Austria. Ranked 8th. Austrian football better than the English one? Laughable… but UEFA’s ranking wa based on international performance and Austrian clubs, unlike the English, played in the European club tournaments and got points, thus climbing ahead of England. At home – brand new champion. Which was not all that new… and yet it was. Apart from that mystery, the season was remarkable by the collection of famous veterans – Hansi Muller and Mario Kempes were already there for some time, but add Bruno Pezzey and Oleg Blokhin, and coach Ernst Happel for good measure. A Jurassic Park in a sense, full of monsters from the 1970s.
The established mixed formula remained – after the first phase the top 8 teams in the First Division went to the final phase, carrying their records. The last 4 in First Division plus the top 4 in the first phase of Second Division made the promotion/relegation group – the top 4 in it were to start in the First Division next season. The bottom 8 in the first phase of the Second Division moved to the relegation phase, carrying their records. The last 3 were relegated. The champions of the 3 groups of Third Division were promoted. They were LUV Graz, ASV Austria Vosendorf, and WSG Wattens.
Second Division – relegation final. SV Dornbirn finished last with 19 points and was relegated. Wolfsberger AC – 7th with 20 points and out. FC Salzburg – 6th with 24 points and relegated.
SV Stockerau survived – 5th with 25 points.
Donawitzer SV Alpine – 4th with 28 points.Crouching from left: Prof. Schweinegger (Co-Trainer), Sabitzer, Guggi, Seitner, Hobelleitner, Peintinger, Schimpl, Trippolt (Zeugwart).
Middle row: Hartmann, Karlsberger, Blümel, Gruber, Kovacevic, Weilguny, Wagner, Jahnel (Masseur).
Top row: Rauch (Sekretär), Miklavic (Trainer), Vujkov, Krenn, Edelmeier, Oliweira, Stankovic, Ing. Hirschmann (Obmann).
VfB Modling – 3rd with 28 points.
SV Spittal/Drau – 2nd with 29 points.
SK VOEST Linz – 1st with 30 points.
The top 5 kept their places in the Second Division for the next season.
The final phase of the championship was in the already mentioned 2 groups – one playing for the title and the other – playing for promotion/relegation. Where teams came from will be given in brackets.
Promotion/relegation phase – the last 4 in the first phase of First Division and top 4 in the first phase of Second Division played twice against each other in 14 rounds.
SC Kufstein (from Second Division) finished last with 3 points and remained in Second Division.
SV Flavia Solva Wagna (from Second Division) ended 7th with 9 points and remained in Second Division.
SK Austria Klagenfurt (10th in the first phase of First Division) was 6th with 13 points and relegated to Second Division. Gary Shaw, European champions with Aston Villa, now 28-years old, arrived from Danish KB Kopenhagen in December 1988 and left promptly after the end of the season. There were 4 more Yugoslav imports in the team, but nothing helped.
LASK Linz (12th in the first phase of First Division) finished 5th with 14 points and was relegated to Second Division. Polish imports Gaida and Kensy and aging Bulgarian star Roussi Gotchev were unable to prevent the slump.
Kremser SC (from Second Division) clinched 4th place with 16 points and was promoted to First Division. The surprise Cup winners in the previous season managed to climb up.
SV Austria Salzburg (from Second Division) ended 3rd with 17 points and was promoted to top flight.
SK Vorwaerts Steyr (9th in the first phase of First Division) finished 2nd with 19 points and remained in First Division. Must have been unpleasant surprise for Oleg Blokhin, used to be on top, now to fight for survival and avoiding relegation… Then again, he was pushing 37 and it was even surprising that he was still playing. Arguably the greatest ever Soviet star was no longer coveted by big clubs – by now only a modest club like Vorwaerts was interested in him and he was glad to play for them. Such is luck… the Soviets permitted their players to go abroad too late for Blokhin, but at least he was able to kick a bit of ball professionally in the twilight of his career, just before retirement and avoided relegation to Second Division. He played a total of 18 games and scored 1 goal for his new team and departed to Cyprus. Along with him 6 other foreigners played, little known al, the oldest of which the Yugoslav defender Radan Lukic (32) and the Iranian midfielder Ali Facel (33).
SK Sturm Graz (11th in the first phase of First Division) won the tournament with 21 points and preserved First Division spot.
A Football Blog