Category: 1986

The Cup final opposed Velez (Mostar) to Dinamo (Zagreb). Both teams fought for 3rd place and since they were out of the championship race, winning the Cup was imperative. Velez had the day, though, winning 3-1.

Dinamo (Zagreb) lost the final and ended the season emptyhanded. Third row from left: Cuckovic, Adzic, Novak, Bogdanovic, Hadzic, Besek, Arslanovic, Bracun, Cupan.

Middle row: Baca, Katanec, Komocar, Stojic, Cerin, Z. Boban, Okvaradi, Maric, B. Belin – assistant coach.

Sitting: Smit, D. Boban, Istvanic, Lulic, Blazevic – coach, Mlinaric, Munjakovic, B. Cvetkovic, Zv. Cvetkovic.

Strong squad, coached by Blazevic – a hot coach already, although not yet a legend. However, Dinamo reached its peak a few years back and now on the way down. At least for the moment. But here was the first foreign player imported in Yugoslavia – Okvaradi. He appeared only once during this season and was unloaded. Not a great beginning, but at least a start. Okvaradi went to play in Austria, despite his poor European debut. This year African player appeared also in Hungary, so it is hard to say which Communist country was first to import foreign footballer.

A great success for Velez (Mostar) – a club which could not build a league winner no matter what, so the only reasonable aim was winning the Cup. Of course, it was wonderful to win, but more importantly the slump started in the late 1970s seemingly ended and Velez had strong team again. Perhaps not as great as the famous ‘BMW’ of the 1970s, but close. Well deserved victory.

First Division. If seeing Partizan and Crvena zvezda way above the rest of the league was hardly a surprise, seeing who was relegated was surprising. May be not so much OFK Beograd, but the last team… Vojvodina (Novi Sad) in the role of hopeless outsider? Unbelievable… yet, true. Apart from their sorry state, the league was similar to previous season, even if the level of football now was lower than before. Goal difference decided the title and also decided the second relegated team. Relegation was possible for most teams, though – in the final table 7 points was the difference between the 3rd and the 17th. And bronze medals were decided on goal-difference too.

Vojvodina (Novi Sad) arguably had their worst season ever. Why the sudden sharp decline could be debatable, but the fact was they were hopeless outsiders this season: last with 20 points. 10 points behind the 17th…

Although it was unusual to see OFK Beograd relegated, their decline was going on for many years, eventually reaching the logical bottom. True, they were a bit unlucky – 5 teams finished with 30 points and unfortunately OFK Beograd had the worst goal-difference among them. Too bad… Standing from left: Milenkovic, Bjelic, Stojakovic, Duric, Ivanovic, Kuzmanovski.

Crouching: Stojadinovic, Kahrovic, Markovic, Stevovic, R. Stankovic.

Well, the squad pretty much tells why they went down…

Celik (Zenica) – lucky survivors: 16th with 30 points.

Lucky survivors were FK Sarajevo too – 15th with 30 points – but why they had so disastrous season?

Buducnost (Titograd) was 14th with 30 points as well, but for them it was normal to fight to survival and finish near relegation zone.

Dinamo (Vinkovci) – 13th with 30 points. Not bad for them to survive.

Sloboda (Tuzla) – 12th with 31 points. Near peril, but avoiding it.

Pristina (Pristina) – 11th with 32 points. Standing from left: Vokri, Zaveli, Sengulji, Domi, Pupovac, Cimili, Dinali, Prekazi, Mehinovic, Stefanovic.

Sitting: Tortosi, F. Murici, Sinani, Cana, Dz. Murici, Salja, Nedzipi, Morina, Keljmendi.

Sutjeska (Niksic) – 10th with 32 points.

Osijek (Osijek) – 9th with 33 points.

Vardar (Skopje) – 8th with 34 points.

Zeljeznicar (Sarajevo) – 7th with 35 points. Top row from left: Crnogoric, Mioc, Elez, Verlasevic, Skoro, Komsic, Skrba.

Middle row: Milanovic, Vuric, D. Jankovic, Ninkovic, Mihajlovic, Sliskovic, Gavrilovic.

Front: Ivanovic, Pavlovic, Z. Samardzija, Janjus, Baljic, Sabanadzovic.

Dinamo (Zagreb) – 6th with 36 points.

Rijeka (Rijeka) – 5th with 37 points.

Hajduk (Split) – 4th with 37 points.

Velez (Mostar) – 3rd with 37 points. Clinched bronze medals on better goal-difference.

Crvena zvezda (Belgrade) – 2nd with 49 points. So close were the eternal enemies in this fight for the title, that the caption reads ‘champions’. Alas, they were not… lost the title by single goal!

Partizan (Belgrade) dramatically won the championship – everything between them and their arch-rivals was equal: both finished with 21 wins, 7 ties, 6 losses and 49 points. It came to better goal-difference: Crvena zvezda had 73-38 – plus 35. Partizan; 65-29 – plus 36! A single goal difference, but in their favour and they came on top. Hardly the best squad in the history of Partizan, but strong enough. Lucky victory, but only title counts, so never mind.

 

Yugoslavia. Dramatic final of the championship – goal-difference decided the champion and also the battle for survival. Slightly lower general quality of the game and two teams way above the rest of the league, but still fairly equal general level. And a new chapter of East European football started: import of foreign players. Looks like 1985-86 was the beginning – in Yugoslavia and Hungary, very minimal yet, but a start.

Second Division. The usual 2 groups – East and West, 18 teams in each, the last 4 were relegated and the winners – promoted. More dramatic battle for top position in the East II Division, but in total 5 teams were much stronger than the rest.

West II Division. At a glance, Borac (Banja Luka) catches the eye immediately – what a big decline! Although rarely among the top teams, Borac had been solid First Division member for years. Now – it was uncharacteristically down: 12th in Second Division. Escaped relegation to third level by 2 points and with worse goal-difference than 2 of the relegated teams.

Vrbas was 10th with 32 points.

RFK Novi Sad – 7th with 33 points.

Rudar (Ljubija) – 6th with 34 points. Standing from left: Momcilo Turuntas, Tomislav Radic, Resad Crnalic, Ante Grabo, Vinko Samardzija, Stanko Mrsic.

First row: Dusko Ostojic, Fahro Bihorac, Ibrahim Kusljugic, Dragoljub Bekvalac, Nedeljko Topic.

Years later Bekvalac will make quite a good name as a coach.

Jedinstvo (Brcko) – 5th with 36 points. Standing from left: Stevic, Enver Lugusic, Sulovic, Kevric, Vuinovic, Tosic, Bekic – assistant coach.

Front row: Curcic, Suznjevic, Jahic, Zoran Malisevic, M. Besic.

Three teams were stronger than the rest, but two of them eventually lost steam and fell behind.

Leotar (Trebinje) – 3rd with 44 points.

Iskra (Bugojno) – 2nd with 44 points, ahead of Leotar on better goal-difference. Standing from left: Podgajski, Vuckovic, Dezelic, Z. Toskic, Delilovic, Pavlic.

Crouching: G. Toskic, Novokmet, D. Vrabac, ?, Mirkovic.

Spartak (Subotica) won the league with confidence: 20 wins, 9 ties, 5 losses, 65-33 goal-difference, 49 points. Top row from left: Pestalic, Bilbija, Durovic, Duran, Ugljanin, Kovacevic, Popovic.

Middle row: Karac, Dimitrijevic, Stajner, Acimovic, Rafai, Ljiljak, Slijepcevic.

Sitting: Arsic, Jeftic, Todorovic, Pejovic, Kuntic, Miranovic, Cosic, Puhalek.

Wonderful achievement – promotion to top flight.

East II Division.

Radnicki (Nis) and Rad (Belgrade) left the rest of the league far behind and were entangled in dog fight to the end – 1 point separated them in the final table.

There was similarity between Borac (Banja Luka) and Napredak (Krusevac) – both first division members were in bad shape right now. Napredak finished 11th with 33 points and relegation further down was a real option: at the end, Napredak escaped by 3 points.

Crvena zvezda (Gnjilane) had no reputation to keep, so they were quite happy just to stay in the league: 14th with 33 points.

But others had to suffer: FK Zemun, practically fresh from playing in First Division, now was going to third level – 16th with 28 points and relegated.

Another former First Division member – FK Bor – also went down to third level – 15th with 30 points.

Trepca was satisfied with 34 points and 9th position.

Borac (Cacak) – pictured here with Mladost (Rogatica), white kit – was 5th with 34 points. Like the West Group, in the East most teams were closer to the relegation zone than to possible promotion. Radnicki (Kragujevac) finished 3rd with 36 points – that is, 15 points behind the 2nd placed, but only 6 points ahead of the relegated 15th placed FK Bor.

The battle for 1st place was lost by Rad (Belgrade) by 1 point – they finished with 51 points.

Radnicki (Nis) clinched 1st place with 52 points from 22 wins, 8 ties, and 4 losses. Goal-difference: 65-21. Third row from left: Bankovic, Dzinovic, Gogic, S. Nikolic, Vojinovic, Binic, Mitrovic, Kuzmanovic.

Middle row: Halilovic – coach, Pejic, Visnjic, Ivanovic, Jocic, Duvandzic – team chief, Stojkovic, Zlatanovski, Milenkovic, Jankovic – assistant coach.

Sitting: Kocic, Milosevic, Radosavljevic, Gajic, Aleksic, Mladenovic.

Going down to Second Division was bitter pill to swallow for a club, which met Real Madrid just a little earlier – Radnicki was among the top Yugoslavian teams in the early 1980s and played strong football in the European tournaments. Coming back to top flight was a must, but they faced very strong competition from Rad (Belgrade) and were lucky to win the league. However, they did win and everything was fine.

The Cup. Was it another year, the Soviet Cup final would have been considered better. But this time everything worked against it so much so that the title of the match report in the prime Soviet football weekly ‘Football-Hockey’ was ‘What would remain in memory?’ and the reporter’s conclusion was ‘nothing’. And there was the feeling that this Cup final, getting only flack, was instantly forgotten. It was a final between underdogs – Shakhter (Donetzk) and Torpedo (Moscow), which normally would get some praise just for that, but this time the match was doomed even before its start. First of all, the World Cup was around the corner, grabbing all attention. The national team of USSR played a preparatory friendly just few days before the final and fans and specialists were much concerned of what they saw – it was a home game against Finland, which ended 0-0. The Cup final suddenly appeared to be not a clash of tough teams, which may not have been very strong recently, but were Cup specialists. Instead, it looked like a confirmation of the weaknesses of the national team – if that were the cup contenders, no wonder the nationals team was in alarming shape and no repairs possible. And, as luck had it, right after the Soviet Cup final ended, the Cup Winners Cup was about to begin, featuring Dinamo (Kiev) and Altetico (Madrid). This final was on the mind of most, not only instantly diminishing the importance of the domestic final, but also significantly reducing attendance – most people chose to stay home waiting the European final broadcast on TV. Lastly, the domestic finalists contributed to the ill feelings by their sluggish and largely disoriented performance. It was poor show, no doubt about it, eventually boiled down to the wit of the veteran playmakers Sokolovsky (Shakhter) and Shavlo (Torpedo). They tried, but it was evident that both are far away down from their peak, the age was getting hold of them and with uninspired teammates nothing really was about to happen. Yet, it was telling that the veterans on their last legs and hardly effective were practically the only noticeable players on the pitch. Shavlo was slightly better and thus Torpedo appeared if not sharper, at least possessing the ball more and making something vaguely similar to attacks. And eventually they scored – a minute before the half-time, Sochnov made a cross from a free kick and Kobzev, who substituted Redkous in the 29th minute, headed the ball in the net. Shakhter keeper Zolotnitzky was universally blamed for the goal – it was not that dangerous situation, but he was late and uncertain coming for the ball. Efforts to clear the goalie and praise Kobzev for his sharp precision failed to convince, it was giveaway goal. Bad luck… Zolotnitzky was backup goalkeeper, rarely appearing in official games, but the regular starter was injured and here it was – the backup was not up to the task.

Zolotnitzky late and Kobzev scored. Nothing else happened to the end of the game and Torpedo made its triumphal round with the trophy in front of hurriedly leaving fans, who wanted to get home for the start of the Cup Winners Cup final. Which was highly entertaining match in sharp contrast to what passed for Soviet Cup final and Dinamo (Kiev) victory drove everybody to euphoria. From this perspective, the Cup final perhaps looked even worse than it was. Criticized the next day and forgotten immediately.

Shakther (Donetzk) was not as good a team as they were a few years back, but still was holding its position among the better Soviet teams. Top row from left: O. Bazilevich – coach, A. Konkov – assistant coach, V. Malyshev – assistant coach, Yury Gulyaev, Evgeny Dragunov, Sergey Morozov, Vladimir Gravrilov, Anatoly Radenko, Aleksandr Sopko, Valery Rudakov, Sergey Kravchenko, V. Tkachenko – masseur, O. Shotkin – doctor.

Bottom row: Sergey Zolotnitzky, Sergey Yashtenko, Aleksey Varnavsky, Oleg Smolyaninov, Igor Petrov, Valery Goshkoderya, Viktor Grachev, Mikhail Sokolovsky, Vladimir Parkhomenko, Viktor Budnik.

Strange… Shakhter usually managed to play tough Cup finals, even overperforming, but this time were uncharacteristically lame. Their number one striker Petrov was particularly hopeless. In view of the general poverty of the final, there is no point saying more or looking for explanations – suffice to say that this Cup final day perhaps was very painful for Shakhter coaching stuff – 10 years ago Bazilevich and Konkov won the Cup Winners Cup with Dinamo (Kiev), the first was coaching, the second – playing. Now they lost a final only to see their former club soar to second Cup Winners Cup victory.

Considering the current shape of Torpedo, the Cup victory was almost a surprise. Well deserved? Hardly, but goals win games and they scored and won. Standing from left: Yu. Zolotov – team chief, V. Sochnov, A. Proyaev – doctor, A. Gostenin, V. Kobzev, A. Polukarov, S. Prigoda, V. Filatov – assistant coach, V. Shaveyko, V. Zhendarev – administrator, S. Shavlo, V. Ivanov – coach. Crouching: V. Nikonov – assistant coach, A. Petrov – masseur, Yu. Savichev, S. Mushtruev, V. Kovach, V. Sarychev, N. Savichev, V. Grechnev.

Winners are not to be blamed and considering the lowly place of Torpedo in Soviet football hierarchy, it was great success, but… hardly anything good could be said of the new Cup holders. It is even to credit the substitution of Redkous with Kobzev as some great coaching inspiration – the quality of the play was poor. Lucky winners – that was all. Perhaps great satisfaction for Shavlo, who at his last years won a trophy, when his former club, Spartak (Moscow), was emptyhanded. To some degree, the same would be valid for Redkous, formerly of Dinamo (Moscow). Torpedo’s veteran defender Sergey Prigoda was the only man in the squad who played when Torpedo won something previously and that was 10 years ago. The coaching stuff, V. Ivanov, Nikonov, and Filatov, all former Torpedo stars, were perhaps also very glad – when they played, Torpedo was much stronger club, winning often. Now they succeeded as coaches, but restoring former glory was out of the question. Let face it: the Cup winners had no current national team players – they had only 2 former ones. And let face it again – Torpedo won, but playing very poor football in very poor final.

First Division. The whole season should be looked through World Cup lenses – the national team took priority. To a large degree the drama of championship decided in the very last match of the season resulted from the World Cup: Dinamo (Kiev) started strong, then, right after the world finals, their from dropped – which was in mid-season. The chance – quite surprising, for they were practically outsiders in recent years – Dinamo (Moscow) had of winning the title was also related to the World Cup: unlike Dinamo (Kiev) and Spartak (Moscow), their players were not involved in the national team and had only the domestic championship to think of. Nobody was looking and they managed to climb on top – from next to last position after the 8th round. Others were at best uneven – Zenit played well, but its shortcoming were already well known, it was a squad good enough for 3rd place and no more. Anyhow.

Torpedo (Kutaisi) started relatively well, but with time their limited team lost steam – last with 17 points and relegated.

Chernomoretz (Odessa) finished 15th with 23 points and was also relegated. Locally, the disaster was blamed on bad management.

Ararat (Erevan) survived – 14th with 26 points.

Neftchi (Baku) – 13th with 26 points. Well… the usual.

Metallist (Kharkov) – 12th with 27 points.

Dnepr (Dnepropetrovsk) – 11th with 8 points. Front row from left: ?, Kudritzky, Cherednik, Kuznetzov, Lysenko, Bagmut, Bashkirov, Sidelnikov, Dilay.

Middle row: ?, Cherny – doctor. Puchkov, Oleg Emetz, Zhizdik – team chief, Emetz – coach, Krakovsky, Shokh, Kanafotzky – administrator, Maslov – administrator, Kucherevsky – assistant coach.

Top row: ?, Kovtun – assistant coach, Taran, Litovchenko, Sorokalet, Protasov, Gorodov, ?, Vishnevsky, Gavrilov, Chernysh – doctor.

Dinamo (Minsk) – 10th with 28 points. Top row from left: A. Gorbylev – assistant coach, V. Dmitrakov – doctor, A. Shalimo, ?, ?, A. Metlitzky, P. Rodnenok, S. Borovsky, L. Vassilevsky – administrator, A. Chernukho – masseur/

Middle row: M. Tzeytin – assistant coach, S. Shiroky, Yu. Trukhan, V. Yanushevsky, I. Savostikov – assistant coach, V. Arzamastzev – coach, L. Garay – team chief, L. Rumbutis, S. Aleynikov, I. Gurinovich, S. Gotzmanov, M. Vergeenko – assistant coach.

Front row: Yu. Kurnenin, V. Sokol, A. Kisten, A. Satzunkevich, I. Zhekyu, A, Zygmantovich, G. Kondratyev, A. Dozmorov.

Torpedo (Moscow) – 9th with 30 points. Back row from left: Grishin, Galayba (?), ?, Shaveyko, Mushtruev, Pisarev.

Middle row: Kobzev, Shavlo, Grechnev, N. Savichev, Kharin, Prigoda, Sarychev, Yu. Savichev, Polukarov, Kovach.

Front: Petrov – masseur, Zhendaryov – administrator, Yurin – assistant coach, Ivanov – coach, Zolotov – team chief, Nikonov – assistant coach, Proyaev – doctor.

Zhalgiris (Vilnius) – 8th with 30 points.

Kayrat (Alma-ata) – 7th with 30 points.

Shakhter (Donetzk) – 6th with 31 points. Front row from left: S. Zolotnitzky, S. Yashtenko, A. Varnavsky, O. Smolyaninov, I. Petrov, V. Goshkoderya, V. Grachev, M. Sokolovsky, V. Parkhomenko, V. Budnik.

Top row: O. Bazilevich – coach, A. Konkov – assistant coach, V. Malyshev – assistant coach, Yu. Gulyaev, E. Dragunov, S. Morozov, V. Gavrilov, A. Radenko, A. Sopko, V. Rudakov, S. Kravchenko, V. Tkachenko – masseur, V. Shkotkin – doctor.

Dinamo (Tbilisi) – 5th with 33 points. Were they coming back? Not really…

Zenit (Leningrad) – 4th with 33 points. Crouching from left: Chukhlov, Yakovlev, Gerasimov, Vorobyov, Afanasiev, Dolgopolov, Davydov, Kolotovkin, Kanishtev, Larionov.

Standing: Sadyrin – coach, Lokhov – assistant coach, Dmitriev, Biryukov, Melnikov, Zheludkov, Timofeev, Klementyev, Kuznetzov, Prikhodko, Barannik, Stepanov, Bulavin – assistant coach.

Spartak (Moscow) – 3rd with 37 points.

Dinamo (Moscow) – 2nd with 38 points. Top row from left: A. Uvarov, A. Borodyuk, V. Popelnukha, B. Pozdnyakov, I. Bulanov, A. Novikov, I. Sklyarov, I. Dobrovolsky, I. Kolyvanov, A. Prudnikov.

Middle row: S. Kiryakov, A. Timoshenko, A. Gassov – masseur, A. Golodetz – assistant coach, E. Malafeev – coach, I. Mozer – assistant coach, M. Gershkovich – assistant coach, V. Mozalev – doctor, A. Kobelev, S. Ushakov.

Front row: G. Morozov, S. Stukashov, V. Lossev, S. Kozhanov, V. Vassilyev, V. Karataev, S. Silkin, V. Demidov.

Good work by the coach Eduard Malafeev – considered already the second best and for some the very best coach at the moment – but it was a false sign of revival. Dinamo had a chance to win the championship until very last minute of the very last championship match, but frankly they were not all that good. But some exciting young talent was here – players, who will define Russian football in the next decade: Dobrovolsky, Kolyvanov, Kiryakov. Borodyuk was the top scorer of the this championship, which came as a surprise.

Dinamo (Kiev) dramatically won its 12th title. 14 wins, 11 ties, 5 losses, 53-33 goal-difference, and 39 points do not look terribly impressive and the season was rather rocky, but this was the peak of the second great Lobanovsky’s team. Top row from left: Valery Lobanovsky – coach, Viktor Kolotov – assistant coach, Vladimir Gorily, Pavel Yakovenko, Vladimir Veremeev – team chief, Anatoly Puzach – assistant coach.

Middle row: Vladimir Bessonov, Oleg Kuznetzov, Sergey Baltacha, Viktor Chanov, Andrey Bal, Aleksey Mikhaylichenko, Oleg Blokhin, Anatoly Demyanenko.

Front row: Vadim Evtushenko, Ivan Yaremchuk, Vassily Ratz, Igor Belanov, Aleksandr Zavarov, Vassily Evseev.

It took 10 years to make this wonderful squad and this time it was a bit different than the old golden team of which only Blokhin was still playing – but Kolotov and Veremeev were working with the current team. First, it was entirely made by Lobanovsky – the old great team was not only more or less inherited by him, but also he shared head coaching duties with Oleg Bazilevich, now coaching Shakhter (Donetzk). Second, it was deeper team – the old great squad depended roughly on 12 players; the current one had more strong players. Thus, the heavy injury of Baltacha did not make the team suffer. One thing which remained was the lack of typical center-forward – like 10 years earlier, Dinamo attacked with 2 strikers, both wingers, and midfield players eventually served as temporary men in front. And like before, there was universal player used in every position, according to need – before it was Troshkin, doubling as right full back and defensive midfielder; now it was much more versatile Bessonov. If the team did not dominate the championship in its peak year, there was excuse: they played on too many fronts. They faced much tougher opponent at the Cup Winners Cup than the team winning it 10 years ago. And there was right after that the World Cup – the first great team did not play World Cup finals. Then back not only to the championship, but to more international games, both on club and national team level. It was really too much and from time to time the players either depended on tough control of the game just to get results or took it easy – which proved to be costly. Points were lost, the schedule was too dense, but at the end there was some advantage – Dinamo had still to play matches when opposition practically finished the season and calculations took place. There was little love between Shakhter and Dinamo, but Shakhter was thinking vacation by the time they met. The two derbies with Dinamo (Moscow) were also at the end and Kiev made the best of it – just what was needed to win the title: a tie away and home victory. And by that time the only danger was Dinamo (Moscow) – every other was done, their points final, what was needed to prevail was absolutely clear – 5 points from 3 matches. Thus, even the key match was known: the away game in Moscow – all would end right then and there, if Moscow won. Kiev played perfectly under pressure and delivered the necessary results. What could be better?

Second Division. It was going to reduced from 24 to 22 teams, so 5 teams were relegated at the end of the season. As usual, the top 2 were getting promoted to First Division. The season was intriguing, including the make of the final table – the issue at hand was 20th place, the last relegation place. Four teams ended with 40 points, so the Federation decided who was going down: it boiled down to a mini-table between 3 teams, their head-to-head results in which Kuban (Krasnodar) had the worse goal-difference. Of course, the rule of the limit of ties to 12 was still in force and many teams lost points for more ties than the limit. If this rule was not in place not only the 5th relegated teams would have been the one which was not even considered by the Federation, but the champion of the league would have been different. As for the championship itself, observers largely recognized higher playing qualities of the players than before and simultaneously – more brutal football and incompetent refereeing. Three teams fought for promotion, entangled in dramatic battle, but that is according to the final table. Reality was more baffling – 8 rounds before the end, there was a leader, having 8-point advantage and needing just 3 points from the remaining games to win if not the championship, at least a promotion. This team finished 3rd… Other early leaders also unexpectedly went down near the end of the season – and since they were familiar names… Shinnik (Yaroslavl) and Pamir (Dushanbe). Two ‘eternal’ second division members. Both considered strong teams, yet, once again they failed – or may be decided to fail. Which was not new – they have been criticized for years for their ‘lack of ambition’ and some time even more directly: for preferring security among the stronger clubs in second level than risky life in first level and thus deliberately failing to reach promotion. Of course, nobody could prove anything.

Nistru (Kishinev) ended last – a hopeless outsider with 21 points and negative record maker: they received 101 goals in their net. Nothing surprising, though – football in Moldova was never strong and although Nistru used to play a bit of First Division football, they never built tradition and rarely had strong home-grown squad. Their decline was noticed a few years ago and eventually reached its conclusion – relegation to third level.

Atlantas (Klaipeda) was also outsider – 23rd with 29 points. It was expected as well – the newcomers from the Baltics hardly had strong enough team, for traditionally football was not strong there.

Iskra (Smolensk) was 22nd with 34 points. Tried to fight, but relegated at the end. Not a surprise either – they had their day already, but to maintain competitive squad was difficult. As many teams around Moscow, they depended on some help from the big Moscow clubs – but the big boys had many satellites and hardly enough players to dispatch to all.

SKA (Khabarovsk) suffered similar fate as Iskra – 21st with 36 points and relegated. The military club from the far, far East had little chance of getting help from mother CSKA (Moscow): yes, they craftily got a few players when they climbed to second level, but it was unlikely good players would go to the wilderness for long. And CSKA had its own difficulties in recent years, so supporting other clubs was not realistic.

Kuban (Krasnodar) was unfortunate 20th with 40 points. Perhaps theirs was not a real decline, but more a matter of bad luck. True, Kuban was not bog enough club to keep decent team and attract classy players from elsewhere, but still they were not all that bad. Rules worked against hem, however – if there was no limit on ties, they would have been safe with 42 points. But they lost 2 points for having more ties than the limit. Was it goal-difference decisive factor, Kuban would have been still safe – they had better one than Pakhtakor (Tashkent) and Kotaik (Abovyan). Well, it was goal-difference which relegated them at the end, but only goal-difference from games against direct rivals.

Kotaik (Abovyan) was lucky survivor – 19th with 40 points. For the small Armenian club remaining in Second Division for one more year equaled triumph. All about size… for another club such dramatic escape would have been a disaster, but for the tiny club was great achievement.

Dinamo (Stavropol) was also lucky at the end – 18th with 40 points, thanks to best goal-difference in the head-to-head matches with Kotaik and Kuban. Rules played a joke on them too – under ‘normal’ rules, Dinamo would have been safe on more points. Under standard goal-difference rule, they would not have been in danger of relegation either – the ended with rare record for a lowly team: with positive goal-difference, 66-58. On the picture – in white jerseys after a game against Dinamo (Kiev).

Rules benefited Pakhtakor (Tashkent) most, however – they ended 17th with 40 points and were not even part of tricky triangle on which the Federation decided the fate. Under usual rules, though… Pakhtakor would have been relegated. If there was no limit on ties, they would have been relegated on fewer points. If there was no head-to-head rule, they would have been relegated on worst goal-difference. Frankly, Pakhtakor suffered the consequences of the fatal 1979 airplane crash, killing their team. It was delayed backlash – for a few years the slump was postponed because a number of good players were dispatched to play for them from other clubs. It was artificial help, perhaps creating an illusion that worst was avoided – but as soon as grace period allowed by the Federation, in which Pakhtakor was not to be relegated from First Division, ended and the aging players other clubs gave them retired the truth was plain and ugly: Pakhtakor had no team to speak of. And down they went.

Spartak (Ordzhonikidze) – 16th with 42 points. Relatively weak season, but the prime aim for Spartak was to stay in Second Division, so the place did not matter.

SKA (Rostov) – 15th with 43 points. Another team in sharp decline, but in their case it may be also related to the weakness of CSKA (Moscow) plus the situation in Rostov itself. In the past SKA depended on CSKA players – either allowed to be recruited by SKA instead of CSKA, or just given by CSKA – to strengthen their team. CSKA was vulnerable now, so no gifts. And in the same time the other local team – Rostselmash – was quite strong, so local talent was more likely to join the civilian club than to SKA.

Shinnik (Yaroslavl) – 14th with 44 points. Back to the 36th round… Shinnik was 3 points behind the leaders and observers entertained the illusion that may be they will run for promotion. An illusion… for Shinnik was careful not to leave the comfort mid-table zone this championship – just like every previous season. Considered strong, certainly experienced, but never wanting to get higher – that was really the truth. Sitting from left: V. Gavrikov – masseur, V. Pomazov, S. Novoselov, D. Popov, E. Kotrussov – administrator.

Middle row: V. Petrov – team chief, A. Piskunov, A. Tzenin, E. Martyanov, B. Gavrilov, A. Goryukhov, V. Melnitzky, V. Sotnikov, V. Chistyakov – coach.

Top row: V. Kossarev, D. Kurytzin, Yu. Mentyukov, Yu. Panteleev, V. Kasyan, V. Churkin, M. Morozov, Yu. Rodionov, A. Tyutikov, R. Bilyaletdinov.

Kuzbass (Kemerovo) – 13th with 44 points. Well, same as Shinnik – secure mid-table position. Still having the record-scorer of Second Division Vitaly Razdaev in the squad – the first man to score 200 goals in this division, but also a player of amazingly long career and not considering retirement yet.

Metallurg (Zaporozhye) – 12th with 45 points. Like Shinnik and Kuzbass – holding fast to mid-table position.

Dinamo (Batumi) – 11th with 46 points. Not bad, really. On the other hand… Georgia had 4 teams in First and Second Division. For a small republic without many resources, perhaps too many clubs playing high-level football.

Fakel (Voronezh) – 10th with 48 points. Nothing special.

Kolos (Nikopol) – 9th with 51 points. Expected to play bigger role, but weakened by injuries.

Rotor (Volgograd) – 8th with 51 points. Attracted little attention so far – and may be for their own good. Quietly climbing up.

Rostselmash (Rostov) – 7th with 52 points. Not bad at all and secret may have been in the name – they belonged and were named after a giant plant for farming machinery. As an ‘industrial’ club, they were hardly the first choice to support, but recently SKA was not in great shape and although they were traditionally ‘the’ club in the city, they belonged to the Army – not quite local, therefore, and also depending on Moscow orders. Rostselmash at least was local and very likely the weakening of SKA rallied local Party administration to support Rostselmash. Having the upper hand locally, but not able to run for promotion.

Lokomotiv (Moscow) – 6th with 53 points. Among the better Second Division and more likely to entertain ambitions for returning to top flight, but unable to make a strong enough squad.

Pamir (Dushanbe) – 5th with 54 points. They and Shinnik were usually blamed together as prime example of what was wrong with Second Division football: no ambition. Once again having strong squad, once again looking like going to make a jump higher, and once again settling for lower place.

SKA Karpaty (Lvov) – 4th with 54 points. Unlike Pamir, this was a team wanting to get promoted. The problem, however, was complex – a few years back local administration amalgamated the two city clubs – SKA and Karpaty – into one. The idea was to cut off the army from weakening Karpaty by taking young talent under the pretext of doing military service. Another hindrance was not up to locals to block – promising talent was most likely to be snatched by Dinamo (Kiev). The amalgamation was not to be able to prevent that, but at least, it was hoped, the new team will have the best players remaining in the city. It did not quite work, for fans did not like the new concoction at all. They wanted their old Karpaty, partly for nationalistic reasons. Anyhow, the club wanted to reach First Division, but was not strong enough.

Daugava (Riga) – 3rd with 60 points. Missed promotion by a point, but had incredible season nevertheless. After years of third level football, Daugava came to Second Division and now was a leader. However… after leading a good part of the season, Daugava suddenly failed. Remember: 8 rounds before the end they were leading by 8 points and needed only 3 points from the remaining games to get promoted. Finishing 3rd was tremendous failure, hard to explain. For many, they crumbled under pressure – a plausible explanation, for Daugava had little experience. But it may have been deliberate loss of form too – 3rd place was still great, the season still exciting. Going up though… risky. The team was not really at First Division level and there was hardly a chance of getting experienced players from other clubs. Better stay in Second Division than becoming the joke of top flight. Whatever the truth, Daugava lost the battle for promotion.

CSKA (Moscow) – clinched 2nd place and promoted with 61 points. Things were really dark and miserable for CSKA in recent years – playing second division football, struggling to return to toip flight, and unable to stay there. This season was good only in that the team managed to secure 2nd place, but they were not better than others – in fact, CSKA was on the level of small Daugava, even smaller Guria, and if Pamir and Shinnik played seriously, CSKA may not have been promoted. Lucky may be, but it all right – at least they were going up. Crouching from left: S. Fokin, D. Kuzhetzov, V. Tatarchuk, D. Galyamin, V. Medvid, S. Savchenko, S. Myasnikov, M. Kolesnikov, V. Novikov. Standing: M. Plakhetko – team chief, Yu. Morozov – coach, D. Bystrov, G. Denisov, S. Berezin, A. Afanasyev, V. Bubukin – assistant coach, L. Nikolaenko, G. Shtromberger, Yu. Shishkin, V. Kordivar – administrator, E. Veshev – doctor.

It was the squad – yes, few very good players, but few and somewhat not at the level they used to be. Novikov was national team goalkeeper once upon a time. Tatarchuk was perhaps the only great talent for the future, but at least the squad was generally young. Great coach – Morozov – was unable to do more with rather limited squad and the worst was that CSKA for years was unable to recruit enough good players.

Guria (Lanchkhuti) won the championship. Standing from left: A. Kiladze – the chairman of the District Football Federation, G. Dundua – assistant coach, G. Giligashvili, A. Kondratyev, T. Tchkhaidze, L. Melikia, M. Akopyan, B. Sikharulidze – coach, G. Imnadze, M. Tevzadze, T. Ebanoidze, D. Ugrelidze. Front row: Ya. Ormotzadze – administrator, E. Tevzadze, B. Pridonishvili, G. Tkebuchava, M. Kiladze, V. Kopaleishvili, B. Danelia, D. Imnadze.

One of the greatest surprises in the history of Soviet football. It was a victory only on better head-to-head record against CSKA, but it was truly David beating Goliath – CSKA represented not only Moscow, but all-mighty Soviet military. Guria represented a village… even in Georgian terms it was peripheral and obscure place. Yet… 28 wins, 5 ties, 13 losses, 80-66 goal-difference, 61 points. Who would have imagined it? This victory should be placed in proper perspective: a small club cannot be really dominating. Guria apparently played all-or-nothing kind of football, so they lost many games. But the opposition was no better… Georgians usually depended on attack and scored lots of goals – no surprise here, only Rostselmash outscored Guria. The defence was dismal, which was also no big surprise. Enthusiasm certainly played big role and various weaknesses of other teams also helped. And may be the fact that Guria was not coming from relatively big provincial city, but from from really small town helped – here going to play first division football was matter of great excitement and pride, no matter the coast. No calculations what could be ‘safer’ in the long run – even one year among the best was something historic, worth risking everything, even going broke because of it. It was simply wonderful. As for the future… what Guria had at hand was a few players who played a bit for Dinamo (Tbilisi) and Torpedo (Kutaisi). A bit… not good enough, they were quickly dismissed and thus ended up in Guria. Local boys mostly. New recruits were certainly needed and there was little hope for significant additions: may be some second-stringers and veterans at the end of their careers from Dinamo (Tbilisi). The republic was too small and usually supported Dinamo (Tbilisi) with talent. The short spells of Torpedo (Kutaisi) in First Division were direct result of the small pool… Now Guria and not Torpedo was going to get those not needed by Dinamo, but there was no much certainty even in that: Georgia was having 4 teams in First and Second divisions now and Lanchkhuti was the smallest location of them. Practically there was no way attracting players from outside Georgia. But the present was great – Guria was found in 1952 and reached Second Division in 1979. Now they were the third Georgian club to play in First Division. They were going to be above the Georgian second ranking club – Torpedo (Kutaisi), the first club representing agrarian – or village – sport society in top flight, Second Division champions. Amazing story, one of those making football so attractive and dear.

USSR. At the end of the season it was said that it was Dinamo (Kiev) year and the whole championship was practically under its star. But the end was particularly dramatic – two of the 3 last games were between the leaders Dinamo (Moscow) and Dinamo (Kiev), the last match was in Kiev, Moscow leading by 1 point and Kiev extracting 2-1 win and thus prevailing and taking the title. Such victory was exciting, but doe not suggest any dominance of the new-old champions. Why, then, Dinamo (Kiev) was considered dominant? A combination of reasons – first, Dinamo won the Cup Winners Cup and was in everybody’s mouth. Second, it was practically the national team of USSR and played at the 1986 World Cup finals, getting considerable attention. The international involvement led to postponing many championship fixtures of Kiev and the new international season further complicated playing them – thus, Dinamo (Kiev) played at the very end of the season, including both matches against Dinamo (Moscow) – they were 2 of the last three games, the first in Moscow, which ended 1-1, then Kiev had a home game against Shakhter (Donetsk) – they won it 4-1 and before the last home match against Moscow they were trailing by a single point – only a win would give them the title, but they were already on track and before home crowd, they won. Frankly, this championship should be taken with a grain of salt – the Soviets always changed the schedule of the championship in order of accomodating the national team when it was playing at World Cup finals. Changed schedule instantly created opportunities for scheming and this season was not exception: on November 23 the situation was as follows – Dinamo (Moscow), practically without national team players, was leading with 36 points. They played 27 games so far and could have a maximum of 42 points. Spartak (Moscow) was 2nd with 35 points, but they had only 1 match left and their maximum could be 37 points. Zenit (Leningrad) was 3rd with 33 points and had 2 games to play – so, their possible maximum was 37 points. Dinamo (Kiev) at the moment was 7th with 30 points, but they played only 25 games so far. Five games still to play meant they could have maximum 40 points. It was clear that Spartak and Zenit had no chance winning the championship, they were already out of the picture. And for good measure consider that Torpedo (Moscow) at this moment was already going on vacation – they finished the championship, 30 games played already. With games to play at hand, one can calculate… the opposition was greatly reduced and the mood of lower-placed opponents was already restive. One can quite safely suggest that Dinamo (Moscow), in decline for many years, mostly took advantage of the situation – Kiev and Spartak were destructed by international football, having the most national team players in the country, and when nobody was looking Dinamo (Moscow) collected points. Good or bad, one thing was certain – they were among the leaders during the season, but hardly ever on the top position. Thus, they were not some new exciting squad and rightly the focus was on their Kievan namesake. That was the pinnacle of Soviet football, hiding very different reality behind. Not a new reality at all…

At the beginning of the season a survey was organized down in the Third Division – the coaches were asked about the structure and only a handful of them were in favour of it. Third level currently had 153 teams, divided into 9 Zones – or 10 really, for the Ukrainian Zone 6 was itself divided into 2 groups of 14 teams each. The winners of zonal championships proceeded to the promotional tournament – 9 clubs divided in 3 groups, the winners promoted to Second Division. Nothing new… including the problems and because of that old problems most coaches were against the structure. Dividing USSR geographically was good only on paper – in reality, the Far east has always been too weak compared to the European part of the country. But different republics were involved in the zonal championships and they had different rules, requirements and ambitions. Thus, often criticized club from Alma-Ata – SKIF – was excused in the same time: sure, it was a shame having a team regularly finishing last and receiving at least 100 goals per season, but what would you expect from squad made of juniors playing against men? Local rules permitted that, unfortunately. Also unfortunate was that there were hardly enough clubs in the area, so SKIF at least made the numbers. It was recognized that bellow 3rd level only Ukraine had meaningful football system and that was a problem as well, because Ukrainian administrators feared structural changes – they thought, perhaps rightly, that any change will break the system they carefully made. Thus, in the survey the Ukrainian opinions were rather weird: yes, the Third Division structure was a failure and counter-productive, but if changes are to be made, then only with the provision of not touching Ukrainian football. And what was ‘the Ukrainian system’? That: the champion of the Zone 6 was also the champion of Ukraine. Thus the champions of the Ukraine had real chance to go to Second Division – good motivational points. But Zone 6 was made entirely of Ukrainian teams, so it was easy to serve as republican championship as well – the other zones were mixed and none of them could serve as republican championship. The Russian republic was too large to have its clubs in one zone and Russian clubs played in few zones, some of them mixed – Third level was not meaningful solution even for Russian clubs. Thus, republican champions hardly ever had the chance to compete for promotion to Second Division and no big motivation as a result. What third-level coaches considered a better solution was reduction: no more than 60 teams playing in no more than 3 zones. It was not a new proposal – it was suggested 10 years earlier.

Whatever ‘the Ukrainian system’ was, it depended on relatively well-financed and numerous clubs. Vorskla (Poltava) was the champion of the Ukrainian republic in 1986 and they were not Third Division member – they played at even lower level and if there was motivational factor, it was in promotion to Third level, not to Second Division.

What was painfully true, though, was the fact that clubs possibly able to play quite well in Second Division played in Third level, in the European more competitive zones. Clubs like

Niva (Vinnitza), along with other former Second and even First Division members, played in the Ukrainian Zone 6;

Arsenal (Tula),

Rubin (Kazan),

Torpedo (Tolliati), and others playing in various European zones, where Russian clubs were dispersed. Too much competition for going higher…

In the same time mediocre, even plain weak, teams like Kyapaz (Kirovabad) from Zone 9,

Meliorator (Chimkent) – Zone 8, and

Sokhibkor (Khalkabad) – Zone 7 – won their extremely weak zones and had a chance to get promoted to Second Division. Just a chance, for nobody considered them potential winners in the promotional tournament.

For some reason Krassnaya Presnya (Moscow) was not considered potential winner either – as their logo suggests, they belonged to ‘Spartak Society, the reason Oleg Romantsev was starting his impressive coaching career here (last at right, middle row), but former Spartak players were dispersed in many clubs and Krassnaya Presnya apparently was not having strong enough squad for more than winning Zone 1. Similarly, the winners of Zone 3 – Sokol (Saratov) – were not expected to go up. he favourites for promotion were Metallurg (Lipetzk) from Zone 5,

Krylya Sovetov (Kuybyshev), Zone 2, and

Zarya (Voroshilovgrad), Zone 6.

At the end of the promotional tournament it was as expected – Metallurg (Lipetzk) unexpectedly underperformed, but Geolog (Tyumen), Krylya Sovetov and Zarya won their final groups and were promoted. Geolog was somewhat a sensation – not only they never played Second Division football before, but given their Northern geography, were hardly a football place. But Tyumen was producing oil and natural gas, so it was a rich place and money could do miracles – football miracles. As for Krylya Sovetov and Zarya, both clubs were more often associated with First Division than third level football and it was only natural to come back after their huge decline. In terms of possible reforming of Third Division… well, the newly promoted only spelled out the reality again: 2 Russian and 1 Ukrainian teams. Two teams from traditional football centers, but… the rise of Geolog (Tyumen) from deep-northern obscurity seemingly supported the current structure of the Third Division. That in terms of Third Division, of course.

The Cup boiled down to the usual big clash between Steaua and Dinamo. Steaua was looking for a double, Dinamo – for revenge. Dinamo prevailed 1-0.

That was a disappointment for Steaua – no double – but Dinamo was also very strong and highly motivated team on one hand and playing in Europe on top of domestic football plus having too many national team players was taking its tall. The success of Steaua apparently made life hard for various foreign journalists – the names were new and mistakes were common: here the playing assistant coach Iordanescu is named Weissenbacher. Well, Weissenbacher was a player… so far, largely a substitute.

Dinamo (Bucharest) took its revenge and also ended the season with a trophy. Top row from left: Andrei Marin – assistant coach, Ioan Zare, Alexandru Suciu, Ioan Andone, Lica Movila, Dumitru Moraru, Alexandru Nicolae, Marin Dragnea, Nicolae Ivan, Marian Damaschin, Florin Keran – assistant coach, Constantin Gaiu (?) – doctor.

Middle row: Ioan Varga, Iulian Mihaescu, Nistor Vaidean, Florin Prunea, Mircea Lucescu – coach, Ion Bucu, Mircea Rednic, Costel Orac, Nelu Stanescu.

Front row: Alexandru Cristescu – masseur, Dan Topolinschi, Cristian Sava, Gheorghe Banica, Marius Iordache, Virgil Mitici, Daniel Sava, Gheorghe Pantele – masseur.

No wonder they won the final – if Steaua had half-the-national-team, Dinamo had the other half. If Steaua was coached by great Jenei, Dinamo had Lucescu – already on the road of becoming famous coach. It was a matter who would have the day and this time Dinamo had it – and won its 6th Cup.

First Division. This was definitely Steaua’s season. Political maneuvers aside, great teams usually have at least one all-conquering season and that was the year of Steaua – they dominated the championship. No fun at the opposite side of the table:

FC Bihor (Oradea) was the hopeless outsider – last and relegated with 17 points.

Other teams fought for survival, almost half the league, but at the end ASA (Targu Mures) was 17th with 26 points and relegated.

Politehnica (Timisoara) was the third relegated team this season: 16th with 27 points.

Gloria (Buzau) survived – 15th with 28 points.

Chimia (Ramnicu Vilcea) – 14th with 29 points.

FC Olt (Scornicesti) – 13th with 29 points.

Victoria (Bucharest) – well, it was Dinamo-Victoria at first, eventually becoming just Victoria, but really… former and future Dinamo (Bucharest) players here. Take a look and some well-known names of the 1990s will catch your eye – presently, only promising youngsters, not good enough yet for Dinamo. Helped by well known players from the 1970s, now too old to play for Dinamo. Was this a separate club, or second Dinamo in the same league? 12th with 29 points.

FCM Brasov – 11th with 30 points.

SC Bacau – 10th with 30 points.

Petrolul (Ploiesti) – 9th with 31 points.

Rapid (Bucharest) – 8th with 33 points.

Universitatea (Cluj) – 7th with 33 points.

Arges (Pitesti) – 6th with 36 points.

Corvinul (Hunedoara) – 5th with 37 points. They were the second highest scorers this season with 84 goals.

Dinamo (Bucharest) – 4rd with 46 points. The best teams were way above the rest, no matter how murky the way they got points, but may be Dinamo was caught by surprise by the sudden strength of Steaua and were not title contenders at all.

Universitatea (Craiova) was not giving up the fight with foes backed up by mighty powers – 3rd with 46 points.

Sportul Studentesc (Bucharest) – 2nd with 48 points. Perhaps their best season ever and the highest scoring team in the championship: 87 goals. The club was never able to build a squad on the level of Steaua and Dinamo, but they had Gheorghe Hagi. Well, they had him so far – soon he will be ‘loaned’ for 1 match by Steaua and will never come back.

Steaua (Bucharest) did not permit anybody to come even close to them – 26 wins, 5 ties, 3 lost games, 79-25 goal-difference and 57 points. Sportul Sturdentesc was 9 points behind. It was beautiful squad with Boloni as the key man. Jenei was already the leading Romanian coach and he left the club after the end of the season, but not before winning the European Champions Cup and preparing very talented young coach to take his place – Iordanescu. Who was an assistant coach this season, but played one match – at 36, he came on the pitch as substitute in the European final and helped his teammates against Barcelona. It was interesting nice touch – risky, but also a tribute for former star player. Steaua already had wonderful team and whatever really happened to Duckadam, his sudden disappearance did not affect the team – Stingaciu was a long-serving national team goalkeeper and played for Steaua many years already. Duckadam disappeared, but Hagi appeared. But that was later – 1985-86 was not great: it was the greatest season of Steaua ever. Second consecutive title and 9th altogether.

Romania. This was the most glorious season of Romanian football – Steaua won the European Champions Cup. But behind the success was a scene difficult to hide, not a new one and not to end, leaving its ugly stamp on the country’s football to this very day. Corruption is the word, but it had peculiar flavor of Communist Eastern Europe and thus, with time, rumors eventually distorted reality to the points that truth cannot be even unearthed. Versions depend on who tells the story – and in effect it is story of the rivalry between Army and Police, both politically powerful and given to all dirty tricks. But since both players were the arms of the ruling Communist Party, at the end it was the game the Party itself played with the active involvement of the top man himself. To say that the triumph of Steaua was just a football matter would be at least incorrect: like everywhere in Eastern Europe, everybody had to go through military service, so recruitment of quality players was easy – just call them to do their service. Steaua always had a strong team – once you get whoever you want, it was to keep him by the double temptation of high officer salary and belonging to real good squad. But the Police had its own ways: the Secret Police was on top and ruled, all-powerful. Usually, the vast Police system had its own military force – the border guards service – so they were also able to call players to do their service and nobody can refuse. If the Army offered officer’s ranks and corresponding salaries and perks, the Police offered the same. That was still the base – there was more: intimidating referees, intimidating club officials, intimidating players and their relatives. Securitate – the Romanian Secret Police – had more options than the Army: for instance, before a derby the father of Steaua’s captain Tudorel Stoica would be arrested and charged for public disorder – that to upset Stoica, but it was also so easy to do – his father was notorious drunkard. In Steaua’s mythology, Securitate bugged their offices and dressing room – once the head of Securitate General Tudor Postelnicu told the Minister of Defence Constantin Olteanu verbatim the private conversion Olteanu had with Steaua’s assistant coach Anghel Iordanescu. Steaua’s efforts to sign the defender Adrian Bumbescu from Olt Scornicesti were frustrated for weeks – according to ‘innocent’ Steaua, who eventually blamed Securitate for that, but Olt was a club with special status of its own on one hand and Steaua still got the player they wanted, so they applied their own muscle. And this muscle was Valentin Ceausescu, the older son of ruler of Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu. It was a brilliant move by the Army – in 1983 Steaua was falling behind not only Securitate’s Dinamo, but also behind provincial Univeristatea (Craiova) and was already 5 years without a title. General Constantin Olteanu appointed Valentin Ceausescu head of Steaua. Having a member of Ceausescu’s family as head of the club neutralized not just Securitate – the already mentioned Olt was much pampered club since the late 1970s, because it was part of the promotion of the village Nicolae Ceausescu was born – that is, the village became something a combination of villages called a town, Scornicesti. Can’t go against the glory of the most glorious – and if there is not enough glory to show, let create some. A football club, if there is nothing else. Thus, Olt suddenly had a strong team and climbed up to the first division. Once there… no way going down. Getting players from Olt was difficult, beating Olt was difficult – for it was unwise to beat them. But having a Ceausescu running Steaua neutrilzed Olt and Dinamo. And everybody else. By many accounts Valentin Ceausescu was modest and serious man, who worked hard for the club – that’s Steaua’s version, confirmed by players. On the other side of the fence… Valentin was and is a nuclear physicist. Nuclear physicists usually are quite ignorant of the art of managing sportclubs. And if Valentin was so gifted football manager, he would have been one now – but after Communism fell, he went back to nuclear physics. From this insight, it could be concluded that he was just a muscle – cannot say ‘no’ to the son of dictator. His mere presence was enough to get desired results. Bumbescu joined Steaua and not only he did. However, Securitate was not done with – they had the ear of father Ceausescu too. Besides, Valentin was not enough protection against his own father – the murky story of Ducadam, who disappeared for 5 years right after Steaua won the European Cup largely thanks to him, is attributed to the wrath Nicolae Ceausescu – according to one of the rumors, Ducadam angered Nicolae and Valentin could do nothing to stop his father. One common myth is that Valentin was so talented a manager, that he got Ford to sponsor Steaua – it is true that Steaua eventually played with Ford log on their shirts, but … at that time Nicolae was getting some US business to Romania. And when Valentin tried to get FIAT building a factory in the country in exchange for giving Hagi to Juventus, papa Nicolae blocked the deal – most likely because of his own deal with the Americans and also with Renault. As for Hagi, he was loaned from Sportul Studentesc for one game only – to play in the Supercup match against Dinamo (Kiev) in early 1987. He never returned to his original club – or he was never returned… The whole saga lasts at least 7 years, so everything now is mixed, but the presence of Valentin helped Steaua a lot. Yet, Securitate’s Dinamo was not blown away – just to keep the balance, let say that Dinamo managed to promote its second team to the top division. True, this club was renamed and became Victoria, but was it ever independent club? Victoria (Bucharest) quickly disappeared after the fall of Communism. It was still named Dinamo-Victoria in the great 1985-86 season, though… and had some interesting names in its squad: future stars of Dinamo. Yet, politics, intrigues, power struggles, and corruption aside, there was one very important fact: Romania had very strong generation at this time. Thus, at least two clubs were exceptionally good. Manipulating and fixing domestic football is one thing, but cannot be done on international stage – and Steaua, Dinamo, and the national team of Romania were internationally strong and stayed strong at least until this generation retired in the second half of the 1990s. This season, however, belonged entirely to Steaua.

Second Division. The usual 3 groups of 18 teams each, the winners promoted to First Division. Exotica appears here, but the stronger teams and typical candidates for promotion were former top flight clubs. Nothing very different from second division everywhere, but Eastern Europe had a specific different from the West. Exotic names like Gaz metan (Medias), Chimia (Falticeni), Metalul (Plopeni), Electroputere (Craiova), Tractorul (Brasov), Automatica (Bucharest), Mecanica fina Steaua, ICSIM (Bucharest), Armatura (Zalau) suggest industries – the bulk of Second Division was made of such teams, factory clubs, sometimes not only suggesting profession or what particular plant produced, but often just having the name of the plant as club name. However, such clubs declined as time passed and although it is difficult to make the point clear, it is good to try: what lays on the surface is money. Since Communist sport was supposed to be amateur, financing teams, maintaining facilities, paying the players had to be done in some disguised way. Having a factory team solved the problem, but there was more to it – originally, the idea of ‘true proletarian sport’ was formulated as workers sport – true workers in their spare time pursue sports. True workers are also proud of their ‘own factory’ and identify themselves with it – hence, electricians support their own club, textile workers – their factory team, and so on. And since, ideologically, the Socialist state is made from the union of workers, the army, the police, and the intellectuals, every branch has corresponding club. Back in the 1950s, factory clubs had their peak, but during the 1960s things changed – workers were somewhat left behind and factory clubs lost their position. Not immediately, but by the 1980s such clubs had lowly existance and served more private purposes: for instance, it was good for a factory director to have factory team – it was useful for reporting to the Communist Party: we are so forward-minded and do so much developing not only industry, but sports as well. Ill-guided pride also played role – many a director wanted to have his own pet projects, often they were sport teams. But the importance of such clubs declined and no factory was able to compete with big clubs belonging to central ministries, particularly with Army and Police. The sharp decline was most evident in the fate of Progresul (Bucharest) – once upon a time, it was very strong club, but since the late 1960s it was slowly going down until finding itself a permanent second-division club and even having to merge with another club to keep its place there – it was Progresul Vulcan by 1985 and one thing was sure: there was no coming back. May be occasional promotion to top flight was still possible, but no leading position in Romanian football. That was why the clubs with most industrial names were playing in Second Division or lower. But it was also depending on place: the only club of relatively large provincial city would very often have industrial name. It would be also attached to the biggest plant in the city – to finance relatively decent squad there was no other way. Party helped as well, for such a club practically represented the city on both sporting and ideological levels. If there were more than one club, the most popular got everything – thus, Universitatea represented Craiova, the students club, and Electroputere, the local industrial club, was left on its own. Back in the 1950s it was not like that, even the names of old clubs like Universitatea were changed to ‘proper’ proletarian names. By mid-80s the picture was very different – old clubs had their names restored, Army and Police remained leading clubs, bigger provincial cities had one strong club, and ‘workers’ clubs had secondary position at best. One other reason played a role in the decline – it was somewhat not taken into account in the original utopia: no factory club became popular. People tended to support old clubs or drifted to the new, but successful clubs, belonging to Army and Police. The idea that textile workers will support the team of their textile plant was illusion from start and to play a championship without fans in the stands… was just a waste of both money and ideological message. One result was exactly the Second Division final tables – city clubs, formerly in the first division, were in the upper half; factory clubs – in the lower half. Battles for promotion were fought between former top flight clubs – depending on how many of them were in particular Second Division group. And also depending on their current strength and ambition. Thus, only one group had a two-team battle for first place this season and all together 4 teams dominated the championship by far.

Serie I.

CS Botosani – 9th with 34 points. The league was pretty equal – 7 points divided the 17th from the 4th – so Botosani was one of the bulk. Dunarea CSU (Galati) was 3rd with 37 points. Politehnica (Iasi) – 2nd with 39 points.

Otelul (Galati) dominated the championship and without challengers won it with 52 points. 24 wins, 4 ties, 6 losses, 86-29. Easy return to top flight. Note their shirts – looks like they played with sponsor’s logo – not the first Romanian team to do that, but still before Steaua got Ford sponsorship.

Serie II. Not different from Serie I – most of the league was similarly strong or weak. CS Targoviste finished 3rd with 42 points. Progresul Vulcan (Bucharest) – 2nd with 42 points, thanks to better goal-difference.

Flacara (Moreni) had no competition and won the championship with 48 points. 20 wins, 8 ties, 6 losses, 46-25.

Serie III. The only difference between this league and the previous two was the exciting battle for the top position.

UTA (Arad) – with dark shirts, pictured here together with Hagi’s Sportul Studentesc, perhaps before a cup fixture – was 4th with 36 points. Down on their luck, this once upon a time strong club, was now resigned to II-division existence.

Gloria (Bistrita) took 3rd place wit 42 points, but was out of the race for promotion. FCM Baia-Mare and Jiul (Petrosani) fought to the end and only goal-difference divided the winner from the loser. FCM Baia-Mare lost the battle: 20 wins, 8 ties, 6 losses, 65-29, 48 points. Goal-difference: +36.

Jiul (Petrosani) clinched 1st place after 22 wins, 4 ties, 8 losses, 72-30, 48 points. Better goal-difference of +42 returned them to First Division.