Albania. Ranked 24th. Political changes started a bit later in Albania than in most of Eastern Europe and for that the football season was more or less as it was before. But it had peculiar formula in the top league: first, there was a limit on yellow/red cards and those who got more than the limit had points deducted in the next season – thus, KS Beselidhja (Lezhe) started this season with -3 points, KS Partizani (Tirana) with -2, and KS Apolonia (Fier) with -1 point. Second, 1 bonus point was awarded for win by 3 or more goals and, correspondingly, 1 point was deducted for loss by 3 or more goals. That made for complicated and confusing table and on top of that there were clubs punished with various deductions of points for undisclosed offenses – in typical Communist manner, to show ‘true vigilance’ the smaller the club, the bigger the punishment. No top league teams were punished (hence, no corruption and other offenses existed there), but plenty of crimes in the Second Division: KS Erzeni (Shijak) had 6 points deducted (and because of that they finished 2nd in Group A), KS Industrial (Lac) – 8 points deducted in the same group, KS Perparimi (Kukes) – 1 point deducted, KS Butrini (Sarande) – 1 point deducted, and finally KS 22 Tetori (Polican) resigned after 12 games in Group C – their 12th match was awarded 0-2 to KS 10 Korriku (Gramsh), but the rest of the games were just voided, yet, KS 22 Tetori was allowed to stand in the final table with just 12 games on record. Of course, they took the last place, but it was weird to give points to one opponent and not to the rest. Lastly, the top league was going to be 14 teams next season, so only one team was relegated from it and the three group winners in the Second Division were promoted – although they played a mini-tournament after the regular season ended to decide the Second Division champion: it happen to be KS Traktori (Lushnje. That was all in nutshell.
Second Division: whatever happened there, KS Kastrioti (Kruje) won Group A with 32 points and was promoted to First Division. Apparently, KS Erzeni and KS Industrial were determined to win their own battle for first place by whatever means, were caught in illegal activities, and the punishment of both by deduction of points benefited KS Kastrioti. KS Skenderbeu (Korce) won Group B without trouble and bother by anybody else with 33 points, and KS Traktori (Lushnje) won Group C dramatically on better goal-difference – they and rival KS Punetori (Patos) finished with 32 points, but Traktori finished with astonishing defensive record, just 7 goals in their net, and that made for much better goal-difference. Albanian clubs are obscure to begin with, but Traktori was hardly heard of outside Albania – yet, this was a club to note, for later, in the new political and economic reality, they suddenly soared to success. For the moment, though – just promoted to the top league and won the title of Second Division champion after coming first in the mini-tournament of the three group winners.
First Division. Four teams were entangled in the battle for escaping relegation and 2 teams were way stronger than the rest of league, fighting for the title between themselves.
KS Beselidhja (Lezhe) ended last with 23 points and was relegated. However, they started with -3 points the season and if not punished for exceeding the limit on red/yellow cards in the previous season, they would have stayed in top flight. Such fate…
KS Labinoti (Elbasan) ended 11th with 24 points and luckily avoided relegation. KS Lokomotiva (Durres) – 10th with 25 points. KS Tomori (Berat) – 9th with 26 points.
KS Besa (Kavaje) had no troubles: 8th with 30 points. Above them: KS Luftetari (Gjirokaster) – 7th with 30 points.
KS Apollonia (Fier) – 6th with 30 points.
KS Vllaznia (Shkoder) – 5th with 33 points, KS 17 Nentori (Tirana) – 4th with 36 points, and KS Flamurtari (Vlore) – 3rd with 39 points.
Above the bulk of the league two usual suspects fought for the title: Partizani and Dinamo. The rules prevented Partizani from winning it: they started with -2 points, punished for exceeding the red/yellow card limit in 1988-89. They also won 4 games by 3 or more goals, thus collecting 4 bomus points, but also lost 1 match by 3 or more goals and got 1 point deducted. Meantime, Dinamo started the season with clean sheet and won 3 games by 3 or more goals without losing any match by result deducting a point. The final calculation gave a lead by 1 point to Dinamo.
KS Partizani (Tirana) finished 2nd with 49 points.
KS Dinamo (Tirana) won the championship with 50 points: 19wins (3 by 3 or more goals), 9 ties, 5 losses, 45-22 scoring record. Quite a lucky victory, but at least their players deserved it, for Dinamo had the brightest Albanian stars at the moment: Strakosha, Demollari, and Vata.
And that was not all: Dinamo reached the Cup final as well, where they met Flamurtari (Vlore) and… dramatically or luckily prevailed again: the regular time ended 0-0, then both teams scored a goal each in the overtime. The penalty shoot-out favoured Dinamo.
Twice lucky, Dinamo, and getting a double. 15th title and 10th Cup – quite a collection. And 6th double. But the political system was already crumbling and changing by the end of the season… and the three stars of the club did not appear in the Cup final, played in early June 1990 – now Albanian players could go to play professional football in other countries and the trio did so. The glory years of Dinamo (Tirana) were coming to an end… without Communist rule, they were going to be a club as any other, no favours and power to them anymore.