Yugoslavia. Dramatic final of the championship – goal-difference decided the champion and also the battle for survival. Slightly lower general quality of the game and two teams way above the rest of the league, but still fairly equal general level. And a new chapter of East European football started: import of foreign players. Looks like 1985-86 was the beginning – in Yugoslavia and Hungary, very minimal yet, but a start.
Second Division. The usual 2 groups – East and West, 18 teams in each, the last 4 were relegated and the winners – promoted. More dramatic battle for top position in the East II Division, but in total 5 teams were much stronger than the rest.
West II Division. At a glance, Borac (Banja Luka) catches the eye immediately – what a big decline! Although rarely among the top teams, Borac had been solid First Division member for years. Now – it was uncharacteristically down: 12th in Second Division. Escaped relegation to third level by 2 points and with worse goal-difference than 2 of the relegated teams.
Vrbas was 10th with 32 points.
RFK Novi Sad – 7th with 33 points.
Rudar (Ljubija) – 6th with 34 points. Standing from left: Momcilo Turuntas, Tomislav Radic, Resad Crnalic, Ante Grabo, Vinko Samardzija, Stanko Mrsic.
First row: Dusko Ostojic, Fahro Bihorac, Ibrahim Kusljugic, Dragoljub Bekvalac, Nedeljko Topic.
Years later Bekvalac will make quite a good name as a coach.
Jedinstvo (Brcko) – 5th with 36 points. Standing from left: Stevic, Enver Lugusic, Sulovic, Kevric, Vuinovic, Tosic, Bekic – assistant coach.
Front row: Curcic, Suznjevic, Jahic, Zoran Malisevic, M. Besic.
Three teams were stronger than the rest, but two of them eventually lost steam and fell behind.
Leotar (Trebinje) – 3rd with 44 points.
Iskra (Bugojno) – 2nd with 44 points, ahead of Leotar on better goal-difference. Standing from left: Podgajski, Vuckovic, Dezelic, Z. Toskic, Delilovic, Pavlic.
Crouching: G. Toskic, Novokmet, D. Vrabac, ?, Mirkovic.
Spartak (Subotica) won the league with confidence: 20 wins, 9 ties, 5 losses, 65-33 goal-difference, 49 points. Top row from left: Pestalic, Bilbija, Durovic, Duran, Ugljanin, Kovacevic, Popovic.
Middle row: Karac, Dimitrijevic, Stajner, Acimovic, Rafai, Ljiljak, Slijepcevic.
Sitting: Arsic, Jeftic, Todorovic, Pejovic, Kuntic, Miranovic, Cosic, Puhalek.
Wonderful achievement – promotion to top flight.
East II Division.
Radnicki (Nis) and Rad (Belgrade) left the rest of the league far behind and were entangled in dog fight to the end – 1 point separated them in the final table.
There was similarity between Borac (Banja Luka) and Napredak (Krusevac) – both first division members were in bad shape right now. Napredak finished 11th with 33 points and relegation further down was a real option: at the end, Napredak escaped by 3 points.
Crvena zvezda (Gnjilane) had no reputation to keep, so they were quite happy just to stay in the league: 14th with 33 points.
But others had to suffer: FK Zemun, practically fresh from playing in First Division, now was going to third level – 16th with 28 points and relegated.
Another former First Division member – FK Bor – also went down to third level – 15th with 30 points.
Trepca was satisfied with 34 points and 9th position.
Borac (Cacak) – pictured here with Mladost (Rogatica), white kit – was 5th with 34 points. Like the West Group, in the East most teams were closer to the relegation zone than to possible promotion. Radnicki (Kragujevac) finished 3rd with 36 points – that is, 15 points behind the 2nd placed, but only 6 points ahead of the relegated 15th placed FK Bor.
The battle for 1st place was lost by Rad (Belgrade) by 1 point – they finished with 51 points.
Radnicki (Nis) clinched 1st place with 52 points from 22 wins, 8 ties, and 4 losses. Goal-difference: 65-21. Third row from left: Bankovic, Dzinovic, Gogic, S. Nikolic, Vojinovic, Binic, Mitrovic, Kuzmanovic.
Middle row: Halilovic – coach, Pejic, Visnjic, Ivanovic, Jocic, Duvandzic – team chief, Stojkovic, Zlatanovski, Milenkovic, Jankovic – assistant coach.
Sitting: Kocic, Milosevic, Radosavljevic, Gajic, Aleksic, Mladenovic.
Going down to Second Division was bitter pill to swallow for a club, which met Real Madrid just a little earlier – Radnicki was among the top Yugoslavian teams in the early 1980s and played strong football in the European tournaments. Coming back to top flight was a must, but they faced very strong competition from Rad (Belgrade) and were lucky to win the league. However, they did win and everything was fine.