First Division. Sparta (Prague) dominated the 1980s, so little surprise they were alone and far away from all the rest at the top. More interesting was the strong performance of recent newcomer DAC Dunajska Streda, now among the best teams. At the bottom it was rather familiar: two outsiders, often finding themselves in the same situation.
Tatran (Presov) – terrible season: last with 10 points. They won only 3 games this season. Relegated.
TJ ZVL Zilina – 15th with 21 points. Not as bad as Tatran, but still an outsider – 15th with 21 points and relegated. The story of these Slovak clubs… up and down, down and up. Would be interesting to count how many times they were relegated from the top league and how many times promoted to it. Never ending meandering between the two divisions.
Spartak (Hradec Kralove) – 14th, but with 27 points they were hardly in danger of relegation well before the end of the season.
FK Inter (Bratislava) – 13th with 27 points. Came back from Second Division the year before and doing quite poorly, but still the best of Bratislava at the moment – even Slovan was in the Second Division and the smaller clubs were naturally bellow Slovan, Petrzalka already in Third Division.
FC Bohemians – or Bohemians CKD (Prague). Good years were evidently over – 12th with 29 points.
Ruda hvezda (Cheb) – 11th with 29 points.
FC Spartak (Trnava) – on the left before the match against DAC Dunajska Streda. Struggling and not coming back to leading position for sure. 10th with 29 points.
FK Dukla (Banska Bystrica) – 9th with 29 points.
FC Vitkovice – or TJ Vitkovice – 8th with 29 points. The champions of 1986, as expected, were unable to stay at the top – mid-table position was their proper place.
Plastika (Nitra) – or TJ Plastika – 7th with 30 points. Doing quite well for generally modest club.
Slavia (Prague) – or Slavia Praha IPS – 6th with 31 points. Lubos Kubik, Ivo Knoflicek… but nothing special. Somewhat Slavia was unable to build a winning team.
SK Sigma (Olomouc) – 5th with 32 points. Slowly and somewhat quietly rising up.
FC Banik (Ostrava) – 4th with 34 points. Keeping themselves among the top teams, but a far cry from the great team of the 1970s-early80s.
DAC 1904 (Dunajska Streda) – now, that was a pleasing team. They came from nowhere only a few years ago and so far were doing exceptionally well in the First Division. Part of the name used in Second Division was lost somehow and there was no longer ‘Pol’nohospodar’ in it – it was just DAC, sometimes DAC 1904, but mostly plain Dunajska Streda, the name of their small hometown. Darlings.
Dukla (Prague) – 2nd with 39 points. If one looks only at the final table, Dukla appeared fine – perhaps losing a bitter battle against city rivals Sparta, and next year… there was no going to be next year, for there was no bitter battle – Dukla ended 10 points behind Sparta and what they did was only coming ahead of DAC Dunajska Streda, their real rival at least this season. Very few top class players here and that spelled out not only the present, but also the future. To a point, Dukla was lucky to finish that high.
Sparta (Prague) – or Sparta CKD – were unchallenged champions: 22 wins, 5 ties, 3 losses, 82-22, 49 points. Note their scoring record – 82 goals! A rare number in Czechoslovak football. Apart from that – nothing new, one more success for the dominant Czechoslovak team of this decade. No surprise at all: the best players were here coached by Vaclav Jezek.
Czechoslovakia II Division
Czechoslovakia. Ranked 12th. Nothing exciting on both ends of the table – one favourite, two outsiders. Perhaps the only significant event was in the Second Division and that was a negative one.
Second Division – CNFL, the Czech group. Two teams fought for promotion. As it happened, no Czech team was among the relegated from the top division, so only one team was relegated from this league. At the end nobody was relegated, because for the first and only time in the history of Czechoslovak football a club was expelled from the championship. TJ Vagonka (Ceska Lipa) was the ‘hero’ , most likely caught in corruption scheme. The season finished with 15 instead of 16 teams. Possibly involved with Vagonka’s scheme, TJ Sklo Union (Teplice) had 6 points deducted and ended 14th. Nothing significant for the most of the league.
TJ Ostroj (Opava) finished 7th with 29 points. A typical sample of fairly equal teams.
Two former First Division members fought for the first place an promotion. Once again TJ Zbrojovka (Brno) lost the battle and remained in Second Division.
TJ Skoda (Plzen) won the championship with 45 points – 3 points ahead of Zbrojovka. 19 wins, 7 ties, 2 losses, 40-15 goal-difference. A strong season and happy return to top flight.
SNFL – the Slovak group of Second Division. No contest at the top – one favourite. No much of a fight at the bottom either – more or less, 3 clear outsiders, which were all relegated because both relegated from the top league teams were Slovak.
CH Bratislava – that is abbreviated Cervena Hvezda (Red Star) – was the weakest: last with 17 points and relegated.
Lokomotiva (Kosice) was the other hopeless outsider – 10 years earlier this was not only First Division team, but a strong team playing in the European tournaments. Now: 15th with 18 points and relegated to Third Division.
TJ ZTS Martin was 14th with 22 points. Weak, but under normal circumstances would have been safe. Now they were relegated.
Banik (Prievidza) – 13th with 25 points.
Chemlon (Humenne) – 12th with 26 points.
Tesla (Stropkov) – 11th with 28 points.
ZTS Kosice – 10th with 28 points. Dark days for football in Kosice – in the past both city clubs played successfully in the First Division and had trouble to keep themselves in the Second – at least ZTS was not going deeper down like Lokomotiva.
SH Senica – 9th with 29 points.
ZZO Cadca – 8th with 31 points.
Slavoj Pol’nohospodar (Trevisov) – or Pol’nohospodar Slavoj, but usually called just Slavoj or sometimes Trebisov – 7th with 31 points.
Slovan Agro (Levice) – 6th with 32 points.
MSK Hurbanovo – or Agro (Hurbanovo) – 5th with 35 points.
Zemplin Vihorlat (Michalovce) – 4th with 35 points.
Spoje (Bratislava) – or rather Spoje (Bratislava-Podunajske Biskupice). 3rd with 36 points.
ZVL Povazska Bystrica – 2nd with 40 points. Not a threat to the leaders, but worth noting – this was a rising team, which eventually went higher.
Slovan CHZJD (Bratislava) – this is a name usually found at the top and they were unchallenged champions… of Second Division. Well known and respected Slovan, the only Czechoslovak club winning European trophy. Unfortunately, they had rough time recently and to their shame were relegated to Second Division. Coming back quickly, though. 19 wins, 7 ties, 4 losses, 51-18, 45 points – 5 points ahead of the nearest pursuer. Was it a real recovery and going back to their usual leading position in Czechoslovak football? Did not look like it by the make of the squad, but only future can tell for certain.
Sweden the Cup
The Cup final. IFK Norrkoping vs Orebro SK. Mid-table top league team vs Second Division leading team. In Sweden the difference was not as big as elsewhere, but still – 3-1 IFK Norrkoping.
Orebro SK had excellent season, winning the Second Division Northern group, getting promoted to First Division and reaching the Cup final. Winning a second trophy proved impossible.
IFK Norrkoping perhaps was disappointed with their performance in the championship, but they ended with a trophy, so the final result was wonderful. It was their 4th Cup.