Bolivia. Primero de Mayo (Potosi) won the single promotion for the next season – a success for the small club, no doubt. For the city too, for otherwise they would have been without first division team in 1983.
Relegation was decided at the first stage of the championship, a normal league format. Independiente Unificada (Potosi) finished last – 14th – and was relegated. The first 8 teams at this stage moved to the second one, divided into 2 groups. The top two of each group went proceeded to the semi-finals.
Bolivar (La Paz) won the first stage with 41 points – 5 ahead of Blooming (Santa Cruz). Good start, but what mattered was still ahead and it was not uncommon strong teams at the openings to fail later in South America. And this Bolivian season was typical to championship with complex formulas: Jorge Wilstermann (Coachabamba) and Oriente Petrolero (Santa Cruz) jumped into high gear, after having mellow first stage – J. Wilstermann was 6th with 28 and Oriente Petrolero – 4th with 30 points. Now they won their groups, J. Wilstermann followed by Bolivar in Group 2 and Oriente Petrolero by Blooming in Group B.
The Strongest (La Paz) were perhaps the big losers this year: 3rd in the openinh stage and 3rd again in Group A of the second stage. Out of the race.
J. Wilstemann eliminated Blooming in the semi-fianls: 2-0 and 0-0. In the other clash Oriente Petrolero and Bolivar exchanged 2-1 home wins and had to play a third match. Now Bolivar prevailed 2-1. Thus, the final was between the teams coming from Group B – which gave Jorge Wilstermann some edge in theory.
In practice, Bolivar won 2-1 its home match and everything had to be decided in the second leg on hostile Cochabamba. Bolivar managed a 1-1 tie and became the 1982 Bolivian champions.
May be a bit unlucky, Jorge Wilstermann, but finishing second was fair overall: they were not impressive in the first stage, tactically depending on the next rounds.
One more title for Bolivar and well deserved too, for they were consistently strong during the whole year and played well in every stage.