Month: November 2024

Bulgaria. Ranked 22nd. The collapse of Communism affected football – in short, the season started in one political reality and finished in another. Transitional season of transitional period with more difficulties than anything else. New and old clashed on many levels, like everywhere else in Eastern Europe, and the general problems Bulgarian football faced were the problems of the whole Communist Europe. Here are listed the main problems popping up during the season – some old, but unmentionable before, some newly emerging with the new reality. Some clubs restored their old – or ‘original’ – names, thus starting the season with one name and finishing with another: Levski (Sofia), CSKA (Sofia), Botev (Plovdiv), Botev (Vratza), Marek (Dupnitza – in their case not just the club, but the whole city restored its original name: from Rila [Stanke Dimitrov] to Marek [Dupnitza]. There was certain irony in all that, for Stanke ‘Marek’ Dimitrov was a Communist ‘hero’ after whom both city and club were named – the ‘democratic’ change both changed and restored him.) Not every club restored old name – changes continued in the following years. In the case of CSKA, it was not even restoring original name, but restoring the name most popular with their fans. In the case of Levski, some doubt can be raised as well: when the Communist Party named the club ‘Vitosha’, the forced renaming replaced earlier amalgamated name of forced merger – Levski-Spartak. True, Spartak practically had no fans and no fan ever chanted ‘Levski-Spartak’, but only ‘Levski’, yet, the original clubs were 2 and now only one was restored (meek efforts to revive Spartak occurred at least twice later, both very short living). Minyor (Pernik) launched an initiative for cutting of the attachment of CSKA, Levski, Slavia, and Lokomotiv (all from Sofia) to powerful state institutions. Minyor was supported by some other clubs, mostly provincial, and the problem must be explained: practically all clubs belonged to some institution during the Communist rule – the very complainer, Minyor, belonged to the large mining complex (Mini Pernik) in their city. But all that was local – either city or industry. The big 4 from Sofia belonged to the top of the system, to the corresponding ministry – the Ministry of Defense (CSKA), the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Levski), another branch of the Army (Slavia), and the Ministry of Transportation (Lokomotiv). Their positions were powerful on national level, thus placing everybody else in disadvantage. Yes, all those institutions had other clubs as well, but on local and subordinated to the ‘center’ level. The provincials hated the all-powerful central clubs and with good reason, but the newly emerging reality added new element to the picture: locally, ‘sponsors’ were only glad to cut lose the clubs – and in many cases the clubs cut off ties with local institutions. In such cases money were perhaps more important factor than politics: industries and municipalities were only happy to get rid of financial burden. That left the clubs without money – and that applied also to clubs deciding to cut ties with institutions. But the big 4 were not cut off , for they belonged to the highest institutions and therefore, at least in eyes of the provincials, they kept the old hated power on national level, along with financing. The general cry was to make fully professional clubs, independent from the state in everything. Sounded good… even the big 4 supported the idea. The financial problem was addressed by some clubs by looking and finding sponsorship – shirt adds appeared as a result (CSKA, Slavia, Botev Vratza, Spartak Varna, somewhat curiously, the Third Division Lokomotiv (Dryanovo), and gradually other clubs). Meantime scandals finally came to the surface: the Bulgarian Football Federation ‘discovered’ falsified birth dates of players in the Junior National team – as a result, Bulgaria withdrew from the the finals of the European Junior championship and was replaced by Hungary. What was hinted on the streets for years was suddenly ‘discovered’… Scandals were nothing new, but now some things were said openly and no longer classified as ‘isolated local infringements’ – it took demonstrations in front of the Federation in Sofia and Yambol to restore Tundzha (Yambol) to Second Division: they were relegated in 1988-89, but apparently there was something dark in that. The fans protested and their demand was satisfied to a point – to a point, because Tundzha ended the 1989-90 season in the relegation zone again. At the end of the 1988-89 season Chepinetz (Velingrad) and Gorubso (Madan) were found guilty of fixing a match and were expelled to Forth level – thus, the South-Western group of Third Division became from the biggest in 1988-89 with 19 teams to the smallest in 1989-90 with 14 teams. And for good measure at the end of this season Metalurg (Pernik) was expelled, so the group remained reduced in the 1990-91 season as well. That was the situation for years – ‘local’ cases of corruption, as a rule, involving smallish clubs, immediately punished to show how prudent and vigilant the ‘system’ was – but now corruption was spoken of as wide-spread ellement of the Communist system – it was true and also accusations were tailored: ‘the whole system was corrupt, except us and that was why we suffered’. Some laments existed since the 1950s, repeated year after year: lack of professionalism, lack of money, low quality of players and games, diminishing attendance, nothing done to provide for ‘street’ football, outdated and not cared for facilities, mostly for the youth system, but increasingly the whole infrastructure. The only new thing was that until 1990 individual clubs and cities were blamed for that and now the state was blamed – and this lament continues to this very day: the state does not do anything for the sport. However, the state is blamed too when it finances the sport – for favouring some at the expense of others. What really football people want then and now is the state to finance sport lavishly, taking all expenses on itself, but not to interfere in how the money is spent and not to touch profits: ‘profits are ours, expenses and losses – yours’. Anyhow, that were most of the problems and changes during the season of transition, when practically noone knew how to do professional football. Lastly, the Federation permitted the import of players, starting this season – 2 foreigners were permitted per club, the decision was announced after the end of the 1988-89 season, but nobody acted upon it first – still, the first foreign player appeared in the middle of the season, followed by second shortly after. Curious or not, but none of the big clubs looked abroad, but the debutante in the First Division Hebar (Pazardzhik) – they hired little known Soviet striker Sayran Ossipov from second-division Dinamo (Stavropol). Ossipov played 7 games for Hebar and scored 1 goal and departed after this season for Ararat (Erevan). The first foreigners in Bulgaria were from USSR – just like the first foreign player in USSR was Bulgarian: after Ossipov, another Soviet – Igor Kislov – joined Etar (Veliko Tirnovo). That was all for the moment – other sports were quicker in importing players than football. Export, however, was growing – without age restrictions and without a state institution dealing with transfers, everybody wanted to play in the West – like elsewhere in Eastern Europe, the new freedom translated immediately into going West. The clubs needed money and were only happy to sell players – without knowing really how and thus hardly getting the real value of their stars. Now to the season…
Third Division. 4 groups as usual, nominally of 16 teams each. However, the South-Western group was of 14 teams after Chepinetz and Gorubso were expelled for fixing a match between themselves. This affected the next season as well – for some reason this very group had 2 teams promoted, unlike the other 3 groups, where only the winner was promoted. Hard to tell why was that, for that meant 5 teams altogether going up to Second Division, but 6 were relegated from the Second Division. Anyhow, in the Third Division many former Second Division teams played and usually they were the candidates for promotion. Nothing different this season, except one team. No big battle for top position either. 3 points were given for a win.
North-Eastern Group.
Lokomotiv (Rousse) finished 4th with 52 points. Former Second Division member, the second club in the city of Rousse was nothing special this season and perhaps nobody was envisioning the troubles in the future: the club struggles to this very day just to exist, sometimes disappearing for a while.
Chernolometz (Popovo) was 3rd with 60 points. They played top-level football once upon a time… Sportist (General Toshevo) – 2nd with 61 points. Also a club with second division past.
Dorostol (Silistra) won the championship and was promoted: they ended with 65 points, clearly outplaying all the others and climbed back to Second Division, where they played for may, many years. In 1984 Dorostol reached – and lost – the final of the Soviet Army Cup.
North-Western Group.
Lokomotiv (Dryanovo) – 3rd with 58 points. They played some Second Division football before, but more importantly they were one of the first clubs in the country getting sponsorship in professional terms.
Lokomotiv (Mezdra) – 2nd with 59 points. Also a club with Second Division experience, but unable to go up – looking at their season and history, it was hard even to imagine in 1989-90 that one day the club will be in First Division.
Chumerna (Elena) won the championship with 67 points and was promoted to Second Division – they played there before, so it was a return.
South-Eastern Group.
Neftokhimik (Bourgas) – 5th with 48 points. After years in Second Division, Neftokhimik sunk down to third level football and at the moment the second club of Bourgas looked like they will be entirely out of existence soon, for they – as the name suggests – belonged to city’s oil refinery and it was unlikely the enterprise will keep a football club in changing business reality. However, the future proved such expectations wrong. Top row from left: Kyuchukov, Mindov, Mikhov, Banev, Markov, Kostadinov. Middle row: Kiril Stankov – coach, Botev, T. Petkov, Shishkov, T. Tikhomirov, Dobrevski, Kiryakov, Hemi Levi – assistant coach. Sitting: Karpachev, Tzonev, B. Petkov, Kolev, Stoyanov.
Well, hard to believe that in a few years time this club will be among the leading Bulgarian clubs and some of these anonymous players will be very well known, even considered stars – Tzonev, for example. The future is unknown and predictions are very often wrong.
Arda (Kardzhali) ended 2nd with 55 points. Nothing even to hint that this club will play in European tournament one day… so far, their typical modest existence: after years of insignificant Second Division participation, they seemingly were settling for third level football.
Slanchev bryag (Nesebar) won the championship with 59 points and climbed back to Second Division, where they played for numerous years. Gain, nothing to suggest that this club will one day play First Division football – under different name, for to be named after beach resort – a bad idea in the first place – could not last for ever.
South-Western group. Reduced from 19 to only 14 teams for this season, this group also had 2 teams promoted. In a way, the problem was making the numbers for the next season – the current size of Third Division groups was 16 teams. With 2 teams promoted and unknown number of relegated from Second Division teams, the groups could be left with 12 teams after the end of the season – thus, the question of promotion from 4th level and relegation to it. Eventually, 2 teams were relegated from Second Division. The rest is… murky. Metalurg (Pernik) ended 13th with 23 points. In theory, they should have been relegated – if relegation took place. Officially, 2 teams were promoted from 4th level – Svoboda (Peshtera) amd Minyor (Bobov Dol). So… 12 plus 2 relegated from Second Divison, plus 2 promoted from 4th level – makes the required 16 without relegation of anyone. But 3 teams were relegated at the end of the season – Balkan (Botevgrad), last in the table, Metalurg – 13th, and Minyor (Brezhani) – 12th. Yet… Metalurg was seemingly keeping place in the group against records and logic. At least at first they were among the teams for the 1990-91 season – and then they were expelled or denied license and were out, leaving the group with 15 teams for 1990-91. However, it is a mystery how the numbers were made in the first place and on what criteria 3 teams were included. Well, 2 teams, for after all preliminaries the group was again with 14 teams in 1990-91 – but how Strumska slava (Radomir) and Chepinetz (Velingrad) appeared in it? But that’s in the future yet – currently,
Akademik (Sofia) finished 2nd with 52 points. Just relegated from Second Division, they fought to climb back and lost the championship by 1 point. If not for the strange decision to have 2 teams from this group promoted, Akademik would have remained here. But they went up happily.
Pirin (Razlog) clinched 1st place with 53 points. What a historic victory it was – the small club, which was not playing regularly even in Third Division, now went up. Their biggest success so far and also they were the only club not playing second level football before promoted this season.
And here were again the teams promoted to Second Division: Dorostol (Silistra), Chumerna (Elena), Slanchev bryag (Nesebar), Pirin (Razlog), and Akademik (Sofia).

The Cup final opposed GKS Katowice to Legia Warszawa. Legia was having a rather weak season and their opponents were a title contender. But… Legia won: a clean 2-0 victory.
What a bitter disappointment – having a chance to win a double, but ending with empty hands. Still, it was very strong season for GKS Katowice and, incidentally, they seem to be if not the very first, at least one of the first Polish clubs to employ a foreign player: Robert Mitwerandu.
May be a rather weak season in general, but Legia still managed to end with a trophy – it was their 9th Cup. Not bad at all. Standing from left: Zbigniew Robakiewicz, Kazimierz Orłowski (kierownik drużyny), Paweł Janas (asystent trenera), Lucjan Brychczy (trener), Mieczysław Pisz, Jerzy Somow (masażysta), Dariusz Czykier, Marek Jóźwiak, Arkadiusz Gmur, Jacek Cyzio, Stanisław Machowski (lekarz), Juliusz Kruszankin, Maciej Szczęsny. Crouching: Jarosław Wojciechowski, Mariusz Zapolski (ks.kapelan), Dariusz Kubicki, Leszek Pisz, Roman Kosecki, Zbigniew Kaczmarek, Andrzej Łatka, Jacek Bąk, Robert Kucharski.
If GKS Katowice showed one sign of new reality – imported players – Legia presented another sign: the club had a Catholic priest in the staff.

First Division. 16 teams, the last 2 relegated. One team – the last in the table – played 29 instead of 30 games for some reason.
It was Jagiellonia (Bialystok, which finished with 13 points and relegated.
Widzew (Lodz) – 15th with 17 points. Nothing was left from the strong and successful team in the first half of the 1980s and now the club was relegated to Second Division.
Zaglebie (Sosnowiec) – 14th with 20 points.
Motor (Lublin) – 13th with 21 points.
Ruch (Chorzow) – unusually weak season: 12th with 25 points.
Stal (Mielec) – 11th with 26 points.
Slask (Wroclaw) – 10th with 27 points.
Wisla (Krakow) – 9th with 31 points.
LKS (Lodz) – 8th with 34 points. Standing from left: Andrzej Woźniak, Dariusz Podolski, Zdzisław Leszczyński, Marek Chojnacki, Sławomir Różycki, Witold Wenclewski, Adam Grad. Front: Marek Ogrodowicz, Jacek Ziober, Krzysztof Stefański, Tomasz Cebula, Rafał Pawlak.
Legia (Warszawa) – 7th with 35 points.
Gornik (Zabrze) – 6th with 36 points.
Olimpia (Poznan) – 5th with 36 points.
Zawisza (Bydgoscz) – 4th with 37 points.
GKS (Katowice) – 3rd with 40 points. They were first at half-season, but unable to preserve their lead in the spring. Lost by little…
Zaglebie (Lubin) – 2nd with 40 points. Very strong season for the club, but managed only silver medals and that on more wins or more scored goals than Katowice, for both teams ended with +14 goal-difference.
Lech (Poznan) clinched the title with 42 points. Tough victory. 8 ‘normal’ wins, 5 wins with 3 or more goals, bringing extra points, 12 ties, 4 ‘normal’ losses and 1 loss by 3 or more goals, deducting a point. Curiously, they were the only team of the top 5 which had deducted point. Scoring record: 45-25. Best scorers this season, defensively they were 5th behind Zaglebie, Katowice, Legia, and Olimpia. Lech won its 3rd title.

Poland. Ranked 21st. A season clouded by political changes, leaving little memory. Complicated by the rules at the time, aiming to revive football, as in many other European countries: in the Polish case 1 point was given for a victory with 3 or more goals and 1 point was deducted for a loss by 3 or more goals. Brings some confusion in interpreting tables and points, so only final points will be given here. There was more confusion because one team in the top league did not finish with full games and one second division team withdrew in mid-season.
Second Division. 20 teams played in it, the top 2 were promoted and the last 4 relegated.
Stal Stocznia (Szczecin) ended last with 4 points. Freshly promoted, they withdrew 14 rounds before the end of the season and their opponents were awarded 3-0 victories against them in the 14 games Stal did no play – however, contrary to the rules in place, these awarded wins brought no extra points. Hence, further confusion in figuring out the records.
Baltyk (Gdynia) – 19th with 22 points and the second relegated team this season.
Moto Jelcz (Olawa) – 18th with 27 points. Relegated.
GKS 1962 (Jastrzebie) – 17th with 31 points. Relegated.
Resovia (Rzeszow) – 16th with 33 points.
Pogon (Stettin) – 15th with 34 points.
Miedz (Legnica) – 14th with 34 points.
Szombierki (Bytom) – 13th with 34 points.
Siarka (Tarnobrzeg) – 12th with 35 points.
Lechia (Gdansk) – 11th with 37 points.
Odra (Wodzislaw Slaski) – 10th with 39 points.
Stilon (Gorzow Wielkopolski) – 9th with 42 points.
Gornik (Walbrzych) – 8th with 43 points.
Stal (Rzeszow) – 7th with 44 points.
Gwardia (Warszawa) – 6th with 44 points.
Zaglebie (Walbrzych) – 5th with 46 points.
Polonia (Bytom) – 4th with 48 points.
Stal (Stalowa Wola) – 3rd with 51 points.
Igloopol (Debica) – 2nd with 55 points and promoted for the first time to First Division. Their greatest success so far. Top row from left: Drobot, Zieliński, Śliwa, Kotowicz, Garlej
Second row: Gierałka, Nalepka, Romaniuk, Stefanik, Strojek
Third row: Hadam, J.Zieliński, Mysiak, Tomczyk, Bajor
Forth row: Makuch, Szary, Siarkiewicz, Litke, Antolak, Zub
Sitting in front: Czapiński, Gajoch, Kucharski, Kłak, Cebula, Kaczówka, Tylak.
Hutnik (Krakow) won the Second Division championship with 57 points: their record seems to be 18 wins (4 bringing extra points), 17 ties, 3 losses (0 deducting points), 50-18 scoring record. Strong season for sure, ending with promotion. Hutnik played top league football quite often before, so unlike Igloopol, they were returning to top flight.

The Cup finals opposed Ilves Tampere to HJK Helsinki. Given the weakness of Ilves this year, it looked like HJK was going to get easily one more trophy and eventually end the season with a double. But it was not to be – Ilves won 2-1.
May be HJK depended too much on luck this year – and luck is not necessary consistent. At the Cup final luck favoured HJK’s opponents. Still, they had very good season – Cup finalists and champions.
Grand victory for Ilves Tampere – they had terrible season in the league and in general were not among the most successful Finnish clubs. Beating HJK at the final was wonderful victory of the underdog and what a memorable victory it was: Ilves won the Cup only once before. Now they got it a second time.

Finland. Ranked 20th. The championship formula Finland used amply provided for low-placed team to become a champion: the regular stage of the season was followed by final stage between the top 8 in the league, which was a lwo-leg Cup-format direct eliminations. Thus, the 8th in the first stage could become champion. Anyhow, one team was directly relegated from the top league – the last – and the 11th went to promotion/relegation play-off against the 2nd in Second Division. Finland still gave 2 points for a win and in the second phase of the season there were no tie, but such a match was decided by penalty shoot-out.
Second Division. 12 teams in it, the champion directly promoted, second-placed going to promotion/relegation play-off, and the last 3 teams – relegated. Since Finnish clubs were little known, the second-tier clubs were entirely out of sight outside the country.
TP-55 Seinajoki was a typical example of most Finnish clubs – they finished 5th this season.
Former top league clubs competed for promotion: Jaro Pietarsaari ended 2nd with 30 points and went to promotion/relegation play off against KPV Kokkola, 11th in the First Division.
Jaro practically decided the play-off in the first leg: they beat KPV 1-0 on their own stadium. At home it was 4-2 Jaro and they were promoted to First division – rather, returned to it.
PPT Pori won the Second Division championship with 32 points: 12 wins, 8 ties, 2 losses, 52-19 scoring record. Clearly the strongest team this season and rightly promoted. Like Jaro, they played top league football before.
First Division. The regular season meant little: the bottom placed teams faced relegation, 2 teams ended the season after the regular stage, and the top 8 continued, but the only advantage the best team in the regular stage had later was that they played against the 8th in the ¼ finals and the first leg was at their home turf.
No surprise the debutante Kumu Kuusankoski was the outsider of the season – they won only match and finished last with 9 points. Thus, relegated right after getting promoted.
KPV Kokkola dramatically finished 11th – they ended with 15 points, just like OTP Oulu, but had 1-goal worse goal-difference than their rivals. The promotion/relegation play-off was their last chance to stay in the league, but they lost both legs to Jaro – 0-1 and 2-4 – and were relegated.
OTP Oulu barely evaded relegation: 10th with 15 points.
Ilves Tampere finished 9th with 20 points. However, this season turned out to be one of their very best despite the weak performance in the championship.
The top 8 moved to the final stage of the championship in which their were paired strong against weak – the 1st vs the 8th and so on. Haka Valkeakoski was 8th with 22 points. MP Mikkeli – 7th with 23, TPS Turku – 6th with 23, Reipas Lahti – 5th with 23, KuPS Kuopio – 4th with 24, HJK Helsinki – 3rd with 28, RoPS Rovaniemi – 2nd with 29 points, and

Kuusysi Lahti – 1st with 33 points. The strongest team in the recent years and the one responsible for the climb of Finland in the UEFA ranking. Looked like they were in perfect form, clearly better than the rest and on the way of success again. 14 wins, 5 ties, 3 losses, 34-12 at the end of the regular stage of the season. Standing from left: Jari Rinne, Sixten Bostr?m, Jari Kinnunen, Hannu J?ntti, Esa Pekonen. Crouching: Sami Vehkakoski, Ilkka Remes, Petri J?rvinen, Ismo Korhonen, Juha Annunen, Keijo Kousa.
¼ finals. Kuusysi eliminated Haka Valkeakoski 3-1 and 2-2 (4-3 penalty shoot out).
RoPS Rovaniemi was eliminated by MP Mikkeli in 3 games: 1-1 (4-5 penalty shoot-out), 2-1, and 0-1.
End of the road for TPS Turku: they lost to HJK Helsinki also in 3 games – 0-0 (3-2 penalty shoot-out), 1-2 and 1-3.

KuPS Kuopio also went down – eliminated by Reipas Lahti 1-1 (4-5 penalty shoot-out) and 0-2. Standing from left: Kari Tissari, Janne Savolainen, Tuomo Hyv?rinen, Markku Raatikainen & Hannu Turunen. Front row: Kari Niskanen,  Kai Nyyss?nen, Jyrki Rovio, Yrj? Happonen, Harri Nyyss?nen & Jukka Turunen.
The ½ finals: Kuusysi eliminated MP Mikkeli 3-1 and 1-0, and HJK Helsinki disposed of Reipas Lahti 3-2 and 3-2.
The losers met in one-leg play-off for the 3rd place in which MP Mikkeli destroyed Reipas Lahti 6-1. Thus MP Mikkeli got the bronze medals and also qualified for the UEFA Cup.
The big final was two-leg affair, the first match in Lahti. Here HJK got slight advantage: the match ended 1-1 and they won the penalty shoot-out 4-3. At home in Helsinki, they managed to prevail over Kuusysi 1-0 and won the title.
Disappointment for Kuusysi Lahti – they looked stronger during the whole season, but lost, however minimally, the final. Silver medals and UEFA Cup spot, but… it could have been better.

Not always great, having difficulties here and there on the road, but at the end HJK Helsinki clinched the title. Lucky, unlucky, they prevailed when mattered most. Standing from left: Jari Rantanen, Markku Kanerva, Aki Hyryl?inen, Pasi Tauriainen, Jari Europaeus. Front row: Petri Helin, Pekka Onttonen, Janne Suokonautio, Petri Jakonen, Petri Tiainen, Kimmo Tarkkio.
Well, new old champions – it was the 17th title for HJK.

First Division – final stage. The top 8 teams in the first stage of First Division started the final stage with half of the points earned in the opening stage – the usual problem with complicated championship formulas: the first stage hardly meant anything else than qualifying to the final. So, a strong enough team could play just enough to end among the top 8, preserving its real strength for later. A team spending its best in the first stage got nothing later… and there were also teams concerned only with avoiding the risk of relegation: playing as best as they could to end among the top 8 and than only going through the motions in the final round. To considerable degree, that was the Swiss case in the 1989-90 season.
FC Sion was 5th in the opening stage with 23 points, but cared little for the final stage and finished last with total 19 points (7+12 from the opening stage). They won just one match.
BSC Young Boys ended 8th in the opening stage with 21 points – better goal-difference elbowed Servette to the promotion/relegation group. Escaping the big danger of relegation, Young Boys took it easy in the final stage and finished 7th with 21 points (10 + 11 from the opening stage). Rather curious to see Swedish stars Anders Limpar, Roger Ljung, and Bjorn Nillson in such lowly position, but they were the best Young Boys had at the moment – the Swiss players were not at that level.

AC Lugano was perhaps the prime example of clubs only trying to reach the safety of the final stage: they were 7th in the opening stage and 6th in the final with 23 points (12 +11 from the opening stage). No well-known players here, quite a pedestrian squad perhaps playing overachievening a bit, at least in the opening stage of the season.
FC St. Gallen – 5th with 27 points (14 of them from the opening stage). A show-case of the danger of spending most of their strength early. They won the opening stage, but in the final stage were easily left behind by fresher squads, stepping at the pedals at the right moment. Ivan Zamorano was no longer great help and not because he was weak – it was generally weaker squad, now tired and inevitably dropping out.
FC Luzern – 4th at the end with 28 points. Even season – they were 4th with 24 points in the opening stage, apparently not able to go higher, but not going down either.
Xamax took 3rd place with 30 points. There were 2nd in the opening stage 27 points and although managed to play well in the final stage, seemingly, they spent most of their strength too early. Not quite up to really fight for the title – may be a little was missing, but this little was decisively missing.
Lausanne-Sport – well, they clearly preserved their strength for the final, finishing 6th with 22 points in the opening stage. But formidable they were in the final stage – starting with 11 points, they added 20! Lost only one match. Allowed just 9 goals in 14 games in their net. The strongest team in the final stage – and they had the squad for such performance – but were unlucky at the end. They lost dramatically the title – not on points, not on goal-difference, but only on head-to-head record. Tough luck – or lack of it. To a point, their season served as example of the risks teams were taking with preserving strength for the final stage in complicated championship formulas: if Lausanne-Sport got 1 more point in the opening stage, the title would have been theirs. But they played just enough to qualify to the final stage in the fall of 1989 – and paid the price for it.
Grasshoper clinched the title – like Lausanne-Sport, they finished with 31 points, but very different record: they won 9 games in the final stage and lost 5. They score more goals than Lausanne-Sport and received more too, ending with 28-15 – Lausanne finished with 23-9, which gave them +14 goal-difference to Grasshoper’s +13. Like Lausannne-Sport, Grasshopper preserved strength in the opening stage, but they finished 3rd in it with 25 points – better than Lausanne-Sport, so they started with 13 points the final stage and that was their luck in the long run: Laussane-Sport had wonderful final stage and was clearly the strongest team, but they started with 2 points less than Grasshopper and that was their undoing at the end. Plus the fact that Grasshopper prevailed in the head-to-head clash – at the end the rivals ended with 31 points each and Lausanne-Sport had better goal—difference, but the decisive factor was head-to-head record and Grasshopper came on top and won the championship.
For a good measure Grasshopper won the Swiss Cup as well – again, minimally: they prevailed 2-1 over Xamax. Hardly the most inspiring and memorable victories – rather a matter of ‘blood, sweat, and tears’ mixed with good luck, but the at the end Grasshopper won a double and very impressive totals: 21st title (and their first after 1983-84), 17th Cup (third consecutive Cup), 8th double. Very impressive numbers, yet… it looks like this squad did not leave great memory. As if fans and club historians recognize lucky season and not a great squad.

Switzerland. Ranked 19th. Still keeping its strange championship formula of two stages: 12 team top league, which after the end of the first stage continued without the bottom 4 teams anew, carrying half the points from the opening stage to the second. Meantime Second Division was divided into 2 groups for its second stage in which the last 4 teams in the first stage were included and the top 2 teams in each groups were promoted to start the next season in the top league. The complicated formula will be shortened only to the second stage here. Switzerland still used 2 points for a win and had intriguing mix of imported players – some aging and fading stars, some middle of the road players, some bright talent rather expected to play in bigger championships. By itself, nothing new about such a mix, but Europe was rapidly moving to permit 3 foreigners on the field and Switzerland seemingly was going a step further, for few clubs had more than 3 foreigners this season. And some of them apparently were behind the current success of their teams.
FC St. Gallen was the prime example of this new tendency: they had 3 Chilean national team players plus forth foreigner. If Patricio Mardones and Hugo Rubio do not ring many bells, Ivan Zamorano does – at the time, he was not yet the mega-star, but only beginning his great European journey, yet the impact of the Chileans was immediate: FC St. Gallen won the opening stage of the championship with 28 points: 9 wins, 10 ties, 3 losses, 40-24 scoring record. They clinched top position only by a point, but it was memorable performance for usually St. Gallen occupied the lower half of the table. And in the same time their great first stage meant almost nothing… the final stage started with clean sheets, so it was hard to tell who was playing their best in the opening stage and who was playing just enough to qualify to the final stage, preserving strength for it.
Down the table in the first stage ended Servette (9th), FC Wettingen (10th), FC Aarau (11th), and AC Bellinzona (12th) – they were joining the Second Division teams in the second stage, hoping to finish among the top two in their respective group and maintain top-league place. However, some well known clubs were in Second Division now – if St. Gallen jumped up, FC Zurich and Basel already plunged down and played in the Second Division. Hoping to climb back to their familiar environment, no doubt. But all depended on the second stage of the season and the usually leading Swiss clubs had it tough: they were in stronger final Group A, where Servette and Bellinzona also came to play – 4 teams competing for 2 promotion spots.
Group B was not all that tough – those coming from the top league seemingly had considerable advantage. Possible challenge was absent, for those who had stronger history, presently had only history:
FC Winterthur finished 7th with 7 points – only CS Chenois was more miserable than them (last with 6 points). Top row from left: Paul Hollenstein (Physiotherapeut), Flavio Battaini, Urs Güntensperger, Roland Käser, Marco Filomeno, Mario Uccella, Markus Portmann, Helmut Gabriel, Christian Graf, Mauro Ferrari.
Middle row: Ernst Rief (Masseur), Alfons Bosco (Trainer), Stephan Zwahlen, Joachim Hutka, Patrick Meili, Daniel Haefeli, Reto Arrigoni, Urs Isler, Tiziano Sacchetti, Urs Rüegg (Assistenztrainer).
Front row: Armin Krebs, Marcel Balmer, Oliver Bellwald, Sergio Gurrieri, Antonio Santini, *, Michael Gänssler, Markus Michael, Andreas Nickel.
FC Locarno was 5th with 13 points.
FC Grenchen ended 6th between Winterthur and Locarno with 9 points. FC Baden was 4th with 16 points and FC Bulle finished 3rd with 17 points. So, the teams starting in the Second Division was no problem for those from top flight:
FC Wettingen took second place with 22 points, losing the first place on worse goal-difference: +20, but they lost just a single match in the final stage and permitted only 9 goals in 14 games in their own net.
FC Aarau clinched the top place, thanks to 22 points and better goal-difference than Wettingen: +25. They won the most games and scored the most goals in Group B: 10 wins and 35 goals. But all that was academic – the important thing was that both FC Aarau and FC Wettingen preserved their First Division places for the next season.
No drama in Group B, but Group A had 4 teams potentially eager to go back to the top league. The other 4 were not contenders: FC Schaffhausen finished last with 7 points, FC Chur – 7th with 9 points, FC Fribourg – 6th with 11 points, and Yverdon-Sport FC – 5th with 13 points.
AC Bellinzona lost the race among the stronger: 4th with 15 points and thus relegated from First to Second Division. FC Basel was unable to succeed too: 3rd with 17 points.
FC Zurich finished 2nd with 20 points – similarly to Wettingen in Group B, they ended second only on worse goal-difference. Looking at the squad, it is quite strange to see FC Zurich in the Second Division : apart from strong Swiss players, they had Norbert Eder (West Germany), Jan Berger (Czechoslovakia), and Marcel Raducanu (Romania). Aging all of them and fading, but Berger and Raducanu were national team players for years and still useful for their home countries and Eder was solid regular in Bayern’s defense in the last 6 years. FC Zurich was not relegated with this trio, but the current squad was clearly made having restoration of leading position in mind. So far – so good: FC Zurich earned promotion back to top flight. Yes, they finished 2nd, but promotion was the goal and it was achieved.
Servette clinched the first place, coming ahead of FC Zurich on goal-difference: 20 points from 8 wins, 4 ties, 2 losses (the same as FC Zurich), 29-13 scoring record (scored 1 goal less than FC Zurich, but had 4-goal better defensive record), giving them +16 goal-difference to FC Zurich’s +13. Servette kept their top league place. Top row from left: inten: Bersier, Cacciapaglia, Besnard, Fargeon, Epars, Acosta, Burri
Middle row: Sinval, Djurovski, Rufer, Locca, Pazmandy, Ritschard, Schällibaum, Barrel, Grossenbacher
Sitting: Türkylmaz, Favre, Guex, Pedat, Kobel, Hertig, Bonvin, Stiel
Like FC Zurich, it was puzzling why Servette was so down this season – enough the mention that Kubilay Türkylmaz was in their squad, along with other good players. Well, weak season for sure, but at least they avoided the shame to start the next one in the second level.

The Cup final presented a battle between Communism and democracy as well: Honved vs Pecsi MFC. Honved, quite shaken at the moment and in danger of relegation, still managed to reach the Cup final and had a good chance to win a trophy. Pecsi MFC had strong season, but they were smallish provincial club, which never won anything before. Freedom prevailed, though – at least if one wants to see the Cup final in such light. Pecsi MFC won 2-0.
Honved lost and for many that was great: the club largely symbolizing Communist rule was rapidly going down. Yes, they were the most famous club abroad thanks to the great team in the 1950s, lead by Puskas, but it was also well remembered how Honved came into existence and how the great team was assembled. The name of small Budapest club came back: Kispest. There was Kispest once upon a time and Communists made their Honved out of it. Let’s restore the original – the idea was ripe at the time, then, as elsewhere in Eastern Europe, it turned out that it is not easy to erase Honved. But the club lost its leading role.
Forget politics – there was football and enormous joy: Pecsi MFC won their very first trophy to the delight of the denizens of Pecs. Smallish club from provincial town, normally playing in the First Division, but nothing more than that. Success was entirely unfamiliar to them during their long history. Now it finally arrived. Delightful moment to be fondly remembered. Especially because it was not repeated. So, the team was instant legend at home.

Hungary. Ranked 18th. Political changes affected the country, football included, as elsewhere in Eastern Europe – Honved was in decline as a result, players were looking to play abroad, and clubs were looking for imports largely from Africa and USSR. 3 points for a win and dramatic battle for the title decided by one goal. Two teams were relegated from First Division directly and the 13th and the 14th went to promotion/relegation play-offs against the second-placed teams in the two groups of Second Division.
Second Division. Two groups of 16 teams each, the champions promoted and the second-placed going to promotion/relegation play-offs. The last 3 teams in each group relegated to third level. Both groups were dominated by single team, so nothing exciting at the end.
Szeged SC won the Keleti group with 61 points.
Diosgyori VTK ended 5th with 46 points: one of the former top-league teams now in Second Division, but unable to climb back to top flight.
Volan SC won the Nyugati group with 65 points. Both teams were promoted to the top league.
Second in Keleti group was Kazincbarcikai Vegyesz SE with 52 points – they lost the promotion/relegation play-off against Honved (Budapest) 0-1 and 2-2.
Dunaferr SE was 2nd in Nyugati group with 57 points – they also lost the promotion/relegation play-off against Debreceni MVSC 1-1 and 0-1.
First Division.
Csepel ended last and relegated with 25 points. They were the outsider of the league this season.
Haladas – 15th with 33 points was the other relegated team.
Debreceni MVSC finished 14th with 35 points, but won the promotion/relegation play-off and remained in the top league.
Honved suffered terribly and finished in the danger zone – 13th with 35 points. Like Debreceni MVSC, they managed to survive, but barely.
Gyori ETO – 12th with 35 points. Like Honved, Gyori ETO suffered and avoided relegation only on goal-difference.
Vaci IZZO – 11th with 36 points. Escaping relegation was largely their aim and it was achieved.
Bekescsabai Elore – 10th with 38 points.

Videoton – 9th with 38 points. Like Honved and Gyori ETO, Videoton’s decline was mostly likely related to the political changes in the country.
Vasas SC – 8th with 39 points.
Siofoki Banyasz – 7th with 39 points.
Veszpremi LC – 6th with 41 points.
A possible photo of Tatabanyai Banyasz 1989-90 – they finished 5th with 43 points.
Pecsi MSC – 4th with 48 points. Their strongest season ever, as it happened.
Ferencvarosi TC – 3rd with 48 points.
Two teams were entangled in the fight for the title and at the end the victors triumphed on one-goal better goal-difference. The leaders left the rest of the league far behind.
MTK-VM was bitterly disappointed: they finished with 58 points from 18 wins, 4 ties, and 8 losses. 48-26 scoring record gave them +22 goal-difference. It was not enough…
Ujpesti Dosza clinched the title on goal-difference: like MTK, they finished with 18 wins, 4 ties, and 8 losses and 58 points. They scored less than MTK – 43 goals – but also had better defensive record, permitting 20 goals in their net. This gave them goal-difference of +23 – one goal better than MTK – and the title. Symbolically, the results showed the transitional struggle between Communist and democratic forces – although Hungary for years lacked the big involvement of state forces in sports, still Honved represented the Army and Ujpesti Dosza – the Police. Even the names remained unchanged yet and the ‘old regime’ seemingly was not ready to give up: old and considered victims of Communism clubs like Ferencvaros and MTK were unable to prevail (and in the case of Ferencvaros even to challenge Ujpesti Dosza). Honved was in shambles, but Ujpesti Dosza was not fading away, but actually coming back: this title was the first they won since 1978-79 and their 19th altogether. Soon they were going to get rid of Communist taint – ‘Dosza’ will be removed and the club will restore its original name Ujpesti TE – but it will be many years until they won a title again and generally stopped playing leading role in Hungarian football. So… their dramatic victory could be seen as the last gasp of the Communist regime and not as real revival of the club.