it was divided into Czech and Slovak leagues of 16 teams each. The winners were promoted and the last 2 in each league – relegated, but that depended on which teams were relegated from the First Division. As usual, former top league members were on top, not much challenged by any rivals.
The Czech Second Division. At the bottom ended TJ VP Frydek-Mistek with -1 points. That’s right: minus one! The club was penalized with 6 points deduction, but the team was so weak, they never managed to compensate – they won only 1 match, tied 3, and lost the rest 26 games. Relegated, of course, and the only one from this league going down, for no Czech team was relegated from First Division.
Up the table, just a few notes: TJ Slovan Elitex Liberec, which soon was going to play quite significant role of Czech football, so far gave no sign of ascent – they ended 13th with 22 points. A place ahead of them was long-time top league member TJ SKLO Union Teplice – they were in decline for quite some time and continued to be weak. TJ Dynamo Ceske Budejovice gave no sign of ambition and desire to go back to top flight: 7th with 32 points. TJ Skoda Plzen was stronger to all the league save one team – they finished 2nd with 42 points, but did not quite contested the top position.
TJ RH Spartak ZVU Hradec Kralove easily won the championship with 47 points: 21 wins, 5 ties, 4 losses, 54-16. Climbing back to First Division and hoping to settle there.
Slovak Second Division. Similar to the Czech league – two teams stronger than the rest, one quite stronger than the other. Because both relegated teams from First Division were Slovak, the last 3 teams here were relegated to third level – bad luck for Banik Prievidza, the 14th placed, which normally would be safe. The newcomers to the league were not very impressive, particularly Lokomotiva Kosice, which had been great during the 1970s, but in the 80s went down the Third Division and now painfully climbed back a bit,
Just returning to Second Division, Lokomotive finished 12th with 28 points. It was not just them, but actually the whole city of Kosice: their other club, now renamed to Jednota, was also down in Second Division and suffering: Jednota finished 3rd, but distant 3rd with 39 points.
TJ Montostroj Senec – formerly PZN, the other newcomer from third level, did much better than Lokomotiva: 6th with 30 points.
ZVL Zilina, usually trying to climb back to the top league, was quite weak this season: 9th with 28 points. Normally, fewer former top league members played in the Slovak league – compared to the Czech – and this season they were only 4 such teams: Jednota Kosice, Lokomotiva Kosice, ZVL Zilina and Tatran Presov. With 3 of them quite weak, practically unknown team climbed up and to some degree aimed at the top position – but Slovan Agro Levice was not that good and settled for 2nd place with 44 points.
As many times before, Tatran – now with slightly changed name to Tatran Agro from Presov won the championship with 47 points: 23 wins, 1 tie, 6 losses, 78-27. It was so familiar: Tatran and ZVL Zilina meandered constantly between First and Second Division. When in Second Division, they instantly won and went back to the top league, only to drop down just as quickly. Now ZVL Zilina was weak and out of the game, so Tatran practically had no rival, eventually finishing 3 points ahead of the next pursuer and earning promotion.

The Cup final opposed good, but out of the big picture teams: Djurgardens IF vs BK Hacken. One just out of the title race member of the top league against a strong Second Division squad trying to get back to First Division. The intrigue ended on the pitch as expected: the top league team was much stronger. Djurgardens IF won 3-0.
BK Hacken were so unfortunate this season – reached the Cup final and lost it. Won their Second Division group and lost the promotion play-off. Twice second instead of becoming a sensation. Good try, though.
Djurgardens IF did not have particularly strong league season, but still ended with a trophy in their hands. Yes, they met inferior opponent at the Cup final, but so what? It was significant victory: in their long and successful history Djurgardens IF never won the Cup so far – this was their first Cup, a remarkable event, a day to remember with pride.

First Division. The regular season ended like this:
Hammarby IF – last with 19 points and relegated.
Orgryte IS – 11th with 21 points and relegated.
IK Brage – 10th with 24 points and relegated.
Halmstads BK – 9th with 26 points.
AIK – 8th with 27 points.
GAIS – 7th with 28 points. Finished with curious – and low – scoring record: 17-17.
Malmo FF – 6th with 28 points. Rather weak season for them.
Djurgardens IF – 5th with 33 points.
Osters IF – 4th with 36 points and going to the play-offs for the title.
Orebro SK – 3rd with 36 points and going to the play-offs for the title.
IFK Norrkoping – 2nd with 40 points and going to the play-offs for the title.
IFK Goteborg – dominant winner with 45 points from 12 wins, 4 ties and 6 losses. 41-23 goal-difference. However, nothing was decided yet – the play-offs were next.
The play-offs for the title were played in late October and in the ½ finals
Orebro SK lost to IFK Goteborg 1-1 and 1-2.
Osters IF was eliminated by IFK Norrkoping 4-3 and 1-2. Away goals decided their fate.
The big final opposed the 1st to the 2nd in the regular season – truly, a clash between the best teams this season. Everything practically ended in the first leg – IFK Norrkoping lost at home 0-3. They tried to save face in the second leg and managed 0-0, but lost the championship.
IFK Norrkoping – strong season, no doubts about it, but really the second-best team.
IFK Goteborg – consistently strong from start to finish, permitting no surprises. Well, the strongest and internationally most successful Swedish club continued to be very strong and collected their 12th title.

Second Division Sodra.
Karlskrona AIF – last with 21 points and relegated.
Mjallby AIF – 13th with 28 points and relegated.
Landskrona BoIS – 12th with 29 points.
Gunnilse IS (Angered) – 11th with 29 points.
IF Elfsborg (Boras) – 10th with 30 points.
Markaryds IF – 9th with 31 points.
Kalmar FF – 8th with 32 points.
IK Oddevold (Uddevalla) – 7th with 33 points.
Kalmar AIK – 6th with 36 points.
Jonsereds IF – 5th with 38 points.
Trelleborgs FF – 4th with 42 points.
Vastra Frolunda IF – 3rd with 49 points.
Helsingborgs IF – 2nd with 50 points. Lost the battle for top place by a points, but had the best defense in the whole Second Division: they permitted only 19 goals.

BK Hacken (Goteborg) – clinched the top position with 51 points from 14 wins, 9 ties, and 3 losses. 52-23 goal-difference. Alas, they lost the promotion play-off against GIF Sundsvall 1-0 and 1-4 and were not promoted to the top league. They were so close to success this season – twice – and no luck.

Sweden. Ranked 13th. Changes were scheduled for the next season: First Division was going to be of 10 teams, so 3 were relegated and only 1 promoted (the winner of the promotion play-off between Second Division champions). For the last time – 9th season altogether – the regular season was followed by play-offs involving the top 4 teams to decide the title. Second Division was going to be reorganized from 2 groups to 4 groups of 8 teams each, thus enlarged from current 24 teams to 32. 3 points given for a win.
Second Division Norra.
Tyreso FF – last with 7 points and relegated. They won just 1 match this season and allowed 78 goals in their net during 26 games.
IFK Holmsund – 13th with 12 points and relegated. But their troubles were much bigger: the club folded because of financial reason and therefore not going to play in Third Division next season.
IFK Eskilstuna – 12th with 28 points.
Vasby IK FK (Upplands-Vasby) – 11th with 32 points.
Motala AIF – 10th with 34 points.
BK Forward (Orebro) – 9th with 35 points.
Gefle IF (Gavle) – 8th with 38 points.
IFK Lulea – 7th with 38 points.

Kiruna FF – 6th with 38 points.
Vasteras SK – 5th with 41 points.
Sparvagens GoIF (Stockholm) – 4th with 45 points.
IF Brommapojkarna (Bromma) – 3rd with 49 points.
Vasalunds IF (Solna) – 2nd with 49 points.
GIF Sundsvall – group winners with 61 points after 19 wins, 4 ties, and 3 losses. Scored 69 goals, permitted in their net 27. Without challengers this season, but it was not over: they went to promotion play-off against the winner of the other group and lost the first leg 0-1. At home, they destroyed BK Hacken 4-1 and were happily promoted to the top league. Much deserved promotion too.

The Cups – Liverpool reached no final, so no treble or even double was possible. Well, the traditions of English football seemingly were kept alive in the Cups and the relative weakness of Liverpool somewhat hinted by their inability to reach cup final, but that have little to do with the finals.
Nottingham Forest and Oldham Athletic reached the League Cup final. Since it was England, the battle between strong top league squad against Second Division mid-table opponent had no obvious outcome. Odham fought bravely, alas, unable to score. Nottingham eventually prevailed by single goal, scored in the 47th minute by Jemson.
Too bad the underdog lost the final – Oldham really had great performance in the Cups: semi-finalists in the FA Cup, finalists in the League Cup. Nothing top be ashamed of, but it would have been wonderful if they won the trophy. At the end, there was a player going to win trophies, but not with Oldham – Denis Irwin.
Nottingham Forest won their 4th League Cup. Great, considering that Forest remained a small club – Brian Clough somehow maintained strong and competitive squad and success was deserved And also needed for the trophy room. However, there was a bit of irritation: Cough himself built a culture of easy excuse early in the 80s, when he said that his team won everything already and there was nothing to fight for anymore. Add to this the objective excuse, that Forest was small club with little cash – what can you expect, they already did miracles just staying along with the big rich clubs. But such attitude very likely stifled ambition: the squad was more than solid and capable of more than winning occasional Cup.
Manchester United and Crystal Palace at the FA Cup final. As season went, a battle between equals. As rosters went – Manchester United looked mush stronger. As ambition went… both finalists were determined to win. Their clash ended without victor after overtime: 3-3. Replay followed. And in it United prevailed 1-0. Dramatic final, the kind fans love.
One can imagine the sorrow of Crystal Palace – so close and no luck. Would have been great for them to win, for real success hardly ever came to them, but… they only came close to success.
Difficult victory to be celebrated even more because of the dramatic way it came, but… Statistically, Manchester United won its 7th Cup. They finished with a trophy in their hands. But it was not exactly cups Manchester United considered big success – the championship title was out of their reach for so long and the team had disappointing season in the bottom half the league table. And that with – arguably – a squad almost strong as Liverpool’s. The FA Cup was consolation, perhaps saving the head of Alex Ferguson, but he knew that the only good think about winning the Cup was saving heads, saving the season and boosting moral. However, there was something very important in this victory: UEFA was carefully going to permit English clubs back in the European competitions. Liverpool and Nottingham Forest still had their own bans and could not play, but Manchester United had clean sheet and was permitted. This victory opened the road to Europe, making the next season crucial: now there was big chance, a big aim, a reason to get worthy new players, to boost ambitions. Suddenly, the Cup victory had much bigger significance than saving face and adding one more trophy.
The Red Devils practically had the squad capable of more. Now they also had a big aim ahead of them. The glory days were coming and that mostly thanks to this victory.