Chile. The top division ballooned to 26 teams, but it was going to be reduced to 20 in the next year, so 8 teams were facing relegation and only 2 were promoted from the second level.
Union La Calera was the champion of second level. Standing from left: Alarcón, Vásquez, Gutiérrez, Rojas, Jélvez, Giadallach. Front row: Chahuán, Santibañez, Zurita, Vera, Valenzuela.
Deportes Concepsion was the second promoted team.
The huge First Division was divided into 2 zones, but the championship formula was very simple by South American standards: after playing 26 games (Why that number unless each team played twice against the teams of the other zone? Well, every South American championship had its own mysterious ways.) the top 2 teams of each zone proceeded to the Final Playoff and last 4 teams in each zone were relegated. Kind of… So, here it is:
Northern Zone.
Regional Atacama – 13th with 13 points and relegated.
Deportes La Serena – 12th with 13 points and relegated.
Antofagasta – 11th with 17 points and relegated.
Santiago Wanderers – 10th with 22 points and relegated.
San Luis – 9th with 24 points.
Union San Felipe – 8th with 24 points.
Palestino – 7th with 25 points.
Deportes Iquique – 6th with 26 points.
Magallanes – 5th with 29 points. Standing from left: Carlos Villazón, Julio Suazo, Emiliano Astorga, Benedito Pereira, Eduardo Vilches, Adolfo Nef.
First row: Fernando Medina, Eduardo Calquín, Luis Pérez, Arturo Jáuregui, Claudio Fino Toro.
Deportes Arica – 4th with 30 points.
Colo Colo – 3rd with 36 points. Weak season, clearly – not a title contender, how unusual.
Cobresal – 2nd with 38 points and going to the final palyoff.
Cobreloa – 1st with 41 points and going to the final playoff.
Southern Zone.
Coquimbo Unido – 13th with 14 points and relegated.
Green Cross – 12th with 19 points and relegated.
Fernandez Vial – 11th with 22 points and relegated.
Audax Italiano – 10th with 24 points and… not relegated! Unless a relegation play-off was played, there was no reason for them to stay in the league.
Trasandino – 9th with 24 points and relegated. They had better record than Audax Italiano, winning more games and even finishing with positive goal-difference, but went down. Too bad.
Everton – 8th with 25 points.
Huachipato – 7th with 25 points.
Rangers – 6th with 25 points.
Universidad de Chile – 5th with 28 points. Not their year.
O’Higgins – 4th with 29 points.
Naval – 3rd with 31 points.
Union Espanola – 2nd with 35 points and going to the final play-off.
Universidad Catolica – 1st with 37 points and going to the final play-off.
The Final Play-off – round-robin tournament between the 4 qualified teams. Looked like Cobreloa was the favourite, for they were the best team in the first phase and that by far. But the last games proved different.
Cobreloa lost 2 games and tied 1, which placed them last.
Union Espanola was 3rd with a win, a tie, and a loss – 3 points, but negative goal-difference.
Cobresal was clearly following in the steps of Cobreloa – a newcomers from a mining town, quickly challenging the establishment. They finished 2nd with 3 ties – did not lose a game, but were unable to win any either. Still, it was fantastic season.
Universidad Catolica was in supreme form – won 2 games and tied the third. The title was theirs and rightly so, for the team was strong from start to finish, the whole season. The title stayed in Santiago after all, but how sweet it was for the fans of the club – this was their 5th title, but they had to wait 18 years for it. With this victory Universidad Catolica was already better than Magallanes (4 titles) and equaled the record of Union Espanola. Far behind Colo Colo and Universidad de Chile, of course, but no matter – they were champions in 1984, not the rivals.C