First Division. The clubs went on strike and refused to play the last three rounds of the championship – all except Olympiakos, Panathinaikos, OFI, and Panionios. That led to 6 points deducted from the records of the rebellious teams. AEK carried further 3-point deduction for match-fixing in the previous championship. However, the penalties did not affect the race for the title – there was none, Olympiakos reigned supreme.
PAS Giannina was last with 11 points and relegated.
Apollon (Athens) – 15th with 14 points, and Doxa (Drama) – 14th with 15 points were also relegated.
Diagoras (Rodos) survived – 13th with 16 points.
Apollon Kalamarias (Thessaloniki) – 12th with 17 points.
Aris (Thessaloniki) – 11th with 18 points.
Ethnikos (Piraeus) – 10th with 18 points.
Veria – 9th with 19th points.
Larissa – 8th with 19 points.
AEK (Athens) – 7th with 19 points.
Iraklis (Thessaloniki) – 6th with 25 points. The picture may be from this season – just may be.
PAOK (Thessaloniki) – 5th with 29 points.
Panionios (Athens) – 4th with 33 points. Decided not to go on strike and thus secure UEFA Cup spot – which was unlikely, if there was no strike. If Panionios joined the strike – no such spot either, for after point-deduction they would have been behind PAOK. Call it greed? Well, sportsmanship is not the word…
OFI (Crete) – 3rd with 38 points. Their best season ever. Did not go on strike and thus maintained bronze medal position – since Panionios refused to go on strike, if OFI did, they would have ended behind Panionios and without medals.
Panathinaikos – 2nd with 39 points. Not going on strike was decided perhaps in order to keep second position, but in any case this season was disappointment: they were far, far behind the arch-rivals.
Olympiakos (Piraeus) dominated the championship and won it with massive 10-point lead. They won 22 games, tied 5, lost 3, amassing 49 points. Scored 54 goals, allowed 24. True, three wins were just awarded, for the opponents were on strike, but the champions had no real rival this season. They too did not join the strike, but in the case it was not a matter of keeping position – perhaps they felt above such things like strikes.
Just for the sake of variety, a picture of the familiar champions dressed in their reserve kit. Good work of arguably the best known Greek coach in the 1970s and 1980s – Alketas Panagoulias. The squad was of course made of Greek national team players, although less famous than some other squads of Olympiakos. Naturally, imports played major role – the 31-years old Yugoslavian striker Milos Sestic, the 26-years old Uruguayan midfielder Jorge Barrios, and just in case somebody was injured – the 22-years old Canadian striker Igor Vrablic, fresh from the 1986 World Cup finals. Compared to the foreigners Panathinaikos had (Velimir Zajec, Marton Esterhazy, and Juan Rocha), Olympiakos’ stars were somewhat less famous, but younger.