Colombia. The criteria for promotion and relegation – unclear, but one team went down and one team up.
Little known, but old Sporting (Barranquilla) somehow earned promotion for the 1987 season. For some reasons the success does not register today, just as almost anything the club achieved before 1988. Even their foundation is murky: given alternatively 1923 and 1927. Well, they managed promotion and good luck.
Similarly mysterious was the relegation of Independiente (Santa Fe) – their results in 1986 did not suggest anything dangerous: mid-table position in every stage of the championship. Yet, they did not play top league football the next year. So much for ups and downs.
The championship followed its usual formula – Apertura and Clausura, top teams getting bonus points from each stage and the best 8 playing a final tournament to decide the champion. Apart from strange and quite meaningless ‘extra series’, played after the Apertura between 4 teams, nothing complicated. The first stage – Torneo ‘Jose Eduardo Gnecco’, or Apertura – had the 14-team league divided in two groups, where teams played twice against each other. The top 4 teams went to the strange ‘extra series’, but played only 2 games and not at all against all qualified, but twice against the team ending the same position in the opposite group. The so-called final table reflected that as well and still makes no sense, because everybody finished with 2 points and third place was the only team with positive goal-difference. This small tournament seemingly had one importance: distribution of bonus points. May be. Apart from the mysterious ending, DIM – Independiente Medellin – won Group A with 18 points and Atletico Junior Group B with 19 points. Deportes Tolima was awfully weak at this stage, ending with 2 points from 2 ties in Group B. They scored only 7 goals in 14 games.
The Clausura – Torneo ‘Edmer Tamayo Marin’ – was played in classic league format, all teams played twice against everybody else. The top 4 teams got bonus points. Millonarios won the Clausura with 34 points, followed by America with 33 points. DIM ended 3rd with 32 points and Deportivo Cali – 4th with 31 points.
After the initial two tournaments the bonus table was made:
Team “José Gnecco” “Edmer Tamayo” Total
1. Millonarios 0.50 1.00 1.50
2. Indep. Medellín 0.75 0.50 1.25
3. América de Cali 0.25 0.75 1.00
3. Atlético Junior 1.00 0 1.00
5. Deportivo Cali 0 0.25 0.25
And after that the best 8 teams played the Octagonal Final – twice against each other. The best included the top two of each group in the Apertura and the rest according to the final table of the Clausura. That included the top 7 in the Clausura, for Atletico Junior qualified from the Apertura and no matter how they played in the Clausura they already qualified to the final stage (they ended lowly 10th in the Clausura, confirming once again that in championships with complicated structures one does not have to play strong season, but can take it easy in at least one early stage).Those unable to go ahead were:
Deportivo Pereira – last in the Clausura (winning only one match of 26). Standing from left: Paez, Munuti, Penagos, Suarez, Chaparro. Crouching: Carabali, Cadavid, La Rosa, Cueto, Bernal, Rodriguez. The two Peruvians – Cueto and La Rosa – did not help at all.
Cucuta Deportivo – 13th with 13 points.
Deportes Tolima – 12th with 19 points.
Atletico Bucaramanga – 11th with 25 points.
Union Magdalena – 9th with 26 points, and Independiente (Santa Fe) – 8th with 27 points. It was particularly this finish which makes their eventual relegation weird – unless it was financial troubles. The Octagonal Final only confirmed the pattern set in the previous years: one club was too strong, bonus points or not.
Once Caldas finished last with 9 points. Standing from left: Jose James Mina Camacho, Jose Ricardo ‘Chicho’ Perez Morales, Janio Cabezas Valois, Wilman Francisco Conde Gordillo, Victor Manuel ‘Curramba’ Palacios Alvarez, Manuel Rincon Valencia, Orlando Charry – kinesiologist. Front row: Carlos Arturo Pelaez, Ruben Dario ‘Rubencio’ Hernandez Ariza, Alonso ‘Pocillo’ Lopez, Alexis Enrique ‘Maestro’ Garcia Vega, Jaime de Jesus ‘Jimmy’ Arango Estrada. Francisco Maturana coached them but he was in the early stage of his great career and could not elevate the team higher.
Deportes Quindio – ended 7th with 10 points. Standing from left: Eugenio Muriel, Augusto Vargas Cortés, Federico Valencia, Adolfo Téllez, Jorge Taverna, Darío Campagna, Carlos Torres (U). Front row: Abel Augusto Lobatón, José “Chepe” Torres, Javier Quintero, Víctor Lugo, Heberth Ríos.
Atletico Nacional – 6th with 10 points.
DIM – Deportivo Independiente Medellin – was 5th with 12.25 points. Lost power at the most important stage. Standing from left: Gildardo Gomez, Jorge Olaechea (Peru), Eduardo Malasquez (Peru), Luis Carlos Perea, Leonel Alvarez, Octavio Gomez. Crouching: Carlos Alvarez, William Knight, Hector Ramon Sosa, Gustavo Perez, Alfredo Mendoza.
Atletico Junior – 4th with 16 points.
Millonarios – 3rd with 17.5 points. Back row from left: Oscar Juarez, Carlos Jose Karabin, Antonio Palacios, Jose Hernandez, Silvano Spindola, Luis Francisco Perez, German Gutierrez, Cerveleon Cuesta. Middle row: Milton Bernal, Manuel Cordoba, Gabriel J. Gomez, Ruben Cuevas, Eduardo Esteban Basigalup, Fabio Calle, Luis N. Gil, Iguaran, Peluffo. Front: Juan Pablo Lopera, German Portela, Gabriel Quimbaya, Fernando Caicedo, Jhonny Rivera, Nestor Bautista, Pedro Paredes, Yesid Mosquera. 
Deportivo Cali – 2nd with 20.25 points. They scored most goals at the final – 25 – and won most games – 10 – but it was all or nothing with them, so they lost 4 matches and the approach more or less lost the title.
America (Cali) won with strong final run the title. Top row from left: Ruben Dario Bedoya, Enrique Simon Esterilla, Ricardo Gareca, Henry Viafara, Jairo Ampudia, Juan ‘El Martillo’ Pehagos, Roberto Cabanas. Third row: Jorge Porras, Gozalo Soto, Reynel Ruiz, J. C. Falcioni, Pedro Zape, Hugo ‘Pitillo’ Valencia, Pedro Sarmiento. Second row: J. M. Battaglia, Victor Espinosa, H. D. Herrera, Jose ‘Pepe’ Romeiro Hurtado, Alex Escobar. Front row: Willington Ortiz, Gerardo Gonzalez Aquino, Anthony De Avila, John Edison Castano. Familiar winner, but this was special victory in special period in the history of the club: 5th title in a row! They bested the record of Millonarios – 4 consecutive titles, having fantastic run – the best in their own history and in the Colombian history as well. Arguably, America’s best period of all time. It was not a squad easily dismissed: they had two major stars – the Paraguayan great Roberto Cabanas and the Argentinian Ricardo Gareca. Local stars like Willington Ortiz were similarly good and ambitious. Experienced and confident squad, which also timed its season precisely: they finished 2nd in both early stages of the championship, scoring most goals in each stage, and played their best at the final – won 9 games, tied 3, and lost only 2. Their defense was best, allowing only 12 goals in 14 games; their attack – second-best, scoring only a goal less than Deportivo Cali – 24. With such a run, they even did not need bonus points: if those were not counted, America was still on top with 21 points. ‘Diablos Rojos’ rulled!