Author: Vesselin

First Division. In purely football matters, not much to say – two outsiders and one dominant leader: CSKA. But it was truly transitional season in which the past was still strong and the new only taking roots with uncertainty. Thus, the season started in one reality and ended in another – 4 clubs started with one names and finished with different one. Getting rid of Communism was difficult even in football – names, for example, were restored, but what was behind such acts? Getting rid of Communist yoke… it was not so simple. Four clubs, four different cases. The easiest one was Botev (Vratza) – they were renamed to Vratza (Vratza) in mid-80s by Party decree: nominally, to change the names of clubs using historic figures, for it was offensive to chant mockery of national heroes. Since Botev was the original name of the club, it was a simple matter of restoring the original name once the Party lost its grip – there were no complications and conflicting interest. The Plovdiv case was a bit different: back in mid-60s the Party decided to make a super-club in the city and amalgamated Spartak and Botev under the name Trakia. The new concoction never stayed well with the fans, particularly the more numerous supporters of Botev, who rebeliously chanted ‘Botev’ and never ‘Trakia’. However, Spartak was re-created about the mid-80s and in 1990 there was no more conflict of interests between the original clubs – it was easy to change Trakia to the ‘original’ Botev, even if the origins of Trakia was a merger between Botev and Spartak. More difficult was to erase the taint both Trakia and Botev had: they were an Army club for many years and thus quite subordinated to CSKA – that was the core of the massive hatred between the fans of Botev and Levski (Sofia) with a pinch of irony in it: the national heroes Levski and Botev had been friends and worked together for the same cause – not so from the fan’s perspective: Botev was serving CSKA, they always played their hardest against Levski and were quite meek against CSKA, which also grabbed whoever they fancied from Botev without the slightest objection (one player decided to move in the other direction and join Levski – and he was immediately suspended by the Football Federation!) From Plovdiv’s perspective – Levski was the hateful Police. Anyhow, Botev not only had to restore its name, but also to get rid of the Army – luckily, at this time the Army was quite willing to let loose its secondary clubs. Levski (Sofia) was really complicated case: the Party named it Vitosha, but this was only the newest change of name – in 1985 not Levski, but Levski-Spartak was renamed to Vitosha. And Levski-Spartak itself came into existence by Party’s decision in the middle of the 1968-69 season – then clubs were merged and renamed. Levski was merged with Spartak (Sofia) and Sportist (Kremikovtzi) into Levski-Spartak. Sportist was not important and was restored eventually without fuss, but Spartak belonged to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and thus Levski suddenly became the club of the Police – this did not stay well not only with enemies, but with the fans. The new name was never accepted and fans chanted only ‘Levski’ to the irritation of large part of the political powers. Restoring the original name was not so simple – what about Spartak, then? Restoration of one club or two? Luckily, Spartak, largely by the fact they were the club of the Police, did not fans, so the problem was and is munched only by supporters of other clubs, mostly of CSKA. But belonging to the Police meant also money, influence and power and that the club was not so happy to give up, especially the financial part. True, nobody said it openly, but it took petition from Minyor (Pernik), supported by other smaller club, to separate Levski, CSKA, Slavia, and Lokomotiv Sofia from the institutions ‘owening’ them. To this very day the existence of Levski is objected by fans of other clubs – they consider the change in 1990 as usurpation of Spartak’s past. But at least the roots of Levski were old and not Communist and the club managed to keep the name as much as it depended on the club: Levski was forcefully amalgamated with few small clubs after 1944, but kept its name. In the early 1950s it was forcefully renamed Dynamo, but in 1956, when de-stalinization started, the original name was restored. Belonging to the Communist Police was not the fans wanted ever, it was forced. Now, with the complications, Levski was back again and free from the Police – just what the fans wanted. CSKA was the most complicated: they lost their name in 1985 along with Levski and other clubs by decision of the Communist Party and were named Sredetz. Which was changed to CFCA Sredetz soon after (contrary to the initial Party decree the club to be separated from the Army – and Levski from the Police – the same Party restored the ties of the both clubs without saying so officially). Of course, the fans did not accept this name and chanted ‘CSKA’, so now the original name was restored. The original name of the original club? In 1985 CSKA ‘Septemvriisko zname’ was renamed Sredetz. This long name came in the middle of 1968-6 season, when, just ‘to make look right’ in the opinion of many, the Party merged CSKA ‘Cherveno zname’ with Septemvri (Sofia) – this merger was most suspicious because unlike the other clubs forcefully merged, CSKA ended with its strong team when everybody else faced chaos of too many players difficult to match and often even in conflict with each other. Septemvri was playing in the Second Division at the time and had no great players, so CSKA continued with the same well-oiled squad – all others had to start with building practically new teams. But it was not the first merger of CSKA – at about 1960 they merged with Cherveno zname (Sofia), thus becoming CSKA ‘Cherveno zname’. And it was the first time the abbreviation CSKA came into life: before this merger, it was CDNA. Means ‘Central Home of the People’s Army’ – and changed to ‘Central Club of the People’s Army’ – CSKA. As for ‘Cerveno zname’, it translates to ‘Red Banner’, changed after the merger with ‘Septemvi’ into ‘September’s Banner’, referring to the September Revolt, 1923, a major thing in the Communist history, so there were – and are – many clubs named ‘Septemvri’ in honour of this this revolt in Bulgaria. All of them came into life after 1944 when the Communist took power and with time the people got used to such names as natural. So, Septemvri (Sofia) exists without trouble today, but they were merged with CSKA not once, but twice: the first time was soon after the Army club was founded in 1948 under the name ‘Septemvri pri CDNV’ – ‘September at the Central Home of the People’s Army’. The motivation was to make the newly created Communist club strong – Septemvri had strong team, so ‘the merger’… Anyhow, the original club was entirely created by the Communist power with the purpose to be the leading club of the regime, therefore, in Soviet manner, it was an Army club. And it was the flagship of Bulgarian football during the Communist rule – and because it was made the strongest, it became popular. By 1990 its fanship was hardly Communist, but origins were strong… The club did not restore its ‘original’ name – very likely most younger fans do not even know the original name – but restored the most popular name they chanted: ‘CSKA’. As if getting rid of ‘September Banner’ or ‘Red Banner’ would be enough to eradicate the Communist past… it was still Central Club of the People’s Army’, although the very Army changed its name from ‘People’s Army’ to ‘Bulgarian Army’ and the club changed the name of its stadium also from ‘People’s Army’ to ‘Bulgarian Army’. There were some efforts to find a non-Communist name for the club, but the fans did not want that. There were efforts to change the club’s emblem, which is pure Communist symbolism and design, but the fans also rejected that. And down in their hearts they wanted to stay attached to the Army – for what could be ‘Central Army Club’ otherwise? Power and money were so deeply embedded in folklore of CSKA that it is only ‘natural’ for them to be the strongest, the best, with most power and attached to the state, so to stay strong, powerful and rich. The contradiction reaches fantastic level: anti-Communist fans want their club, a Communist creation, to be just as it was when the Communist Party ruled and showered its club with every privilege. Hence, new mythology of ‘resistance’ during Communist rule was weaved, but it is laughable one and not interesting here. The main point is that to restore its ‘original’ name and philosophy CSKA had to concoct entirely new name and mythology – for the original was Communist in every aspect and the reality was no longer Communist. So after changing its name so many times and from start, finally in 1990 CSKA came to its ‘original’ name… but no more Ministry of Defense to provide money, players at will, no more sub-ordinated Army clubs to provide easy wins and take points from rivals. CSKA survived the political change on popularity. Getting rid of the Communist baggage was – and is – impossible: it was already in the mentality, so for CSKA’a fans losing a championship even now is ‘a conspiracy against them’ at play. Enormous conspiracy – Levski, the Federation, the state, the political parties, the referees – foreign and domestic, the West, UEFA, FIFA, everybody everywhere conspires against them. In 1989-90 CSKA dominated the championship, so no complains – at least no major ones. Only this” vicious UEFA abolished the Golden Shoe award – or kind of abolished it: clearly, a move not against manipulated scoring, but only to deny the honour to Christo Stoichkov.
And so it goes.
Last was Botev (Vratza) – which started as Vratza (Vratza) – with 15 points. Very weak season for whatever reason. Relegated.
Cherno more (Varna) – 15th with 16 points and relegated. Top row from left: Todor Velikov – coach, Tinko Vazharov, Venelin Nikolov, Emil Boyadzhiev, Kharalambi Kharalambiev, Ognyan Radev, Georgi Stoychev, Rouslan Mikhaylov, Valeri Karov, Kevork Takhmisyan – assistant coach. Sitting in the middle: Nayden Naydenov, Plamen Deliyski, Aleksandar Aleksandrov, Yuliyan Neychev, Evgeni Andonov, Vassil Petrov. Front: Illian Illiev, Kalin Topuzakov, Ivan Petrov, Christo Kotev, Petar Petrov.
Hebar (Pazardzhik) – 14th with 25 points and relegated. The debutantes tried hard to survive, but lost the battle and went back to second level right away. Sitting from left: Krum Kantarev, Dimitar Metodiev, Ivan Chorlev, Spas Kuzov, Ivan Tankov, Rayko Dimitrov. Middle row: Dimitar Milev – coach, Dimitar Penchev – masseur, Vassil Ivanov, Petar Kovachev, Georgi Gadzhev, Sayran Osipov (USSR), Dr. Stefan Dabev – doctor, Dimitar Sharankov – assistant coach. Top row: Christo Toshev, Kiril Vassilev, Stoil Petrov, Kalin Pekhlivanski, Kalin Ivanov, Lazar Dimitrov, Vassil Yordanov.
Tough luck, but Hebar made history anyway: they were the first club to include a foreign player – Sayran Osipov. Histoically, Osipov was not the first foreigner in Bulgarian football, but in the past – very deep past by now, ending in the 1950s – the foreigners did not come to Bulgaria to play football, but to work, study, or settle. And the game was not professional back then. Osipov was the first imported professional player and Hebar was the first club to look outside Bulgaria for reinforcement, taking advantage from the existing since the summer of 1989 permission to use 2 foreign players. Osipov did not play much – only 9 games – and left the club and Bulgaria after the end of the season, joining Armenian Ararat (Erevan).
Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) barely survived – 13th with 27 points. Top row from left: Dimitar Kalkanov, Stoyan Lulchev, Borislav Ivanov, Mikhail Yumerski, Atanas Stamatov, Lazar Trapchev, Christo Trifonov, Radi Raykovski, Stefan Draganov. Middle row: Mikhail Georgiev – coach, Dr. Ivan Belev – doctor, Bozhidar Bonev, Valentin Minchev, Kostadin Vidolov, Yulian Dzhevizov, Yavor Kossev, Angel Chavdarov, Georgi Dimitrov, Lyuben Zhilkov, Yanko Kushev, Dantor Damyanov – masseur, Chavdar Muratev – assistant coach. Sitting: Georgi Tashev, Kiril Andonov, Miroslav Titev, Plamen Krastev, Zhivko Galibardov, Ivan Bedelev, Valentin Valchev, Georgi Karushev.
Dunav (Rousse) – 12th with 27 points. Standing from left: Roumen Venkov, Dimitar Totev, Dragomir Enchev, Petar Voynov, Nikolay Boyanov, Petar Karadaliev, Borislav Bogomilov. Front: Eshref Suleymanov, Sasho Todorov, ?, Plamen Petkov.
Chernomoretz (Bourgas) – 11th with 29 points. Top row from left: Lyubomir Borissov – assistant coach, Valentin Deliminkov, Georgi Stanchev – chairman of the club, Lyubomir Sheytanov, Toma Tomov – vice-chairman of the club, Vladimir Stoyanov, Vassil Zhelev – coach. Middle row: Christo Gotzkov, Dimitar Stoychev, Nikolay Russev, Konstantin Kostenski, Ivaylo Kotzev, Aleksi Zhelyazkov, Todor Raykov. Front: Miroslav Kralev, Zhelyazko Markov, Ivan Yovchev, Valentin Peev, Ivan Aleksandrov, Georgi Illiev.
Beroe (Stara Zagora) – 10th with 29 points.
Sliven (Sliven) – 9th with 29 points.
Lokomotiv (Gorna Oryakhovitza) – 8th with 29 points.
Botev (Plovdiv) – which started the season as Trakia (Plovdiv) – 7th with 33 points.
Pirin (Blagoevgrad) – 6th with 34 points.
Lokomotiv (Sofia) – 5th with 35 points. Sitting from left: Aleksandar Bonchev, Aleksandar Dudov, Plamen Nikolov, Gosho Petkov, Antoni Zdravkov, Boris Manolkov, Georgi Christov, Pavel Dochev. Middle row: Ventzislav Arsov – coach, Georgi Bozhurov, Kiril Metkov, Anton Velkov, Nikolay Todorov, Krassimir Nakov, Petar Kurdov, Traycho Sokolov – assistant coach. Top row: Dr. Noncho Borimechkov – doctor, Nako Doychev, Ognyan Milanov, Dimitar Vassev, Roumen Ralinski, Assen Arsov, Mladen Lazarov, Gavrilov – masseur.
Levski (Sofia) – started the season as Vitosha (Sofia) – 4th with 35 points. This is the squad starting the season and it went through some changes along with the change of name: different coach finished the championship and Bozhidar Iskrenov went to play abroad. Sitting from left: Dr. Georgi Illiev – doctor, Vladko Shalamanov, Stoil Georgiev, Krassimir Koev, Dinko Gospodinov, Illiya Gruev, Kiril Vangelov, Lyudmil Atanassov – masseur. Middle row: Dobromir Zhechev – coach, Rossen Krumov, Petar Mikhtarski, Georgi Yordanov, Bozhidar Iskrenov, Velko Yotov, Georgi Tzvetkov – assistant coach. Top row: Georgi Donkov, Zdravko Zdravkov, Preslav Getov, Georgi Slavchev, Petar Khoubchev, Dimitar Popov, Bogomil Savov.
Etar (Veliko Tirnovo) – finished with 35 points, but clinched bronze medals thanks to 1-goal better goal-difference than Levski. This was the best ever season of Etar so far, thanks to the excellent work of their coach (and former player) Georgi Vassilev. He was already among the best coaches of Bulgaria, eventually becoming the best one of the 1990s. There was a scandal as well – Krassimir Balakov (along with 3 other players) violated the transfer rules, applying to join 2 different clubs at the same time. At the end, he remained with Etar. Lastly, Etar was the second club to hire foreign player – like Hebar, they got a Soviet player, Igor Kislov. Sitting from left: Stefan Denev – doctor, Miroslav Baychev, Gencho Genchev, Boncho Genchev, Illiyan Kiryakov, Krassimir Balakov, Tzanko Tzvetanov, Petar Shabarkov – masseur. Middle row: Georgi Vassilev – coach, Angel Chervenkov, Tzvetomir Parvanov, Georgi Popivanov, Igor Kislov (USSR), Dimitar Bozhilov, Aleksandar Aleksandrov, Stoyan Petrov – assistant coach. To row: Aleksandar Dimov, Dragomir Doshkov, Kaloyan Chakarov, Sasho Christov, Andrian Gaydarski, Nikolay Donev, Petar Georgiev, Ivo Balakov.
Slavia (Sofia) – 2nd with 36 points. Perhaps the club with the biggest hopes that the political change will restore the glory of their pre-1944 history. Free from the Army at last and one of clubs which appeared better oriented what and how to do in ‘free market’ reality – they got quickly sponsorship, which was changed for something looking grand (on paper) – a sponsorship contract with the publishing international giant Maxwell. Having not only leading coach, but a master of backroom manipulations as well, also promised bright future – but Ivan Vutzov was not going to stay, for he was appointed again coach of the national team. And the players he recruited were looking to play abroad – pretty much as everybody not just in Bulgaria, but in the whole former Communist Europe. Reality quickly clashed with hopes, so the solid looking squad was just temporary. Sitting from left: Velislav Vutzov, Krassimir Denev, Anatoly Nankov, Illiya Karadaliev, Miroslav Mironov, Sasho Nachev, Ognyan Radev. Middle row: Assen Milushev – assistant coach, Nikolay Kostov, Aleksandar Markov, Ivelin Penev, Ivan Vutzov – coach, Plamen Simeonov, Illiya Dyakov, Evgeni Marinov, Petar Miladinov – assistant coach. Top row: Tzvetan Zdravkov, Valentin Ignatov, Blagoy Aleksandrov, Georgi Karamanov, Georgi Dimitrov, Zarko Machev, Antonio Ananiev.
Things changed very quickly in the transitional season, thus projecting what will be the norm in the future: rapid changes in one season of coaches, players, sponsors… Above is Slavia in the first half of the season and this is the one at the end of the season: Ivan Vutzov gone, long time captain of the national team and CSKA legend Georgi Dimitrov gone, national team goalkeeper Antonio Ananiev gone, other players gone, original sponsor replaced by Maxwell, even different kit (perhaps to the irritation of the fans, for Slavia traditionally plays entirely in white and the black shorts appear to mirror the dark and hated days of the forced merger with Lokomotiv Sofia at the end of the 1960s) . A sample not just of Slavia, but of the new reality of all clubs. Crouching from left: Nikolay Kostov, Illiya Dyakov, Krassimir Denev, Slavcho Pavlov, Emil Kremenliev, Aleksandar Dimov, Aleksandar Markov. Middle row: Petar Miladinov – coach, Velislav Vutzov, Ivelin Penev, Blagoy Aleksandrov, Roumen Nenov, Plamen Petkov, Tzvetan Zdravkov, Ivaylo Venkov, Sasho Hachev, Evgeni Marinov, Stoyan Kotzev – assistant coach. Top row: Antonio Nanov, Rossen Krumov, Kiril Kachamanov, Zarko Machev, Valentin Ignatov, Deyan Angelov, Nasko Kirov, Ivko Ganchev.
CSKA (Sofia) totally dominated the season and won it with 45 points. 18 wins, 9 ties, 3 losses, 85-30 scoring record. Christo Stoichkov scored 38 goals – almost half of CSKA’s total – becoming (jointly with Hugo Sanchez, Real Madrid) the number one scorer of Europe and beating the Bulgarian record, jointly belonging to Petar Zhekov and Nasko Sirakov, by 2 goals.
Well, CSKA won its 26th title and the two identical photos of the squad only illustrate the changes happening this season: on the first picture the club is still CFCA Sredetz – conveniently ‘Sredetz’ is omitted – and the second is a photo of CSKA, the ‘restored name’ which never properly existed and also becoming immediately an anomaly, for the ‘Central Sport Club of the Army’ was no longer attached to the Army on one hand and technically no longer all-sports club (as the name suggests), but only professional football club. And since this photo is from early stage of the season, there is no sponsor’s add on the shirts. The squad is also early version – Kiril Kachamanov, for instance, could be seen in the second photo of Slavia above. Yet, at last CSKA could be seen as a normal professional club and not as a monster taking whoever they want whenever they want: yes, CSKA boasted home-made team, but it was just a very brief moment right after the Communist Party renamed them and separated them from the Army in 1985 – losing power, they were, however briefly, unable not only to get stars from other clubs, but the players at hand moved away. At that moment juniors were introduced as a last resort, but a year later everything was back to ‘normal’ and quickly top players from other clubs were recruited. The political changes during the 1989-90 season, however, changed the whole image of that: now it was just standard way of running professional football: players are bought and sold, depending on needs and money. CSKA had plenty of talent to sell abroad, which, in turn, gave them the financial muscle to buy good players to replace those sold and keep strong team. So the squad, full of national team players ready to go abroad: sitting from left: Marin Bakalov, Kostadin Yanchev, Petar Vitanov, Christo Stoichkov, Emil Kostadinov, Lyuboslav Penev – team captain (not Stoichkov!), Trifon Ivanov, Slavcho Illiev. Middle row: Marius Urukov, Emil Dimitrov, Georgi Georgiev, Dimitar Penev – coach, Doncho Donev, Ivaylo Kirov, Adalbert Zafirov. Top row: Stoil Trankov – assistant coach, Biser Godinyachki, Roumen Apostolov, Stefan Bachev, Illiya Valov, Kiril Kachamanov, Petar Zhekov – assistant coach. Just against the mythology of ‘home grown team’ here are the regulars who were recruited from elsewhere after the mythical creation of ‘home-grown team’: Bakalov, Mladenov, Georgiev (from Trakia-Botev Plovdiv), Trifon Ivanov and Emil Dimitrov (from Etar), Donev (from Dimitrovgrad), Valov (from Vratza-Botev Vratza), Urukov (from Spartak Pleven). Stoichkov, Yanchev, Kirov are also from elsewhere, although they came earlier. So… home-grown of the regulars are only Emil Kostadinov and Lyuboslav Penev. But that was already history – from now on it was to be normal professional transfers. Which were not so normal yet, for the transitional period was one of uncertainty and professional norms were not yet clearly understood, as the case of Krassimir Balakov showed: he applied for transfer to two clubs simultaneously, one of them CSKA, which is the club of his heart, apparently. This violated the transfer rules of the Federation at the moment and he remained in Etar, from where he transferred to the West and never played for club he claims to be a fan of. Fan or not, in the transitional time professional desires of better contract clashed with ‘the heart’ and money became the prime factor – but at least this was understandable motivation in professional sport.

Second Division. 20 teams, 2 points for a win. The newcomers this season were Spartak (Pleven) and Minyor (Pernik), relegated from First Division, and Septemvriiska slava (Mikhailovgrad), Rozova dolina (Kazanlak), Svetkavitza (Targovishte), and Velbazhd (Kyustendil) from Third Division. No debutantes – all newcomers had long Second Division history. The case of Tundzha (Yambol) remains unclear – fans protest restored them to the league, yet, it is unclear why and when they were out of it: Tundzha finished 12th in the previous season, that is, outside the relegation zone. This season 6 teams were going to be relegated – looked like the league was going to be reduced, but 5 teams were going to be promoted from Third Division, so the whole idea is a mystery – the important thing is 6 teams relegated and the top 3 promoted to First Division. The wisdom of the 3-team exchange between First and Second Division is questionable, but rules are rules. As it happened, 4 teams at the bottom were either too weak or just gave up the fight at one point, so the real battle was trying to escape 2 relegation spots – the other 4 were already occupied by the outsiders. 5 teams fought for to positions, which seems interesting from a time distance, but in reality spoke more of current weaknesses than strength even among the leaders.
Shumen (Shumen) finished last with 18 points and was relegated.
Tundzha (Yambol) – whatever their case provoking fans into demonstrations demanding admittance of the club in the league, games are won on pitch, not on the streets: Tundzha finished 19th with 23 points and was relegated.
Lokomotiv (Stara Zagora) – 18th with 28 points and relegated.
Vihren (Sandanski) – 17th with 28 points and relegated.
Marek (Dupnitza) – 16th with 34 points and relegated. Well, the team never recovered after its great team from the 1979s aged and one by one retired (although there were still 2 or 3 remaining members of the great squad, very old by now). Marek played under the name Rila in the previous season and now restored its popular original name Marek. Not everybody was doing that, though – neither Shumen, nor Tundzha, nor some other clubs attempted name changes presently. As a general note, a transitional season presented even by the mixture of names: some get rid of Communist names, others did not, some restored old popular names, others were looking for new ones to replace Communist ones.
Ludogoretz (Razgrad) – 15th with 36 points and relegated.
Cherveno zname (Pavlikeni) 14th with 38 points. Here is one example for keeping the Communist name of the club – at least for the moment. ‘Cherveno zname’ translates as ‘Red banner’.
Dobrudzha (Tolbukhin) – 13th with 38 points. Perhaps the last season with this name – not of the club, which is politically neutral, but of the city – soon it will restore its original name of Dobrich, but currently still named after the Soviet Second World Marshal Tolbukhin. Top row from left: Ivan Atanassov, Sergey Dimitrov, Atanas Stefanov, Dobrin Dobrev, ?, Tony Zlatkov, Svetozar Dzhilyanov. Middle row: Patzi Kirov – coach, Sasho Trifonov, Georgi Ivanov, Svetoslav Filev, Mladen Stoyanov, Roumen Slavov, Ivan Georgiev, Ivan Manolov – assistant coach. Sitting: Roumen Boev, Valentin Peychev, Doncho Spassov – masseur, Nikola Konanov, Ivan Durev.
Spartak (Pleven) – 12th with 38 points. Freshly relegated from First Division, but despite having a number of good players – the long time national team staple Nikolay Arabov, for instance – and coached by arguably the best Bulgarian coach in the late 70s and the 80s Vassil Metodiev, Spartak was weak. Sitting from left: Angel Marinov, Yury Vassev, Milko Gavrilov, Georgi Tzvetanov, Stefan Kutov, Krassimir Bislimov, Blagovest Petkov. Middle row: Blagoy Krastanov – assistant coach, Dimitar Todorov, Krassimir Traykov, Evgeni Ignatov, Vassil Metodiev – coach, Boyko Tzvetkov, Nikolay Popov, Roumen Monev, Vladimir Popov – assistant coach. Top row: Milen Nikolov, Iliyan Tzankov, Vassil Dyakov, Vesselin Gerov, Krassimir Dossev, Tikhomir Tikhomirov, Svetlin Gatinski, Nikolay Arabov, Boyko Bozhinov.
Velbazhd (Kyustendil) – 11th with 39 points.
Rozova dolina (Kazanlak) – 10th with 39 points.
Akademik (Svishtov) – 9th with 39 points.
Spetemvriiska slava (Mikhailovgrad) – 8th with 39 points. Soon both the city and its club will be renamed to Montana (Montana). It was difficult and conflicting change: the name of the city was Ferdinand, named after the Bulgarian King, who was forced to abdicate at the end of First World War, and after 1944, when the Communist took power, they named the city after one of their own ‘heroes’ – thus, in 1990 both current and old name of the city faced massive objections and the new name was chosen from deep historic past.
Osam (Lovech) – 7th with 39 points. No problem with the club name as such, but the new reality made itself known in another way: the club soon after this season was acquired by business enterprise, which named the club after itself. It was short lived and the club went into different ownership and another name change, but that happened a few years later.
Svetkavitza (Targovishte) – 6th with 39 points.
The top 5 teams were quite above the rest in strength and fought between themselves for the 3 promotions.
Bdin (Vidin) – 5th with 45 points. Very good season, but the squad was somewhat weaker than the other strong teams – perhaps overachieving, thanks to the coaching of Stefan Grozdanov, who became one of the leading Bulgarian coaches in the 1990s. 4th in the middle row is a player just starting his career, but making big impression right away: Daniel Borimirov. Like the coach, he was not going to stay with Bdin.
Spartak (Varna) – 4th with 48 points. Aimed at promotion, but missed.
Haskovo (Haskovo) – clinched 3rd place with 50 points. It was last minute success – away victory against Rozova dolina (Kazanlak) in the last round. Thus, Haskovo was promoted for third time to the top division – did not last in both earlier attempts, so the hope was not just to play again among the best, but to settle there. Sitting from left: Stefan Metodiev, Vesselin Vassilev, Dimcho Markov, Georgi Kumanov, Marian Metlarov, Lyubomir Burnarski, Lyubomir Illiev, Stamen Belchev. Middle row: Christo Christov, Racho Kilapov, Rostislav Grozdanov, Yordan Petkov, Todor Dafchev – coach, Krassimir Illiev, Georgi Stoychev, Stanimir Stoilov, Kostadin Latinov – assistant coach. Third row: Dr. Valentin Marinov – doctor, Todor Yanev, Miroslav Zlatanski, Georgi Petrov, Dimitar Dimitrov – technical organizer, Nayden Spassov, Vlado Delchev, Zapryan Paskov – masseur.
Haskovo depended on mix of local players and experienced names from elsewhere, notably players connected with Levski (Sofia) – that was the formula used before and it did not work quite well, but on its resources Haskovo was unable to build strong enough team – in part, its geographic location was the handicap: too close to Plovdiv, but Plovdiv was surrounded by towns ever closer: thus, local talent was lured to move to Plovdiv, but players from Plovdiv were likelier to chose another team, where they could play for it without even moving out of town, just commuting. So, here were Burnarski and Kilapov, largely known as Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) players, and the group associated with Levski (Sofia) one way or another: Delchev, Markov, Grozdanov, and Stoilov (in his case Levski was in the future). Stoilov was the only promising player of the group – the others were experienced, but with limited potential, which they already reached. Vlado Delchev, in particular, was criticized for lacking ambition: he was part of Levski for almost a decade and when he played he immediately reached the national team, but he rarely played, satisfied to sit on the reserves bench. Haskovo was hoping to stay in the top division, but with such squad it was unlikely.
Minyor (Pernik) – 2nd with 50 points. Just relegated from First Division, they managed to return to it immediately. Crouching from left: Stoyan Petrov, Andrey Asparoukhov, Roumen Andonov – captain, Valeri Stoyanov, Valentin Lazarov, Lyuben Zhelev, Volodya Stavrev. Middle row: Evlogi Banchev – coach, Valentin Zakhariev, Alyosha Andonov, Petar Petrov, Simeon Kostadinov, Grigor Grigorov, Mikhail Assenov, Raycho Raychev, Valeri Illiev – assistant coach. Top: Christo Trifonov – masseur, Ivaylo Yonchev, Vercho Mitov, Simeon Borissov, Slavcho Pavlov, Emil Boyanov, Ivaylo Venkov, Dr. Tzetzko Ignatov – doctor.
Minyor came back right away, but the club meandered between First and Second Division for years and there was little to suggest different this time: relatively strong team for second level, exeperienced enough and having a few well known, but aging players. Because of the close proximity to Sofia, there were always players from the capital no needed by the big clubs – they provided some class, but they were also looking to go back to their home town as quickly as possible and it was practically impossible to look for long term commitments from them. Meantime, the best local talent was most certainly going to join a big Sofia club – the veterans Borissov and Grigorov were point in case: they played for the national team, but as players of CSKA and Levski. Now, at their last playing years, they came back home and eventually retire sooner than later. Such as the predicament of Minyor, so there was no way to build a long-lasting good team with Zakhariev, Andrey Asparoukhov – the son of the arguably the best ever Bulgarian player Georgi Asparoukhov, Pavlov, Zhelev. And on top of the traditional problems, the new reality introduced a new huge one: money. Minyor found itself suddenly impoverished: the mining industrial complex in the city get rid of the club, the city administration did not provide a helping hand, especially since the club did not want to contract the stadium, belonging to the city. Give-aways were gone, the new reality demanded business sponsors and there were none. Going up to the top league was looking dark: unless sponsorship was attracted by a club playing in the highest tier – the only, although passive, hope for the club – mere survival was in the books. Not survival in the top league, but physical survival of the club. Some future…
Yantra (Gabrovo) won the championship with 52 points. 22 wins, 8 ties, 8 losses, 68-35 scoring record. Hard victory, largely due to the good work of experienced coach Dimitar Aleksiev. Like Haskovo, Yantra earned promotion for a third time, but their achievements were in the first half of the 1970s – after 1975 the club sunk into sedated life in the Second Division. Back then, during their best years, they not only used different name – Chardafon-Orlovetz – but were also involved into financial scandals (largely paying their players under the table – many clubs did that, for the official ‘amateurism’ of sport provided no legal way to pay effectively professional players. Yantra as a small provincial club was a prime example of Communist ‘vigilant justice’ – punish them to show that the system is ‘just’ and never touch the big and influential. Presently, Yantra got ambitious again, but their squad was nothing special, following the old formula of Second Division clubs for stability: get a cluster of experienced relatively well known names – enough to stay in the second tier and with some luck may be climbing up. Yantra had 7 players with top league experience, the best known of them Yordan Murlev (Pirin Blagoevgrad, CSKA, Levski) and also 7 players with vast Second Division experience. In this, the champions were similar to the other two promoted teams: they had rather weak team by top league standards and the the next season depended largely on what players they could get between seasons from elsewhere. Yet, Yantra was in somewhat better position than Haskovo and Minyor – they had no players attractive for bigger clubs and thus more likely to keep the best of the their winning team. As money… it was anybody’s guess what the future will give or take.
Well, that was it: Haskovo, Minyor, and Yantra were going to First Division for yet another try to stay there. Good luck.

Bulgaria. Ranked 22nd. The collapse of Communism affected football – in short, the season started in one political reality and finished in another. Transitional season of transitional period with more difficulties than anything else. New and old clashed on many levels, like everywhere else in Eastern Europe, and the general problems Bulgarian football faced were the problems of the whole Communist Europe. Here are listed the main problems popping up during the season – some old, but unmentionable before, some newly emerging with the new reality. Some clubs restored their old – or ‘original’ – names, thus starting the season with one name and finishing with another: Levski (Sofia), CSKA (Sofia), Botev (Plovdiv), Botev (Vratza), Marek (Dupnitza – in their case not just the club, but the whole city restored its original name: from Rila [Stanke Dimitrov] to Marek [Dupnitza]. There was certain irony in all that, for Stanke ‘Marek’ Dimitrov was a Communist ‘hero’ after whom both city and club were named – the ‘democratic’ change both changed and restored him.) Not every club restored old name – changes continued in the following years. In the case of CSKA, it was not even restoring original name, but restoring the name most popular with their fans. In the case of Levski, some doubt can be raised as well: when the Communist Party named the club ‘Vitosha’, the forced renaming replaced earlier amalgamated name of forced merger – Levski-Spartak. True, Spartak practically had no fans and no fan ever chanted ‘Levski-Spartak’, but only ‘Levski’, yet, the original clubs were 2 and now only one was restored (meek efforts to revive Spartak occurred at least twice later, both very short living). Minyor (Pernik) launched an initiative for cutting of the attachment of CSKA, Levski, Slavia, and Lokomotiv (all from Sofia) to powerful state institutions. Minyor was supported by some other clubs, mostly provincial, and the problem must be explained: practically all clubs belonged to some institution during the Communist rule – the very complainer, Minyor, belonged to the large mining complex (Mini Pernik) in their city. But all that was local – either city or industry. The big 4 from Sofia belonged to the top of the system, to the corresponding ministry – the Ministry of Defense (CSKA), the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Levski), another branch of the Army (Slavia), and the Ministry of Transportation (Lokomotiv). Their positions were powerful on national level, thus placing everybody else in disadvantage. Yes, all those institutions had other clubs as well, but on local and subordinated to the ‘center’ level. The provincials hated the all-powerful central clubs and with good reason, but the newly emerging reality added new element to the picture: locally, ‘sponsors’ were only glad to cut lose the clubs – and in many cases the clubs cut off ties with local institutions. In such cases money were perhaps more important factor than politics: industries and municipalities were only happy to get rid of financial burden. That left the clubs without money – and that applied also to clubs deciding to cut ties with institutions. But the big 4 were not cut off , for they belonged to the highest institutions and therefore, at least in eyes of the provincials, they kept the old hated power on national level, along with financing. The general cry was to make fully professional clubs, independent from the state in everything. Sounded good… even the big 4 supported the idea. The financial problem was addressed by some clubs by looking and finding sponsorship – shirt adds appeared as a result (CSKA, Slavia, Botev Vratza, Spartak Varna, somewhat curiously, the Third Division Lokomotiv (Dryanovo), and gradually other clubs). Meantime scandals finally came to the surface: the Bulgarian Football Federation ‘discovered’ falsified birth dates of players in the Junior National team – as a result, Bulgaria withdrew from the the finals of the European Junior championship and was replaced by Hungary. What was hinted on the streets for years was suddenly ‘discovered’… Scandals were nothing new, but now some things were said openly and no longer classified as ‘isolated local infringements’ – it took demonstrations in front of the Federation in Sofia and Yambol to restore Tundzha (Yambol) to Second Division: they were relegated in 1988-89, but apparently there was something dark in that. The fans protested and their demand was satisfied to a point – to a point, because Tundzha ended the 1989-90 season in the relegation zone again. At the end of the 1988-89 season Chepinetz (Velingrad) and Gorubso (Madan) were found guilty of fixing a match and were expelled to Forth level – thus, the South-Western group of Third Division became from the biggest in 1988-89 with 19 teams to the smallest in 1989-90 with 14 teams. And for good measure at the end of this season Metalurg (Pernik) was expelled, so the group remained reduced in the 1990-91 season as well. That was the situation for years – ‘local’ cases of corruption, as a rule, involving smallish clubs, immediately punished to show how prudent and vigilant the ‘system’ was – but now corruption was spoken of as wide-spread ellement of the Communist system – it was true and also accusations were tailored: ‘the whole system was corrupt, except us and that was why we suffered’. Some laments existed since the 1950s, repeated year after year: lack of professionalism, lack of money, low quality of players and games, diminishing attendance, nothing done to provide for ‘street’ football, outdated and not cared for facilities, mostly for the youth system, but increasingly the whole infrastructure. The only new thing was that until 1990 individual clubs and cities were blamed for that and now the state was blamed – and this lament continues to this very day: the state does not do anything for the sport. However, the state is blamed too when it finances the sport – for favouring some at the expense of others. What really football people want then and now is the state to finance sport lavishly, taking all expenses on itself, but not to interfere in how the money is spent and not to touch profits: ‘profits are ours, expenses and losses – yours’. Anyhow, that were most of the problems and changes during the season of transition, when practically noone knew how to do professional football. Lastly, the Federation permitted the import of players, starting this season – 2 foreigners were permitted per club, the decision was announced after the end of the 1988-89 season, but nobody acted upon it first – still, the first foreign player appeared in the middle of the season, followed by second shortly after. Curious or not, but none of the big clubs looked abroad, but the debutante in the First Division Hebar (Pazardzhik) – they hired little known Soviet striker Sayran Ossipov from second-division Dinamo (Stavropol). Ossipov played 7 games for Hebar and scored 1 goal and departed after this season for Ararat (Erevan). The first foreigners in Bulgaria were from USSR – just like the first foreign player in USSR was Bulgarian: after Ossipov, another Soviet – Igor Kislov – joined Etar (Veliko Tirnovo). That was all for the moment – other sports were quicker in importing players than football. Export, however, was growing – without age restrictions and without a state institution dealing with transfers, everybody wanted to play in the West – like elsewhere in Eastern Europe, the new freedom translated immediately into going West. The clubs needed money and were only happy to sell players – without knowing really how and thus hardly getting the real value of their stars. Now to the season…
Third Division. 4 groups as usual, nominally of 16 teams each. However, the South-Western group was of 14 teams after Chepinetz and Gorubso were expelled for fixing a match between themselves. This affected the next season as well – for some reason this very group had 2 teams promoted, unlike the other 3 groups, where only the winner was promoted. Hard to tell why was that, for that meant 5 teams altogether going up to Second Division, but 6 were relegated from the Second Division. Anyhow, in the Third Division many former Second Division teams played and usually they were the candidates for promotion. Nothing different this season, except one team. No big battle for top position either. 3 points were given for a win.
North-Eastern Group.
Lokomotiv (Rousse) finished 4th with 52 points. Former Second Division member, the second club in the city of Rousse was nothing special this season and perhaps nobody was envisioning the troubles in the future: the club struggles to this very day just to exist, sometimes disappearing for a while.
Chernolometz (Popovo) was 3rd with 60 points. They played top-level football once upon a time… Sportist (General Toshevo) – 2nd with 61 points. Also a club with second division past.
Dorostol (Silistra) won the championship and was promoted: they ended with 65 points, clearly outplaying all the others and climbed back to Second Division, where they played for may, many years. In 1984 Dorostol reached – and lost – the final of the Soviet Army Cup.
North-Western Group.
Lokomotiv (Dryanovo) – 3rd with 58 points. They played some Second Division football before, but more importantly they were one of the first clubs in the country getting sponsorship in professional terms.
Lokomotiv (Mezdra) – 2nd with 59 points. Also a club with Second Division experience, but unable to go up – looking at their season and history, it was hard even to imagine in 1989-90 that one day the club will be in First Division.
Chumerna (Elena) won the championship with 67 points and was promoted to Second Division – they played there before, so it was a return.
South-Eastern Group.
Neftokhimik (Bourgas) – 5th with 48 points. After years in Second Division, Neftokhimik sunk down to third level football and at the moment the second club of Bourgas looked like they will be entirely out of existence soon, for they – as the name suggests – belonged to city’s oil refinery and it was unlikely the enterprise will keep a football club in changing business reality. However, the future proved such expectations wrong. Top row from left: Kyuchukov, Mindov, Mikhov, Banev, Markov, Kostadinov. Middle row: Kiril Stankov – coach, Botev, T. Petkov, Shishkov, T. Tikhomirov, Dobrevski, Kiryakov, Hemi Levi – assistant coach. Sitting: Karpachev, Tzonev, B. Petkov, Kolev, Stoyanov.
Well, hard to believe that in a few years time this club will be among the leading Bulgarian clubs and some of these anonymous players will be very well known, even considered stars – Tzonev, for example. The future is unknown and predictions are very often wrong.
Arda (Kardzhali) ended 2nd with 55 points. Nothing even to hint that this club will play in European tournament one day… so far, their typical modest existence: after years of insignificant Second Division participation, they seemingly were settling for third level football.
Slanchev bryag (Nesebar) won the championship with 59 points and climbed back to Second Division, where they played for numerous years. Gain, nothing to suggest that this club will one day play First Division football – under different name, for to be named after beach resort – a bad idea in the first place – could not last for ever.
South-Western group. Reduced from 19 to only 14 teams for this season, this group also had 2 teams promoted. In a way, the problem was making the numbers for the next season – the current size of Third Division groups was 16 teams. With 2 teams promoted and unknown number of relegated from Second Division teams, the groups could be left with 12 teams after the end of the season – thus, the question of promotion from 4th level and relegation to it. Eventually, 2 teams were relegated from Second Division. The rest is… murky. Metalurg (Pernik) ended 13th with 23 points. In theory, they should have been relegated – if relegation took place. Officially, 2 teams were promoted from 4th level – Svoboda (Peshtera) amd Minyor (Bobov Dol). So… 12 plus 2 relegated from Second Divison, plus 2 promoted from 4th level – makes the required 16 without relegation of anyone. But 3 teams were relegated at the end of the season – Balkan (Botevgrad), last in the table, Metalurg – 13th, and Minyor (Brezhani) – 12th. Yet… Metalurg was seemingly keeping place in the group against records and logic. At least at first they were among the teams for the 1990-91 season – and then they were expelled or denied license and were out, leaving the group with 15 teams for 1990-91. However, it is a mystery how the numbers were made in the first place and on what criteria 3 teams were included. Well, 2 teams, for after all preliminaries the group was again with 14 teams in 1990-91 – but how Strumska slava (Radomir) and Chepinetz (Velingrad) appeared in it? But that’s in the future yet – currently,
Akademik (Sofia) finished 2nd with 52 points. Just relegated from Second Division, they fought to climb back and lost the championship by 1 point. If not for the strange decision to have 2 teams from this group promoted, Akademik would have remained here. But they went up happily.
Pirin (Razlog) clinched 1st place with 53 points. What a historic victory it was – the small club, which was not playing regularly even in Third Division, now went up. Their biggest success so far and also they were the only club not playing second level football before promoted this season.
And here were again the teams promoted to Second Division: Dorostol (Silistra), Chumerna (Elena), Slanchev bryag (Nesebar), Pirin (Razlog), and Akademik (Sofia).

The Cup final opposed GKS Katowice to Legia Warszawa. Legia was having a rather weak season and their opponents were a title contender. But… Legia won: a clean 2-0 victory.
What a bitter disappointment – having a chance to win a double, but ending with empty hands. Still, it was very strong season for GKS Katowice and, incidentally, they seem to be if not the very first, at least one of the first Polish clubs to employ a foreign player: Robert Mitwerandu.
May be a rather weak season in general, but Legia still managed to end with a trophy – it was their 9th Cup. Not bad at all. Standing from left: Zbigniew Robakiewicz, Kazimierz Orłowski (kierownik drużyny), Paweł Janas (asystent trenera), Lucjan Brychczy (trener), Mieczysław Pisz, Jerzy Somow (masażysta), Dariusz Czykier, Marek Jóźwiak, Arkadiusz Gmur, Jacek Cyzio, Stanisław Machowski (lekarz), Juliusz Kruszankin, Maciej Szczęsny. Crouching: Jarosław Wojciechowski, Mariusz Zapolski (ks.kapelan), Dariusz Kubicki, Leszek Pisz, Roman Kosecki, Zbigniew Kaczmarek, Andrzej Łatka, Jacek Bąk, Robert Kucharski.
If GKS Katowice showed one sign of new reality – imported players – Legia presented another sign: the club had a Catholic priest in the staff.

First Division. 16 teams, the last 2 relegated. One team – the last in the table – played 29 instead of 30 games for some reason.
It was Jagiellonia (Bialystok, which finished with 13 points and relegated.
Widzew (Lodz) – 15th with 17 points. Nothing was left from the strong and successful team in the first half of the 1980s and now the club was relegated to Second Division.
Zaglebie (Sosnowiec) – 14th with 20 points.
Motor (Lublin) – 13th with 21 points.
Ruch (Chorzow) – unusually weak season: 12th with 25 points.
Stal (Mielec) – 11th with 26 points.
Slask (Wroclaw) – 10th with 27 points.
Wisla (Krakow) – 9th with 31 points.
LKS (Lodz) – 8th with 34 points. Standing from left: Andrzej Woźniak, Dariusz Podolski, Zdzisław Leszczyński, Marek Chojnacki, Sławomir Różycki, Witold Wenclewski, Adam Grad. Front: Marek Ogrodowicz, Jacek Ziober, Krzysztof Stefański, Tomasz Cebula, Rafał Pawlak.
Legia (Warszawa) – 7th with 35 points.
Gornik (Zabrze) – 6th with 36 points.
Olimpia (Poznan) – 5th with 36 points.
Zawisza (Bydgoscz) – 4th with 37 points.
GKS (Katowice) – 3rd with 40 points. They were first at half-season, but unable to preserve their lead in the spring. Lost by little…
Zaglebie (Lubin) – 2nd with 40 points. Very strong season for the club, but managed only silver medals and that on more wins or more scored goals than Katowice, for both teams ended with +14 goal-difference.
Lech (Poznan) clinched the title with 42 points. Tough victory. 8 ‘normal’ wins, 5 wins with 3 or more goals, bringing extra points, 12 ties, 4 ‘normal’ losses and 1 loss by 3 or more goals, deducting a point. Curiously, they were the only team of the top 5 which had deducted point. Scoring record: 45-25. Best scorers this season, defensively they were 5th behind Zaglebie, Katowice, Legia, and Olimpia. Lech won its 3rd title.

Poland. Ranked 21st. A season clouded by political changes, leaving little memory. Complicated by the rules at the time, aiming to revive football, as in many other European countries: in the Polish case 1 point was given for a victory with 3 or more goals and 1 point was deducted for a loss by 3 or more goals. Brings some confusion in interpreting tables and points, so only final points will be given here. There was more confusion because one team in the top league did not finish with full games and one second division team withdrew in mid-season.
Second Division. 20 teams played in it, the top 2 were promoted and the last 4 relegated.
Stal Stocznia (Szczecin) ended last with 4 points. Freshly promoted, they withdrew 14 rounds before the end of the season and their opponents were awarded 3-0 victories against them in the 14 games Stal did no play – however, contrary to the rules in place, these awarded wins brought no extra points. Hence, further confusion in figuring out the records.
Baltyk (Gdynia) – 19th with 22 points and the second relegated team this season.
Moto Jelcz (Olawa) – 18th with 27 points. Relegated.
GKS 1962 (Jastrzebie) – 17th with 31 points. Relegated.
Resovia (Rzeszow) – 16th with 33 points.
Pogon (Stettin) – 15th with 34 points.
Miedz (Legnica) – 14th with 34 points.
Szombierki (Bytom) – 13th with 34 points.
Siarka (Tarnobrzeg) – 12th with 35 points.
Lechia (Gdansk) – 11th with 37 points.
Odra (Wodzislaw Slaski) – 10th with 39 points.
Stilon (Gorzow Wielkopolski) – 9th with 42 points.
Gornik (Walbrzych) – 8th with 43 points.
Stal (Rzeszow) – 7th with 44 points.
Gwardia (Warszawa) – 6th with 44 points.
Zaglebie (Walbrzych) – 5th with 46 points.
Polonia (Bytom) – 4th with 48 points.
Stal (Stalowa Wola) – 3rd with 51 points.
Igloopol (Debica) – 2nd with 55 points and promoted for the first time to First Division. Their greatest success so far. Top row from left: Drobot, Zieliński, Śliwa, Kotowicz, Garlej
Second row: Gierałka, Nalepka, Romaniuk, Stefanik, Strojek
Third row: Hadam, J.Zieliński, Mysiak, Tomczyk, Bajor
Forth row: Makuch, Szary, Siarkiewicz, Litke, Antolak, Zub
Sitting in front: Czapiński, Gajoch, Kucharski, Kłak, Cebula, Kaczówka, Tylak.
Hutnik (Krakow) won the Second Division championship with 57 points: their record seems to be 18 wins (4 bringing extra points), 17 ties, 3 losses (0 deducting points), 50-18 scoring record. Strong season for sure, ending with promotion. Hutnik played top league football quite often before, so unlike Igloopol, they were returning to top flight.

The Cup finals opposed Ilves Tampere to HJK Helsinki. Given the weakness of Ilves this year, it looked like HJK was going to get easily one more trophy and eventually end the season with a double. But it was not to be – Ilves won 2-1.
May be HJK depended too much on luck this year – and luck is not necessary consistent. At the Cup final luck favoured HJK’s opponents. Still, they had very good season – Cup finalists and champions.
Grand victory for Ilves Tampere – they had terrible season in the league and in general were not among the most successful Finnish clubs. Beating HJK at the final was wonderful victory of the underdog and what a memorable victory it was: Ilves won the Cup only once before. Now they got it a second time.

Finland. Ranked 20th. The championship formula Finland used amply provided for low-placed team to become a champion: the regular stage of the season was followed by final stage between the top 8 in the league, which was a lwo-leg Cup-format direct eliminations. Thus, the 8th in the first stage could become champion. Anyhow, one team was directly relegated from the top league – the last – and the 11th went to promotion/relegation play-off against the 2nd in Second Division. Finland still gave 2 points for a win and in the second phase of the season there were no tie, but such a match was decided by penalty shoot-out.
Second Division. 12 teams in it, the champion directly promoted, second-placed going to promotion/relegation play-off, and the last 3 teams – relegated. Since Finnish clubs were little known, the second-tier clubs were entirely out of sight outside the country.
TP-55 Seinajoki was a typical example of most Finnish clubs – they finished 5th this season.
Former top league clubs competed for promotion: Jaro Pietarsaari ended 2nd with 30 points and went to promotion/relegation play off against KPV Kokkola, 11th in the First Division.
Jaro practically decided the play-off in the first leg: they beat KPV 1-0 on their own stadium. At home it was 4-2 Jaro and they were promoted to First division – rather, returned to it.
PPT Pori won the Second Division championship with 32 points: 12 wins, 8 ties, 2 losses, 52-19 scoring record. Clearly the strongest team this season and rightly promoted. Like Jaro, they played top league football before.
First Division. The regular season meant little: the bottom placed teams faced relegation, 2 teams ended the season after the regular stage, and the top 8 continued, but the only advantage the best team in the regular stage had later was that they played against the 8th in the ¼ finals and the first leg was at their home turf.
No surprise the debutante Kumu Kuusankoski was the outsider of the season – they won only match and finished last with 9 points. Thus, relegated right after getting promoted.
KPV Kokkola dramatically finished 11th – they ended with 15 points, just like OTP Oulu, but had 1-goal worse goal-difference than their rivals. The promotion/relegation play-off was their last chance to stay in the league, but they lost both legs to Jaro – 0-1 and 2-4 – and were relegated.
OTP Oulu barely evaded relegation: 10th with 15 points.
Ilves Tampere finished 9th with 20 points. However, this season turned out to be one of their very best despite the weak performance in the championship.
The top 8 moved to the final stage of the championship in which their were paired strong against weak – the 1st vs the 8th and so on. Haka Valkeakoski was 8th with 22 points. MP Mikkeli – 7th with 23, TPS Turku – 6th with 23, Reipas Lahti – 5th with 23, KuPS Kuopio – 4th with 24, HJK Helsinki – 3rd with 28, RoPS Rovaniemi – 2nd with 29 points, and

Kuusysi Lahti – 1st with 33 points. The strongest team in the recent years and the one responsible for the climb of Finland in the UEFA ranking. Looked like they were in perfect form, clearly better than the rest and on the way of success again. 14 wins, 5 ties, 3 losses, 34-12 at the end of the regular stage of the season. Standing from left: Jari Rinne, Sixten Bostr?m, Jari Kinnunen, Hannu J?ntti, Esa Pekonen. Crouching: Sami Vehkakoski, Ilkka Remes, Petri J?rvinen, Ismo Korhonen, Juha Annunen, Keijo Kousa.
¼ finals. Kuusysi eliminated Haka Valkeakoski 3-1 and 2-2 (4-3 penalty shoot out).
RoPS Rovaniemi was eliminated by MP Mikkeli in 3 games: 1-1 (4-5 penalty shoot-out), 2-1, and 0-1.
End of the road for TPS Turku: they lost to HJK Helsinki also in 3 games – 0-0 (3-2 penalty shoot-out), 1-2 and 1-3.

KuPS Kuopio also went down – eliminated by Reipas Lahti 1-1 (4-5 penalty shoot-out) and 0-2. Standing from left: Kari Tissari, Janne Savolainen, Tuomo Hyv?rinen, Markku Raatikainen & Hannu Turunen. Front row: Kari Niskanen,  Kai Nyyss?nen, Jyrki Rovio, Yrj? Happonen, Harri Nyyss?nen & Jukka Turunen.
The ½ finals: Kuusysi eliminated MP Mikkeli 3-1 and 1-0, and HJK Helsinki disposed of Reipas Lahti 3-2 and 3-2.
The losers met in one-leg play-off for the 3rd place in which MP Mikkeli destroyed Reipas Lahti 6-1. Thus MP Mikkeli got the bronze medals and also qualified for the UEFA Cup.
The big final was two-leg affair, the first match in Lahti. Here HJK got slight advantage: the match ended 1-1 and they won the penalty shoot-out 4-3. At home in Helsinki, they managed to prevail over Kuusysi 1-0 and won the title.
Disappointment for Kuusysi Lahti – they looked stronger during the whole season, but lost, however minimally, the final. Silver medals and UEFA Cup spot, but… it could have been better.

Not always great, having difficulties here and there on the road, but at the end HJK Helsinki clinched the title. Lucky, unlucky, they prevailed when mattered most. Standing from left: Jari Rantanen, Markku Kanerva, Aki Hyryl?inen, Pasi Tauriainen, Jari Europaeus. Front row: Petri Helin, Pekka Onttonen, Janne Suokonautio, Petri Jakonen, Petri Tiainen, Kimmo Tarkkio.
Well, new old champions – it was the 17th title for HJK.

First Division – final stage. The top 8 teams in the first stage of First Division started the final stage with half of the points earned in the opening stage – the usual problem with complicated championship formulas: the first stage hardly meant anything else than qualifying to the final. So, a strong enough team could play just enough to end among the top 8, preserving its real strength for later. A team spending its best in the first stage got nothing later… and there were also teams concerned only with avoiding the risk of relegation: playing as best as they could to end among the top 8 and than only going through the motions in the final round. To considerable degree, that was the Swiss case in the 1989-90 season.
FC Sion was 5th in the opening stage with 23 points, but cared little for the final stage and finished last with total 19 points (7+12 from the opening stage). They won just one match.
BSC Young Boys ended 8th in the opening stage with 21 points – better goal-difference elbowed Servette to the promotion/relegation group. Escaping the big danger of relegation, Young Boys took it easy in the final stage and finished 7th with 21 points (10 + 11 from the opening stage). Rather curious to see Swedish stars Anders Limpar, Roger Ljung, and Bjorn Nillson in such lowly position, but they were the best Young Boys had at the moment – the Swiss players were not at that level.

AC Lugano was perhaps the prime example of clubs only trying to reach the safety of the final stage: they were 7th in the opening stage and 6th in the final with 23 points (12 +11 from the opening stage). No well-known players here, quite a pedestrian squad perhaps playing overachievening a bit, at least in the opening stage of the season.
FC St. Gallen – 5th with 27 points (14 of them from the opening stage). A show-case of the danger of spending most of their strength early. They won the opening stage, but in the final stage were easily left behind by fresher squads, stepping at the pedals at the right moment. Ivan Zamorano was no longer great help and not because he was weak – it was generally weaker squad, now tired and inevitably dropping out.
FC Luzern – 4th at the end with 28 points. Even season – they were 4th with 24 points in the opening stage, apparently not able to go higher, but not going down either.
Xamax took 3rd place with 30 points. There were 2nd in the opening stage 27 points and although managed to play well in the final stage, seemingly, they spent most of their strength too early. Not quite up to really fight for the title – may be a little was missing, but this little was decisively missing.
Lausanne-Sport – well, they clearly preserved their strength for the final, finishing 6th with 22 points in the opening stage. But formidable they were in the final stage – starting with 11 points, they added 20! Lost only one match. Allowed just 9 goals in 14 games in their net. The strongest team in the final stage – and they had the squad for such performance – but were unlucky at the end. They lost dramatically the title – not on points, not on goal-difference, but only on head-to-head record. Tough luck – or lack of it. To a point, their season served as example of the risks teams were taking with preserving strength for the final stage in complicated championship formulas: if Lausanne-Sport got 1 more point in the opening stage, the title would have been theirs. But they played just enough to qualify to the final stage in the fall of 1989 – and paid the price for it.
Grasshoper clinched the title – like Lausanne-Sport, they finished with 31 points, but very different record: they won 9 games in the final stage and lost 5. They score more goals than Lausanne-Sport and received more too, ending with 28-15 – Lausanne finished with 23-9, which gave them +14 goal-difference to Grasshoper’s +13. Like Lausannne-Sport, Grasshopper preserved strength in the opening stage, but they finished 3rd in it with 25 points – better than Lausanne-Sport, so they started with 13 points the final stage and that was their luck in the long run: Laussane-Sport had wonderful final stage and was clearly the strongest team, but they started with 2 points less than Grasshopper and that was their undoing at the end. Plus the fact that Grasshopper prevailed in the head-to-head clash – at the end the rivals ended with 31 points each and Lausanne-Sport had better goal—difference, but the decisive factor was head-to-head record and Grasshopper came on top and won the championship.
For a good measure Grasshopper won the Swiss Cup as well – again, minimally: they prevailed 2-1 over Xamax. Hardly the most inspiring and memorable victories – rather a matter of ‘blood, sweat, and tears’ mixed with good luck, but the at the end Grasshopper won a double and very impressive totals: 21st title (and their first after 1983-84), 17th Cup (third consecutive Cup), 8th double. Very impressive numbers, yet… it looks like this squad did not leave great memory. As if fans and club historians recognize lucky season and not a great squad.

Switzerland. Ranked 19th. Still keeping its strange championship formula of two stages: 12 team top league, which after the end of the first stage continued without the bottom 4 teams anew, carrying half the points from the opening stage to the second. Meantime Second Division was divided into 2 groups for its second stage in which the last 4 teams in the first stage were included and the top 2 teams in each groups were promoted to start the next season in the top league. The complicated formula will be shortened only to the second stage here. Switzerland still used 2 points for a win and had intriguing mix of imported players – some aging and fading stars, some middle of the road players, some bright talent rather expected to play in bigger championships. By itself, nothing new about such a mix, but Europe was rapidly moving to permit 3 foreigners on the field and Switzerland seemingly was going a step further, for few clubs had more than 3 foreigners this season. And some of them apparently were behind the current success of their teams.
FC St. Gallen was the prime example of this new tendency: they had 3 Chilean national team players plus forth foreigner. If Patricio Mardones and Hugo Rubio do not ring many bells, Ivan Zamorano does – at the time, he was not yet the mega-star, but only beginning his great European journey, yet the impact of the Chileans was immediate: FC St. Gallen won the opening stage of the championship with 28 points: 9 wins, 10 ties, 3 losses, 40-24 scoring record. They clinched top position only by a point, but it was memorable performance for usually St. Gallen occupied the lower half of the table. And in the same time their great first stage meant almost nothing… the final stage started with clean sheets, so it was hard to tell who was playing their best in the opening stage and who was playing just enough to qualify to the final stage, preserving strength for it.
Down the table in the first stage ended Servette (9th), FC Wettingen (10th), FC Aarau (11th), and AC Bellinzona (12th) – they were joining the Second Division teams in the second stage, hoping to finish among the top two in their respective group and maintain top-league place. However, some well known clubs were in Second Division now – if St. Gallen jumped up, FC Zurich and Basel already plunged down and played in the Second Division. Hoping to climb back to their familiar environment, no doubt. But all depended on the second stage of the season and the usually leading Swiss clubs had it tough: they were in stronger final Group A, where Servette and Bellinzona also came to play – 4 teams competing for 2 promotion spots.
Group B was not all that tough – those coming from the top league seemingly had considerable advantage. Possible challenge was absent, for those who had stronger history, presently had only history:
FC Winterthur finished 7th with 7 points – only CS Chenois was more miserable than them (last with 6 points). Top row from left: Paul Hollenstein (Physiotherapeut), Flavio Battaini, Urs Güntensperger, Roland Käser, Marco Filomeno, Mario Uccella, Markus Portmann, Helmut Gabriel, Christian Graf, Mauro Ferrari.
Middle row: Ernst Rief (Masseur), Alfons Bosco (Trainer), Stephan Zwahlen, Joachim Hutka, Patrick Meili, Daniel Haefeli, Reto Arrigoni, Urs Isler, Tiziano Sacchetti, Urs Rüegg (Assistenztrainer).
Front row: Armin Krebs, Marcel Balmer, Oliver Bellwald, Sergio Gurrieri, Antonio Santini, *, Michael Gänssler, Markus Michael, Andreas Nickel.
FC Locarno was 5th with 13 points.
FC Grenchen ended 6th between Winterthur and Locarno with 9 points. FC Baden was 4th with 16 points and FC Bulle finished 3rd with 17 points. So, the teams starting in the Second Division was no problem for those from top flight:
FC Wettingen took second place with 22 points, losing the first place on worse goal-difference: +20, but they lost just a single match in the final stage and permitted only 9 goals in 14 games in their own net.
FC Aarau clinched the top place, thanks to 22 points and better goal-difference than Wettingen: +25. They won the most games and scored the most goals in Group B: 10 wins and 35 goals. But all that was academic – the important thing was that both FC Aarau and FC Wettingen preserved their First Division places for the next season.
No drama in Group B, but Group A had 4 teams potentially eager to go back to the top league. The other 4 were not contenders: FC Schaffhausen finished last with 7 points, FC Chur – 7th with 9 points, FC Fribourg – 6th with 11 points, and Yverdon-Sport FC – 5th with 13 points.
AC Bellinzona lost the race among the stronger: 4th with 15 points and thus relegated from First to Second Division. FC Basel was unable to succeed too: 3rd with 17 points.
FC Zurich finished 2nd with 20 points – similarly to Wettingen in Group B, they ended second only on worse goal-difference. Looking at the squad, it is quite strange to see FC Zurich in the Second Division : apart from strong Swiss players, they had Norbert Eder (West Germany), Jan Berger (Czechoslovakia), and Marcel Raducanu (Romania). Aging all of them and fading, but Berger and Raducanu were national team players for years and still useful for their home countries and Eder was solid regular in Bayern’s defense in the last 6 years. FC Zurich was not relegated with this trio, but the current squad was clearly made having restoration of leading position in mind. So far – so good: FC Zurich earned promotion back to top flight. Yes, they finished 2nd, but promotion was the goal and it was achieved.
Servette clinched the first place, coming ahead of FC Zurich on goal-difference: 20 points from 8 wins, 4 ties, 2 losses (the same as FC Zurich), 29-13 scoring record (scored 1 goal less than FC Zurich, but had 4-goal better defensive record), giving them +16 goal-difference to FC Zurich’s +13. Servette kept their top league place. Top row from left: inten: Bersier, Cacciapaglia, Besnard, Fargeon, Epars, Acosta, Burri
Middle row: Sinval, Djurovski, Rufer, Locca, Pazmandy, Ritschard, Schällibaum, Barrel, Grossenbacher
Sitting: Türkylmaz, Favre, Guex, Pedat, Kobel, Hertig, Bonvin, Stiel
Like FC Zurich, it was puzzling why Servette was so down this season – enough the mention that Kubilay Türkylmaz was in their squad, along with other good players. Well, weak season for sure, but at least they avoided the shame to start the next one in the second level.