Month: June 2022

Second Level. 24 teams played in it and the formula was three stages, all played in groups. There were no ties – tied matches were followed by penalty shoot-outs. 3 points were given for straight win, 2 points for winning by penalty shoot-out, 1 point for losing by penalty shoot-out. Two teams were promoted to First Level – the top 2 in the final stage, After it the same two top teams played a final for the Second Level title. Relegation was unclear… at the end, it did not matter were there rules for relegation or not, because in the 1989 Third Level was abandoned and Second Level increased to 96 teams. At a glance – second rate teams played at this level, which looked fair deal, but there was at least one anomaly: Valeriodoce Esporte Clube (Itabira, Minas Gerais) popped in. Obscure club, never playing in the Brazilian championship before. How and why they suddenly appeared in the Second Level? Because the states had a number of assigned lots and teams qualified from the local championship. Yet, it was difficult to follow the rules for participation and relegation/promotion rules hardly made sense in championships seemingly using two different criteria in the same time. The championship was greatly simplified and at least it was easy to understand and follow, but… the championship ended with a scandal anyway. At the first stage the last teams in every group were decided relegated. It did not really match anything, for only 2 teams from Third Level were going to be promoted. Were they really relegated after the elimination of Third Level? May be a look at the 1989 season is in order…
Here are the teams playing in the 1989 Second Level championship and since there was no final table, the whole season will be shown after that:
1-Associação Esportiva Catuense (Alagoinhas-BA)
2-Fluminense Futebol Clube (Feira de Santana-BA)
3-Ceará Sporting Club (Fortaleza-CE)
4-Rio Branco Atlético Clube (Vitória-ES)
5-Atlético Club Goianiense (Goiânia-GO)
6-Operário Futebol Clube (Campo Grande-MS)
7-América Futebol Clube (Belo Horizonte-MG)
8-Uberlândia Esporte Clube (Uberlândia-MG)
9-Valeriodoce Esporte Clube (Itabira-MG)
10-Treze Futebol Clube (Campina Grande-PB)
11-Grêmio de Esportes Maringá (Maringá-PR)
12-Londrina Esporte Clube (Londrina-PR)
13-Central Sport Club (Caruaru-PE)
14-Clube Náutico Capibaribe (Recife-PE)
15-Americano Futebol Clube (Campos-RJ)
16-Sociedade Esportiva e Recreativa Caxias do Sul (Caxias do Sul-RS)
17-Esporte Clube Juventude (Caxias do Sul-RS)
18-Esporte Clube Pelotas (Pelotas-RS)
19-Avaí Futebol Clube (Florianópolis-SC)
20-Joinville Esporte Clube (Joinville-SC)
21-Associação Atlética Internacional (Limeira-SP)
22-Associação Atlética Ponte Preta (Campinas-SP)
23-Botafogo Futebol Clube (Ribeirão Preto-SP)
24-Clube Atlético Juventus (São Paulo-SP)
First stage.
Group C
Table
1-Náutico 10 6 1/ 1 2 11- 5 21 Qualified
2-Fluminense-BA 10 4 3/ 3 0 10- 4 21 Qualified
3-Catuense 10 4 2/ 2 2 15-12 18 Qualified
4-Ceará 10 2 2/ 1 5 6-11 11 Qualified ———————————————–
5-Central 10 1 3/ 2 4 3- 8 11 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
6-Treze 10 1 1/ 3 5 7-12 8 Relegated

Group D
1-Ponte Preta 10 4 2/ 2 2 13- 7 18 Qualified
2-Americano 10 4 1/ 4 1 14- 9 18 Qualified
3-América-MG 10 4 2/ 2 2 10- 6 18 Qualified
4-Valeriodoce 10 4 2/ 1 3 12-10 17 Qualified ———————————————–
5-Juventus 10 2 2/ 2 4 9- 9 12 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
6-Rio Branco-ES 10 1 2/ 0 7 6-23 7 Relegated

Group E
1-Internacional-SP 10 5 3/ 1 1 11- 6 22 Qualified
2-Botafogo-SP 10 4 1/ 2 3 10- 8 16 Qualified
3-Atlético-GO 10 4 0/ 3 3 17-13 15 Qualified
4-Operário-MS 10 3 2/ 2 3 14-13 15 Qualified ———————————————–
5-Grêmio Maringá 10 3 2/ 1 4 7-13 14 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
6-Uberlândia 10 1 2/ 1 6 9-15 8 Relegated

Group F
1-Joinville 10 4 4/ 2 0 16- 9 22 Qualified
2-Caxias 10 4 2/ 2 2 13-11 18 Qualified
3-Avaí 10 3 1/ 4 2 10- 6 15 Qualified
4-Juventude 10 3 2/ 0 5 6-10 13 Qualified ———————————————–
5-Londrina 10 3 1/ 1 5 8-13 12 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
6-Pelotas 10 2 1/ 2 5 8-12 10 Relegated

Second stage.
Group G
1-Operário-MS 6 5 0/ 0 1 9- 4 15 Qualified
2-Caxias 6 4 0/ 1 1 10- 4 13 Qualified ———————————————–
3-Botafogo-SP 6 1 1/ 1 3 5- 7 6
4-Juventude 6 0 1/ 0 5 2-11 2

Group H
1-Internacional-SP 6 4 1/ 0 1 11- 6 14 Qualified
2-Joinville 6 3 0/ 1 2 5- 4 10 Qualified ———————————————–
3-Atlético-GO 6 2 0/ 0 4 6- 6 6
4-Avaí 6 2 0/ 0 4 8- 6 6

Group I
1-Ponte Preta 4 3 0/ 0 1 5- 3 9 Qualified
2-Americano 4 2 0/ 0 2 3- 3 6 Qualified ———————————————–
3-Fluminense-BA 4 1 0/ 0 3 2- 4 3

Obs.: Alleging financial problems, Ceará abandoned the competition.

Group J
1-Náutico 6 4 0/ 1 1 9- 7 13 Qualified
2-Valeriodoce 6 3 2/ 0 1 7- 5 13 Qualified ———————————————–
3-América-MG 6 3 0/ 0 3 7- 4 9
4-Catuense 6 0 0/ 1 5 4-11 1

Third stage
Group K
1-Internacional-SP 6 4 1/ 1 0 15- 6 15 Qualified
2-Náutico 6 3 1/ 1 1 11- 8 12 Qualified ———————————————–
3-Operário-MS 6 0 2/ 1 3 3-11 5
4-Valeriodoce 6 1 0/ 1 4 9-13 4

Group L
1-Americano 6 3 0/ 2 1 6- 6 11 Qualified
2-Ponte Preta 6 2 2/ 0 2 8- 6 10 Qualified ———————————————–
3-Joinville 6 2 1/ 1 2 6- 7 9
4-Caxias 6 2 0/ 0 4 8- 9 6

Final phase
1-Internacional-SP 6 2 3/ 0 1 7- 6 12 Promoted, Qualified
2-Náutico 6 2 2/ 1 1 6- 5 11 Promoted, Qualified ———————————————–
3-Ponte Preta 6 3 0/ 2 1 10- 6 11
4-Americano 6 0 0/ 2 4 2- 8 2
So far, so good, but…. At first, Ponte Preta was declared promoted. However, as usual, the tiebreaking criteria of the tournament was unclear. Náutico contested Ponte Preta’s promotion, alleging that the first tiebreaking criterion was the number of wins in the whole tournament and not the number of wins in the final phase. CBF decided to award the promotion to Náutico. Back to the old chaos of protesting, contesting…
Anyhow, Inter and Nautico were promoted, but still had to play a final for the Second Level title. The final was played in February 1989 in Limeria and the host team won 2-1.
Nautico – Clube Náutico Capibaribe (Recife-PE) – ended 2nd and perhaps that was fair, considering that they reached the final only after contesting the rules. But they were promoted to First Level and that was what mattered most – back among the big boys!
Internacional – Associação Atlética Internacional (Limeira-SP) – won the Second Level title for 1988. Of course, wonderful achievement of one of the smaller clubs from Sao Paulo state. Going up to play First Level football was also wonderful.

Third Level. The formula was entirely in groups: in the first phase the 49 groups were divided into 12 groups of 4 teams and the the top 2 teams moved to second phase. Now there were 6 groups of 4 teams each and the group winners qualified to the third phase – 2 groups of 3 teams each. The group winners were promoted to Second Level for 1989. Lastly, the group winners played a championship final. Since all teams played only against the other teams in their group, there were not all that many games: the contenders of the title played a total of 20 games. Those eliminated in the first phase – only 6 games. No trouble was envisioned – at least not in the formula of the championship, but there apparently was… a few teams forfeited the championship, most likely for financial reasons. The championship was completed without major problems, but it turned out to be useless championship – the Federation extinguished it in 1989 and enlarged the Second Level. Since the criteria for participation was not very clear, 1988 performance did not matter. Besides, some quite strange teams appeared in the 1988 championship along with clubs which played even First Level football in the last few years. Generally, all states were represented – very likely by teams playing relatively well in the state championships in 1987. Or because of previous participation in the national championship.
First phase:
Group 1.
1.ABC (natal – RN) 6 5 0/ 0 1 9- 5 15 Qualified
2.Campinense (Campina Grande – PB)6 3 0/ 1 2 7- 5 10 Qualified ————————————————–
3.Ferroviário-(Fortaleza-CE) 6 2 0/ 0 4 6- 9 6
4.América-(Natal – RN) RN 6 1 1/ 0 4 7-10 5
Group 2.
1.Botafogo-(Joao Pessoa-PB) 6 4 1/ 1 0 10- 4 15 Qualified
2.Paulistano (Paulista-PE)6 2 1/ 0 3 5- 5 8 Qualified ————————————————–
3.Auto Esporte-(Joao Pessoa-PB) 6 2 1/ 0 3 5- 9 8
4.Alecrim (Natal-RN) 6 0 1/ 3 2 2- 4 5
Group 3
1.Confiança (Aracaju-SE)4 1 2/ 1 0 5- 4 8 Qualified
2.Sergipe (Aracaju-SE)4 1 1/ 1 1 7- 5 6 Qualified ————————————————–
3.Capelense (Capela-AL)4 1 0/ 1 2 1- 4 4
Comercial FC (Viçosa-AL) – forfeited the tournament

Group 4
1.Lagarto (SE)2 1 1/ 0 0 2- 1 5 Qualified
2.Alagoinhas Atlético Clube-BA 2 0 0/ 1 1 1- 2 1 Qualified
Serrano SC (Vitória da Conquista-BA) – forfeited the tournament

Group 5
1.Tiradentes-(Brasilia-DF) 6 4 1/ 1 0 10- 4 15 Qualified
2.Anápolis GO 6 1 2/ 2 1 6- 6 9 Qualified ————————————————– 3.Taguatinga (Barsilia-DF)6 1 1/ 1 3 3- 5 6
4.Mixto (Cuiaba-MT) 6 1 1/ 1 3 4- 8 6

Group 6
1.Comercial-(Campo Grande-MS) 4 1 2/ 1 0 3- 1 8 Qualified
2.Novorizontino (Novo Horizonte-SP) 4 1 1/ 1 1 3- 2 6 Qualified ————————————————–
3.Douradense (Dourados-MS) 4 1 0/ 1 2 3- 6 4
América FC (São José do Rio Preto-SP) – forfeited the tournament

Group 7
1.Ferroviária (Araraquara-SP) 4 2 1/ 0 1 4- 3 8 Qualified
2.Ubiratan (Dourados-MS) 4 1 1/ 1 1 3- 3 6 Qualified ————————————————–
3.XV de Novembro (Jaú-SP) 4 0 1/ 2 1 4- 5 4

Group 8
1.Porto Alegre (Iteparuna-RJ) 6 1 4/ 1 0 7- 6 12 Qualified
2.Desportiva FVRD (Cariacica-ES) 6 2 1/ 2 1 10- 7 10 Qualified ————————————————–
3.Tupi (Juiz de Fora-MG) 6 1 2/ 2 1 7- 9 9
4.AA Cabofriense (Cabo Frio-RJ) 6 0 1/ 3 2 4- 6 5

Group 9
1.União São João (Araras-SP) 6 4 0/ 1 1 7- 2 13 Qualified
2.Esportivo Passense (Passos-MG) 6 2 1/ 1 2 3- 3 9 Qualified ————————————————–
3.Fabril (Lavras-MG) 6 2 0/ 1 3 5- 7 7
4.Mogi-Mirim (SP) 6 1 1/ 1 3 4- 7 7

Group 10

1.Volta Redonda (RJ) 6 2 3/ 1 0 6- 4 13 Qualified
2.Santo André (SP) 6 3 1/ 1 1 6- 2 11 Qualified ————————————————–

3. XV de Novembro (Piracicaba-SP) 6 1 1/ 3 1 5- 4 9
4.Colorado (Curitiba-PR) 6 0 1/ 1 4 4-11 3

Group 11
1.Brusque (SC) 6 2 2/ 1 1 4- 2 11 Qualified
2.Figueirense (Florianopolis-SC) 6 2 2/ 0 2 6- 6 10 Qualified ————————————————–
3.Esportivo-(Bento Gonsalves-RS) 6 2 1/ 1 2 6- 8 9
4.Internacional/(Santa Maria-RS) 6 1 0/ 3 2 4- 4 6

Group 12
1.Marcílio Dias (Itajai-SC) 6 4 1/ 0 1 7- 4 14 Qualified
2.Blumenau (SC) 6 4 0/ 1 1 11- 5 13 Qualified ————————————————–
3.Iguaçu (Uniao da Vitoria – PR) 6 2 1/ 0 3 8- 8 8
4.Guarany (Cruz Alta-RS) 6 0 0/ 1 5 5-14 1
Second phase
Group 13
1.Botafogo-PB 6 4 0/ 1 1 8- 5 13 Qualified ——————————————– 2.Campinense 6 3 0/ 0 3 14-11 9
3.ABC 6 2 1/ 0 3 5- 8 8
4.Paulistano 6 2 0/ 0 4 6- 9 6

Group 14
1.Lagarto 6 2 3/ 0 1 6- 5 12 Qualified ————————————————– 2.Atlético-BA 6 3 0/ 2 1 6- 4 11
3.Sergipe 6 2 0/ 2 2 5- 4 8
4.Confiança 6 1 1/ 0 4 3- 7 5

Group 15
1.Tiradentes-DF 6 4 0/ 0 2 12- 9 12 Qualified ————————————————–
2.Anápolis 6 2 2/ 0 2 5- 7 10
3.Comercial-MS 6 2 0/ 1 3 7- 5 7
4.Ubiratan 6 2 0/ 1 3 5- 8 7

Group 16
1.Esportivo-MG 6 3 0/ 3 0 9- 3 12 Qualified ————————————————–
2.Volta Redonda 6 2 1/ 1 2 6- 7 9
3.Porto Alegre 6 2 1/ 0 3 6- 7 8
4.Desportiva 6 1 2/ 0 3 4- 8 7

Group 17
1.União São João 6 3 1/ 0 2 8- 5 11 [1 1 1/0 0 2- 1 5] Qualified ————————————————–
2.Santo André 6 3 0/ 2 1 8- 5 11 [1 0 0/1 1 1- 2 1]
3.Blumenau 6 1 3/ 0 2 5- 6 9
4.Brusque 6 1 0/ 2 3 4- 9 5

Group 18
1.Marcílio Dias 6 3 1/ 1 1 8- 6 12 Qualified ————————————————–
2.Ferroviária 6 2 1/ 1 2 5- 4 9
3.Novorizontino 6 2 1/ 0 3 5- 6 8
4.Figueirense 6 2 0/ 1 3 3- 5 7
Third phase
Group 19
1.Esportivo-MG 4 2 1/ 0 1 9- 2 8 Qualified, promoted ————————————————–
2.Botafogo-PB 4 2 0/ 0 2 5- 7 6
3.Lagarto 4 1 0/ 1 2 2- 7 4

Group 20
1.União São João 4 2 0/ 1 1 5- 3 7 Qualified, promoted ————————————————–
2.Marcílio Dias 4 2 0/ 0 2 4- 4 6
3.Tiradentes-DF 4 1 1/ 0 2 3- 5 5
Final [Dec 16 and 18]
Esportivo-MG 1-1 2-2 União São João
So far, so good… the finalists already won their Third phase groups and thus earned promotion to Second Level by the 1988 rules. The title, however was decided by the questionable rule Brazil employed for years: in case of a tie, whoever had better season record won. Thus, the title went to Uniao Sao Joao.
Esportivo Passense from the state of Minas Gerais ended vise-champion, but it was unbeaten at the final and promoted to Second Level. Altogether, great season for this quite anonymous club. Standing from left: Roberto Costa, Fronteira, Luis Carlos Bahia, Timoura, Ivanildo, Edson Shel.
First row: Zé Vitor, Marcos Ferrugem, Carlos Roberto, Telo, Helder.
Uniao Sao Joao won the Third Level championship and promotion to Second Level. Fine, but still let see if promotion was honoured in 1989…

Brazil. Looked like Brazilian football hit rock bottom in 1987 and there was no other way, but going back to sanity from there. But once chaos takes roots it is difficult to erase it and convulsions continued. Efforts were made to organize a stable system and simplify the fantastic championship formula, but still chaos was strong enemy. Three levels again in the national championship system – 24 teams in the First Level, 24 in the Second Level, 48 in the Third Level. First Level was to be reduced to 22 teams in 1989, so 4 teams were relegated from there and 2 promoted from Second Level. Two teams (most likely) were to relegated from Second Level and 2 promoted from Third Level. The championship formulas were simplified, but apart from First Level there were still too many group stages and especially in the direct elimination phases rules were muddy – to some point of the championships ties were broken by penalty shoot-outs, but in the last stages there were no shoot-outs, but in a case of a tie records of previous stages were used to declare a winner. And if First Level went through the season more or less smoothly, in the lower levels were teams forfeiting the championship altogether or going to the courts to get what they thought to be right. At the end the system collapsed when in early 1989 the Brazilian Federation suddenly decided to extinguish Third Level, thus voiding promotion/relegation between Second and Third Level – and effectively making a mockery of the 1988 season of Third Level, for now the whole effort to win meant absolutely nothing. No more Third Level, but new humongous Second Level was established for 1989 – made of 96 teams! Chaos was back in full force… once again the participants in the national championship were getting more and more, which in turn called for complicated labyrinthine formula – back to grand insanity of the earlier years of the decade, which lead to the revolt of the big clubs in 1987.
First, the usual peek at Brazilian teams which did not make any level of the national championship – some well known, some obscure, some successful on state level, some not.
Fortaleza.
Bragantino
Flamengo (Teresina)
Flamengo (Varginha)
Maranhao
Sampao Correa
Jundiai
Itumbiara
CSA
Cascavel
Campinense
Catanduvense
Vila Nova
Ibiracu
Noroeste
Rio Negro
Pitangui
Quixada

First Division. Nothing added, just straight league championship of 13 teams. All Montevideo clubs.
Progreso finished last 13 points. A real outsider, but in the relegation table they had better percentage and were not relegated.
Miramar Misiones was the last in the relegation table and went down. In the championship they finished 12th with 18 points. Standing from left: Cardozo, Javier Ortiz, Valdez, López, Julio Montiel, Mario Viera, Martínez, Walter Alvarez, Héctor Salvá
Middle row: Jorge Alvarez, Julio De Souza, Daniel Hernández, Aldo Azzinari, Luis Duarte, Danny García.
Front row: De Oliveira, Barboza, Carlos Laje, Rivas.
Bella Vista – 11th with 18 points.
River Plate – 10th with 20 points. Standing from left: Edgardo Arias, Alvaro Pérez, Jorge Da Silva, Gabriel Correa, Aníbal Arias, Jorge Luveras.
First row: Fabiano Pereyra, Alberto Botto, Daniel Fascioli, Juan R. Carrasco, Carlos Martínez.
Central Espanol – 9th with 21 points. Standing from left: Nelson Quevedo, ?, Pablo Fuentes, Alejandro Heguy, Fabián Tejera, Pablo Fernández.
Front row: Marcelo Fracchia, ?, Juan Mouro, Eduardo Rinaldi, ?.
Cerro – 8th with 21 points.
Nacional – formidable internationally, but at home… 7th with 22 points and negative goal-difference. One of the weakest ever domestic seasons of Nacional.
First row: Mauricio Silvera , Yubert Lemos , Ernesto Vargas , Juan Ramón Carrasco, Héctor Morán.
Wanderers – 6th with 24 points.
Liverpool – 5th with 25 points.

Huracan Buceo – 4th with 28 points.
Defensor Sporting – 3rd with 31 points.
Penarol – 2nd with 31 points. Better than Nacional, which was the only comfort, for they were not a title contender at all, but only fought for second position with Defensor Sporting and clinched it on better goal-difference.
Danubio dominated the championship and won it practically without a rival. 18 wins, 4 ties and only 2 lost games. 52-18 goal-difference and 40 points. Penarol and Defensor were 9 points behind! It was the first time Danubio won the Uruguayan title – great historic success, making the team instant legend for the club supporters. Not only that, but Danubio made another historic point: for the first time since1914 the champion was not Nacional or Penarol two years in a row. Perhaps the winners were not great stars individually; perhaps Uruguayan football as a whole was not at its best… but who would blame Danubio for such things after such dominant season?
What a great moment! Danubio became the 8th club winning the Uruaguayan title.
Danubio, named by immigrant Bulgarian woman, finally won a title – its curious beginning deserves one more photo of their great triumph.

Uruguay. Interesting season when looked at from a distance. First of all, the attempts of the country to break the monopoly of the capital was unsuccessful – only one provincial club played in the top 2 leagues and finished last in Second Division: Villa Teresa. Uruguayan football was still solid Montevideo matter, but the dominance of Nacional and Penarol was strongly and successfully challenged. Yet, perhaps the most interesting was the First Division final table – the team hopelessly last in it… well, shall we wait for the next season to reveal the real stunning event? It would not have been possible if Uruguay had ‘normal’ relegation rules, but since the rules were different better remind them: a separate relegation table was kept, where accumulated in few seasons records decided the unfortunate team going down. Newcomers usually suffered from that, but rules are rules.
Second Division. Traditionally, a tiny one – only 10 teams, so season was somewhat enlarged by having final promotion tournament after the end of the regular season between the top 4 teams. Even with such addition the season was till minimal – 6 teams had 18-games season and 4 played 21 games.
Villa Teresa ended last with 9 points, winning only one match. The only team outside Montevideo in the top two Uruguayan divisions.
Cerrito – 9th with 11 points.
Villa Espanola – 8th with 15 points.
Rampla Juniors – 7th with 15 points.
Italiano – 6th with 17 points.
Fenix – 5th with 18 points. Standing from left: González, Nelson Acosta, Ruben Labandeira, Miguel Messones, Raúl Acosta, Nelson Cedeira.
Crouching: Washington Carrato, Silva, Wolker, Heber Maurojorge, Peluffo.
For these teams the season ended. The top 4 went to the promotion tournament: Sud America – 4th with 23 points, Racing – 3rd with 24 points, El Tanque Sisley – 2nd with 24 points, and Rentistas – the winners of the regular season, beating El Tanque Sisley on goal-difference, because they finished with 24 points too. However, points from the regular season mattered – in the promotion tournament everybody carried their initial points and played one match against the other three teams.
Now El Tanque Sisley lost steam and finished last with total of 25 points.
Sud America ended 3rd with 25 points, but better goal-difference than El Tanque Sisley.
Racing tried their best, but ended 2nd with 28 points. Standing from left: Miguel Leone, Gustavo Ventre, Domingo Cáceres, Vladimir Naidenov, Fernando Rosa, Alejandro Botello.
First row: Néstor Viera, Fernando Vilar, Daniel Malceñido, Leonardo García, Juan Hatchondo.
Rentistas were best at the end – they won 2 games and tied 1 (Racing also won twice, but lost their third match) and that gave them a total of 29 points. Standing from left: ?,?, Andres Lopez, Luis Dagnino, Julio Garrido, ?, ?, ?.
First row: ?, Javier Nunez, Julio Franco, Jose Rey, Alberto Correa, Juan Acosta.
Rentistas (Montevideo) were the champions of Second Division and promoted to top flight – not for the first time, but still it was wonderful achievement of the modest club.

First Division. Simple, straight-forward championship – after playing normal league season everything was done, except for the lowly team going to promotion/relegation playoffs against the second-placed teams in the Second Division Zones. And that was the only mystery this year: seemingly, the 14th in the final table should have been the team going to promotion/relegation stage, but who knows why it was the 13th in the final table. Apart from that – the last 2 were directly relegated and the the 1st was the country champion. A big surprise this year, but not of the pleasant kind.

Universidad de Chile finished 15th with 26 points and became the second relegated team this year. U de Chile – who would believe it? It was easier to allow for very weak season by Palestino, yet, it happened. True, only worse goal-difference and that by a single goal, relegated them, but it was shocking season.
Union Espanola – barely survived with their 26 points. Just a goal better goal-difference placed them above Universidad de Chile. Lucky. Double lucky – they somehow escaped the risky promotion/relegation playoffs.
O’Higgins – 13th with 26 points. Coming ahead of U de Chile was still on better goal-difference, but it was not enough to place them above Union Espanola – the three teams with 26 points had pretty much the same goal-difference: -8 U de Chile and Union Espanola and O’Higgins -7 each. So, the final separation was due to either more goal scored (Union scored 34, O’Higgins 36), or more wins (Union had 9, O’Higgins 10). But… O’Higgins finished ahead of Union Espanola and should have been safely relieved – nothing like that: somehow, they were the team which to the promotion/relegation playoffs and luckily they won their games with the Second Division opponents and preserved their precarious place in the top league. Happy end.
Naval – 12th with 27 points. The fact of this season was that many clubs really battled only for survival – up to the 7-placed team, may be even higher. Naval escaped relegation by 1 point. If they earned 4 more points, they would have been either 6th or 7th. Such was this season.

Everton – 11th with 28 points.
Deportes Valdivia – 10th with 28 points.
Deportes Concepcion – 9th with 29 points.
Huachipato – 8th with 29 points.
Fernandez Vial – 7th with 30 points.
Colo-Colo – 6th with 31 points. Very weak season for them too, but at least they were not relegated like Universidad de Chile. 6th place does not look so terrible, but consider the points: only 5 more than the relegated rivals!
Very good season for Deportes La Serena – 5th with 32 points. Must have been from free pisco suplly by their sponsor…
Universidad Catolica – 4th with 33 points. They must have been quite happy, for usual stayed in the shadows of Colo-Colo and Universdiad de Chile. The photo, however, is suspect – very possibly from the first half of the 1990s, although the given year is 1988.
It may been the quirks of a strange season, but Deportes Iquique ended with bronze medals – 34 points was not much. But most teams finished with less and who can blame them for having more than the most, including the big names? Great year for the club and its supporters, even if Deportes was far behind the leaders.
Cobresal – getting stronger and stronger. 2nd with 37 points and the only team rivaling the winners. 10 years earlier nobody would have believed Cobresal would be a candidate for a title, for they were still an obscure young club in the lower leagues.
Cobreloa – champions after 17 wins, 6 ties, 7 losses, 47-27 goal-difference and 40 points. By now – established leaders. 4th title already. Provincials ruled – Cobreloa first, Cobresal – 2nd. Mining towns ruled, not the capital, which was in terrible shape at the moment.

Chile. Second Division – divided into 2 groups of 12 teams each. After the regular season the top 6 teams in each went to promotion tournament carrying their points records from the first phase. The winner was directly promoted and the second best in each group went to the last promotion/relegation tournament with one of the weakest teams from First Division – the winner was going to play top league football next year. The bottom 6 teams in the first phase played in the relegation tournament, also carrying their points and the last finisher was relegated. Relatively simple formula. Since all teams carried their points from the first stage to the second only the final group positions will be given here.
North Zone.
Relegation playoffs:
Hard to believe, but well known Audax Italiano was last and relegated further down – they finished with a total of 40 points. Actually, the team played well at the final stage, but could not compensate the handicap from the first stage. Techically, 12th at the end.
Union La Calera survived even with very weak last stage – 5th with 42 points. 11th.
Regional Atacama – 4th with 42 points. 10th.
Deportes Ovalle – 3rd and 9th with 43 points.
Cobreandino – 2nd and 8th with 43 points.
Deportes Antofagasta – 1st and 7th with 55 points.
Promotion playoffs.
Magallanes – 6th with 43 points.
San Luis de Quillota – 5th with 49 points.
Santiago Wanderers – 4th with 51 points.
Coquimbo Unido – 3rd with 55 points.
Deportes Arica – 2nd with 56 points and going to the final promotion/relegation tournament. They had very strong finish, for in the first phase they ended 4th with 35 points – but missed to place by a point.
Union San Felipe finished 1st with 57 points. They won the North Zone and were directly promoted to the top league. Well done!
South Zone.
Relegation playoffs:
Malleco Unido finished last with 33 points and was relegated – 6th and 12th.
Deportes Colchagua – 5th and 11th with 40 points.
Nublense – 4th and 10th with 41 points.
General Velasquaz – 3rd and 9th with 42 points.
Deportes Linares – 2nd and 8th with 43 points.
Deportes Puerto Montt – 1st and 7th with 50 points.
Promotion playoffs:
Curico Unido – 6th with 48 points.
Provincial Osorno – 5th with 48 points.
Iberia Biobio – 4th with 51 points.
Lota Schwager – 3rd with 55 points.
Deportes Temuco -2nd with 57 points and going to the last promotion/relegation tournament.
Rangers – champions with 68 points and promoted to First Division. Leading from start to finish, apparently supreme at the last stage, where they practically had no rival.
The Promotion/relegation final:
Deportes Temuco and Deportes Arica met O’Higgins from the top league and could prevail – they tied the match between themselves and promptly lost against O’Higgins. Thus, O’Higgins kept its place among the best.

Colombia. 15 teams in the First Division, no direct relegation or promotion. What happened bellow the top league was apparently of little importance. Typically complicated championship formula, going through 4 stages, but seemingly the main objective was to organize as long as possible season – for years England was thought the longest and toughest place to play the game with its 42 rounds of the championship plus other competitions, but the top clubs of Colombia had to play 50 games just for the championship. How many were really important was another matter – teams carried bonus points to the final stage, but how were they achieved? The first two stages seemingly had little relation to the last two stages – in the first, the Pentagonals, the league was divided into 3 groups of 5 teams which played among themselves. In the second stage, the Triangulars, the league was divided into 5 groups of 3 teams, also playing between themselves only. After the group rounds there was nothing more – only group winners. The third stage was familiar league format and every team played twice against the others, a total of 28 rounds. It was also the end of season for the bottom 7 teams in the third stage table – the top 8 went to the final stages. 6 teams got bonus points to carry to the final, coming from the previous 3 stages, but the criteria was unclear: seemingly, the group winners of the first stage and the top 3 teams in the third stage got bonus points, but not the group winners of the second stage – or at least not all of them. In any case Millonarios, America, Independiente Santa Fe, Atletico Nacional, Atletico Junior, and Deportivo Cali got bonus points from different stages and ranging from 1 to 0.25 points. For purpose of economy only the last two stages will be placed here. The final table of the third stage was as follows:
Union Magdalena – last with 12 points.
Once Caldas – 14th with 15 points.

Atletico Bucaramanga – 13th with 20 points.
Sporting Barranquilla – 12th with 21 points.
Deportivo Cali – 11th with 22 points. They got 0.25 bonus points, but good for nothing. Having Carlos Valderamma in the squad did not help either – this was the end of the season for them.
Deportes Tolima – 10th with 26 points.
Cucuta Deportivo – 9th with 27 points. Standing from left: Pedro Blanco, Miguel González Palacios, David Grueso, Alexander Churio, José Alfredo Turci, Francisco Castell.
Crouching: Luis Murillo, Oscar Duque, Felipe Nery Franco, Néstor Nacho Saavedra, Juán Bautista Sanclemente.
Hm… they were 9th, yet qualified to the final stage. Why?
Deportivo Pereira – 8th with 30 points.
Independiente Medellin – or Deportivo Independiente, or most often DIM – 7th with 30 points. Standing from left: Sergio Díaz (Arg), José Luis García, Oscar Wirth (Chi), Héctor Cortina, Carlos Álvarez, Diego Osorio.
Crouching: Carlos “panelo” Valencia, Juan Carlos Letelier (Chi), William Nigth, Huberto “beto” Sierra, Gabriel Jaime “barrabás” Gómez.
A second ‘hmm’… they did not go to the final. Why?
Deportes Quidio – 6th with 31 points.
America – 5th with 31 points.
Atletico Junior – 4th with 33 points.
Atletico Nacional – 3rd with 33 points.
Independiente Santa Fe – 2nd with 41 points.

Millonarios – 1st with 42 points. 19 wins,4 ties, 5 losses, 49-21. Millonarios also won its group in the first stage, but finished 2nd in the second stage group. Nevertheless, they were steadily strong so far and got 1.5 bonus points as a result.
The final stage was a tough battle between Atletico Nacional and Millonarios, which was resolved only by goal difference. Both teams ended with 10 wins, 3 ties, and single lost match and had 1.5 bonus points. Millonarios had better goal-difference – 32-10 – to Atletico Nacional’s 23-5.
Cucuta Deportivo was last in the final stage with 4 points. Standing from left: Luis Murillo, Miguel González Palacios, Alexander Churio, Pedro Nel Barbosa, José Alfredo Turci.
First row: Danilo Robledo, Winston Girón, Nestor Saavedra, Juan Bautista Sanclemente, Francisco Castell.
Deportes Quindio – 7th with 6 points. Standing from left: Norberto “chomo” Cadavid, Carlos Enrique Prono (arg), Luis NorbertoGil, Edgar Téllez, Jairo “plástico” Torres, Norberto Peluffo.
First row: Augusto Vargas Cortés, Carlos Peláez, Henry Otero, Luis Erramuspe, Gilmar Aponzá.
Deportivo Pereira – or Deportes Pereira – 6th with 7 points.

Atletico Junior – 5th with 14.25 points.

Independiente Santa Fe – 4th with17.75 points.
America – 3rd with 18.75 points.
Atletico Nacional – 2nd with 24.50 points.
Millonarios – 1st with 24.50 points. Lucky win, one may argue, but they played well enough and had very tough rival. Second consecutive title and 13th altogether. Millonarios remained the most successful club in Colombia. Curiously, as good as this vintage was, the most famous Colombian stars – Valderamma and Hiquita – did not play in it by names only America still had stronger squad on paper. Somehow Millonarios did not have the greatest stars, either domestic or foreign, yet, they were the best team two years in a row.

Paraguay. Stretched out championship – the best teams played 40 games to decide the champion – but the rules were simple and clear.
CA Tembetary – or Atletico Tembetary, or just Tembetary – won the Second Division championship and got promoted.
The First Division was played in 4 stages, but always in the standard league format – the teams played once against the rest of the league in each stage. The top three teams in every stage got bonus points to carry to the final 8-team stage: the stage champion – 2.5 points, the second – 1.5 points, and the third – 0.5 point. The combined table of the initial three staged showed the top 8 going to the final stage and the last was relegated. This season Nacional (Asuncion) was the weakest and went down. Three other teams did not make the final stage: General Caballero, San Lorenzo, and
Guarani.
Stage by stage, there was really only one surprise:
Sol de America won the opening stage – they performed great: 6 wins, 4 ties, 1 lot game and 14-3 goal-difference. But they were last in the second stage with exactly reversed record: won just 1 match, tied 4, lost 6. 9-17 goal-difference. Then they back on top in third stage, ending 2nd only on worse goal-difference – won 7 games, tied 3, lost 1, 13-6. Weird ups and downs, but playing at the final stage was secured and with 4 bonus points at that.
Olimpia was different: they started sluggishly – 7th in the opening stage, but after that won the next two stages and went to the final stage with 5 bonus points.
Cerro Porteno did not won any stage, but had steady performance: 2nd in the opening stage, 3rd in second stage, 3rd in third stage. That gave them 2.5 bonus points.

Libertad got 1.5 bonus points for finishing 2nd in the second stage. But in the other two stages they mid-table team, finishing both times 6th.
Sportivo Luqueno was the last team getting bonus points – they were 3rd in the opening stage and got 0.5 point. Like Sol de America, they flopped in the second stage – 10th – but came back in the third stage finishing 4th.
The last 4 teams reached the final stage on combined points, but the title was pretty much out of their grasp because of the significant advantage bonus points gave the top clubs.
Colegiales ended last in the final stage with 4 points.
Sportivo Luqueno – 7th with 5.5 points.
River Plate – 6th with 7 points.
Sport Colombia – 5th with 7 points.
One should have expected Cerro Porteno to be playing for the title after such steady performance so far, but more likely they spent their efforts earlier – 4th with 9.5 points.
Libertad ended 3rd with 9.5 points.
Sol de America finished 2nd with 11 points. Great for a club hardly aver among the best, but… they were not a title contender at this point and if not for their bonus points would not been 2nd. They won only 1 match in the final stage. True, lost only once too, the rest was 5 ties. They scored the least goals at this stage – just 3 and finished with negative goal-difference 3-4. Interestingly, the best scorers at this stage were those having nothing to do with winning the title: Libertad, Cerro Porteno and Colegiales scored 11 goals each and River Plate – 10.
Well, familiar champion at the end – Olimpia (Asuncion). They were just unbeatable at the end: 4 wins, 3 ties, 9-3 goal-difference. Even without the bonus points the title was theirs. In any case, they deserved to win – started carefully, but after the first stage they were first all the way. Coming with 5 bonus points to the final stage helped demoralizing the opposition, of course, but can you blame a strong team for been strong? There was time a few years before that Olimpia seemed like making big mistake for keeping aging team, but now the rebuilding was pretty much over and danger was successfully avoided. Still… Almeida and Guasch appeared to be eternal. Anyway, one more title for Olimpia.

Liguilla Final. Unless a final play-off between the winners of the first and second tournaments was played, that was the championship final. Sporting Cristal came with 2 bonus points and Alianza Atletico with 1 bonus point from the previous qualification stage. The other 4 teams – 3 more from the ‘higher’ previous tournament and 1 qualified as winner of Toreno Descentralizado ‘B’ – started here from scratch.
Alianza (Lima) ended last with 3 points without winning a single match. Standing from left: Wilmar Valencia, César Espino, Vinces, Juan Reynoso, Letelier, Roberto Rojas.
Crouching: José Velásquez, Pinto, Teófilo Cubillas, Eugenio La Rosa, Francisco Huertas.
If this really is a photo of 1988, it shows the dire straits Alianza was in: veterans had to be called after the airplane crash killing the regulars. Cubillas, Velazquez and La Rosa were too old by now to do the job.
Union Huaral – 5th with 4 points.
Octavio Espinosa – 4th with 5 points.
Alianza Atletico (Sullana) – 3rd with 6 points (one of then – bonus). Standing from left: Enrique Garcia, Guillermo Lavalle, Pedro Sanjinez, Fredy Berlanga, Johano Bermudez, Pedro Sandoval.
First row: Ramon Anchisi, Jose “pata de rana” Zapata, Eduardo Ortiz, Jorge Castillo, Samuel Chamochumbi.
Universitario – 2nd with 7 points. 2 wins, 3 ties, 0 losses, 8-3.
Sporting Cristal – 1st with 8 points. 2 wins, 2 ties, 1 lost match, 3-2 goal-difference. Was it not for the 2 bonus points carried from the previous tournament, they would have been behind Univesitario.
This is picture not even from Peru, but from the Marlboro Cup, in which Sporting Cristal participated in USA. Anyhow, that was the team also winning the Peruvian championship: standing from left: Pedro Olivares, Segundo Cruz, Martín Ochandarte, José Fernández, Percy Olivares, Jesús Purizaga.
Crouching: César Loyola, César Cueto, Luis Rehder, Víctor Hurtado, Francesco Manassero.
Percy Olivares and Cesar Cueto are the big names here, although by now long in the tooth. But good enough to win a title, even in not very convincing manner. Yet, it did not matter – Sporting Cristal (Lima) won the title – their 9th.