Uruguay. The only South American country running standard league championship, however, with some peculiarities. The small Second Division played only 18 rounds, for there were just 10 team. The new thing was the penetration of provincial club among the highest levels of Uruguayan football – Huracan (Paso/Arena) finished 2nd, 2 points behind the winners, but losing only 1 match during the season. Worth noting, for all other clubs in First and Second Divisions were from Montevideo, as always it had been.
River Plate (Montevideo) won the championship with 28 points from 12 wins, 4 ties, and 2 losses, goal-difference 38-13. Nothing new, nothing extraordinary – River Plate played top league football many times, it was just a return. But clubs from Montevideo were no strangers to First Division and the lower league was practically full of former top division members. River Plate was promoted to play first league football next year.
First Division had 13 members this year, but apart from the odd number, nothing unusual as far as the championship was structured. All teams were from Montevideo, as ever.
Miramar was last with 11 points. Cerro – 12th with 15 points. Sud America – 11th with 17 points. Progreso – 10th with 18 points. Huracan Buceo – 9th with 18 points.
Defensor Sporting – 8th with 24 points.
Rampla Juniors – 7th with 24 points.
Wanderers – 6th with 26 points.
Bella Vista – 5th with 27 points.
Danubio – 4th with 31 points. Standing from left: Nelson Alaguich , Javier Zeoli , José Rosauro Cabrera, Miguel Beltrán ,Daniel Martínez, CésarVega.
First row: Dardo Pérez , Néstor Silva , Rúben Sosa , Eliseo Rivero, Carlos Omar Franco.
Nacional – 3rd with 32 points. Standing from left: Velichco, Graniolati, Perdomo, W. Gonzalez, “chico” Moreira, Aguirregaray.
First row:Aguilera, Berrueta, JR Carrasco, Luzardo, Villazan.
Penarol – 2nd with 34 points.
And the new champions were Central Espanol. Third row from left: J.Ariel Presa (Utilero), Alfredo Ferreira (Kinesiologo), OvdulioTrasante, Miguel Del Rio, Hector Tuja, Daniel Andrada, Miguel Berriel, Carlos Barcos, Julio Garrido, German Adinolfi (Preparador Fisico), Antonio
Godsian (Ayudante Tecnico).
Middle row: Ruben Borda, Paulo Silva, Fernando Operti, Fernando Vilar, Cesar Pereira, Tomas Lima, Liber Arispe (Director Tecnico).
Front row: Javier Baldriz, Oscar Falero, Abel Tolosa, Jose Villareal, Uruguay Gussoni, Daniel Viera, Wilfredo Antunez.
Hardly any familiar names, but that was the situation in Uruguay at the time – almost everybody with half-decent skills was playing abroad. Anywhere, but home and that was for years. The victory of Central Espanol was significant anyway: first of all, it was awarded not on merit, but on rules – the title was won as newly promoted club. That sounds like two teams were tied and rule was applied to break the tie – and since Penarol was never relegated, Central Espanol was automatically ‘newly promoted club’, for they played second division. No matter when… compared to Penarol, only Nacional was not ‘newly promoted’. But there was no tie… Central Espanol finished with 35 points, one more than Penarol and they won the championship without any complications. Why the rule was applied is a mystery. 13 wins, 9 ties, 2 losses, 39-17 goal-difference – simply, the best league record this year.
One more look at the new champions – their regular starters. Historic achievement – first ever title! Instant legends, at least for their supporters. The second club since 1931 to snatch the title from the hands of either Nacional or Penarol – the first was Defensor in 1976. This victory also increased the all-time number of winning teams to 8. Say what you like, for club and fans it was fantastic season.
So far, so good… but this was not all. A small tournament was played – the Colombes Cup – with 6 teams. Perhaps the big purpose was just to make the short season a bit longer, to add more games and somewhat bigger income from the gates. Central Espanol finished last in it, but it was unimportant. Penarol won this cup – one more trophy, otherwise, unimportant victory.
The important one was the Libertadores Cup-Qualifying Liguilla. Get it, if you can… 6 teams played and perhaps this would have been a tournament for the 2nd Uruguayan spot. Reason suggests the teams finishing from 2nd to 7th place in the national championship. To hell with reason! More likely the title meant nothing, for Central Espanol was part of this qualifying tournament. That means the top 6 teams in the final standing? Wrong! The top 5 were there, but the 6th team was Defensor Sporting, which was 9th in the final table. They finished last here, but why they had a place at all? Anyway, there was no winner after all games were played. Central Espanol was not even in the running, finishing 4th. Penarol and Bella Vista were on top with 8 points each and equal goal-difference. For the sake of final table, Penarol was 1st for scoring more goals – that is, one goal more than Bella Vista. But the ‘champion’ was to be decided by play-off between these two – it decided nothing, ending 2-2, and only penalty-shoot gave the victory to Penarol: 5-3. Bad luck for Bella Vista so far… but they had one more chance: there was another play-off for the 2nd Uruguayan spot in Copa Libertadores – in it Bella Vista was opposed to Central Espanol, as ‘champion of Uruguay’. Now luck was on Bella Vista’s side – they prevailed 1-0. Wonderful for them, but what was the championship title worth then? Next to nothing, as far as international football was concerned.
For international purposes, the champion of Uruguay was still ever-present Penarol. Well, at least it was a club able to win Copa Libertadores…