Month: October 2024

The Cup tournament perhaps was the best example of the rapid and fundamental political changes: for the first time 2 Second Division teams reached the semi-finals and one of them – the final. And when one looks at the whole Cup record the finalists did not appear to the very end, when they suddenly popped-out as if from nowhere. SG Dynamo (Dresden) and SG Dynamo (Schwerin) won the semi-finals, but 1.FC Dynamo (Dresden) and PSV Schwerin (Schwerin) played at the final. Well, the same clubs, but they were renamed in the pause between semi-finals and final. Considering the poor season the team from Schwerin had – they finished 13th in Group 1 of Second Division – the final was between David and Goliath. But the chance to win – and to win big – motivated the lowly club. They opened the score in the 5th minute and only 6 minutes before the end of the game mighty Dresden managed to get the lead, thanks to Kirsten. Dramatic battle in which, just like in the championship, Dresden prevailed however minimally: 2-1.
It would have been great if PSV Schwerin won the Cup, but no luck. No famous players here – naturally – but they came very close to success. The photo also shows the rapid changes in DDR: not only club names were changing during this season, but shirt adds appeared eventually in the second half of it.
1.FC Dynamo (Dresden) won the Cup – with difficulty, but won it. It was their 6th – overall, Dynamo was the second-best East German club in both titles and cups: former Dynamo (Berrlin) had more titles and 1.FC Magdeburg the same number of cups. It was the 3rd double for them. Presently, the team had 11 national team players, but in the new reality was not going to keep them: Matthias Sammer and Ulf Kirsten were going to the West for money and fame.

First Division. In short: clubs were renamed, the ominous Dynamo (Berlin) disappeared not just as name, but as an institution and lost its power, dramatic battle for the title, decided by goal-difference, otherwise the same… 4 outsiders struggled to survive, 3 teams were above pretty much equal middle group of 7 teams – the East German top league remained sharply divided as ever.
BSG Fortschritt (Bischopswerda) – last with 16 points and relegated. Their second top league adventure ended just like the first time: last.
FC Wismut (Aue) – 13th with 18 points. How unlucky – relegated on single goal worse goal-difference.
BSG Stahl (Eisenhuttenstadt) – 12th with 18 points. They won only 2 games this season (5 less than the last in the league!), but made a second record too – 14 ties. Luckily escaped relegation on goal-difference – theirs was 1 goal better than Wismut’s. The debutantes survived almost miracolously and were going to play a second season among the best.
FC Rot-Weiss (Erfurt) – 11th with 19 points.
BSG Stahl (Brandenburg) – 10th with 24 points. Top row from left: Jan Voß, Jens Pahlke, Uwe Hessel, Kay Wenschlag, Tino Scholtissek, Timo Lange, Eberhard Janotta, Trainer Gerd Struppert
Middle row: Mannschaftsleiter Günter Boede, Co-Trainer Helmut Wilk, Frank Jeske, Uwe Schulz, Hubert Gebhardt, Detlef Zimmer, Christian Knoop, Steffen Freund, Mannschaftsarzt Dr. Rainer Wilke, Physiotherapeut Jens Jogwer
Sitting:  Dietmar Bletsch, Falk Zschiedrich, Andreas Schmidt, Jens Pfahl, Roland Gumtz, Andreas Lindner,   Silvio Demuth, Christoph Ringk
HFC Chemie (Halle) – 9th with 24 points.
1.FC Lokomotive (Leipzig) – 8th with 25 points.
BSG Energie (Cottbus) – 7th with 27 points.
FC Hansa (Rostock) – 6th with 27 points. Standing from left: Jens Wahl, Gernot Alms, Volker Röhrich, Frank Rillich, Axel Rietentiet, Thomas Gansauge, Andreas Babendererde, Juri Schulz und Rainer Jahros. Vordere Reihe: stehend v.l.n.r. Trainer Werner Voigt, Trainer Jürgen Decker, Mannschaftsarzt Dr. Wolfgang Anft.
Sitting: Jens Dowe, Artur Ullrich, Hilmar Weilandt, David Hoffmann (Torwart), Henri Fuchs, Jens Kunath (Torwart), Jens Leonhardt, Axel Schulz, Florian Weichert, stehend v.l.n.r. Physiotherapeut Günter Blum, Trainer Hans Albrecht und Mannschaftsleiter Herbert Maron.
FC Carl Zeiss (Jena) – 5th with 30 points.
FC Berlin (Berlin) – 4th with 30 points. 11 national team players, Thom and Doll among them, but political changes shook the club. Losing political power and renamed, the former mighty Dynamo immediately lost its long supremacy. The best players certainly were looking for lucrative contracts with West German clubs.
1.FC Magdeburg (Magdeburg) – 3rd with 34 points. Battled for the title, but unsuccessfully.
Dramatic race for the title, which was decided by goal-difference. Perhaps politics were largely on the minds of the East German population and football was somewhat secondary even for the players, but still there was big drama.
Usually modest FC Karl-Marx-Stadt (Karl-Marx-Stadt) suddenly became a title contender, fought bravely to the end, but ended 2nd on worse goal-difference. 13 wins, 10 ties, 3 losses, 35-20, 36 points. It would have been ironic if they won – in the year of the fall of Communism a team with the most Communist name to win the championship. Almost happened, but almost and soon there was no more a city and a club with such a name – it was reversed to the original Chemnitz.
SG Dynamo (Dresden) clinched the title thanks to 12 wins, 12 ties, only 2 losses, and 47-26 scoring record. Like their challengers, Dynamo finished with 36 points, but with +21 goal-difference – FC Karl-Marx-Stadt had +15. Objectively, Dynamo had much stronger squad, but political turmoil was perhaps the big equalizer. Still, Dynamo prevailed and won its 8th – and, as it turned out, last title.

DDR. Ranked 16th. Perhaps the biggest change happening in the Eastern Europe – the Berlin Wall fell down in mid-season, so the football season started in one kind of reality and ended in different kind. The process of unification of Germany spelled out the end of East German football as separate entity, but that took time and there was one more season to be played yet. However, there were changes happening during the season, some of them confusing. The first one was scheduled earlier and had nothing to do with politics: it was decided that the second teams of top league clubs would no longer be able to play in the Second Division: this decision affected only 2 teams – the second teams of Dynamo (Berlin) and Dynamo (Dresden), which were excluded from Second Division and replaced by other clubs before the season started. The the Berlin Wall unleashed more significant changes – the process was stretched in time from early 1990 to the end of the 1990-91 season and basically was a process of re-organization of clubs from state-run to ‘independent’ professional clubs, which included often change of names. In most cases the change is barely noticeable: East German clubs mostly had combined names of some abbreviation and the popular name. Since the abbreviation was popularly excluded, a change of it did not confuse anyone, yet… in the records the DDR champion of 1989-90 is SG Dynamo (Dresden), but the Cup winner 1.FC Dynamo (Dresden). Same well known club, but it changed its name between the end of the championship and the Cup final. More problematic was the other Cup finalist – its name is nowhere to be found in the early stages of the competition and in the same time one semi-final winner suddenly disappeared: that’s because the club changed its name between the semifinals and the final and in more radical manner than Dynamo (Dresden). The change was also made before the end of the championship, so in the final tables the club was under its new name. The biggest changes affected 2 well-known clubs and they were practically the earliest changes in East German football: on January 30, 1990 BSG Sachsenring (Zwickau) changed its name to FSV Zwickau (Zwickau) and on Feburary 19, 1990 the hated Stassi club BFC Dynamo (Berlin) became FC Berlin (Berlin). The first changes represented a problem faced everywhere in East Europe: desire to get rid of Communist yoke and symbols and restoration of original names, often confronted by the popularity of the Communist name among fans. The early East-German changes represented both tendencies: in Zwickau original name was restored. In Berlin there was no original club, so no old name to go back to – a new one had to be created. For the moment, re-naming the club signifying entirely Communist oppression seemed enough and final, largely because it was hated club with few fans, But, like elsewhere in Eastern Europe, with time it turned out that the hated club still had enough supporters, even new ones, perhaps attracted largely by its history of success, and the abolished name was restored – today Dynamo (Berlin) exists. Few other clubs changed radically their names before the end of the season – neither attracted big interest, for they were all smallish Second Division clubs and even politics were played on mellower scale than in the cases of Dynamo and Sachsenring: Dynamo (Eisleben) changed to MSV Eisleben (Eisleben), SG Dynamo (Schwerin) changed to PSV Schwerin (Schwerin), ASV Vorwaerts (Stralsund) changed to TSV 1860 Stralsund (Stralsund), and Vorwaerts (Dessau) became SG 1898 Dessau (Dessau). Actually, Dessau’s club changed name earlier – in the 1988-89 season, which may have been because the Army opted to exclude this team from their system. If one pays attention to the names, the problems – and solutions – become clear: as elsewhere in Eastern Europe, Police and Army clubs played leading role during Communist rule and also represented exactly that rule – in DDR Police clubs were named Dynamo, Army clubs – Vorwaerts. Changing their names into something else was practically getting rid of Communist rule, but it was mostly symbolic gesture when it came to secondary clubs in smaller town without rival clubs in them. Dynamo (Berlin) really represented ominous oppression, not Dynamo (Eisleben). Forget the Second Division small fry, even Dynamo (Dresden), the original Police club of DDR, did not symbolize oppression for a long time – Dynamo (Berlin) became that, changing the whole picture – from a club signifying ominous state power Dynamo (Dresden) was seen as a club resisting it, confronting Dynamo (Berlin). As for the Army, looks like the Police took the upper hand in the invisible struggle between Communist powerful structures and Army clubs faded since 1970. In 1990 renaming of Army clubs perhaps was not that much a drive to get rid of Communist symbols, but rather the Army getting rid of expensive baggage in entirely new reality. Especially in smallish cities there was no question of folding the Communist club – locals needed their own club, change the name and keep it, one symbolic gesture is enough. And the new reality already presented its own problems – money first of all – so the revamped SG 1898 Dessau disappeared just as quickly as it apperead: Vorwaerts (Dessau) started the 1989-90 season, SG 1898 Dessau finished it, but FC Anhalt (Dessau) started the 1990-91 season – between seasons SG 1898 Dessau merged with SG Waggonbau’05 (Dessau) into FC Anhalt. Thus, radical name changes affected only Army and Police clubs in the second half of 1989-90 season, the only different case was Zwickau, which was getting rid of the Communist club no matter what its name and to which institution it belonged (Sachsenring belonged, or attached, or financed, or represented the large automotive plant in Zwickau) and restore the name of the club existing before the Communist took power. Then again Zwickau was provincial city with one club – Berlin quickly developed complications, for there were ‘split’ clubs existing under same names in both East and West Berlin, both claiming to be the original club and thus unwilling to fold, rename, even amalgamate.
It was not only a matter of names and ownership: freedom shook the season – there was uncertainty, other things on the minds than football, lost financing, and perhaps the most important problem: out of the blue East German players could go and play for real money in West Germany. Now in the minds of players was not that much the championship, but getting lucrative contract with rich and famous Bundesliga club. There was no doubt where Sammer, Doll, Thom, Kirsten will be in the next year. There was also little doubt that even if not wanting to go to the Bundesliga a long established players like Bodo Rudwaleit will change clubs for the once they played many years for were no longer able to pay them enough. It was a season of both hopes and despair, a season of turmoil. And in the same time it looked the same as before…
Apart from name-changes there was nothing to distinct this season from any other before in the Second Division: former top-league clubs were stronger than the rest and if there was any battle for promotion, it was was between 2-3 of those. There was no battle at all, however. Perhaps the only important thing was to mention clubs which did not appear in the next season – relegation is relegation, but few clubs simply disappeared. Judging by tradition, 7 teams were possible candidates for top positions and promotion and only one of them slipped down the table. Still, as it often happened before one teams was dominant leader in each Second Division group.
In Group A TSV 1860 Stralsund (which started the season under the name Vorwaerts (Stralsund) was weak and finished 10th – the only former member of First Division which was weak this season. 5 teams did not appear in the league next season: Motor (Schonebeck) – last and relegated anyway, Motor (Ludwigsfelde) – 17th and also relegated, KWO Berlin (Berlin) – 15th, Dynamo (Furstenwalde) – 12th, and BSG Chemie (Velten) – 3rd. Apart from them keep in mind PSV Schwerin, which started as SG Dynamo (Schwerin) and finished 13th.
BSG Chemie (Velten) finished 3rd with 40 points – 7 points behind the second-placed.
1.FC Union (Berlin) was 2nd with 47 points. Much stronger than the rest of the league, yet, not a real challenge to the winners.
Vorwaerts (Frankfurt/Oder) won the championship with 53 points from 22 wins, 9 ties, 3 losses and 80-30 scoring record. They dominated the championship and climbed back to First Division from which were relegated in 1987-88. Once upon a time a leading DDR club, Vorwaerts faded away long time ago and even their brief revival during the 1980s was very short. Hard to tell what the future of the number one team of the Army would be in entirely different reality – seemingly they were going up with new confidence, but there was also big uncertainty, judging by this team photo, dated alternatively 1989-90 and 1990-91.
Group 2. 4 teams did not appear in the next season: Union (Muhlhausen) – last and possibly relegated, Aufbau ddk Scharfenstein/Krumher. – 16th, MSV Eisleben (Eisleben) – 15th, and BSG Chemie Buna (Schkopau) – 14th. The former First Division clubs were all at the top of the table, but there was only one dominant team. FSV Zwickau (Zwickau) may have been the earliest and most rebellious club in DDR, but changing their name from Sachsenring to FSV Zwickau did not help their strenght: relegated in the previous season, now they ended 4th. BSG Stahl (Riesa) was 3rd and BSG Chemie (Leipzig) – 2nd with 39 points. They clinched second place by a point, but first place was not even a dream. However, sometimes even no-dreams become reality…
BSG Chemie (Bohlen) dominated the season and won the championship with 51 points: 22 wins, 7 ties, 4 losses, 77-35 scoring record. In the beginning of the 1980s they had a brief strong period, meaning, they got promoted to First Division a few times never lasting more than a season among the best. Now they got a new wind for another try. Dominant this season and promoted, but… they were not going to play top league football: just before the start of the 1990-91 season they disappeared in a matter of 4 days: on July 27 they changed their name to FSV Bohlen and on August 1st they merged with FC Grun-Weiss 1990 (Leipzig) – as BSG Chemie (Leipzig) renamed itself right after the 1989-90 season – to form FC Sachsen (Leipzig). And this club played in the First Division. At least geographically not Chemie (Bohlen), but the team they left 12 points behind moved to First Division.

The Cup final repeated the championship battle: Steaua vs Dinamo. And Dinamo took the upper hand again, beating Steaua 6-4.
Steaua lost twice to the arch-enemy this season. May be the political troubles on everybody’s mind, may be the repetitious nature of the time, but it is very difficult to establish team pictures of this period. Same photos are labeled 1989, 1986, and so on… So, this may be a picture of this season. And also may be not. In any case, Steaua had nothing at the end of season, Hagi or no Hagi. And the minds of Hagi & Co was already on lucrative contracts abroad.
Politics aside, a great season for Dinamo – a double. It was their 7th Cup and 4th double. A memorable season for sure.
To a point, the duel between Steaua and Dinamo was an inside battle of the Romanian national team – half of it played for Steaua, the other half for Dinamo. If Steaua had Hagi, Lacatus, Dumitrescu, Petrescu, Lung, Rotariu, Balint, Stoica, Dinamo had Rednic, Lupescu, Klein, Mateut, Sabau, Camataru, Andone, Lupu, Stelea. As talent goes, pretty much equal squads and since Steaua had the upper hand domestically and international success during the 1980s, it was only just Dinamo broke their dominance at last. At least in the purely football realm it appeared fair.

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.