Bolivia. A headache of a championship… complicated and entirely unclear formula in 2 phases. 12 teams played (at least part of the season) in the top league, but it was increased to 13 teams for the next year, so 1 team was relegated (on what grounds – unclear) and 2 teams were promoted from second tier. The promoted were Independiente Petrolero (Sucre) and San Pedro (Cochabamba). Good luck to them.
First Division. The first stage was standard league format. What was the relation to the rest of the season is hard to grasp – looks like the winner went to the championship final. However, not all teams played in the first stage – San Jose (Oruro) and Jorge Wilstermann (Cochabamba) did not participate for unknown reason, so it was 10-team league at first.
The Strongest (La Paz) won the first stage, beating Blooming (Santa Cruz) by a point: 10 wins, 4 ties, 4 losses, 45-15, 24 points. Seemingly, this victory qualified them to the championship final.
The Second stage itself was divided into 3 phases. All 12 teams played in it, divided into 2 groups of 6 teams and relegation occurred here, in the first phase. Again,what was the criteria for relegation one can only speculate. The top 4 teams in each group qualified to the next phase.
Universitario (Sucre) finished last in Group A with 9 points and was relegated. Unless there was some relegation stage or there was combined records of first stage and this phase for the lowest teams, one cannot find why Universitario went down.
San Jose (Oruro) finished 5th with 11 points. Since they did not play in first stage at all, San Jose distinguished themselves with having the shortest season among all top league teams: it had only 12 games.
Above them all teams moved to the next phase: Litoral (La Paz) – 4th, Bolivar (La Paz) – 3rd, Oriente Petrolero (Santa Cruz) – 2nd, and Real (Santa Cruz) – 1st.
Group B. The season of Always Ready (La Paz) ended at this phase – they were last with 6 points.
Ciclon (Tarija) also finished here – 5th with 6 points.
Destroyers (Santa Cruz) – 4th, J. Wilstermann – 3rd, Blooming – 2nd, and The Strongest – 1st, went ahead.
Second phase. Once again a group tournament – 2 groups of 4 teams each. The top 2 teams in each group moved to the Second stage semifinals, those bellow – to vacation.
Group A.
Real (Santa Cruz) – last with 4 points.
Destroyers (Santa Cruz) – 3rd with 6 points and 6-6 goal-difference.
Bolivar – 2nd with 6 points, but with 13-6 goal-difference they bested Destroyers and went ahead.
Blooming – 1st with 8 points.
Group B.
Litoral (La Paz) – last with 5 points. Back row from left: Reynaldo Zambrana, Marcelo O. Soliz (argentine), Enrique Gutiérrez, José Freddy Cossio, Raúl Paredes, Erwin Céspedes.
Front: Oscar E. Figueroa, Angel O. Arias (argentine), Ramiro Vargas, Néstor Orellana (argentine), Juan E. Claure.
Jorge Wilstermann (Cochabamba) – 3rd with 6 points, 6-7 goal-difference.
Oriente Petrolero – 2nd with 6 points, but ahead of J. Wilstermann on better goal-difference: 11-8.
The Strongest – won the group with 7 points.
½ finals:
Blooming (Santa Cruz) lost to Oriente Petrolero 0-1 and 2-2
Bolivar (La Paz) eliminated The Strongest. Another mystery… both legs ended 1-1, there was no winner, but no one more play-off or penalty shootout… There is no reason Bolivar to qualify.
Second stage final:
Oriente Petrolero – Bolivar. They exchanged home victories of 1-0 and new play-off was scheduled, in neutral Cochabamba.
Bolivar (La Paz) lost 0-1.
Oriente Petrolero won the Second stage of the championship.
So, the winners of First and Second stage played a single-match final in Cochabamba on March 4, 1990. Not the only country in South America to have the decisive games of this year’s championship played in the next year… Anyhow, The Strongest, as befitting to their name, prevailed 1-0.
Oriente Petrolero (Santa Cruz) unfortunately lost the title. Good season, tough at the final game, but looking at the overall performance, their opponents were more deserving of victory.
The Strongest (La Paz) prevailed at the final and won the title. Of course, the losers were not happy, but the cold facts of the season made them a just victors: they practically did not lose at all – won the first stage (Oriente Petrolero was 5th), won the first phase of the second stage (Oriente Petrolero was 2nd in the other group), won the second phase of second stage (Oriente Petrolero was behind them in the same group), practically did not lose the ½ final of second stage against Bolivar. During the whole season before the final The Strongest lost a total of 7 games – Oriente Petrolero lost 15.
Thus, The Strongest got their 6th title.