Category: 1980

The Cup final was played in Czestochowa and in it Legia (Warszawa) destroyed Lech (Poznan) 5-0. To a point, it was expected victory.

Lech had miserable season – they finished 10th in the championship, but they were traditionally not much anyway. Yet, their squad was stronger – as names – than Szombierki (Bytom), having few national team players – Mowlik, Chojnacki. A Cup final should have been mobilizing call, but apparently was not.

Legia, unlike Lech, was in good form at the end of the season,when the Cup final was played and easily won their 6th Cup. They were the better team anyway:

Lead by 1974 hero Marek Kusto, having current top players like Janas, and young talent like Okonski and Majewski, Legia was the superior squad and in better form. For the club, the victory was great success – it was the first trophy they won since 1973. The 1970s was not good for Legia – and for the clubs from the Polish capital in general – since Poland never had dominant big club, the capital was in disadvantage: industrial cities were able to take star players, because the big plants provided more money. Legia finally built a talented team, but like Widzew, it was perhaps not at its peak yet. May be the political situation in the country benefited Legia as well – it is difficult to evaluate, yet, the industrial cities, particularly ship-building and mining ones, were striking, money were blocked, and football was the last thing on the minds of both workers and establishment. Legia was in a better position, since the club was not attached to industry. But this is immaterial at the end: Legia won a trophy after many bleak years. Very comfortably too, suggesting that the team was rising and better things may come yet.

 

Politcis aside, First Division experienced change of guard – it started earlier in the decade, but now it was explicitely pronounced. Stal (Mielec) finished 13th. Ruch (Chorzow) – 11th. A few years back those were leading clubs, but their stars left to play abroad and decline quickly followed. Most of the league was seemingly the same as ever – depending on momentary strength or weakness, especially of one or two key players. Arka (Gdynia) is a typical Polish club:

Adam Musial and Janusz Kupcewicz are the big names here – espacially the hero of 1974 Musial. The rest are ordinary players. This season they finished 8th – but the final position meant little: just as well the same team could end near the top, or relegated. Relative parity in the league, but there was one much weaker club than most:

Polonia (Bytom) won just 3 matches this year and tied 10. This gave them 16 points… 5 less then the nearest team and last. Usually, Polonia dwelled in the middle of the league, but a team which is never any special sooner or later is doomed to failure. However, the name should be kept in mind for a moment.

GKS Katowice finished 15th – not all that surprising, since the club was nothing much during the 1970s and no stranger to second division football. Now they were going down again along with Polonia.

Since Stal and Ruch were in decline, and Wisla, Gornik, and Legia – not too strong, more or less the favourite should have been Slask (Wroclaw) – they enjoyed good years recently, winning both the league and the cup, and had the most balanced team and may be the biggest group of talented players at the moment. But they were not great team and this season showed exactly that. Slask started well and was steady almost to the end of the championship, leading the league twice. Most of the time they were second, expected to come on top at the end. Until he 28th round their lowest position was 3rd place – in the 1st round and once more later! Then they suddenly colapsed, dropping in the last three matches out of the race for the title and to final… either 3rd or 4th place, depending on which table one looks at. Slask finished with 36 points, but Legia and Widzew also had 36. Widzew is allways placed 2nd, suggesting that goal-difference determined final positions. Slask had the worst goal-difference of the three clubs, yet, sometimes is given at 3rd place, sometime – 4th, behind Legia. Face to face record favours Slask, goal-difference – Legia. Which method was actually applied is unclear -even today different sources show different final tables. But the sure thing is that Slask lost the title, which is a bit surprising.

Widzew (Lodz) finished 2nd – perhaps the club ending just right on the spot coresponding to their relative strength. Widzew was steadily climbing up in the recent years. They were 2nd in 1976-77, second in 1978-79, and once again – second. Obviously, strong period of a club, which has been insignificant so far in their quite long history. The prime reason is easy to see today – they had Zbigniew Boniek. The climb of Widzew goes along with the climb of Boniek to stardom – he was almost the only Polish player noticed at the 1978 World Cup. But he was not at his prime yet, and so Widzew was not at its prime – and had to wait a little bit for real success. Silver medals were just right at the moment.

With Widzew not ready yet, and Slask not trully great, the title was left open… and Poland got the most surpirsing champion. Nothing at all suggested a title when the championship started in the fall of 1979 – the team was last after the opening round, and expected to stay in the bottom region, where they usually belonged. But this lowly team climbed to 1st place after the 6th round and after that they were 2nd only once. Szombierki (Bytom) finished 3 points ahead of all pursuers.

The club was old – founded in 1919 – but hardly heard of outside Poland: they were not playing first division football often, let alone finishing in the upper half of the table. Even in their home town they were not top – supporters were divided, but the bigger club was Polonia (Bytom), which at least played more or less regularly in first division. Szombierki was expected to excape relegation, if lucky, and perhaps the only pride of their presense in the league was providing a local derby – this season only Lodz and Bytom had 2 teams in the top league. It was very unusual for Europe lesser cities to provide derbies and not the capital, but that was the peculiarity of Polish football. However, Bytom was not expected to keep two clubs in the league – and it did not, but not as thought: Szombierki finished number one; Polonia – just the opposite: dead last. Half of the city was smiling, the other half was crying. As local rivalries go, Szombierki had a lot to brag about: they were smaller than Polonia, but brought the first success to the city in the very year Polonia hit the bottom.

Here are the new champions – a historic squad for three reasons: first, they won the very first trophy in the history of the club. Second, they were and still are the most surprising Polish champions. Third, Szombierki is considered the weakest Polish champion ever. Jumping ahead, this title is not only the only trophy won by the club, but a second one is highly unlikely: the club exists, but currently plays in 3rd Division and has not been heard of… well, almost since 1980. The extreme rarity of the club’s success deserves one more picture of the champions:

Well, nothing special as a team… the most famous of the squad is the coach: Hubert Kostka, the best Polish goalkeeper in the 1960s and long time national team regular. But that is the player – the coach never became big name: as for the club, this is the biggest achievement of coach Kostka. Among the players Roman Ogaza was the only star and that with a question mark. The winger was in and out of the national team for years, but never really a first choice. He belonged to the 1974 generation, but… he was part of the 1972 team, which won the Olympic games, yet, only a member, not a starter. This was his highest achievement with the national team – in 1974 he was not in the squad. For many, he was underrated. For others – he was not really top class, for he was slow for a winger. There was always a better option than him. And seemingly the critics were right – by 1980 Ogaza was already 28 years old and unlike his peers foreign clubs were not really after him. He played abroad eventually, but after a few years, when he was already nearing the end of his career. It tells volumes when the only recognizable player of the new champions is a player like Ogaza: it was not a strong team and it was not a team to develop further, let alone build a dynasty. What usually is said about this squad is that they were experienced players – journeymen, moving from club to club often. Ogaza himself played for variety of clubs. A good run this season, but the team largely took advantage of the weaknesses of opposition. Ruch and Stal in decline, Gornik and Wisla shaky, Widzew not ready yet, Legia attacking top places too late in the season and unable to compensate sloppy earlier performance, and Slask suddenly colapsing at the end. The record of Szombierki with their immediate pursuers is telling: they lost badly all away matches with the next three clubs in the final table, not scoring even a goal. Legia beat the champions at their home turf. True, Szombierki destroyed at home both Widzev (3-0) and Slask (5-0), but head-to-head total was 2 wins and 4 losses – every other team of the top 4 did better. Szombierki took advantage of sloppy performance of the others against lesser teams, steadiness, no flops, and a bit of trickery. Yers later the goalkeeper W. Surlit told what tactic was used this year: Szombierki used two stadiums at home. Their regular one was small, English-type stadium, where the fans were too close to the field. When Szombierki hosted big club with a huge home stadium, they played at their small stadium – the fans were too close, packed, and intimidating. Against clubs with similar small stadiums, they used the big stadium in the city – this time the visitors were in disadvantage: their fans were too far away and unable to form a compact group. The scheme worked may be because of the strikes and economic-political problems: football was not really in the mind of most people and fewer were travelling to other cities to support their club. Thus, Szombierki managed to have a compact crowd bigger or at least equal to the opposition’s and able to intimidate the visiting players. This helped, but such tactic helps only ones. Szombierki took advantage of the circumstances, did the best they could, and won. Which was great – a victory of the underdog. Kings of the city. Historic moment to be cherished forever – and still better than their home rivals: Polonia so far did not win anything.

 

 

Poland had unusual season. Similarly to Sweden, Polish football was going through minor crisis – a change of generations. It was noticed at the 1978 World Cup and perhaps reached its lowest point in 1979-80 – by now, hardly anyone of the great 1974 squad was playing in Poland. New stars were still not at the their prime and the vacuum was enlarged by the traditional absense of bid clubs – good players were scattered in the whole league. The leading clubs of the most of the 1970s suffered by the exodus of their stars – Stal (Mielec), Ruch (Chorzow), and, to a point, Wisla (Krakow). Apart from purely football problems, there was a political one: Polish workers demanded economic and political changes, ‘Solidarity’ was born, industrial towns were on strike, tensions grew, and football was the last thing on people’s minds – including players, coaches, and officials. But the championship was played in full.

In the Second Division nothing special happened.

Baltyk (Gdynia) won the Western Group and was promoted to top flight. Zaglebie (Walbrzych) was a contestant of a kind, finishing 3 points behind the winners. Both clubs were head and shoulders above the rest of the league.

The Eastern Group did not have even resemblance of a rivalry.

Motor (Lublin) finished 10 points ahead of 2nd place Gwardia (Warszawa). Technically, the Eastern Group should have been the stronger half of the Second Division, judging by the clubs playing in it, but this was only on paper – since most clubs came from industrial cities, the political situation perhaps made the champion weaker than usual. Still, Motor and Baltyk ended champions and promoted to higher level.

 

No big club reached the Cup final. The finalists were curious pair: the penalized for bribery and fielding illegal player teams, Iraklis (Thesaloniki) and AGS Kastoria (Kastoria). If Iraklis, thanks to fixing matches, was solid mid-table club, Kastoria was lowly, fighting to survive in the league. On paper, Iraklis was favourite – they had arguably the greatest star in the country, Hadzipanagis, plus a Polish import, Wawrowski. Kastoria had no famous player at all and entirely Greek squad. Yet, they destroyed Iraklis – 5-2! It did not possible at first – Iraklis scored opening goal from a penalty early in the final. Kastoria managed to equalize near the end of the first half and the second half was entirely theirs. For a second consecuitve year the Cup went to small club – Panionios won it in 1979 and now – Kastoria.

The ‘Gounarades’ (Fur-traders) were small fry by any standard: they were born in 1963 from a merger of three local clubs: Aris, Atromitos, and Orestias. The new club was not much stronger than the former clubs, but eventually gathered some strenght and won promotion to first division in 1973-74. They did not take the league by storm, though – yet, this period is the best in the history of the club: they played in first division from 1974 to 1983. After that they managed just a single season among the best – 1996-97. Winning the Cup was their crown achievement – and their only trophy.

Naturally, the boys were happy and

the fans even more so. This was a great day for small Kastoria. The greatest day!

The Cup winners were nothing much so far – the victory made them famous instantly, but also it was ominous. A small club had no chance of keeping good players… The big clubs immediately took the strongest – Simeoforidis, Papavasiliou, Dintsikos, and Sarganis. The captain of the team, Giorgios Paraschos, was called to the national team, but did not establish himself there – he played only 4 times for Greece. The only real star emerging from the Cup winners was their goalkeeper Nikos Sarganis: he was bought by Olympiakos right after the Cup victory and debuted for the national team. Later he played for Panathinaikos too and between 1980 and 1991 played 58 matches for Greece. During his career he scored 6 goals – in the days when goalkeeper very rarely scored goals. Well, good for the players, but not so for Kastoria, which after the great victory only saw the best players leaving one after another. But a great victory is great victory – the best moment in the history of Kastoria remains in memory.

The 1970s were a decade of steady ascent of Greek football, culminating with Greece playing at 1980 European Championship finals. But there was dark side to Greek football, making it an enigma. Success and scandal went hand in hand, as if there was no way to better the game without illegal means. 1979-80 was no exception: the Federation announced that Greek football was to be professional , starting with the next championship. This decision immediately triggered a strike of the players. There were some bugging questions and unsolved to this very day problems, but the most immediate result was penalties. The decision of the Federation concerned only first division – the players of the second division felt unfairly treated and went on strike. Since the championship was nearing its end, the Federation decided to award wins to these clubs which fielded players in the last games. In case of both teams not showing up, the no-show game had no winner and nobody got points. Fair and simple? No… A glance of the final tables of the 2 groups of Second Division shows that only 1 of the 40 participating clubs finished without deducted points! 39 clubs had points deducted, ranging from 1 (Atromitos) to 11 (Levadiakos). Perhaps nowhere in the world there was ever been such a dirty championship. The sole exception, therefore, deserves mentioning:

A.O. Vizas Megaron. They finished 2nd in the Southern Group of Second Division, unfortunately far behind the winners, so… fairplay did not pay out. The winners had 2 games in which they did not get points for failing to show up, plus 1 point deducted – and were promoted.

Well, that is almost all what is clear. The RSSSF website provides something like explaination: because of the strike, ‘the last four days of the championship were not played. Not all teams went on strike, and these won their matches 2-0.’ This explaination does not match deductions and awarded games: 4 days in practical terms means just one round. Yet, some teams are shown with more than one awarded game. May be what is meant is ‘the last four rounds’? This doesn’t tally either. Nothing is said about deductions – if we consider that actually teams were penalized with deuctions for not showing up, 4 rounds barely make sense – yet, short of justifying deductions of more than 8 points. Most likely teams were penalized for other infringements, which paints very unpleasant picture: 39 of 40 clubs were found guilty! Corruption of so vast scale is scarry even to think about it, immediately suggesting that it was not peculiar only to second division – at the end, the big clubs were untouchable… And because of that, the small fry was not really punished either – there had to be 2 promotions and with only one clean club in the Second Division… promotions went to the unclean. But this is not all.

The strike itself triggers the question what was the status of Greek players until 1980? Amateurs? Impossible, because of the massive presence of foreign players: in the 1979-80 season Olympiakos had 8 foreigners! When foreigners were allowed to play in Greece is ever-lasting mystery – there were foreigners since the late 1950s, but officially even in the 1970s foreigners were not allowed… and fake documents were made to them, often changing the original names to Greek ones. But not every name was changed… ‘Oriundi’ rule had been applied for a long time: foreign players of Greek descent were considered domestic. This perhaps applied to Cypriots as well. Inventing ‘Greek roots’ helped bending the general rule of using foreign players in the 1970s: 2 per game. A glance at line-ups shows that on paper Greek clubs followed this rule (international games were different matter – UEFA had no rules about foreigners, so in the European torunaments not only the Greeks often used more foreigners than allowed by the domestic leagues). Many foreign players were fielded as Greeks – and this explains why Olympiakos had such a big number – but the mess was tremendous. Who was domestic and why? The German born Maik Galakos was listed as Greek in the Olympiakos squad – yet, when he played in West Germany, he was listed as German! At the same time Panathinaikos listed Helmut Kirisitz – seemingly, of Greek descent – as Austrian import. Yet, Panathinaikos also had a certain player named Niko Kovi, listed under Turkish nationality – not the first Turkish-born Greek, who came to Greece – and as a rule of thumb, getting Greek citizenship according to etnicity, the very reason for emigration. But Olympiakos topped that: Christos Kaltsas, born 1956, is given as Romanian. Yes, he was born in Romania – but he did not play in Romania at all: his first club is a Greek one, and he joined it in 1973! From the dates, it is quite clear that he came to Greece as teenager, most likely his parents decided to return to their homeland. So, how was he a foreign player? Meantime some genuine foreigners took Greek citizenship (and some settled in Greece for the rest of their lives!) – naturalization is hardly ever shown in statistics: such players are listed as foreigners. Case in point: the Uruguayan born Julio Losada of Olympiakos. Contrary to his case is the one of Vassilis Hatzipanagis, biographically listed with dual citizenship – Greek and Soviet – but statistically given as domestic Greek player. The mess has one practical application, though: the foreigners were not amateurs. And if they were not, Greek stars were not either – Hatzipanagis always speaks about his restrictive contract with Iraklis, preventing him of playing for bigger clubs, including Arsenal (London). And get this: Iraklis was relegated at the end of 1979-80 season to the remaining non-professional Second Division! What was he in the next season? If amateur, what stopped him from moving to bigger club? All boils down to constant infringement and violation of rules and massive corruption, which was a public knowledge and the general attitude was to pretend not seeing it. So the championship ended with finals tables ‘normalizing’ the situation.

Atromitos (Athens) won the Southern Group and was promoted to First Division. They got no points for 2 matches, apparently striking players did not show up, and 1 point deducted for something else. With such record, they finished 6 points ahead of clean Vizas (Megaron).

Panserraikos (Serres) won the Northern Group – they also failedto show up at 2 games and got no points and had 2 points deducted for who knows what. No worries… they still finished 8 points ahead of Niki Volou and moved up to top flight.

 

The battle between new and old was not decisive. Malmo FF reached the Cup final, which turned out to be a challenge between the ‘losers’ of the championship – IK Brage was the other finalist. Attendance was low, so fans just missed the fun: the final ended 3-3 and went to penalty shoot-out. In it Malmo FF won 4-3.

Unfortunately for IK Brage, they were just a tiny bit bellow the other strong clubs this year. Fortunately for Malmo, the team was still strong enough and transition perhaps was going to end well – the season was not lost at all, they still won a trophy.

Winning the cup was perhaps vastly important for Malmo, because the moment was crucial: this was no longer the old great team. Their already legendary coach Bob Houghton returned to England. Gone were stars of the 1970s – Bo Larsson, Staffan Tapper, Jan Moller. As most often happens with strong teams, the sign of coming decline is when the least significant members of the old great squad becomes the defining star of the moment – Ingemar Erlandsson here. The newcomers were a bit alarming: another English coach was hired to replace Houghton. But when Houghton arrived, he was at least young and promissing coach – with his development the team developed. Keith Blunt was not young and so far not successful – he came from Sutton United, a club not even a member of the professional leagues. His arrival suggested stagnation, not development. He also brought two English players with him: Tim Parkin, b. 1957, formerly of Blackburn Rovers, and Paul McKinnon, b. 1958, who played for Blunt in Sutton United. Young players, but… when unknown players from low leagues are imported, that means trouble: Malmo apparently had no strong players left and the general quality was so low, that unknown imports were the only solution. So it looked like… and may be so it was, and the club needed to jump over difficult hurdle – if winning something this year, they had a good chance of avoiding crisis. If not – it was going down all the way. It is familiar story. Malmo FF won the Cup. They also had rapidly rising new star – Robert Prytz.

 

 

Sweden went through a minor decline at the end of the 1970s. It was mot visible at the 1978 World Cup – at club level it was different: Malmo FF achieved the biggset success ever of a Swedish club at the same time. The problem was peculiar and unlike any other country: since Swedish clubs were never relly strong, they were pretty much the same. The crisis was visible in the national team and international transfers: the great players of the first half of the 1970s aged, but there were no new stars coming. Transitional period of changing generations. 1980 was perhaps the turning point – the next generation was taking charge, but it was till too young to make really strong impression. Tiny signs defined the moment: Malmo FF changed their coach and employed foreign players, as if stating that locals were not good enough. And the team stpped back a bit, becoming a second fiddle. In the same time IFK Goteborg was rising, but was not dominant force yet. On the surface, Swedish football looked the same, though – like Denmark, ups and downs were common, for there were no big clubs dominating the scene. Perhaps IFK Sundsvall captures Swedish football best:

Domestic squad, not a single recognizable name, thus similar to almost any other Swedish team. They finished 7th in 1980 – right in the middle of the table, with 26 points of 26 matches. It would have been possible to finish higher, it would have been possible to finish lower – depending to the momentary form not only of the squad, but also depending on the form of the other clubs. Anonymous team. But not so bad compared to some more familiar names…

Second Division winners were at least well known names:

Örgryte IS (Goteborg), the oldest club in the country, and

AIK (Stockholm). A testimony for the strength of the Swedish clubs – ‘big’ names struggled in Second division when little known clubs played relatively well in top flight. But these two managed to go up rather quickly.

There was little drama at the bottom of First Division – two teams were obviously bellow the class of the league.

Mjällby AIF were last with 11 points.

Landskrona BoIS ended with 6 points more than poor Mjällby AIF, but they also had 4 points less than the nearest teams above them. 13th place was there and that was the second relegation spot. At 12th place finished Djurgardens IF and 11th – Atvidabergs FF. Gone were the years when these two clubs were among the best. If Djurgardens IF was moving up and down, as most Swedish clubs did depending on momentary form, Atvidabergs FF was just fading away, going further and further down, and permanently.

At the end, what really mattered was the top of the league. Four clubs were clearly better than the rest and contested the title.

IF Brage finsihed 4th with 33 points. Strong season for one of the traditionally lesser clubs For some reason the magazine which published their picture credited Brage with bronze medals, but even without them it was great season for the boys. Brage rarely finished that high and earned a spot in the UEFA Cup.

IFK Goteborg finished 3rd. The club had rather mediocre decade, but now were going up. Few young promising players were in the squad – the next generation of great Swedish players: Glenn Hysen, Dan Corneliusson, Olle Nordin, Tord Holmgren. Still too young for success, but talented enough to move Goteborg up the ladder. Similarly young was their coach – Sven-Goran Eriksson. This was the team for the future, going up, but not yet at its peak.

Malmo FF finished 2nd with 35 points – one more than IFK Goteborg. To a point, this was the club going down. The best team of the 1970s was unable to win the title. It was not real decline, but inevitable changing of generations. It looked like Malmo was staying among the best just on inertia and there was the big risk of sinking unless a new team was build quick enough.

With Malmo over the hill and Goteborg not at its peak yet, another club took advantage.

Östers IF won the championship in 1978, which was more or less a surprize, but they were best in 1980 too. Not supreme, but just a bit better than their opponents. They lost only 2 games this season and finished with 37 points – 2 more than Malmo FF, 4 more than Brage. As is often the case of not so great champions, they depended on defense – the best in the league – which helped squirrel point here, point there, and at the end – more than anybody else. But the champions also had few of the next generation stars: Tomas Ravelli, Peter Stromberg, Andreas Ravelli, Hakan Arvidson. Two foreigners aleso helped: the Finnish national team player Peter Utriainen and one of solid Icelandic players, who impressed Europe in the 1980s – Teitur Thordarson (who eventually became well respected coach in the early 21st century). Their young coach Bosse Johansson was instrumental and rising – with time, he was to coach the national teams of Iceland and Denmark. May be not a great team at big scale, but these years were perhaps the strongest period in the history of the club – second title in three years, and not the last one either.

 

 

The Cup final opposed teams from the lower half of first division – Hvidovre IF (11th) and Lyngby BK (12th). Theoretically, Lyngby BK had the edge, for the final was played at their home town and they were higher scorers, but reality was different. In front of high for Denmark attendance of 23 500, Hvidovre destroyed the hosts 5-3. The crowd was obviously disappointed, but at least was well entertained.

Lyngby was typical Danish squad, but they had one eventually famous player – Klaus Bergreen. Well, he was not yet known name and not enough for victory. Hvidovre had no current or future star in its squad, but it did not matter.

It was glorious day for the boys in red – they won the very first Cup for Hvidovre. History is made of such days – and this day grew even larger in time, for Hvidovre so far did not win a second Cup. In a way, it is understandable why: a club sponsored by entity called ‘Yankie Bar’ can hardly have the funds for building and maintaining strong team. The case of Danish football in a nutshell. But it was excellent victory for the club and its fans.

As a last note on this season: Denmark became one of the most exciting European teams a few years later and perhaps there were some signs of coming greatness in 1980? None of it… Not in any squad, not even individual players. Apart from the goalkeepers – the weaker post in the future great squad – who never became memorable, let alone famous, the only future star playing at home in 1980 was the full back John Sivebaek (Vejle). Those, who became world famous were already playing abroad.

 

Denmark was fully professional by 1980, but still the top players were looking to play for foreign clubs. Nothing really changed – talent was not concentrated into 2-3 clubs, but dispersed around the league. There were no more fantastic sponsor deals, so there were no longer teams showing different add on each player’s shirt, but there was obviously no way a big sponsor to elevate a Danish club to the best European ones – it was rather money helping clubs to survive. But the championship was dramatic this year.

Down in Second Division,

Viborg FF,

B 1901 (Nykøbing Falster), and

Herfølge BK were best and won promotions. Since ups and downs were traditionally a mark of Danish football, it is pointless to evaluate what future contribution to top flight the newcomers may have had.

First Division was point in case: at the bottom were two clear outsiders.

AaB (Aalberg) were last with 6 points.

BK Frem ended 15th with 12 points – one may expect Frem to be among the title contenders, but in Denmark no club was favourite for long and relegation was often in the cards too. Miserable season for Frem – they were tremendously weak. The 14th in the final standings and the 3rd relegated club had more than twice Frem’s points – 26.

Fremad Amager were a likely candidate for relegation, but they fought to the end and were perhaps a bit unlucky – they lost a battle for survival between three clubs. Lyngby BK and Kastrup Boldklub finished with 27 points and Fremad Amager went down with 26. So much for the bottom of the league.

The drama at the top was much more interesting. There were no favourites head and shoulders above most in the league, but gradually three clubs took slight advantage and preserved it to the end. Eventually, one of the three leaders dropped out:

OB Odense finished 3rd with 38 points – two more than the 4th placed and two less than the top teams. Which finished with equal points – 40 each – and goal-difference decided the championship.

Næstved If, not a club usually found at the top, had excellent season and almost won the title. Almost… To lose on goal-difference is really tough and unfortunate. The team also enoyed most victories this season – 18. The champions had only 16. Still, the team had to either score more or to be less adventurous – apparently, they played for all or nothing, and nothing they got in 8 matches they lost. If they tried to keep a tie for a change… bit they did not.

At the end – lucky champions KB.

Kjøbenhavns Boldklub – ancient, successful, representing the capital city: usually, such clubs were big fish in their own country, but not in Denmark.

The champions had a single recognizable name: the national team goalkeeper Ole Quist and ‘recognizable’ is all to be said about him. KB clearly were not ‘a big fish’… but they won their record 15th title! As it happens, their very last success. Ever! The club is not existing since 1991, when they merged with B 1903 into FC Copenhagen. The last triumph was tricky and just lucky.

The misery of Istanbul continued in the Cup tournament – Galatasaray reached the final and it looked like they will save face. Their opposition was not much – Altay. But the old rivalry between Izmir and Istanbul was stronger than momentary form. Altay won the first leg 1-0. The result favoured Galatasaray… but Altay managed 1-1 tie in the second match and the Cup went to Izmir. Disastrous season for Galatasaray.

Great victory for the old club, no doubt. Football in Izmir is old, yet, success was rare – the rivalry with Istanbul was not in their favour at all. And worse – the clubs declined during the 1970s and lost their historic significance to Trabzon and Ankara. They were not even ‘also run’ mid-table clubs anymore, but fighting to escape relegation. Altay barely survived this season. Which enjoyed, because their local enemies Goztepe did not. It was even better to end the season with a trophy, when poor Goztepe went down. It was great to beat Galatasaray and come on top of Istanbul. It was a rare success too – so far, Altay won a single trophy: the Turkish Cup in 1966-67. A second trophy was fantastic. It is also their last so far…