Category: 1984

Since Shamrock Rovers was so dominant, a double was natural expectation – Rovers had only to beat University College Dublin at the Cup final. A mere formality, for UCD never won anything and having strong season meant 6th place for them. But that is why football is great: UCD managed a scoreless tie in the final and after 0-0 in the first match, did better in the replay, winning 2-1.

May be UCD surprised even themselves, for such historic victory left almost no record.

One can glimpse a bit of the game, but no proud photo of the winners on their site. A pity, for this is very rare triumph: UCD not only did not win anything before, but did not win anything else since.

Eire. Ups and downs all around the league, but one club was always the same. It did not matter that Sligo Rovers, champions not long ago, were now dead last.

Nor that Drogheda United was lowly as ever – 11th – but won the League Cup.

No matter that such usual leaders as Dundalk and Limerick City were out of shape, correspondingly, 7th (Dundalk) and 4th (Limerick). No matter what, Shamrock Rovers remained on top.

So, one more confident title, after keeping everybody else at bay. 19 wins, 4 ties, 3 losses, 64-15 goal-difference and 42 points. Bohemians, 2nd, was left 6 points behind. Well, at least it looks like a regular, normal, routine victory – this was the 10th title for Rovers, but… the 9th was won in the long gone 1964.

Norway. Still obscure on every level.

Brann was out of luck and unable to re-emerge from Second Division. Top row from left: Arne Wilhelmsen (materialforvalter), Gunnar Amundsen, Sjur Krogstie, Redouane Drici, Leif Jordal, Tor Sletten, Tore Strand, Tore Hadler-Olsen, Trond Nordeide, Rune Enehaug (fysioterapeut).

Middle row: Jan Kåre Aasebø (fotballformann), Arne Møller, Stig Andersen, Geir Andrè Johannessen, Endre Blindheim (trener), Dan Riisnes, Steinar Aase, Lars Hjorth, Jon Schjelderup (lege).

First row: Geir Austvik, Hans Brandtun, Terje Risa, Johnny Rolfsvåg, Ronny Vange, Louis Garrido, Ricardo Garrido.

But in the 1980s foreign players were becoming the norm for even out of the way championships and lower leagues. Three players here are not Norwegian – if not genuine imports, at least not born in Norway.

Looks like Stromsgodset Drammen got promoted from Second Division. Standing from left: Svenn Nysether, Ole Johnny Lofsberg, Ole Viggo Walseth, NN, Cato Leine, Frithjof  NN, Jan Madsen, NN, Bjørn Gulden.

First row: NN, Olav Gjesteby, Arne Gustavsen, Helge Karlsen, Kai H. Wang, Morten Høsøien, Arne Marcussen.

Strindheim was last in First Division and Fredrikstad – 11th, next to last. Both teams were directly relegated. A bitter irony for Fredrikstad,which also enjoyed great success in the same season.

Moss finished 10th and went to relegation/promotion play-off against Vidar and Hamarkameratane from Second Division. Moss was successful and kept its place among the best.

Nothing much up the table – Viking (Stavanger) finished 2nd and got the Norway’s UEFA Cup spot, but they were not title contenders.

Valerengen dominated the championship and easily won it with 13 wins, 6 ties, and 3 losses. 32 points and 40-14 goal-difference. Viking was 7 points behind. So, Valerengen was Norwegian champion 2 years in a row. Could they make it three years? Next season will tell.

The Cup final opposed very different teams – Viking, not as strong as it has been in the previous decade, but still a leading club, and Fredrikstad, which had miserable season and was relegated at the end. But the final was another matter and there was no winner – 3-3. In the replay Fredrikstad prevailed 3-2.

The winners: Per Egil Ahlsen, Lars Sørlie, Jørn Andersen, Vidar Hansen, Morten Thomassen, Espen Engebretsen, Redar Lund, Jan Erik Olsen, Atle Kristoffersen, Jan Erik Audsen, Allan Olsen, Tom Espen Fingarsen, Hans Deunk, Åge Viggo Hansen, Terje Jensen, Vidar Kristoffersen, Henning Johannessen, Arild Andreassen, Tore Jan Solvang.

Looks like a cute victory of the underdog, but it was not: Fredrikstad was down on their luck at that time, but historically was very successful club – this was its 10th Cup!

Wales. There was a championship and an old one too, but since it was not represented in the UEFA tournaments, it was practically unknown.

Barry Town won second consecutive title, just for the record.

What mattered was the Cup, mixed as it was. Shrewsbury Town met Wrexham and eventually prevailed 2-1 and 0-0.

Wrexham lost two years in a row, which was hardly a reason for celebration.

Once again the Welsh Cup was won by English club, which could not represent Wales in the Cup Winners Cup, so it was just local pride for the Shrews and another small piece of silverware in their trophy room.

The Cup final was played between APOEL and Pezoporikos (Larnaca). Pezoporikos fought with APOEL in the championship as well and finished ahead of them, 3rd, but did not succeed here. Regular time ended 1-1 and in the extra time APOEL scored 2 unanswered goals. All goals were scored late in the game – APOEL opened in the 80the minute and Pezoporikos equalized in the last seconds of the 90th.

Thus, APOEL, even having relatively weak season still maintained its leading position and finished with a trophy. Foreigners made Cypriot football better and there were more and more of them – an Englishman scored the opening goal at the Cup final and another foreigner, Sylvester Vernon, equalized for Pezoporikos. To a point, political traditions and divisions played its role in hiring attitudes – if left-wing Omonia was getting help from Eastern Europe, the right-wing APOEL was looking West.

Their scorer, Ian Moores, had long, if not spectacular, career in England. He was 30 years old, but he became a key player for APOEL and stayed with the club almost to the end of the 1980s.

 

Cypriot football was getting stronger, no doubt about it, but without any change of power – the strong remained strong and the weak – weak. The absolute beginners – Ermis (Aradippou) and Ethnikos (Achna) finished last and returned to Second Division after single insignificant season among the best. Etnikos was a bit unlucky, ending 13th only because of worse goal-difference. Omonia (Aradippou) survived, but let make no mistake about it: the last three teams were real outsiders, way bellow the rest of the league. Going up, there was perhaps only one mild surprise: APOEL (Nicosia) was not a title contender, finishing 4th.

Anorthosis (Famagusta) was 5th with 29 points – just to point out the inside league divisions: APOEL, weak as it appeared to be, was still far superior to those behind it – they finished with 33 points.

Apollon (Limassol) had excellent season, but still was not title contender. 2nd with 37 points, thus getting the singular Cypriot UEFA Cup spot.

The champions were the same as in the previous years – Omonia (Nicosia) was really superior and dominated Cypriot football. They finished with 42 points from 18 wins, 6 ties and lost only 2 games. Scored 59 goals, received 19. Bulgarian presence was responsible for Omonia’s domination – coaches since early 1970s and now players as well. Argirov coached them this season, helped by veteran players Ventzislav Arssov and Krassimir Borissov. Borissov was part of the Bulgarian national team in its last participation at World Cup finals in 1974. Arssov was Bulgarian champion in 1978 with Lokomotiv (Sofia). As the things were going, there was little doubt that Omonia will surrender its dominant position in, at least, near future.

 

B 1909, KB, and Herning Fremad were weak and relegated from First Division. Herning Fremad went down on worse goal-difference, unlucky. Good luck for Esbjerg, which survived.

Odense had weak season and finished 9th.

Koge Boldklub had quite a good season – 6th. Standing from left: holdleder Jorgen Sparre, holdleder Per Moller, Lars Frisch, Lars Olsen, Thomas Daugaard, Frank Johansen, Arne Rastad, Jesper Rasmussen, Cimm Barslev, coach Jan B. Poulsen, Soren Thyssen.

First row: Erik Rasmussen, Per Knudsen, Steffen Andersen, Jan Olesen, Soren Grenaa Larsen, Soren Olsen.

Lyngby BK, AGF Aarhus, and Vejle BK fought for the title.

Vejle won with 41 points. They were also the only decent scorers, averaging 2 goals per game. Top row from left: Ole Møller Nielsen, Kurt Bakholt, John Laursen, Alex Nielsen, Peter Kjær, Allan Simonsen, Sten Thychosen, Poul Erik Bech (coach).

Middle row: Peter Hansen, Brian Berthelsen, John Sivebæk, Gert Eg, Tommy Andersen, Julian Barnett. Sitting: Kaj Winther (holdleder), Michael Damm Pedersen, Jørgen Bach Andersen, Troels Knudsen, Per Jørgensen, Vagn Damm Pedersen (masseur).

Allan Simonsen – winner to the end. One more title for club and player.

The Cup final opposed the relegated KB (Copenhagen) to leading Lyngby. Not an easy victory, but Lyngby won 2-1.

Good period for the club, establishing it among the top Danish teams at the time. Lyngby BK won its first title the previous year and confirmed it was no one-time-wonder this year with the Cup victory – also their first. So, first title and first Cup in two years.

Denmark. In the news, because of the exciting national team, but otherwise – the same.

B93,

B 1903, and

Kastrup Boldklub played well and earned promotions from Second Division.

The Cup. Besktas reached the final and met there the dominant teams this season, Trabzonspor. Once again Istanbul lost to the provincials – 0-2.

Besiktas, even with Yugoslavian help – Arnautovic and Sekerbegovic – finished the season empty-handed. At least as losing finalist they were going to play in the Cup Winners Cup.

A double for Trabzonspor, their first. This was their finest season so far, promising bright future. 6 titles , 3 Cups, a double… who would know there will be no more doubles and no more titles? So great and triumphal was this season.

The Turkish football was slowly improving, but without change of power distribution: 4 clubs dominated the league, the rest continued to be inferior. One team was the solitary leader this season, the other three leaders fought only for the 2nd place. The rest of the league was fairly equal, which meant that more or less everybody tried to escape relegation zone – the last three places in the final table. At the end, the city of Adana was most unlucky, for both teams from it went down.

Karagumruk SK (Istanbul), newcomer this season, finished last with 26 points.

Adanaspor (Adana) – 17th with 27 points.

AdanaDemirspor (Adana) – 16th with 29 points and also relegated. They went down only on worse goal-difference.

Antalyaspor (Antalya) – 15th and happy to be safe, thanks to better goal-difference.

Boluspor – 14th and, like Antalyaspor, survived on better goal-difference.

Orduspor, another of the newcomers this season, ended 13th with 30 points.

Sariyer (Istanbul) – 12th with 31 points.

Genclerbirligi (Ankara), the third newcomer of the season, was 11th with 31 points.

Bursaspor, having the best goal-difference among the teams with 31 points took 10th place.

Zonguldakspor – 9th with 32 points.

Kocaelispor (Izmit) – 8th with 32 points.

Denizlispor – 7th with 34 points. They were the strongest performers of the 4 newly promoted teams.

Sakaryaspor (Adapazari) – 6th with 34 points.

Ankaragucu – 5th with 34 points, thanks to better goal-difference.

The next three clubs were old bitter rivals, but this season somewhat not good enough to fight for the title – apart from the usual pride at stake, their only aim was to get the single Turkish spot in the UEFA Cup and only 2nd place guaranteed that.

Besiktas (Istanbul) finished 4th with 44 points.

Galatasaray (Istanbul) – 3rd with 44 points.

Fenerbahce (Istanbul) – 2nd with 45 points. They got the coveted UEFA Cup spot and finished above their rivals, but… second-best does not equal success for this club.

Trabzonspor won its 6th title with 18 wins,14 ties, and only 2 losses. 43-14 goal-difference and 50 points. Excellent performance, leaving the Istanbul’s big three far behind. This was the best season Trabzonspor had.