Month: July 2015

Albania remained remote and obscure – hardly anything survived from 1979-80 championship. Only three clubs showed some class in the second division. Traktori Lushnje had no rival at all in Group A and won it with 6 points advantage – huge gap, considering that only 8 clubs participated. Group B was more competitive – tow clubs contested first place. Besëlidhja Lezhë prevailed by 2 points. Entirely unknown club – Dajti Kamëz – finished second, but 7 points ahead of the 3rd placed. As it was, former members of first division dominated the second level and got promoted.

First division was not much fun either. Apolonia Fier ended last without winning even a single match. Absolute outsiders, earning just 5 points during the season. Shkëndija Tiranë finished 13th – 14 points ahead of poor Apolonia, but 4 points behind Tomori Berat, which finished safely 12th. Apolonia and Shkëndija went down.

The rest of the league was seemingly fairly equal – 9 points divided silver medalists from 12th placed. Point or two difference decided higher or lower place. Vllaznia Shkodër finished 3rd and 17 Nëntori Tiranë second – neither club challenged the solitary leader.

Which was familiar name – Dinamo Tiranë. This season they were head and shoulders above the rest, finishing 5 points ahead of 17 Nëntori.

Dinamo easily won their 13th title, but how strong they were is hard to say – it was rather that their rivals were weak, especially Partizani Tiranë, which ended 4th and only because of better goal-differemce.

Partizani did not close the season empty-handed, though. Weak in the championship, they won the Cup. It was not easy victory, although their opponent was not a strong team. Labinoti Elbasan was a typical mid-table club, this year was no different – they finished 9th in the championship – but cup final is another matter. Labinoti kept Partizani at 1-1 tie and a second match was scheduled. It was also equal game, but Partizani managed to score a goal and thus to win the Cup. 1-1 and 1-0 – Partizani not only were not superior, but had really hard time winning the trophy.

Partizani saved the season by winning the Cup, but as a whole nothing changed in Albania – weak or strong, the top clubs Partizani and Dinamo got the trophies, as ever. Well, even if one of them failed, it would have been 17 Nentori winning… the three clubs from the capital Tirana dominated Albanian football.

By 1980 Icelandic football got some notice, but this was because of players making good impressions abroad. Domestic leagues continued to be weak.

Reynir Arskogsstrond won the 3rd division championship. Good for the team looking largely like bunch of teenagers, but otherwise the winners had only a novelty value. Promoted to second level, though.

KA and Thor, both from Akureyri, finished 1st and 2nd in the second division and promoted to top league. Both clubs were familiar with first division football and clearly above the rest of the second league. There is nothing more to say – half of the second division members were entirely unknown, only three clubs, apart from the winners, played in a minor role if first division occasionally.

First division was 50% Reykjavík clubs. Of them the smallest one, Trottur, was the league outsider, sinking to the bottom early in the championship and never moving from the last 10th spot. IB Keflavik, usually stronger, had a bad season and finished 9th. These were the relegated. On the brighter side was UB Kopavogur – unlikely first division member, but they finished 5th , seemingly determined to establish themselves among the best.

Four clubs at the top were more or less familiar to foreign public names, for those were usually stronger and played in the European tournaments. But there was no competitive race for the title. IA Akranes and Vikingur Reykjavik were comfortably above the rest of the league, yet, fought between themselves for the bronze medals. Both finished with 20 points and IA Akranes got the medals thanks to superior goal-difference. Way above them were Fram and Valur, but there was no much of the clash between them either: Fram ended 5 points ahead of IA Akranes, but 3 points behind the champions. In a small league of only 10 members, 3 points was rather big advantage.

Valur Reykjavík finished with one more title – their 17th and 3rd since 1975. Valur, traditionally one of the best clubs in the country, was seemingly the current strongest club.

The Cup final opposed Fram Reykjavík to ÍB Vestmannæyjar. IB were stronger in the first half of the 1970s, but sunk to the lower half of the table after 1975. Fram prevailed 2-1. Thus, the strongest Icelandic clubs at the moment won the trophies.

Fram won their 4th Cup. Although one of the most successful clubs, with 15 titles by 1980, Fram was well bellow their arch-rival Valur in recent times: since 1947 they won only 2 titles – one in 1962 and one in 1972. On the other hand, they excelled at last in the Cup tournament, winning their very first Cup in 1970 and steadily adding more during the 70s.

A strange play-off was staged between IA Akranes and Vikingur – strange, because the final table shows IA at third place. The play-off decided who will represent Iceland in the UEFA Cup and Vikingur won 2-1. Still, it looks weird, for if IA Akranes was awarded 3rd place, they automatically deserved the European spot. What the play-off did was just cementing the supremacy of the clubs from the capital – all three Icelandic representatives in the European tournaments hailed from Reykjavik.

The Cup final opposed one of the losers in the championship and a club which perhaps had bigger ambitions, but was down on its luck in the championship. Haka Valkeakoski, traditional strong clubs in Finland, lost the title by a single point. Winning the Cup would have been good… KTP Kotka had typical midtable season – 5th in the preliminary stage, far behind the top 4 teams, but also far ahead of the rest the league; and 5th in the final stage, once again far behind from the top four. The final was tightly contested. At the end KTP Kotka clinched 3-2 victory.

Happy winners. KTP Kotka were not exactly a great traditional powerhouse, but happened to win something from time to time. This was one such occasion – well done for obviously inferior club, but also a good example of football in the lower European regions: teams were relatively equal in strength and without real stars and relatively few good players, everything was possible. KTP Kotka had anonymous players to jaded outsider’s eye – but OPS Oulu were anonymous just as much.