Month: October 2021

East Group. Just a notch more dramatic than the West Group – 2 teams competed for first place and promotion.
Bokelj – last with 25 points and relegated.

Trepca – 17th and relegated with 30 points.

Belasica (Strumica) – 16th with 31 points and relegated. Standing from left: N. Sekulov, B. Istatov, K. Sekulov, B. Mitev, V. Stojkov, T. Pecev, I. Andreev, D. Gorgiev. Crouching: P. Andreev, T. Mastev, T. Stojanov, K. Kostadinov, T. Aljokov, R. Ancev.
Napredak (Krusevac) – 15th with 32 points and lucky this season: because there was no team relegated from First Division to this group, they were not relegated.
Crvena zvezda (Gnjilane) – 14th with 33 points.
Pobeda (Prilep) – 13th with 33 points.
Radnicki (Kragujevac) – 12th with 33 points.
FK Ivangrad (in white, pictured here before a game with Crvena zvezda Belgrade) – 11th with 33 points.
Vlaznimi (Dakovica) – 10th with 33 points.
Borac (Cacak) – 9th with 33 points.
Teteks (Tetovo) – 8th with 33 points.
Sloboda (Titovo Uzice) – 7th with 33 points.
Radnicki (Pirot) – 6th with 33 points.
Majdanpek – 5th with 33 points.
Pelister (Bitola) – 4th with 34 points.
Novi Pazar – 3rd with 35 points.
OFK Beograd (Belgrade) – 2nd with 46 points. Tried hard to return to top flight, but failed.
Rad (Belgrade) – prevailed in the Belgrade battle for the first place and won teh championship with 49 points. 20 wins, 9 ties, 5 losses, 54-15 goal-difference. Great success of one of the youngest clubs in the capital, which so far never played top league football. It was just wonderful to be a champion and get promoted.

Second Division. The usual 2 groups of 18 teams each and no high drama at the top. One group was dominated by one team, and the other – by two.
West Group. Since the relegated team from First Division happened to be from this half of Yugoslavia, 5 teams were relegated from the group.
Sloga (Doboj) was last and out with 20 points.
RNK Split – 17th with 22 points and relegated.
Maribor – 16th with 28 points and relegated.
Dinamo (Pancevo) – 15th with 30 points and relegated.
Vrbas – 14th with 31 points. Unlucky, for under normal circumstances they sgould have been safe. But since the two relegated from First Division teams happened to belong to the West, Vrbas was relegated.

Famos (Hrasnica) – 13th with 33 points.
Rudar (Lublja) – 12th with 34 points.
Sibenik – 11th with 34 points.
Iskra (Bugojno) – 10th with 35 points.
Jedinstvo (Brcko) – 9th with 35 points.
Mladost (Petrinja) – 8th with 35 points.
Proleter (Zrenjanin) – 7th with 36 points.
Borac (Banja Luka) – 6th with 36 points.
GOSK Jug – 5th with 37 points.
Leotar (Trebinje) – 4rth with 37 points.
Kikinda – 3rd with 38 points.

RFK Novi Sad – 2nd with 42 points. Strong season, but unable to rival their city neighbours Vojvodina.
Vojvodina (Novi Sad) – dominant this season. 20 wins, 9 ties, 5 losses, 60-26 goal-difference, 49 points. Nobody managed to come close tp them and Vojvodina was easily promoted. Standing from left: Zovko, Alempić,Dimitrić, ?, Ćurčić, Milovac.
Crouching: Cimbal, Šestić, Popović, Mijić, Beganović.

Yugoslavia – ranked 8th. Weird championship, sygnaling the coming of new era in which playing was secondary. Who won this championship? It depends… there was one final table, followed by another. This championship ended in court and decision of a judge changed final positions already recognized by UEFA.Thus, today there are 2 final tables and depending to local fanaticism – two champions. All started with infringement of rules of fair play, leading to penalties given by the Yugoslavian Federation: Partizan (Belgrade), Crvena zvezda (Belgrade), Velez (Mostar), Rijeka (Rijeka), Dinamo (Zagreb), Buducnost (Titograd), Zeljeznicar (Sarajevo), Sutjeska (Niksic), Celik (Zenica), and FK Sarajevo (Sarajevo) had 6 points deducted. Severe punishment of more than half of the league suggests wide-spread violation of rules, most likely bribery and match-fixing, but the guilty decided to fight the Federation in court – at least some of them. And they won in court, the deducted points were restored. But that was quite after the end of teh season, which had official final table and according to which the Yugoslav participnats in the European club tournaments were already submitted to UEFA and recignized by UEFA. The new final table after the court decision was different – the first champion was stripped from the title and there was problem with one of the relegated teams. At the end, it looked like the mighty got their way and the smaller clubs, having nothing to do with the wide-spread violations of rules were… punished. There is bitter tast, still hurting. Justice was violated so much, there is no way to take sides – the guilty became innocent, the innocent were punished, a whole new avenue was opened: if you cannot win on the field, you can go to court and prevail. Why play the game at all? It looked like a victory of corruption. Luckily, Second Division did not suffer from the same, for if it was the whole Yugoslavian football pyramid may have collapsed.
Let start with teams from lower leagues – just a taste. Teams, which used to play top level football, or had solid place in Yugoslav minds, or came out of obscurity after the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
11 oktomvri (Prilep)
Obilic (Belgrade).
Kolubara
Balkan (Skopje)
Metallurg (Skopje)
BSK Slavonski Brod
Segesta (Sisak)
Koper (Beltinci)

Lirija (Prizren).