Author: Vesselin

France. Ranked 14th. The first season France used 3-points for a win. Ambitious project brought back on top Olympique (Marseille) – a project, which turned sour a fey years later.
Promoted from Third Division this year were:
Chaumont FC
Tours FC
AC Avignon
AS St Seurin
Red Star (Paris) – standing from left: Touati, Charles, Renaut, Ousfane, Bonneval, Clément, Morin, Brucato, Roselmac, Yazmadjian, De Rocco, Tally, Edders, Gudimard, Liendo, Amours, Fanzel, Heaulmé, Fiatte, Girard. Front: Patrice Lecornu (assistant coach), Philippe Troussier (coach)
FC Lorient

The Cup also repeated the familiar – PSV Eindhoven and FC Groningen reached the final and there was no doubt which team will lift the trophy. When FC Groningen finally scored a goal, the result was already 0-3 and PSV scored their 4th in the very next minute. Romario, twice Ellerman, and finally Kieft scored the goals.
FC Groningen had no chance – if Ajax was unable to stop PSV, how was Groningen to do it with their modest squad? At least they were going to play in the Cup Winners Cup as losing finalists – that was a consolation. Top row from left: Eric Groeleken, Jan van Dijk, Claus Boekweg, Erik Manders, Dick Koster
Middle row: Theo Huizinga (teammanager), Hans Westerhof (trainer), John de Wolf, Piet Wiersma, Erik Regtop, Marco Koorman, Harry Sinkgraven, Edwin Olde Riekerink, René Eijkelkamp, Martin Koeman (assistent)
Sitting: Jos Roossien, Marco Waslander, Gert-Jan Beltman, Johan Tukker, Sjaak Storm, Delano Jozefzoon, Theo ten Caat
Missing from the picture: Henny Meijer (their scorer at the Cup final), Wim Koevermans, Jan Veenhof, Barend Beltman, Sixto Rovina. And keeping longer John de Wolf was mission impossible…
Second Cup in a row for PSV Eindhoven. Well… that made it 4 titles in a row, 2 Cups in a row, 11 titles altogether, 5 Cups, 3 doubles. Clearly the best period in the history of the club. Top row from left: Erik Gerets, Berry Van Aerle, Edward Linskens, Soren Lerby, John Veldman, Ronald Koeman, Hendrie Kruzen, Anton Janssen.
Middle row: Jac van de Ven (verzorger), Ivan Nielsen, Wim Kieft, Hans van Breukelen, Patrick Lodewijks, Stan Valckx, Adick Koot.
Sitting: Jules Ellerman, Jan Heintze, Kees Ploegsma (manager), Guus Hiddink (trainer), Hans Dorjee (trainer), Huub Stevens (trainer 2e elftal), Hans Gilhaus, Gerard Vanenburg.
What a squad! Guus Hiddink was doing excellent job and establishing himself among the top coaches in the world. His assistant Huub Stevens was growing as well and soon will behighly respected coach on his own. The players were already famous stars and neither aging (Gerets, Lerby, Nielsen, Kieft, van Breukelen, Vanenburg), nor inevitable transfers to bigger clubs (Ronald Koeman) was trouble – they got Romario, they had Veldman, Valckx, Koot, Gilhaus moving up. PSV Eindhoven dominated Dutch football for 4 years already and looked like they will continue the victorious march.

First Division. PSV Eindhoven and Ajax were head and shoulders above the rest of the league. This season they also fought heavily between themselves, unlike the previous seasons. Feyenoord was still struggling. No change of the status quo.
SC Veendam – last with 24 points and relegated.
VVV (Venlo) – 17th with 24 points and relegated. Top row from left: Edwin van Berge Henegouwen, Gerrie Slagboom, Chris Burhenne, Rene Eijer, Jack Weerts, Bert Verhagen, Jeroen Boere.
Middle row: Anton van Veggel (verzorger), Frans Nijssen, Jos Rutten, Juno Verberne, Jos Hermkes, Danny Hoekman, Marc Korsten, John Wolter, Leo van Veen (trainer).
Sitting: Remy Reynierse, Jos Luhukay, Rik Laurs, Wiel Teeuwen (manager), John Roux, Marcel Peeters, Jay Driessen.
PEC Zwolle – 16th with 25 points and relegated.
Willem II survived – 15th with 27 points. Third row from left: Cyril Holtkamp, Anno de Kleine, Marcel Bontekoe, Patrick Cohen, Fons Mallien, John Feskens.
Middle row: Adri Koster, Andre Bergman, Corne Lucassem, Willem v/d Ark, Roland Jansen, Frank Brugel, Bert Spee, Meindert Dijkstra, Bud Brocken, Ad Damen, Geert v/d Wiel (masseur).
Sitting: Farley Westphal, Frank van Straalen, Guus v/d Borgt, Rene Wolffs, Mark Farrington, Ruben Kogeldans, Edwin Godee, Hennie de Romijn, Sjef Van Weet.
MVV (Maastricht) – 14th with 29 points.
FC Utrecht – 13th with 29 points.
Sparta – 12th with 30 points.
RKC (Waalwijk) – 11th with 31 points. Third row from left: Ricardo Moniz, Cees Schapendonk, Ruud Das, Marc Van Hintum, Ad v/d Wiel, Anton Joore, Stanley Brard.
Middle row: Andre Hoekstra, Ronnie Van Geneugden, Adri Bogers, Edwin de Wijs, Gerben v/d Weerd, Jack Vermeulen, Peter TReffers, Leon Hutten.
Sitting: Bob Lindhout, Eerik Jansen, Herman Theeuwen, Ger Blok (trainer), Hans van Loen, Jos Van Herpen, Erik Gouda.
HFC Haarlem – 10th with 33 points. Top row from left: Ortwin Linger, Chris Verkaik, Cees Baas, Rini Van Roon, Leeroy Echteld, Peter Van Velzen.
Middlw row: Dick Advocaat (trainer), Raymond Atteveld, Frank Dikstaal, Marcel Oost, Jerry Kranthove, P.G. Van Der Lem (hulptrainer), P.D. Heiliegers (verzorger).
Sitting: Wout Holverda, Brian Tevreden, Arthur Numan, Edward Metgon, Carlo Van Tour, Michel Doesburg, Robert Matthaei.
FC Volendam – 9th with 33 points. Third row from left: Jack Tol, René Binken, Eric Steltenpool, Richard Sneekes, Bert van der Poppe, Winand van Loon, Steven van Dorpel
Middle row: Jaap Schilder, Jack Kemper, Theo Bond, Johan Steur, Hans Bakker, Jan Klouwer
Sitting: Gert-Jan Duif, Ton Guyt, Leo Tholens (fysiotherapeut), Jan Brouwer (manager), Leo Steegman (trainer-coach), Ab Plugboer, Nico Zwarthoed.
Fortuna (Sittard) – 8th with 34 points.
BVV Den Bosch – 7th with 36 points.
FC Groningen – 6th with 36 points.

Roda JC – 5th with 38 points. One of their best seasons.
Feyenoord – 4th with 40 points. Top row from left: Ton Lokhoff, Sjaak Troost, Keje Molenaar, Kenneth Monkou, Toni Roth, John Metgod, Marcel Brands, Ben Wijnstekers.
Middle row: Gerard Meijer (verz.) Rene Hofman, Ruud Heus, Dave Mitchell, Ricardo De Jongh, Joop Hiele, Martin Van Geel, Wlodzimierz Smolarek, Lex Schoenmaker, (ass.trainer).
Sitting: Coen Moulijn, Zier Tebbenhoff, Regi Blinker, Rob Jacobs (trainer), Peter Barendse, Paul Nortan, Tom Krommendijk.
Twente – 3rd with 40 points. Beating Feyenoord on goal-difference and looked like they were back among the best after years of decline. Top row from left: Jan Pouls, Andy Scharmin, Eric van Rossum, Piet Keur, Marco Roelfosen, Andre Paus, Henry Meyerman, Martin Koopman.
Middle row: Paul Krijnsen (fysiotherapeut), Wilfried Elzinga, Pieter Huistra, Frank Ensink, Hans de Koning, Michael Dikken, Mika Lipponen, Patrick Bosch, Jan Steenbeeke (masseur).
Sitting: Wim Balm, John Neijenhuis, Theo Vonk (trainer/coach), Robin Schmidt, Fred Rutten.
Ajax – tried hard to win the championship, but lost again. At least this season the were not distant second – with 50 points, they were only 3 points behind the champion. Still, too bad this wonderful squad was unable to win.
Simply the best – 4th consecutive title deserves to be a pillow. 24 wins, 5 ties, 5 losses, 78-31 goal-difference, 53 points. Not as dominant as in the previous championships, but PSV Eindhoven had formidable squad and there was no stopping them.

Holland. Ranked 15th. The Dutch were again in everybody’s mind and mouth, but the domestic picture was unchanged: two teams domineering and this season fighting between themselves for the title, but at the end the old winner was victorious again.
Second Division. No changes – 19 teams participated, the top 2 were directly promoted up and the ‘period’ winners had their ply-offs for the last promotion.
FC Wageningen – last with 18 points.
FC Emmen – 18th with 20 points.
RBC – 17th with 21 points.
Helmond Sport, here facing Cruijff’s Barcelona – 16th with 24 points.
DS’79 (Dordrecht) – 15th with 28 points.
Telstar – 14th with 29 points.
FC Eindhoven with Rene van de Kerkhof (top row, last at the right) – 13th with 29 points.
SC Heracles’74 – 12th with 34 points.
SC Cambuur – 11th with 34 points.
Go Ahead Eagles – 10th with 34 points. As a ‘period champions’ they had a chance to get promoted -the lowest-placed candidate.
De Graafschap -9th with 36 points.
SVV -8th with 37 points.
NAC Breda – 7th with 43 points.
SC Heerenveen – 6th with 46 points. As ‘period winner’ going to the promotion play-offs.
AZ’67 – 5th with 47 points.
NEC – 4th with 48 points. A ‘period winner’ too, so going to the promotion play-offs.
Excelsior – 3rd with 49 points and going to the promotion play-offs as a ‘period winner’.
FC Den Haag -2nd with 53 points and directly promoted.
Vitesse (Arnhem) clinched the title, beating FC Den Haag by a single point. 23 wins, 6 ties, 5 losses, 61-20 goal-difference, 54 points. Well done and happy return to top flight.

The Promotion play-off between the quarterly champions – or ‘period winners’.
Excelsior, the best among them in the regular season, this time was the worst – 4th with 1 point.
Go Ahead Eagles – 3rd with 5 points.
SC Heerenveen – 2nd with 8 points. Finished with best goal-difference, but… second.
NEC Nijmegen won the tournament with 4 wins, 2 ties, 0 losses, 9-3 goal-difference and 10 points. They got the last promotion and went up to play in the top league next season.

Dynamo (Berlin) was not dismissed easily, though… they reached the Cup final, where they met FC Karl-Marx-Stadt. Since the final was always played in Berlin, Dynamo had the advantage. Home turf plus everything else… they won, but it was not an easy victory: just 1-0 and that achieved in the second-half of the match, when Andreas Thom scored in the 57th minute.
Too bad FC Karl-Marx-Stadt lost. They did their best, but even if political pressure is taken aside, in pure football terms they were the inferior team. Still, it was a great season for the club – their best since 1966-67.
It was early to celebrate the end of BFC Dynamo – they still had more than enough power and more than capable to win a trophy. With 10 national team players, led by bright young stars Thomas Doll and Andreas Thom, at least the Cup was in their hands. Class is class… even if winning was difficult. It was second consecutive Cup for Dynamo and their 3rd altogether. At this moment nobody knew or expected, or hoped that Dynamo (Berlin) won its last trophy.

First Division. Significant season, because the long dominance of Dynamo (East Berlin) suddenly – even unexpectedly – ended. Apart from that, hardly anything new – the East German top division was sharply divided as ever. Perhaps the bulk of the teams was a bit homogenized, but still there was a dominant team alone on top and hopeless outsiders, so champion and relegated teams were known well advance to the comfort of all others.

1.FC Union (East Berlin) was last with 15 points. Once again they were relegated and hardly any surprise.
BSG Sachsenring (Zwickau) finished 13th with 16 points. They just climbed back after long Second Division exile and sunk down right away – familiar story.
FC Rot-Weiss (Erfurt) – 12th with 21 points. Exactly the same place as in the previous season, except this time they did not have to worry about relegation.
BSG Stahl (Brandenburg) – 11th with 22 points. Not in danger of relegation, but they significantly dropped down – Stahl was 4th in the previous season.

BSG Energie (Cottbus) – 10th with 23 points. Also a familiar story: if not relegated right away, a newcomer was near relegation zone.

HFC Chemie (Halle) – 9th with 25 points. Nothing special, as usual.
FC Carl Zeiss (Jena) – 8th with 27 points. Their crisis was still going on – meaning, Carl Zeiss dropped from leading position to mid-table mediocrity.
BSG Wismut (Aue) – 7th with 28 points. Their usual…
1. FC Magdeburg (Magdeburg) – 6th with 28 points. During the 1980s the club lost its edge practically settled at the bottom of the strongest teams – oscillating between 5th and 7th place. Nothing new…
1.FC Lokomotive (Leipzig) – 5th with 28 points. One of the best and most exciting teams in DDR during the 1980s, so this season was upsetting.
Crouching from left: Ronald Kreer, Uwe Bredow, Rene Muller, Frank Baum, Heiko Scholz. Top row: Richter, Mathias Lindner, Matthias Liebers, Olaf Marschall, Uwe Zotzsche, Frank Edmond.
Looking at this squad… only Bredow, Richter, and Edmond were not national team players. But missing here are 3 more national team players – Torsten Kracht, Dieter Kuhn, and Uwe Weidemann – so 5th place and so out of even remotely competing for the title is somewhat odd. May be just a momentary lack of form…
FC Hansa (Rostock) – 4th with 29 points. Good season, although hardly extraordinary. However, quietly Hansa was building strength and climbing up – perhaps nobody was taking them very seriously yet, for they were relegated in 1985-86 and although came back right away, Hansa was never a leading club before.
FC Karl-Marx-Stadt (Karl-Marx-Stadt) – 3rd with 30 points. Their best season since 1966-67, when they won the title.
BFC Dynamo (East Berlin) – 2nd 32 points. What a surprise – by now, it was hard to imagine any other champion than them, but after 10 years of dominance, they lost the title and not just lost it, but were left far behind.
SG Dynamo (Dresden) took their revenge and in great manner: they dominated the season – 16 wins, 8 ties, only 2 lost games, 61-26 goal-difference, 40 points. Stassi was left 8 points behind. At last. Dynamo had less national team players than both Dynamo (Berlin) and Lokomotive (Leipzig), but their new rising stars were called Matthias Sammer and Ulf Kirsten. Add the season’s top scorer Torsten Gutschow.
The happiness was great – Dynamo (Dresden) waited for this title since 1978! Perhaps the whole country celebrated with them, for everybody wanted to see Dynamo (Berlin) down at last. For Dresden, it was the 8th title, which still kept them behind Berlin with their straight 10 titles, but once the spell was broken…

DDR. Ranked 16th. Political tensions marked this time, especially 1989, and somewhat football reflected them: the iron grip of Stasi was broken – after 10 years of Dynamo (Berlin) dominance, DDR had different champion. The fresh wind was not strong enough to blow away Stasi and its team away, of course, but it was refreshing to see different champion at last, even if it was still named Dynamo. More in the pure realm of football, there were practically new winners in the Second Division – both so far played only once in the First Division. Yet, Second Division had its own political contribution: after the end of the season two clubs from it plus one third level club changed their names to their original names: ASV Vorwaerts (Stralsund) changed to TSV 1860 Stralsund, Vorwaerts (Dessau) changed to SG 1898 Dessau and the other club in Dessau – third-level BSG Motor became SG Waggonbau’05.
East German Second Division was always peculiar – no big stirring there, former top league teams won, whatever intrigue a championship had depended on the number of the former First Division clubs. And this number was always small, so practically the same clubs moved constantly up and down. This season was a bit different only in that the former First Division clubs were shaky and some among them, especially those which faded long time ago, went to even further oblivion: Aktivist Brieske-Senftenberg, Motor (Babelsberg), and Lokomotive (Stendal) were relegated. In any case, there were few clubs with more successful recent history playing in the Second Division – 8 altogether, 5 of which played in Group B.
Group A. The more interesting group, because here 5 teams competed for top position.
The rest of league was nothing much – here is a typical example: BSG Stahl (Hennigsdorf). They ended 15th, just above relegation zone (which consisted of the 3 already mentioned above former top league clubs).
The battle for 1st place was between BSG Aktivisit Schwarze Pumpe (at the end – 5th with 41 points), BFC Dynamo II (East Berlin) – as a second team, they were ineligible for promotion anyway, 4th with 43 points, FC Vorwaerts (Frankfurt/Oder) – freshly relegated and shaky shape, so 3rd with 43 points, Dynamo (Furstenwalde) – a long time staple of Second Division, but never a factor. However, they were 2nd – distant 2nd! – in 1987-88 and tried to do better this season. And they did: 16 wins, 12 ties, 6 losses, 56-32 goal-difference and 44 points. They did better than the year before, but still finished 2nd – in most dramatic way.

BSG Stahl (Eisenhuttenstadt) clinched 1st place and promotion. Stahl won 16 games, tied 12, lost 6, scored 57 goals and received 32. Stahl prevailed over Dynamo on 1 goal better goal-difference – everything else was the same between them, except Stahl scored 57 goals and Dynamo 56. A rare drama, although the season itself most likely wasn’t great – the battle between 5 teams and the dramatic conclusion of it compensated for the lack of true class. In any case it was the great moment in the history of Stahl – they won a championship exactly 20 years after they earned promotion for the first time.
Group B offered no such excitement.
The most famous team in the league – BSG Chemie (Leipzig) – was not in good shape and finished 5th with 38 points.
One team was stronger than the rest and confidently won the championship.
BSG Fortschritt (Bischofswerda) won 17 games, tied 13, lost 4, and with 47 points left their nearest rival – Vorwaerts (Dessau) – 5 points behind. 71-34 was their goal-difference – the best record in both groups of the Second Division by far. Practically anonymous club, but they already had a brief encounter with First Division football, after winning promotion in 1985-86 – they were relegated right away in 1986-87, so let see what their second try would bring.

The Cup final opposed Panathinaikos to Panionios. An interesting final… a Swedish final, for both teams were coached by Swedes: Gunder Bengtsson came in 1988 from IFK Goteborg to coach Panathinaikos and Bo Johansson came from Osters FF to coach Panionios also in 1988. As far as leading their charges to the Cup final, the Swedes succeeded… as for their Nordic clash, it depended mostly on the squad they had and rich Panathinaikos obviously had the more powerful team. As expected, Panathinaikos won – 3-1. All goals were scored in first half of the final.
Too bad Panionios lost, but reality was heavily against them – no matter what, Panionios was modest club and thus unable to make strong squad. They had only 1 foreign player and he was not even a starter – the unknown and mysterious Albanian Luiqim Bersemi. Since Albania did not export players yet, he was most likely a refugee somehow legalized to play. On the other hand, he may have been a Kosovar with Yugoslav citizenship and thus legally transferred to Panionios. In any case, he was unknown player – Panionios was not in position to buy solid foreign and domestic players, so playing at the Cup final was their maximum. Winning was impossible, even having a good coach – and Johansson left them after the end of the season to coach the national team of Iceland.
Panathinaikos won their 12th Cup. Standing from left: Sarganis, Samaras, Mavridis, Antoniou, Dimopoulos. Crouching: Kalitzakis, Chatziathanasiou, Georgakopoulos, Georgamlis, Saravakos.
What Gunder Bengtsson had at hand was a team with comfortable depth – various Greek national team players, led by stars Saravakos and Sarganis, plus strong foreigners. At the final, the foreigners were reserves – Claus Nielsen (Denmark), who joined Panathinaikos in the summer of 1988, more recent Jozsef Fitos (Hungary), who came in early 1989 from Honved (Budapest), and the veteran Argentine with Greek citizenship Juan Ramon Rocha, a staple of Panathinaikos since 1980. Eventually, Rocha played 20 minutes at the final, replacing Paris Georgakopoulos – it was almost a tribute to the retiring veteran. There were 2 other foreign players as well – both Australians by birth: Ioannis Samaras, who came to Greece at the age of 13 and thus had all his career in Greece. By now he was also a Greek citizen and a Greek national team player. He was recent recruit, bought from OFI in January 1989. Chris Kalantzis joined Panathinaikos in 1987 from Sydney Olympic and his Greek roots made him domestic player, but no more, for he was Australian national team player since 1985. Anyhow, Bengtsson had powerful team which if not capable to win the title, at least was able to win the Cup. So, at the end Panathinaikos saved the season – ended with a trophy and their arch-enemy Olympiakos with nothing.

First Division. Two teams fought for the title and 3 teams fought for one safe position at the bottom of the table. In a nut shell – nothing really unusual or dramatic.
Apollon Kalamarias (Thessaloniki) was the outsider this season – last with 17 points, but they managed to get themselves together in the promotion/relegation tournament and survived.
Diagoras (Crete) was unlucky – they finished 15th with 20 points, but failed miserably in the promotion/relegation tournament and were relegated.
Ethnikos (Piareus) was unlucky in its fight for safety in the regular season – they finished 14th with 23 points, but worse goal-difference denied them the safe 15th place. However, they made no mistake in the promotion/relegation tournament and remained in the top league.
Apollon (Athens) was greatly relieved at the end of the season – they clinched 13th place with 23 points, thanks to having better goal-difference than Ethnikos.
Levadiakos was 12th with 25 points.
Olympiakos (Volos) – 11th with 26 points.
Panionios – 10th with 27 points. The had good season overall.
Doxa (Drama) – 9th with 28 points.
PAOK – 8th with 32 points. Bellow their city rivals, but what can you do… Standing from left: MAVREAS, FERNANDO, GITSIOUDIS, MITOGLOU, SMOLL. First row: KARAGEORGIOU, BORBOKIS, SKARTADOS, ALEXANDRIS, MALIOUFAS, LAGONIDIS.
Aris – 7th with 33 points. A place ahead of PAOK – at least something to be satisfied with.
Larissa – 6th with 34 points. It was expected that the champions in the previous season would not be able to stay on top for long – a typical story of smallish provincial club. Jacek Gmoch left them after leading them to triumph to coach giant Olympiakos. So did some of their best players and the club had no means to replace them, let alone reinforce the squad with more classy players.
OFI (Crete) – 5th with 34 points. They continued to play strong and maintained a position among the best Greek teams, but had no squad capable of going higher.
Iraklis (Thessaloniki) – 4th with 36 points. The 1980s were wonderful decade for them even if they never had a team capable of competing for the title. Yet, it was great to be the best team of Thessaloniki, leaving rivals PAOK and Aris, bigger clubs than them, far behind. If anything, Iraklis got a UEFA Cup spot.
Panathinaikos – 3rd with 37 points. As far as the championship went, it was disappointing season – near the end of the season they lost their hopes for a title and finished behind their arch-rivals Olympiakos.
If Panathinaikos was disappointed, perhaps Olympiakos was even more disappointed. They ended 2nd with 41 points – ahead of the arch-rivals, but no title. Winning the championship was their aim, clearly declared in the summer of 1988: they signed Jacek Gmoch, who just coached Larisa to the title in 1987-88 and bought Lajos Detari for world-record transfer fee from Eintracht (Frankfurt). Records are records, but they alone do not win trophies… Olympiakos had a strong squad, but… they had only one foreigner – too little, compared to what their rivals had. Perhaps they spent way too much for Detari and no money were left for other classy imports. Perhaps ambition blinded their president – Detari was good, no doubt, but he was no magician. Worse, he failed to fulfill the expectations and eventually left Olympiakos with a scandal. But that happened later – this season Olympiakos failed to win the title, although they tried.
AEK (Athens) came on top with 44 points. 19 wins, 6 ties, 5 losses, 45-20 goal-difference. Solid, steady season gave them their first title in 10 years and 8th altogether. Judging by their final record, rather cautious performance was the secret: the team did not score much – Olympiakos outscored them by about 10 goals – but their defense was impenetrable: AEK permitted only 20 goals this season, the best defensive record in the league by far. Based on that, they were able to win by a small margin more games than anybody else and thus to clinch the title. Unlike Olympiakos, AEK depended heavily on foreign talent: Henrik Nielsen (Denmark), Georgios Savvidis (Cyprus), and Jimmy Patikas (Australia) were already in the team and in the summer of 1988 more were added, beginning with Yugoslav coach Dusan Bajevic – 10 years ago he was instrumental for the 7th title won by AEK as a center-forward. He was a AEK legend already In the recent years he turned into rapidly rising coach in his native Yugoslavia and was brought back to coach AEK, a great decision, as it turned out, for he was familiar with the club, the fans loved him, and the players were easily inspired by a club legend too. Along with his arrival, 3 new players joined the team – Miroslav Okonski (Poland), Toni Savevski (Yugoslavia), and Frank Klopas (USA). All current national team players and as a whole classier than the foreigners already in the team. Of course, rules prohibited fielding that many foreigners, but Patikas and Klopas were considered domestic because of their roots, perhaps Savvidis too, so the problem was solved easily and AEK really had the best squad in Greece at the moment. Bajevic proved his worth as well and the title was theirs after waiting so many years. In a nut shell… get Bajevic, either playing or coaching, and you are champion.
One more look at the new Greek champions – their regular squad shows that Patikas at least was technically native, possibly Savvidis too, and whether 2 or 3 foreigners were permitted was no problem. Formidable striking line – by current Greek standards: Savevski, Okonski, Savvidis. And reliable in every line behind. In case somebody was underperforming, Klopas and Nielsen were ready to step in.

Greece – ranked 17th. Perhaps this was the season Greek football declared its ambition to join the best of Europe: Olympiakos made the most-expensive transfer in the world. So far, Maradona was the record holder – Napoli paid 11.2 million dollars to Barcelona to obtain him. But Olympiakos paid 12.5 million dollars to Eintracht (Frankfurt) for Lajos Detari and the Hungarian topped Maradona as the most expensive in football history. The Greeks were buying more players and hired more coaches from abroad than ever, thus building stronger teams. The highly respected Polish coach Jacek Gmoch set a record too: he was just hired to coach Olympiakos, thus becoming the first foreigner to coach all of the big 3 of Greek football – Panathinaikos, AEK, and Olympiakos. Of course, Gmoch had a long coaching history in Greece and just won the 1987-88 title with Larissa. Meantime AEK hired Dusan Bajevic, who was their star player a decade ago and now was rapidly rising coach. Panathinaikos chose Swedish coach, the list of foreign coaches was long. Classier teams fueled further ambitions and the top league was going to be increased to 18 teams for the next season, so rules for the current championship must be noted: there was no direct relegation from First Division this year. Instead, the last 3 teams were goinhg to promotion/relegation tournament. The top 3 in the Second Division were directly promoted and the next 3 plus the last 3 in First Division made a promotion/relegation mini-league, the top 2 in the final standing going to play in the top league next season. Similar arrangement was made for completion of the Second Division between the last 3 and Third Division teams. Greece still used traditional point system: 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie. No major scandals were recorded this season – rather, an old one was recalled with the retirement of Juan Ramon Rocha of Panathinaikos. Back in 1980 he was bought from Boca Juniors, but he was introduced in Greece with Greek name – Boublis – and documents. The trick was done many times before, but this time did not work – a big scandal erupted because of the fake documents, Rocha almost ended in jail and Panathinaikos almost expelled to Second Division. But that was only the first round… in the second old ways prevailed: as usual, ‘allegations’ were dismissed by honest authorities and everybody involved was acquitted. Rocha shined on the field, became a Greek citizen, this time legally, and if not for his 3 games for the national team of Argentina between 1973-77, most likely would have been playing for the Greek national team. He became one of the best stars of Greek football in the 1980s and now, 35-years old, stepped down. Ugly beginning, but highly respected finish.
Second Division. 18 teams, the top 3 directly promoted, the next 3 – going to promotion/relegation play-offs, the last 3 – going to promotion/relegation play-offs. Because of the temporary no-direct-relegation rule, actually only 1 teams went down this season:
Kavala was last this season with 23 points, but actually lost its place in the promotion/relegation tournament.
The other 2 outsiders – Kallithea, 17th with 24 points, and Panachaiki, 16th with 32 points – benefited by the new rule – they performed well in the promotion/relegation tournament and kept their places in the Second Division: this was quite important for the next season, when Panachaiki went from rags to riches, but at the moment they were only lucky to avoid sinking to Third Division.
Up the table – mostly according to current form and little to brag about.
Athinaikos finished 11th with 33 points – that is, rather typical season for them. A for many other Second Division members.
Naoussa was 10th with 33 points, ahead of Athinaikos on better goal-difference. And like Athinaikos, there was nothing in Naoussa’s performance to suggest they would go up soon.
The top 6 teams were the important part of the season: Veria took 6th place with 36 points, Korinthos was 5th also with 36 points, and
PAS Giannina – 4th with 38 points. These teams went to the promotion/relegation tournament, having chance to move up.
Ionikos finished 3rd with 40 points and they were very happy indeed, for they earned promotion to top flight.
Panserraikos took 2nd place with 41 points and also was promoted – like Ionikos, they were only returning to top flight, where they played before.
The winners were different story – Xanthi had excellent season and won the championship with 44 points: 17 wins, 10 ties, 7 losses, 60-33 goal-difference. Not a dominant winner, but Xanthi never won anything before and never played First Division football – thus, this was the best ever season of the club, their first promotion and naturally a great joy for club and fans. Xanthi was going to debut in the First Division and good luck to them!
In the promotion/relegation tournament no Second Division team succeeded.
PAS Giannina was the best of the Second Division teams there – they finished 3rd and were unable to return to top flight.
Korinthos ended 4th, Diagoras – 5th and were relegated from First Division, Veria – 6th. Top league teams won the tournament: Apollon Kalamarias (Thessaloniki) finished 2nd with 7 points and Ethnikos (Piraeus) was really superior: they won every match they played and ended 1st with 10 points. Thus, Apollon Kalamarias and Ethnikos preserved their First Division places.