Category: 1981

St. Etienne had a great chance for celebrating a double this year, for they reached the Cup final. Winning the cup was quite important, for it was elusive trophy for ‘the greens’: the last time they won it was in 1975. The moment was perfect – Bastia was the other finalist and they had a rather weak season. Surely Platini and company would won easily… but no! Bastia fought bravely and prevailed 2-1, winning their first Cup against odds and reason.

St. Etienne as they lined up before the final, which looked like mere formality: standing from left: Gérard Janvion, Patrick Battiston, Jacques Santini, Bernard Gardon, Christian Lopez, Jean Castaneda

Crouching: Johnny Rep, Laurent Roussey, Michel Platini, Jacques Zimako, Jean-Marie Elie.

Well, the lost final perhaps showed that this new St. Etienne was not yet the finished product, not ready to truly dominate the French football.

Brave Bastia not only upset the big guys: they won their very first – and so far, only – trophy. May be the team, reaching the UEFA Cup final in 1977-78 is considered legendary outside France, but these guys are the real club legends, for they won, not only played a final. Compared to St. Etienne, they wee almost nothing. They were also less famous squad than the UEFA Cup finalist – there was no world class star among them, Rep was playing against them now. In fact, they had famous players earlier – Rep and Dragan Djajic before the Dutch striker. Now… Rajkovic was not first rank Yugoslavian player, Roger Milla so far nobody heard of outside Africa – he was not a major name in France. Papi, Orlanducci, Hiard, Lacuesta… good, but second tier players – local stars surely, but no more. It was a great victory of the underdog. Nothing wrong with that: Bastia had something to put in its trophy room at last.

The French First Division was characterized by clear separation at top and bottom this season: two outsiders and two title contenders. Nothing surprising in between – the known stronger teams ended high, the lesser teams – low.

Angers was last with 24 points.

Nimes finished 19th with 26 points, joining Angers in relegation. Both teams were well bellow the rest of the league.

Tours was 18th , but with 31 points they were out of danger for a long time – although at the bottom of the table, Tours were successful in their own way: managed to remain in the first division without much trouble.

Laval was similar to Tours – staying with the best was their maximum goal, so the season was fine: they were 16th.

The crisis of Nice continued – the squad was not that bad, considering the names, but the club was going downhill for some years and there was no reversal of the fall: Nice was not yet in direct danger of relegation, but it was just a matter of time. 15th this year.

Mid-table had expected clubs in it: Lens, Sochaux, Nancy, Valenciennes, the usual dwellers.

Perhaps Metz deserves a note: they had relatively strong season, taking 9th place at the end with 36 points. Not much by itself, but a good beginning of coaching career for Kasperczak, one of most impressive members of the 1974 Polish national team. And practically the first of the key stars to switch from playing to coaching.

Auxerre finished 10th – not bad at all for a virtually unknown club only 3 years ago. Coach Roux was becoming familiar name, pushing his creation higher and higher. The formula was stubbornly uncompromising: local boys, helped by foreign stars – so far, only Polish. Three this season – Klose, a reserve by now, and Wieczorek, remembered form the 1974 World Cup. The third is not on this photo, but on the following one:

Andrzey Szarmach, one of the best Polish strikers in the 1970s, the most famous player in the squad of Auxerre. Next to the Poles, two local boys were getting stronger and stronger – Ferreri and Bats. Auxerre was the club steadily going up.

The top of the table was familiar:

Lyon was 6th, although they were really at the top of the mid-table bulk. May be a bit weaker than usual, but just a bit – they were constant feature of top French clubs year after year.

Paris SG was 5th with 46 points, 5 more than Lyon, but like Lyon, they were continuously among the best, without really able to contest the title. Perhaps the club philosophy was essentially wrong: for years Paris SG depended on oldish stars. Big names technically helped building followers – something important for a still very young club with ambitions – but on the negative side was the simple fact that the veterans were beyond their peak and the chemistry was not good enough for conquering the league. Bathenay, Rocheteau, Huck, Baratelli already had their best years elsewhere. Toko, Dahleb, and Pilorget never became first-class stars and the same was true for the Portuguese import Silva Braga. Luis Fernandez was practically the only younger player with star qualities – experienced and solid squad, but not a champion squad. Again.

Monaco, notoriously unstable, was at a good stretch and finished 4th with 49 points. They lost bronze medals only on goal-difference, but the future looked bright: Petit, Amoros, Ettori, Couriol, Emon, Bellone, the foreign solid players Umberto Barberis (Switzerland) and Victor Trossero (Argentina) – a well mixed skeleton of young and old stars, with reliable talent at the fringe. Stability was the constant issue, but the potential was very strong.

Bordeaux fully recovered its leading position in French football this season, but the team was not yet at its peak – 3rd place corresponded to their near-peak situation. Like Monaco, this was a squad with a future, perhaps better one than Monaco’s, for Bordeaux had a team of fighters: Tresor, Giresse, Lacombe were already the big leaders. May be Bracci and Gemmrich were a bit over the hill and van Straelen – not exactly the player expected to be five years ago, but there was solid and rising players like Rohr, Thouvenel, and Soler. Eime Jacquet was making his name coaching this team and whatever was still missing was easy to correct – it was a team needing only a fine tuning, a bit of a finishing touch.

The race for the title was familiar – between Nantes and Saint Etienne, the best French clubs since 1970. Both teams managed to change generations without losing class. Perhaps two ago Nantes was fresher, but now they needed a bit of reshaping – St. Etienne meantime had their new team, promising to be at least as strong as the one of the mid-70s, possibly greater. Yet, the race was tight and St. Etienne prevailed minimally – they won one match more than their rival. One more title.

Coach Robert Herbin must be on focus: he was with the club since 1957, first as a player, and in 1972 he took the coaching position from Albert Batteux. St. Etienne was already leading French club in the 1960s – with Herbin in it – and the 33-years old inexperienced coach only improved on the team, making it a leading European team, which culminated in 1976. But Herbin did not allow the inevitably aging team to sink – on the contrary, he managed to keep it at top of French football while he changed generation and by 1980 his new squad was ready. This time it looked like that Herbin took one more step up: St. Etienne started as strong French team, became European leading team, and now had the appearance of world class team: it was no longer making players, but buying great stars: the new team was based on Michel Platini and Johnny Rep. By now only 4 players of the old wonderful team remained – Ivan Curkovic, Gerard Janvion, Christian Lopez, and Jacques Santini, but transition had been smooth – Curkovic, for instance, was no longer the regular starter, replaced by Jean Castaneda, who was included in the French national team. The old-timers no longer defined the team, but the next generation was firmly in charge: Patrick Battiston, Jean-Francois Larios, Jacques Zimako. Of course, Michel Platini, coming to his peak, was central figure. Perhaps the squad needed a few finishing touches, but now it looked like that they will be at the level of Platini or Rep and the 1980s looked more than promising – St. Etienne started the new decade clearly determined to be even stronger than it was in the 1970s. Bright future on the horizon, but… wait a few years, keeping an eye on Italy. At the moment – a record 10th title, all but one of them achieved with Herbin as either player, or coach. Who would have expected this will be the last title?

 

 

Second Division Group B did not have even the small drama Group A had: one team dominated the championship. At the other side of the table the battle for survival preoccupied about 7 clubs, except the very last: Stade Malherbe Caen was the outsider. 18th with 22 points.

UES Montmorillon ended 17th with 27 points and was relegated along with Caen.

Of the group which escaped relegation Paris FC – 15th with 28 points – was the interesting name.

Birth defects, one could say. A decade ago the newly formed Parisian club was split in two by the decision of the Federation and Paris FC was left almost with nothing. The club fought bravely to establish itself, even played in the top division, but… Paris St. Germain got the money and since France was not crazy about football, even Paris was not the kind of city where two clubs, especially new, could prosper. Paris FC was still positioned higher than two older and more famous Parisian clubs – Stade de Francais and Racing – but it was undeniably small club, sinking deeper and deeper. At the turn of 1980s its sole ambition was to stick in second division, however perilously. By now, the company Paris FC kept was insignificant – teams like

AAJ Blois, 12th this season and perhaps happy with that. Merchadier captained them, but even for him success was already a distant memory.

Yet, it was not Paris FC in true decline, but the most famous French club of the past: Stade Reims. After the end of the 1950s Reims was steadily going down, to find itself not only in the second division at the beginning of the 1980s, but also as a run-of-the-mill team there – mid-table was the best they could do: 10th this year. Reims never climbed back to leading position in French football. Now it was at the level of

AC Le Havre, which occasionally would be able to have a good season and go up, but more likely was to play uninspired second division football – they were 8th this year – or

En Avant Guingamp, which was a stable feature of the second division, but did not dream so far for something better. Typically, Guingamp finished at 7th place – safe mid-table.

Stade Rennes ended 4th with 40 points – however, Rennes was similar to Marseille: they were one of the constantly moving between first and second division clubs, a club in between, so failing promotion was not exactly a big news.

FC Rouen was 3rd with 42 points – a relatively good season, but promotion was clearly not up to them. Perhaps the most memorable thing of them was their kit: by itself, not unique, but always very rare three-colour combination in the history of football.

Excellent season for the small US Noeux-les-Mines – second place. With 44 points they did not really challenge the league champions, but this was one the greatest seasons in the history of a club for which second division was pretty much the highest possible level of success. The squad itself is a testimony of the great contribution of the Poles to French football: 5 Polish names here, although it was traditionally difficult to separate imports from French players of Polish stock. The great season should be attributed to the coach – Houllier was not famous at all yet, but only at the beginning of his own success.

Stade Brest was the dominant champion. They left Noeux-les-Mines 5 points behind and finished with 49 points from 20 wins, 9 ties, and 5 losses. Best attack and best defense, naturally.

Well, Brest was modest club without serious money, but the league was not very strong and a little drop of ambition made the difference between them and the rest. As far as names go, Brest had perhaps more strong players than any other club: three. The French Parizon and Keruzore and the Yugoslavian striker Drago Vabec, who never played much for his native country – because he played for a wrong club, as he said – was a bit whimsical, thus unpredictable and not always reliable, but proved to be very loyal player. He was already a member of Brest for years, come low or high. Promotion for Brest meant a lot and they deserved it without a question. Well done. There is a bit of a problem with the historic record of the club – it was founded in 1903 under the name Armoricaine de Brest, but changed name in 1950 – with that came a new registration, so technically 1950 is given as a founding year and the record runs from there: under this name Brest played so far only 1 single season in First Division – 1979-80. After a single year in the second level, they moved up again for a second try of top level football. Good luck!

France, rapidly moving up on international scale, was still pretty much the same domestically: no really big clubs emerged, even St. Etienne and Nantes did not come close not to Real Madrid, Juventus, or Bayern, but to, say, Anderlecht or Ajax. Second division football was pretty much like everywhere else except England – there was sharp difference between first and second division football. The lower level distinctly belonged to modest clubs without much money and, thus, without big ambitions. One thing France differed from the rest of Europe was that the two groups of the second division had not only relegated and promoted newcomers, but clubs were moved from one group to the other every year. For the 1980-81 season Besancon, Angouleme, and Montlucon were moved from Group B to Group A, and Paris FC, Blois, and Orleans went the other way. The rest was business as usual: 18 teams in a group, the winner promoted to First Division and the last two relegated to Third Division. Hm, not quite – three teams were relegated from Group A and two from Group B – Third Division was organized into five groups, that was why.

AS Corbeil Essonnes finished 18th and last.

Olympique Avignon – 17th. Both clubs at the bottom finished with 21 points, the outsiders of the league, but if Corbeil was more or less expected to be there, Avignon was playing first division football not very long ago – first division they were not, seemingly second division was their right level, but now they were going down and rightly so.

The third relegated team finished with 24 points and lost the battle for survival by a single point, but frankly US Tavaux Damparis were not the kind of club able to stay in the second tier for long.

Right above the relegated were teams expected to be in the lower half of the table:

Etoile Motlucon – 15th, AS Libourne – 14th, and

FC Grenoble – 12th. Pure survivalists. Down on its luck was a club with more familiar name –

Gazelec Ajaccio ended 13th which was not all that surprising – the club’s performance amplitude was very wide and unpredictable, but there was also confusing element in tracing their records: the city of Ajaccio had two clubs with very similar names, same colours, and practically identical logos. Since they rarely played in the same division, usually were referred to just as ‘Ajaccio’, making difficult to know which one was actually playing in the upper divisions: on this occasion it was Gazelec, seemingly the stronger club in 1960-70s.

The mid-table was more or less familiar and true to expectations:

AS Cannes was 9th, FC Gueugnon – 8th.

Standing from left: C.Nowotarski (entr) – Ch.Trivino – Mamessier – JC Berthommier – M.Berthommier – en équipe A.Chaussin – JP.Segaud – P.Rossin – Lecroat – Godot – Bandera – Conrath.

Sitting : J.Duch – Clopin – Soulier – Stropoli – A.Bernard – Segard – JL.Fournier – Borgna – Regaisse.

Neither team developed ambitions as yet, continuing there rather mellow existence in the second level of French football. The biggest disappointment was Olympique Marseille.

6th place with 39 points, 3 points behind the the 5th and not even remotely close to the actual top – if there was a big downfall, it happened to Marseille: the leading French club at the beginning of the 1970s went into severe crisis – sure bad decisions and likely deep financial problems reduced the club often considered as true French giant to relegation and even the second division was a bit too much: the squad was not even pedestrian, but almost anonymous. Only the veteran Zvunka remained from the great old days, and he was only a veteran now.

AS Angouleme, just moved to this group, finished 5th , but their glory days were clearly over long time ago – solid, as it seemed, Angouleme was not in the race for promotion. Only three clubs aimed higher and perhaps one of them was more of an accident than the real thing: RCFC Besancon finished 3rd, losing second place on goal-difference. Still, Besancon was unlikely candidate for promotion – the top two were seen as potential candidates. As far as a strong team is recognized by the players in the squad, FC Toulouse and Montpellier were stronger than the rest.

FC Toulouse had the most famous players – only two, but that was much more the rest of the league members had: the former Belgian international van Binst, still vividly remembered from the great exploits of Anderlecht a few years ago, and the well traveled Hungarian refugee Atilla Ladinsky – unfortunately, both were at the end of their careers and no longer the players they used to be. Toulouse obviously lost steam and was able only to finish second, edging Besancon on goal-difference, but 3 points behind the champions.

La Paillade Montpellier topped the league with 50 points from 21 wins, 8 ties, and 5 losses. Their strongest point was defense – the team allowed just 17 goals in 36 championship matches. Like Toulouse, their stars were older players of better past than future – Mezy and Saramagna. As a whole, Montpellier were old – one of the original members of French professional football, but a modest club, more often found in second division than first. To a point, they wanted to return to top flight and succeeded this season.

The Cup final opposed the two best teams this season – Ajax vs AZ’67. Normally, Ajax should have been the favourite, but AZ’67 were so strong this season, so it was difficult to bet – still Ajax was the likelier winner: on one hand, they had to compensate for losing the tile; on the other – Alkmaar, playing on three fronts, was under heavy pressure and no matter how good they were, this was not a club used to winning. Predictions, expectations, arguments… on the pitch AZ’67 destroyed Ajax 3-1.

Kees Kist triumphal with the Cup. Treytel next to him was also happy – he was used to winning trophies, but may be this season was special for him too: it was one thing to get titles and cups with Feyenoord and entirely different to win with small club at an age nobody expects anything from you.

Ajax lost twice this year, finishing with nothing – second-best equals failure. The team was not bad, but there was something missing, something not quite good, not quite right – after 1973 Ajax was just unable to make a great team. Of course, it is hardly possible to keep a new team at par with true geniuses, like Cruijff &Co., but Ajax was not getting even close. Unlike Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven, Ajax did nothing wrong and never sunk into a crisis – they sold the great players one by one, adding young talent all the time, plus their special brand of always buying old solid player with big reputation. They stayed strong in Holland, but lost their leading position in Europe – and 1979-80 was just continuing the pattern. Not a single player of the great team remained – Krol moved in the summer of 1980 first to Canada and from there – to Italy. Now the leading veterans were not associated with the glory years at all – Schrijvers, La Ling, Schoenaker. Add Henning Jensen, who arrived from Real Madrid, having made his fame with Borussia Moenchengladbach – unfortunately, he was 32 years old by now and no longer the same. In terms of leadership, the current veterans were not just what was desired. Behind them were young stars – Wim Kieft, Wim Meutstege, Edo Ophof to a point, but largely the Danish midfield duo Soren Lerby and Frank Arnesen. Not a bad ‘skeleton’, but somewhat unfinished – as were previous versions of Ajax after 1974. If Ajax made a mistake in rebuilding, it was in their eagerness to sell stars – veterans were one thing, but may be they sold too quickly younger players – like Tahamata – which left in the position of having half-a-team, never finished and constantly searching for leaders. And it was quite sure now that Lerby and Kieft will not be around for long. A bit shaky, Ajax lost both the championship and the Cup.

AZ’67 won a double – this was the best year in the history of the club: champions, cup winners, and UEFA Cup finalists – this cup they lost just by a single goal, they really came close to win a third trophy. What a season! And the funny white bathrobes donned for the picture, evoking the memories of the great Ajax. As if coming back again. The best season in the history of AZ’67 to this very day, a legendary season. Alas, there were some dark clouds on the horizon: since the typical life span of a strong team is about 5 years, AZ’67 just reached its peak and the inevitable decline was coming. If this was a bigger club, the downfall may have been avoided, but there was the predicament of small clubs instead: once such a club came into focus, there was no way to keep the stars and develop further. Three key players of this wonderful squad were already wetting the appetites of both Dutch and foreign clubs – and Kees Kist was sold to Paris SG in 1982, John Metgod – to Real Madrid in 1982, and Kurt Welzl to Valencia in 1981. AZ’67 were simply not in a position to build a dynasty, but what a season they had, crowning their 5-years long climb with fantastic and difficult to match success. No accident in their case, no just a lucky year.

The Dutch First Division played a strange season: on one hand, it was the familiar high-scoring kind of football, typical for this country. On the other hand, the usual favourites were not really a big factor this year, dominated entirely by one club. At the bottom – nothing surprising. Two outsiders, more or less expected. FC Wageningen finished last.

Wageningen was not expected to last in the top league and they did not. Well, they had their short rub with the best and were going back to their familiar second division football. Note the big W on their shirts: it is just the first letter of the club’s name – shirt advertisement was not yet permitted. It will be in the next season.

SBV Excelsior (Rotterdam) finished 17th – like Wageningen, they finished with 21 points, but better goal-difference placed them a place above last. No comfort in that – they joined Wageningen in relegation. Both teams were clearly not up to the challenge this year – to the joy of other smaller clubs, which had not to fret about second division.

Up the table – nothing immediately interesting. FC Groningen finished 15th with 25 points, but better goal-difference than NEC Nijmegen.

Top row, from left: Sip Bloemberg – Theo Keukens – Jouke Faber – Jack van Loon – Dick Bults – Karel Hiddink – Walter Waalderbos – Dick Ploeger

Middle row: Wubbo de Boer (elftalleider) – Renze de Vries (voorzitter) – Azing Griever – Eddy Bakker – Henk Veldmate – Peter Houtman – Leen Swanenburg – Herman Dijkstra – Hans Boer – Theo Verlangen (trainer) – John Visser (verzorger)

Sitting: Anne Mulder – Jan Brouwer – Ronald Koeman – Bert Hendriks – Bert Wiebing – Ludwig Timisela – Jan van Dijk.

Nothing spectacular, as usual, but there were at least two youngsters eventually becoming well known – Peter Houtman and Ronald Koeman. The next great generation of Dutch football was coming, but it was still too young for immediate impact.

FC Den Haag was 14th with 27 points. No future great names here – the club relied on Aad Mansveld. Den Haag distinguished itself this season with the worst defensive record in the league, allowing 79 goals.

NAC Breda was 13th with also with 27 points, but ahead of Den Haag on goal-difference. Standing: Jansen (trainer/coach), Wanny van Gils, Jack Beusenberg, Tom Dekker, Bertus Quaars, Tom Smits, Anton Joore, Hans Heeren, Geert van de Wiel (verzorger).

Sitting: Ton van Eenenaam, Edu de Schepper, Ton Sprangers, Martien Vreijsen, Ton Lokhoff, Hans Neeskens, Ad Krijnen, Mathé van Kelle.

Roda JC ended 11th with 28 points, ahead of Go Ahead Eagles on better goal-difference.

Third row from left: Leo Degens, Peter de Wit, Dick Nanninga, Joop Dacier, G.Tsinos, John Meuser, John Eriksen.

Mmiddle row: Ton Marijt, Leo Ehlen, Allan Nielsen, Willy Smeets, Jan Jongbloed, Frank Ramakers, Roger Raeven, Kees Bregman, Piet de Visser (trainer)

Sitting: Ronald Hendriks, René Hofman, Eugène Marijnissen, Michel Mommertz, J. v/d Kinderen, Theo de Jong, Eugène Hanssen, Wim Meijers.

Slightly better squads when one climbs up the table: Dick Nanninga, Theo de Jong, the Danish international Allan Nielsen, and, of course, Jan Jongblood between the goalposts.

Familiar teams in the lower half of the table, nothing special and far away from any great things. There was sharp gap between those clubs and the better ones: MVV Maastricht, 8th, was 4 points ahead of those bellow. And Maastricht was nothing special.

Sparta (Rotterdam) was nothing special too, but they had good year and finished 7th with 36 points. Which was not close to the top 6 teams – Twente ended 6th with 39 points.

Standing: dhr. Hollink (trainer), Tjalling dilling, John Scheve, Niels Overweg, Eddy Pasveer, Andre van Gerven, Theo Snelders, Ab Gritten, Bert Strijdveen, Heinz Otto, masseur Jan Steeneeke.

Sitting: Manuel Sanchez Torres, Ferdi Rhode, Romeo Zondervan, Soeren Lingsted, Hallvar Thoresen, Fred Rutten, Aad Kila, Martin Jol, Jaap Bos, Evert Bleuning.

Gone were the days when Twente was expected to become really strong team – by now, it was mostly keeping a position in the upper half of the league. Niels Overweg was almost the only player left from the exciting squad of mid-1970s and only two players eventually became well known – Theo Snelders and Martin Jol. Jol was coming close to moving first to West Germany and after that – to England. Add the Norwegian national team regular Hallvar Thoresen.

Twente was left 5 points behind by PSV Eindhoven, which itself was no longer in great shape.

Third row: W. v.d. Kerkhof, J. Poortvliet, Q.v.d. Meulen, H. Stevens, E. Brands, P. Wildschot.

Middle row: verzorger J.v.d. Ven, W. Scheepers, W. Jansen, P. Doesburg, A. Koster, 2de trainer J. Rekers en trainer J. Libregts.

Sitting: N. Valke, P. Posthuma, T. Smolders, E. Koeman, T. Christensen, R.v.d. Kerkhof en W.v.d. Kuylen.

The squad was dangerously aging – the van de Kerkhof twins, Jansen, van der Kuylen, Doesburg were getting too old and the next generation – Huub Stevens, Ernie Brandts, Poortvliet, and Wildschot – never became great stars. Erwin Koeman did not even make his reputation with PSV Eindhoven. Perhaps the most interesting figure is not on the picture:

The South Korean midfielder Huh Jung-moo arrived this summer (the photo of his tackling Johan Cruijff is from the next season) after finishing his military service playing for Navy SC. The 25-years old never became internationally famous like his compatriot Cha Bum-kun, but he played 3 years for PSV Eindhoven, 12 years for the national team of South Korea (1974-86 – a total of 84 games, in which he scored 29 goals). The Asian were slowly rising, Huh was the third high-profile Asian player in Europe and his importance for both South Korean and Asian football is undeniable.

Frankly, PSV had to discard most of its regulars and build entirely different team. Fifth place was not quite right for such a club. Nor was 4th position for Feyenoord, lead by Vaclav Jezek, but there problem was not aging.

The problem of Feyenoord was rebuilding – a new squad was taking shape, but it was still formless and not very strong. Some were already very experienced, but not great leaders – Rene Notten, Sjaak Troost, and Jan Peters. Others were promising, but only that – Joop Hiele, Ben Wijnstekers, Karel Bouwens. The Danish import Ivan Nielsen was still not at the peak of his career. Feyenoord missed the right moment for starting a new team back in the mid-1970s and now suffered the consequences of hesitation – apparently, PSV Eindhoven did not learn from their sorry example and now was in the very situation Feyenoord was around 1975-76. Rebuilding was particularly difficult after missing the crucial moment – another sorry example. Feyenoord was not a factor at the moment – the heavy price.

FC Utrecht was good news this year – they finished 3rd, a great success for them. True, they bested Feyenoord only on goal-difference, were never in the battle for the title, and perhaps just benefited by the weakness of Feyenoord, PSV Eindhoven, and Twente, but they earned the bronze medals.

Third row: H. v. Breukelen, H. v.d. Vlag, J. v.d. Akker, J. Stroomberg, B. Rieter, T. de Kruyk, G. v.d. Lem.

Middle row: trainer N. Berger, G. Tervoort, 2e trainer J. Verkaik, J. van Veenendaal, J. Wildbret, T. Duchatinier, K. van Tamelen, W. Carbo, P. Eikelboom, T. Norbert, verzorger J. Okhuyzen, W. van Hanegem.

Sitting: Dr. Querido, T. Gruters, G. Kruys, J. van Staa, J. Wouters, F. Adela, W. Flight.

Great team Utrecht was not, but lead by Wim van Hanegem they outplayed themselves. A memorable season, although it was quite clear it was not to be repeated: the team did not have big potential, nor they had money to buy stronger players. Van Hanegem was at his last legs, but there was a player for the future – the great goalkeeper Hans van Breukelen already was noticed. A bit of success only helped his reputation – and perhaps was not helping Utrecht, because they were not able to keep a star for long.

Ajax finished 2nd but so distant second, the season could be seen as a failure – 12 points behind the champions. One good thing was that they were still maintaining leading position in the country. To a point, one can blame the whole league for having wrong attitude: Ajax were prime example of shrewd financial policy, selling quality players to the highest bidder and recruiting as cheaply as possible, but it was general Dutch approach – this season almost all foreigners were Danish. Ajax had three – 2 were rapidly rising stars, the third was a veteran over the hill. Somewhat the chemistry was not there and not for the first year either. Ajax – unlike the smaller clubs – did hot shy away from big names, but preferred them old, when their price was not big (Vasovic, Blankenburg, Mulder, Zoltan Varga, Geels, to name a few – and now Henning Jensen). Sometimes the policy worked, sometimes did not – this time it did not.

Rarely Holland had so dominating champion, finishing 12 points ahead of the nearest pursuer. Even more rare was a brand new champion. AZ’67 (Alkmaar) was and is seen as unlikely champion, may be just a chancy one, but chancy champions never finish with such astounding records: 27 wins, 6 ties, and only one loss. The boys scored 101 goals, receiving only 30. The best attack, the best defense, almost unbeatable and seemingly not even recognizing the distinction between home and away games, for they equally successful on every stadium: scored 51 goals at home and 50 away, received 14 at home and 16 away, won 14 matches at home and 13 away. Almost ironic was the fact that the only match they lost was in Alkmaar. Superior in every aspect, staggeringly dominant – and winning their very first title.

Wonderful champions, but today especially they were considered just a lucky underdog – it is not true. AZ’67 did not pop out of the blue – they started their climb in 1975-76, when they finished 6th. The next year they were 3rd and in 1977-78 -also 3rd. 4th in 1978-79, then 2nd in 1979-80 – not exactly your surprise team. Now they obviously reached their peak and won the championship. Their peculiar approach worked just fine: AZ’67 started with recruiting some aged stars, seen as over the hill, complimented by talented youngsters, who, for some reason did not interested the big clubs. The mixture worked and some fine tuning and careful adjustments made AZ’67 a wonderful team full of current stars. To the envy of the big three, AZ’67 formed a very strong team – Treytel, Hovenkamp, Spelbos, Arnzt, Metgod, Jonker. Kees Kist was the bright great star not only of the club, but the leading scoring machine in Europe. Add the experienced Dane Kristen Nygaard and the Austrian national team striker Kurt Welzl and there was the strongest side in Holland. The coach was good too – the West German Georg Kessler never made it big at home, but was successful abroad – he came from Swarovski Wacker (Austria) and was perfect for AZ’67 – as a coach, he was arguably at the perfect age: 49 years old, but vastly experienced. At his peak, one may say, and the same applies to his team. AZ’67 just galloped throw the season, winning left and right, but most importantly they were very exciting to watch – they brought back the old fast, attacking, high-scoring, wonderful to watch total football. It was their year and the title was more then well deserved.

Not that Second Division was strong – the numbers of participants fluctuated a bit, but it was not due to relegation, but largely economic reasons changed the numbers: occasionally a club was no longer able to keep professional team and dropped out of the league; occasionally a club decided to try professionalism, applied for league membership, and, if meeting the requirements, was accepted. The quality in Second Division was not great and the Dutch Federation knew that all too well, so there was elaborated promotional system – the second league champion were directly promoted, the second spot was decided by a play-off tournament between the winners of four segments of the regular championship. Which meant that the second in the final table may not even appear in this final tournament, but what the heck: there was no great difference between the stronger second division teams. As for relegation, nobody had to worry about such misfortune as long as they had money. So Heracles finished last – 19th – this year, but it did not matter. More interesting was the plunge FC Amsterdam took: they finished 16th, obviously in permanent crisis. It was clear that even the biggest Dutch cities were unable to keep two decent clubs – Ajax was practically the maximum for Amsterdam and Feyenoord – for Rotterdam. There was hardly any second division club coming close to the most first division members: even the strongest were hardly able to last for long among the best. Nothing new… and because of that Second Division would be mentioned only in terms of curiosities.

Just because they had relatively stronger past, Telstar should have been among the favourites. By past and presence are different things: Telstar already settled for run-of-the-mill second division football and finished 11th.

FC Volendam finished 3rd.

Third row, from left: Jaap Braan, Bas du Mortier, Jos Cornelisse, Jaap Jonk, Marcel Boonstra, Frank Kramer, Leo Tholens (fysiotherapeut)

Middle row: Bruin Steur (trainer), Cees Molenaar, Dick Helling, Piet Koning, Dick de Boer, Cees Guyt, D. Maurer (trainer)

Sitting: René Tol, Cees Sul, Theo Mooyer, Klaas Tuyp, Frans Hoek, Cor Smit, Wim Tol, Wim Kwakman.

One of the teams, at least in theory, which should have been aiming at promotion. They finished high, but… did not even qualify for the promotional play-off.

Cambuur, 9th in the final table, perhaps illustrates the second division best:

It is their performance, not the players or the coach, but the exotic picture. May be there was light at the end of the tunnel, but the symbolism is lost. Bricks… Nice photography, though, and Dutch clubs had an interesting tradition going back to the early 1960s of making unusual team pictures.

Haarlem won the league. They had no rivals this season, finishing 8 points ahead of the second placed and were directly promoted. Well done, of course – and better things were to come. For the moment, the only second division team really improving.

The second promotional spot was decided by the play-off tournament. In another country such final would be unthinkable: the contenders were SC Heerenveen – 2nd, De Graafschap – 7th, FC Den Bosch – 6th, and DS’79 – 5th. Reason insists on easy win by Heerenveen, having strong season. Den Bosch, a former decent member of first division also would be considered as having a chance. But reason does not work very well in football – DS’79 finished last, Den Bosch was 3rd, Heerenveen – second, and De Graafschap won the play-offs by a single point.

Well done- the lowest among the competitors, according the final league table, were the best when mattered most. ‘Superboeren’ – ‘Super Peasants’ – were going to play first division football for a second time: they were promoted in 1973 for the first time, but did not last. Now they had to try again. Not bad for a relatively young club, founded in 1954 – especially if compared to ancient club like Be Quick.

Holland. An interesting case – how to measure? The yearly UEFA ranking placed Holland number one for 1980-81. The 5-year table – important for the next season UEFA Cup quota – placed the Dutch 4th, quite ahead of France. That gave them 3 teams in the UEFA Cup, which in turn almost assured that the country will stay high in the quota table. Technically, the UEFA ranking was the most objective and it was simple: based on wins and ties, who got the most points stayed on top. But European club football was not the whole picture: Dutch football lost its dominance, the current generation was not even close to the great players of the early 1970s, the kind of football the Dutch played by now was not exciting, but solid, physical, and not particularly skilful. Not only Holland lost its aura at the 1980 European championship finals, but in 1981 they failed to qualify for the 1982 World Cup. They finished 4th in their group, ahead only of Cyprus. Crisis was obvious, yet, Dutch players were highly respected professionals and foreign clubs, particularly British ones, eagerly signed them. Well, the players had great reason to be determined professionals, but their exodus was not helping football at home – Ajax, Feyenoord, and now PSV Eindhoven were no longer feared and, worse, they were not very strong anymore. One can say inertia ruled: Dutch football was thought of highly only because of old success and habit dies hard. Unfortunately, the country was too small and not able to maintain big professional football – it had 2-tier system: two professional leagues and vast, but separated non-professional system, which never came into focus outside the Netherlands. Those, outside the professional system, were diverse clubs. Some new and small, some old and with great past. Like Be Quick.

Be Quick (Groningen) were found in 1887 and once upon a time were not only leading Dutch club, but even champions. Now they non-professional and if one thought of local football, FC Groningen came to mind, not Be Quick. And there was no way of ‘discovering’ such a club – the professional football was practically closed to amateurs.

The Soviet Cup should have been special this year – it was the 40th tournament. But the final was seen as particularly promising – Spartak (Moskva) vs SKA (Rostov). Not a big, dramatic final fit for the occasion – the winner was certain. Spartak was much stronger and playing at home in Moscow. SKA… they just lost 7 matches in a row and were at the bottom of the table. Predictions were right – Spartak was expected to attack, having lively technical style. SKA was expected to saturate its own half with defenders, hoping for occasional counter-attack. That precisely happened on the pitch and was only a matter of time Spartak to start scoring. But they were missing the target… the lowest point of their impotence came in the 35th minute, when Mirzoyan missed a penalty. SKA managed a few counter-attacks, but nothing really dangerous. The second half was similar, except that both teams minded their net and the tempo became sluggish – killing time was more important than trying to win outright. Still Spartak was more active and dangerous.

Yury Gavrilov with the ball and Sergey Shavlo at his left side ready to help – Spartak was attacking, SKA was defending, the game was boring… Until the 84th minute.

If there was danger to Spartak, it came from Zavarov and Andreev. In one of their not so many counter-attacks SKA passed the ball to their key striker, Spartak defenders were late, and Sergey Andreev scored. 1-0. Six minutes were not enough for equalizing and the result stayed. Spartak lost.

The unthinkable happened – SKA’s captain Pavel Lossev received the cup. Big smile, of course.

SKA (Rostov) made their run of triumph.

Sensational cup winners SKA (Rostov). Crouching, from left:V. Berezin, A. Vorobyov, P. Gussev. S. Andreev, V. Degtyarev, I. Gamula, A. Zavarov.

Standing: A. Andryushchenko, P. Shubin – assistant coach, V. Goncharov, V. Fedotov – coach, N. Kuryatnikov, V. Zuev, V. Radaev, N. Romanchuk, A. Yashin, A. Ivanov – assistant coach.

Happy winners, proving miracles happen from time to time. Forget the unattractive final – see the trophy, making this squad instantly the greatest in the history of the club: SKA never before or after 1981 won a trophy. They also wrote a new chapter in the amusing history of Soviet football – there was already a second division team winning the Cup. Karpaty (Lvov) did that, but they also won promotion at the same year. There was particularly lowly finalist once, which never played first division football, but Krasnaya Presnya did not win. Now there was a winner going down to second division – the final was early in the season, but SKA was seen as relegated already. Since the winners were not a team to brag about, more trivia: Zavarov won his very first trophy. It will be not the last, but not with SKA. Zuev, on the other hand, added one more to his biography – he was champion and cup winner with Dinamo (Kiev) and not only once, if only by default, for he was generally a reserve player in Kiev. A pleasant moment for Andreev, who deserved a trophy not only because he scored the winning goal – he was one of the best strikers at this time and regular national team player, but playing for lowly SKA had no chance to collect silverware. At last something – and that was all he won on club level. Great success for the young coach Vladimir Fedotov, not long ago a national team star and used to winning – now as a coach as well. The rest… the rest is just general: it is always nice to see the underdog winning against the odds.

USSR next – their was no doubt her football was ascending and 1981 was judged positively on both club and national team level: Dinamo (Tbilisi) won the Cup Winners Cup and team USSR qualified for the 1982 World Cup finals for the first time since 1969. Retrospectively, the most important thing was that all bright players of the 1980s were already impressive at home, if not yet famous abroad. However, international ranking was not showing big improvement: the UEFA club ranking for 1980-81 placed USSR 8th, just above Bulgaria, and the more important 5-year ranking placed the Soviets also 8th – the last country having the right to use 3 teams in the next UEFA Cup tournament: above Italy, but behind DDR. At home, the picture was strangely mixed. The Third Division football was judged improving at last – it was noticed that more players interested the top clubs than before. On the negative side, more talent meant only that the big clubs quickly snatched the emerging talent during the season and the smaller clubs of third division were in the position of Sisyphus, having to start new teams at the very moment they thought they managed to build a good team. The rest was familiar problem without solution: there was old great divide, the Ural mountains. East of them the quality of football rapidly decreased. Better football was played West, in the European parts of USSR. The vast Third Division was divided into 9 zones, the winners of each went to play qualification for three promotional spots and at the end Daugava (Riga), Dinamo (Kirov), and Rotor (Volgograd) earned promotion. All newcomers located West of Ural. It was not foreseen, but this year Rotor started its journey up to eventually becoming one of the strongest Soviet teams of the 1980s.

Second Division was only criticized, as every year before: whatever good was happening was not in the second level of Soviet football. Old, painfully familiar problems – the quality was low, most teams were not interested in anything but keeping a place in the Second Division, no more than 3 clubs wanting to go up. The league was to be reduced from 24 to 22 teams for the next season, one more attempt to force disinterested clubs into more competitive attitude. So 5 teams were going down – since most of the league was fairly equal, the championship was largely preoccupied with escaping relegation: 4 teams finished with 40 points, one with 41, 7 with 44 – 15 clubs mostly tried to stay away from the last 5 places. At the end Traktor, Dinamo, Kuzbass, Spartak (Ordzhonokidze), and Prykarpatye went down. SKA (Khabarovsk) and Buston (Dzhizak) survived on better goal-difference. Some clubs were heavily criticized for complete lack of ambition – particularly Karpaty (Lvov) and SKA (Odessa) – and generally it was observed, that there was no really up and coming team, mediocrity ruled.

Kolos (Nikopol) was among the typical ‘disinterested’ clubs – they finished 5th, not bad at all for a relatively new member of the league, but they did not catch the eye of the observers. May be the specialists were wrong in their case – eventually Kolos moved up.

Three clubs competed for the two promotional spots: Lokomotiv (Moscow), Torpedo (Kutaisi), and Metallist (Kharkov). Lokomotiv lost the race, finishing 3rd with 54 points, but it was the only team seen as improving and trying to build serious squad.

With 56 points Torpedo (Kutaisi) took 2nd place and was promoted.

Once again going to play top league football: standing from left: M. Tzivtzivadze – coach, M. Kvernadze, D. Dardzhania, T. Tznobiladze, G. Koridze, V. Merechko, M. Machaidze, G. Gvadzabia, A. Kantaria, V. Shvelia, Sh. Okropirashvili – captain, G. Sardia – assistant coach.

Crouching: G. Panchulidze, R. Burkadze, D. Kviria, R. Pestvenidze – assistant coach, G. Gabichvadze, G. Machaidze, L. Agaronov, N. Meskhia.

Well done, but.. there was no much enthusiasm even in the club. When Shota Okropirashvili introduced his team in the the ‘Football-Hockey’ weekly, he praised the club’s bus driver and was very reserved about his teammates. Practically only the brothers Gocha and Manuchar Machaidze were noted – the former stars of Dinamo (Tbilisi) were getting too old, however. Not much for a team going to play first division football. Outside observers were even more critical: the club was accused of lacking sufficient youth system and practically not producing talented players. To a point, it was true and part of huge problem: clubs like Torpedo were more or less just suppliers to bigger clubs – Dinamo (Tbilisi) in this case. Thus, they hardly had big interest in producing young stars – they would be taken away immediately. Probably replaced by no longer needed veterans, may be not… as it was, having the Machaidze brothers was just enough to win promotion. The next season was pain in the ass already… it was obvious that to survive in the first division a new team had to be recruited.

The champions of Second Division were generally judged as steady – at the end the even, constant form, elevated them above the rest, 6 points ahead of Torpedo (Kutaisi). Metallist (Kharkov) won, but was never seen as dominant.

The champions of Second Division: standing from left: N. Aleshin – assistant coach, V. Bulgakov – assistant coach, R. Potochnyak – captain, A. Dovby, S. Malko, Yu. Tzymbalyuk, Yu. Sivukha, V. Kamarzaev, I. Ledney, A. Kossolapov, E. Lemeshko – coach, A. Zaslavsky – administrator.

First row: S. Sapeshko, S. Bernikov, N. Leonov, L. Saakov, L. Tkachenko, A. Gorbik, V. Kryachko, V. Linke, V. Suslo.

Well, the lost boys were coming back – Metallist was first-league member once upon a time: 18 years ago. After that they sunk into complete obscurity, spending time in third division, from which they emerged just recently. Going up was the positive news. The only positive news… the champions were judged with caution, even critically. Compared to Torpedo (Kutaisi), they had no famous player at all. Just a few players had experience with top level football – the captain Rostislav Potochnyak most of all, but never played for a big club and was already 33-years old. A key veteran – the striker Nodar Bachiashvili – missed a lot from the season, because of injuries. Clearly his days were over. To a point, Metallist benefited from sinking into obscurity – the coach Lemeshko was able to build reliable squad, without worrying that bigger clubs would steal his players. That was all too familiar problem for smaller clubs and painful examples were right in the face: Zarya (Voroshilovgrad) lost almost a whole generation of players after winning the Soviet title in 1972 – the result was sinking into the middle of second division. Karpaty (Lvov) seemingly lost any ambition for something higher than mid-table second league place, tired from losing players. Metallist, having no particularly bright youngsters, avoided losses and built a good team, which impressed observers, when they came back to second division. But.. the team aged and now, when they were promoted, they were seen as too old. That is, with little chances to stay in first division, for Metallist had to start rebuilding at this very time. On the surface, that was true – but the grim expectations were proved wrong. For the moment, though, neither of the promoted clubs appeared to be good news.