Category: 1988

First Division. 20 teams – 2 relegated not by final position, but on worst point average in the accumulated relegation table. 14 teams were from Greater Buenos Aires (including La Plata and Avellaneda) – such is the weight of the city: so many great clubs, impossible to ignore. The rest were also concentrated in the traditional big-club cities – Rosario and Cordoba plus one from Santa Fe.
Let start with the relegated on point average: they were Union (Santa Fe) – 18th in the championship, and Banfield – 19th in the season.
The final table was:
Talleres (Cordoba) last with 27 points.
Banfield – 19th with 28 points. Relegated. Standing from left: Solari, C.Díaz, D’Angelo, Vittor, Pogany, E. Vázquez. First row: Orte, Garcia, Aquino, Molina, Andrada.

Union (Santa Fe) – 18th with 28 points. Relegated. Standing from left: Humoller, Altamirano, Mauri, Passet, Jorge García, Cárdenas. Crouching: Armando, Toresani, Marcelo López, Alí, De Avila.
Racing (Cordoba) – 17th with 31 points. Standing from left: Luis Escobedo, Pascual Noriega, Marcelo D. Quiñones, Héctor Chazarreta, José T. Serrizuela, Juan M. Ramos.
Front: Luis Amuchástegui, Eusebio J. Roldán, José M. Bianco, Raúl de la Cruz Chaparro, Víctor H. Ferreyra.
Estudiantes (La Plata) – 16th with 32 points.
Instituto – 15th with 33 points. Standing from left: Renato Corsi (USA), Jorge F. Reinoso, Ricardo Kuzemka, Ramón Alvarez, Dalcio Giovagnoli, Enrique Nieto.
Crouching: Héctor Silva, Osvaldo Márquez, Ariel Cozzoni, Ricardo Rentera, Armando Dely Valdés (Panama).
Ferro Carril Oeste – 14th with 33 points. Second row from left: Claudio Cristofanelli, José Fantaguzzi, Oscar Garré, Héctor Cúper, Víctor Marchesini, Fabián Cancelarich.
Fornt row: Oscar R. Acosta, Oscar Agonil, Héctor D. Miranda, Daniel O. Fernández, Luis Fabián Artime.
Deportivo Armenio – 13th with 34 points.
Boca Juniors – 12th with 35 points. Terrible season for mighty Boca – just a point ahead of modest debutantes Deportivo Armenio. Standing from left: Hrabina, Carrizo, Cuciuffo, Gatti, Abramovich, Tavares. First row: Graciani, Melgar, Humberto Gutiérrez, Stafuza, J. L. Villarreal.. Well… take away old Gatti and Cuciuffo and there is practically nothing.
Independiente – another great nothing… 11th with 37 points.
Platense – 10th with 38 points. Standing from left: Aponte, Capozucchi, Juan A. Sánchez, Jones, Guillermo Rodríguez, Fortunato, Bellini. Front: Ivanovic, Boldrini, Espina, Alfaro Moreno.
Deportivo Espanol – 9th with 40 points. Worse goal-difference depraved them from a chance to compete for a spot in the Libertadores Cup – teams placed 2nd to 8th qualified to the tournament for that spot.
Argentinos Juniors – 8th with 40 points. Great days were over, but they still had a chance to appear again in Libertadores. At least at the end of the championship.
Rosario Central – 7th with 40 points.

Velez Sarsfield – 6th with 41 points. Standing from left: Simeone, Sandoval, Rojo, Navarro Montoya, Meza, Lucca. First row: Cardozo, Adrián Bianchi, Zalazar, Claudio García, Macat. One guy will become world-famous in a little while.
Gimnasia y Esgrima (La Plata) – 5th with 43 points. Standing from left: Carlos G. Russo, Gustavo Moriconi, Oscar A. Olivera, Claudio Galvagni, Daniel Pighín, Osvaldo Tempesta, Ricardo Kuzemka.
Crouching: Gabriel Pedrazzi, Carlos A. García, Carlos Carrió, Gerardo M. González.
River Plate – 4th with 46 points. May be preoccupied with something else, may be not great enough to compete successfully on two fronts, may be the competition was too tough. Should have been title contenders, but at the end – 4th.
Racing (Avellaneda) – 3rd with 48 points. May be a revival at last? Let’s wait… Standing from left: Asteggiano, Lamadrid, Berón, Balerio, Perico Pérez, Fabio Costas. Front: Szulz, Decoud, Zaccanti, Medina Bello, Rabuñal.
San Lorenzo – 2nd with 49 points. Strong, but the title was not up to them. Standing from left: Zacarías, Bernuncio, Moner, Giunta, Chilavert, Larraquy. Crouching: Malvárez, Nannini, Perazzo, Ortega Sánchez, Barrera.
Newell’s Old Boys – champions with 55 points from 21 wins, 13 ties, and 4 losses. 68-22 goal-difference. They showed their aim from before the championship and had no real rival this season – finished 6 points ahead of San Lorenzo.
Newell’s Old Boys really deserved to win, if players are any real indication – their squad, with Sensini, Basualdo, Balbo, ‘Tata’ Martino, Dezotti, Scoponi, was way above any other squad by names. Shall we add one Gabriel Batistuta just in case? And this time names translated into class.
Give credit to their coach Josa Judica too. Great, popular, well known club, but provincial… so, it was their only 2nd title – the first was in 1974, when the won the old Metropolitan League. This time – no ifs and buts, a total success.
One last time – the champions!

Second Promotion Play-off. 12 teams in it – 9 from Second Division plus the champion of Primera B Metropolitana – Talleres (RE) – and the top teams from Torneo del Interior – San Martin and Estacion Quequen. The formula of the tournament was cup-format – direct elimination in two legs. The and 3rd from Second Division started at the second round – the ¼ finals and the 2nd – in the ½ finals.
Douglas Haig lost to Huracan 0-3 and 2-2.
Talleres (Remedios de Escalada) was eliminated by Belgrano 0-0 and 1-4.
Atletico Tucuman lost to Colon 1-0 and 0-1 – possibly, losing a penalty shoot-out. Standing from left:Carlos Suárez, Miguel Gerez, Carlos Munutti, Miguel Diamante, Ramón Villafañe, Julio C. Lencina.
Front: Miguel Rearte, Luis Fabián García, Raúl Aredes, Luis C. Reartez, Antonio Apud.
Tigre lost to San Martin 0-1 and 0-1.
Estacion Quequen was eliminated by Chaco For Ever 1-3 and 1-1. Second row from left: Jorge D. Casaprima (PF), Claudio Mainardi, Carlos Viel, Sergio Mainardi, Luis Sánchez, Horacio Stelle, Ricardo Erasún.
Crouching: Roberto Crausaz, Ricardo Guerrero, Mario Márquez, Carlos Beguiristain, Luis Pekel.
¼ finals.
Belgrano was eliminated by Huracan 1-3 and 1-1. Standing from left: Lucio Del Mul – Juan C. Reyna – Alejandro Chiera – José Céliz – Daniel Sperandío – Gustavo Tognarelli.
Front: Rubén Rodríguez – Osvaldo Strecchia(Uruguay) – Edgardo Parmigiani – Mauro Pazzarelli – Omar Da Fonseca.
Cipolletti lost to San Martin 2-5 and 1-1.
Colon lost to Chaco For Ever 1-0 and 1-2. It was unclear how they eliminated Atletico Tucuman in the previous round and it is unclear how they lost here – surely, not on away goal rule.
½ finals.
End of the road for Huracan – eliminated by Chaco For Ever 1-0 and 0-1. Once again, unclear on what rule… Standing from left: Guillermo Nicosia, Hebert Birriel (Uruguayan), Eduardo Quinto Pagés, Pedro Fóppoli, Eugenio Gentile, Carlos Torino.
First row: Ariel Paolorossi, Daniel Messina, Héctor Herrero, Marcelo Bachino, Atilio Oyola.
No luck for Quilmes too – they lost to San Martin 0-0 ans 1-2. They lost the home leg… Standing from left: O. Aguilar, C. Jeannoteguy, J. Orengo, G. Puentedura, G. Escalante, E. Kalugerovich. First row: R. Kergaravat, O. Gómez, D. Leani, A. Llane, Juan Sotelo.
Final – Chaco For Ever vs San Martin. Provincial final opposing a team from Second Division to one technically from Third level. And the team from the lower level won both legs – 1-0 and 2-0. If anything, this was the justification of the complicated second promotion tournament.

Lady Luck abandoned Chaco For Ever at the very end – just a prove that one can run all the way on sheer luck… Yet, Chaco For Ever did very well – they were not a factor in the Second Division championship, finishing 4th 7 points behind the winners, but had strong second run in the promotion play-off, coming from behind and thus playing all stages. But they were not good enough to earn promotion… Standing from left: Raúl Valdez, Celso Freyre, Felipe Di Marco, Daniel Sperandío, Gustavo Ferlatti, Hugo Parrado.
Crouching: Luis E. Sosa (Uruguayan), Juan Argüello, Daniel Cravero, Carlos Rosas, Juan M. Sotelo.
San Martin (Tucuman) won the second promotion to top flight – thus, skipping Second Division. A club which should not be playing Third Level really, for traditionally they were among the strongest clubs outside greater Buenos Aires. But had the hard luck to be out of the new divisional system of the country. And they proved they belonged to the best – not to second and even less to third rate teams. 6 wins and 2 ties in the promotion campaign – they did not lose at all, really, the best team. Top row from left: Guillén, Belardi (PF), Daza, A. Juárez, Monteros, Solbes, Chabay (DT), Haymal, Unali, L. Moreno, J. C. Roldán (AC). Middle row: Rutar, Noriega, Troitiño, Ibáñez, R. Robles, Campos, Chazarreta, Medina, J. López. Sitting: Romano, R. Torres, Galván, Dilascio, R. Roldán, R. Martínez, Villafañe, Giménez, Benítez.
Well done, San Martin! Both promotions went to provincial clubs this year – a prove that the provinces did not deserve to be put down by supposedly deeply embedded Buenos Aires superiority.

Second Division. 22 teams in it, the winner promoted to First Division. Three teams relegated – by the means of combined relegation table, those with the worst point average. Those placed from 2nd to 10th position went to the Second Promotion Play-off.
Gimnasia y Esgrima (Jujuy) finished last with 14 points.
Ferro Carril Oeste (General Pico) – 21st with 25 points.

Los Andes – 20th with 33 points.
Lanus – 19th with 35 points.
Temperley – 18th with 38 points.
Guarani Antonio Franco – 17th with 38 points.
Defensa y Justicia – 16th with 38 points.
Deportivo Maipu – 15th with 40 points.
Almirante Brown – 14th with 40 points. Standing from left: Hugo Molteni, Sergio Seguel, Ricardo Johansen, José L. Carrizo, Nelson Iturrieta.
First row: Sergio A. Sánchez, Jorge Quiróz, Roberto Coelli, Marcelo Reggiardo, Antonio Labonia, Néstor Ferraresi.
Sportivo Italiano – 13th with 41 points. Standing from left: Esteban Koleff, Daniel Díaz, Abel Alves, José A. Putero, Gustavo Maciel, Pablo Giofreé.
Crouching: Lorenzo Román, Marcos Capocetti, Víctor H. Crema, Nobrberto Toledo, Miguel H. Robles.
Central Cordoba (S d E) – 12th with 42 points.
Chacarita Juniors – 11th with 43 points.
Douglas Haig – 10th with 43 points. Better goal-difference placed them above Chacarita Juniors and qualified them to the Second Promotion Play-off.
Atletico Tucuman – 9th with 45 points.
Colon – 8th with 48 points.
Huracan – 7th with 48 points. Standing from left: Rescaldani, Tanucci, Urquiza, Quiroz, Luque, Britez Front: Mohamed, Marioni, Borzillo, De Felippe, Rey.
Belgrano – 6th with 49 points.
Tigre – 5th with 49 points.
Chaco For Ever – 4th with 51 points. Standing from left: Raúl Oyola, Juan Argüello, Jorge Benítez, José Vilche, Felipe Di Marco, Hugo Parrado.
First row: Luis E. Sosa (Uruguayan), Celso Freyre, José Villareal, Luis Díaz, Juan M. Sotelo.
Cipolletti – 3rd with 52 points.
Quilmes – 2nd with 54 points.
Deportivo Mandiyu – champions of Second Division with 58 points. 20 wins, 18 ties, 4 losses. 54-24 goal-difference. Great season for them and promoted to First Division.
One more look at the champions – they deserve that. Standing from left: Quiroga, Daniel Rodríguez, Barrios, Cáceres, Manis, Daniel Martínez. Front: Urbina, Basualdo, Oddine, Cañete, Attadía.
Relegation – the 3 teams with the worst accumulated point average: Guarani Antonio Franco, Ferro Carril Oeste (GP), and Gimnasia y Esgrima (J).

Argentina. The system: on the top – First Division, two teams relegated on the old criteria – a few years combined relegation table from which those with the worst point average went down. Second Division, however, had only the winner directly promoted. The second promotion came from another tournament – it included those finishing from 2nd to 10th place, 9 teams in total, plus the winner of Primera B Metropolitana (Buenos Aires, Third Level), and the 2 teams qualifying from Torneo Interior (Provincial champiuonship, Third Level). The confusion remains, of course – the Buenos Aires league system conflicts with the championships of the provinces, culminating with the final interprovincial championship, but in the grand scheme they all were de facto Third Level – Second Division, Primera B, muddles the water largely because it more or less the old Metropolitan Primera B, but elevated on national scale. In the same time the provinces were seemingly lowered, so as compensation it was decided to have these parallel championship for one promotion – still it was largely made of Second Division teams.
Such complications emerged largely by the obvious discrepancy between names and strength: on one hand quite respectful clubs from greater Buenos Aires were down in Third Level, but weaker provincial clubs either on the same or higher level. On the other hand the nation-wide interprovincial championship would not be degraded to mere Third Level affair – Argentina was too big to allow football to be concentrated only around Buenos Aires. A quick sample of teams outside the two top division should suffice for the point made:
All Boys (Buenos Aires)
Almagro (Buenos Aires)
Sarmiento (Junin)
Defensores de Belgrano.
Central Cordoba (Rosario). Standing from left: Jorge Ciancaglini, Víctor Longo, Claudio Ubeda, José Minielo, Pedro Rossini, Marcelo D’Angelo. Crouching: José Luis Orellano, Norberto Ricci, Jorge Forgues, Alberto Gómez, Daniel Núñez.
Surely, not famous clubs, but popular and hardly third level… but there they were and remained.

First Level – II Copa Uniao. 24 teams played in it – the 16 ‘rebel’ clubs, which organized the original outlaw Copa Uniao in 1987 plus 8 teams, which were ‘promoted’ from the ‘legal’ championship, when the Federation and the rebels reached agreement. This was the most orderly championship in 1988 and the structure of it, although still complex, was simplified. Confusion was still embedded in the rules, though – the biggest one is difficulty to distinguish this championship from the next: Brazil still recorded single year championship. But the 1988 championship finished on February 19, 1989. Meantime printed materials for the next season came out and they were titled 1988-89 season – the issue of ‘Placar’ dedicated to the new championship, for instance. To stay on track, one has to pay attention to the number of participants: there were 24 teams in the 1988 championship and 22 in the 1989 championship. In fact, the First Level had to be of 22 teams by the agreement between the Federation and the rebels from 1987, but back than protests lead to further compromise and artificially the number was increased to 24 – and now had to go down to the initial size. So, 4 teams were relegated this championship and 2 promoted from Second Level. The championship itself followed pretty much the formula of 1987: first phase, itself made of 2 stages, and second phase, played cup-formal, starting with ¼ finals to the final. Therefore, the first phase served for qualification of 8 teams to the ¼ finals and also ended with ‘final table’ – the bottom 4 teams were relegated.
The first phase was played in 2 groups of 12 teams each – in the first stage the teams from group 1 played only against the teams in group 2. In the second stage the teams played only against the other teams on their own group. Not very clear, but looked like the top 2 teams in the groups in every stage qualified to the ¼ finals. After that the ‘final’ table was made, combining the records of first and second stages, so in it every team had its full record of 23 games. Apart from decisive for relegation, the ‘final’ table served only one other purpose: in case some teams ended in the qualifying zone in both stages, the required number of 8 teams for the ¼ finals was made by teams with higher records – points – in this table. Just like in the Second Level, there were no ties, but penalty shoot-outs after a match ending in a draw. Thus, 3 points for straight win, 2 points for penalty shootout win, 1 points for penalty shootout loss, 0 points for straight loss. But after the first phase of the championship this rule did not apply, changing back to the classic system on win, tie, loss. Luckily, no major scandal erupted, but the strange rules affected the end of the championship – especially when one looks at the so-called ‘final’ table made after the first stage of the championship. Because of the complexity of the championship, here only this ‘final’ table and the next stage will be given:
Final Table – First Phase
1-Vasco da Gama 23 13 7/ 1 2 34-14 54 Qualified
2-Internacional 23 10 6/ 4 3 35-23 46 Qualified
3-Bahia 23 11 4/ 3 5 28-20 44 Qualified*
4-Portuguesa 23 12 2/ 3 6 28-21 43
5-Flamengo 23 11 3/ 4 5 32-19 43 Qualified
6-Sport 23 9 6/ 2 6 20-20 41 Qualified
7-Atlético-MG 23 8 6/ 4 5 22-22 40
8-São Paulo 23 9 4/ 4 6 21-18 39
9-Fluminense 23 9 3/ 5 6 24-17 38 Qualified
10-Grêmio 23 9 2/ 5 7 25-22 36 Qualified
11-Coritiba 23 8 5/ 2 8 20-17 36
12-Cruzeiro 23 8 1/ 8 7 26-21 34 Qualified
13-Goiás 23 5 8/ 3 7 21-21 34
Standing from left: Valter Nascimento, Jorge Batata, Uidemar, Eduardo, Néo, Ronaldo Castro. Crouching: Formiga, Fagundes, Sabará, Tiãozinho e Péricles.
14-Guarani 23 7 2/ 7 7 20-22 32
The photo may or may be not from 1988…
15-Corinthians 23 6 5/ 4 8 21-22 32
16-Palmeiras 23 7 3/ 4 9 21-22 31
17-Botafogo 23 7 3/ 4 9 17-22 31
18-Santos 23 7 3/ 4 9 19-25 18
19-Atlético-PR 23 5 5/ 6 7 18-17 31
20-Vitória 23 7 3/ 3 10 21-30 30
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
21-Bangu 23 4 6/ 4 9 15-22 28 Relegated
Standing from left: Gilmar, Oliveira, Joel, Macula, Toby, Márcio Nunes
First row: Gilson, Arturzinho, Gil, Israel, Pedrinho Vicençote.
22-Santa Cruz 23 5 5/ 2 11 19-28 27 Relegated
23-Criciúma 23 1 3/ 5 14 12-34 14 Relegated
24-América-RJ 23 2 1/ 5 15 11-31 13 Relegated

* – Since Vasco da Gama had already won the first stage, the final berth was
awarded to Bahia who had the better first phase record among the other 17
teams.
Here it is – rather strange, but such were the rules. Sao Paulo was technically the winner of the First stage. Their strong performance in both phases of it opened a spot for ¼ finals – and it went to Bahia, because of their best overall record (not counting the already qualified teams). Of course, one may wonder why the 4th overall team – Portuguesa – did not qualify, by the 12th in the ‘final’ table did, but such were the rules. At least relegation was clear: the last 4 in the ‘final’ table. Bangu (Rio de Janeiro), Santa Cruz (Recife), Criciuma (Criciuma), and America (Rio de Janeiro) went down to Second Level.
The next phase was classic cup format – direct elimination in 2 legs. No more penalty-shoot outs – ties counted as ties. And it was entirely played in early 1989…
¼ finals
Flamengo was eliminated by Gremio 0-0 and 0-1.
Sport (Recife) lost to Bahia on the away-goal rule: 1-1 at home and 0-0 away. The away-goal rule was applied only after extra time, however – it ended also scoreless.

Vasco da Gama lost to Fluminense: 1-0, then 1-2. In extra time Fluminense scored 2 goals and eliminated the strongest team in the first phase of the championship.
Cruzeiro was eliminated by Inter 0-0 and 0-2.
½ finals.
End of the road for Gremio, beaten by Inter 0-0 and 1-2.

Fluminense lost to Bahia 0-0 and 1-2.
The final – also played in 2 legs and well attended: the leg in Porto Alegre attracted nearly 80 000 spectators, for instance. But the home crowd was disappointed – the match ended 0-0 and Inter lost. The first leg was already played in it Bahia extracted 2-1 victory at home – Bobo scored twice for them and Inter managed to return only one goal, thanks to Leomir. It was very hopeful result, but Bahia kept its fragile advance in Porto Alegre and won the Brazilian championship.
Internacional (Porto Alegre) – the 1988 vice-champions of Brazil. Standing from left: Helder, Luiz Carlos Winck, Taffarel, Luis Fernando, Aloisio, Amarildo. Crouching: Norton, Norberto, Gilberto Costa, Laercio, Paulo Mattos. This is the squad in the first phase of the season – a different team played the final against Bahia, in which half of the players here did not appear. Compared to the great teams winning national titles in the 1970s, this team is somewhat weaker – but compared to Bahia… they looked stronger on paper. Also stronger by initial performance. Yet, they lost the final and that in front of their own fans.
Bahia (Salvador) prevailed in the final and won the Brazilian title for the first time. Glory to the champions! Champions, who were quite lucky… if not for double victory of Vasco da Gama in the First phase, they were not going to play in the ¼ finals – after all, by the rules, they failed to qualify directly. Playing good, no doubt – 3rd in the combined First phase final table – but… not qualifying directly. If Flamengo got one point more or Portuguese a point or two points more, Bahia would have ended its season after the First phase. But they were lucky to go ahead. And lucky in the ¼ finals, when they prevailed on away-goal rule, unable to beat Sport. Lady Luck was on their side, but who can blame them – the team fought to the end and prevailed. Not a squad full of famous players – which makes their victory both surprising and admirable. In any case it was victory of the underdog – always sweet. Of course, great historic moment for the club, its supporters, and the city of Salvador too. A glorious moment to be cherished, remembered and celebrated.

Second Level. 24 teams played in it and the formula was three stages, all played in groups. There were no ties – tied matches were followed by penalty shoot-outs. 3 points were given for straight win, 2 points for winning by penalty shoot-out, 1 point for losing by penalty shoot-out. Two teams were promoted to First Level – the top 2 in the final stage, After it the same two top teams played a final for the Second Level title. Relegation was unclear… at the end, it did not matter were there rules for relegation or not, because in the 1989 Third Level was abandoned and Second Level increased to 96 teams. At a glance – second rate teams played at this level, which looked fair deal, but there was at least one anomaly: Valeriodoce Esporte Clube (Itabira, Minas Gerais) popped in. Obscure club, never playing in the Brazilian championship before. How and why they suddenly appeared in the Second Level? Because the states had a number of assigned lots and teams qualified from the local championship. Yet, it was difficult to follow the rules for participation and relegation/promotion rules hardly made sense in championships seemingly using two different criteria in the same time. The championship was greatly simplified and at least it was easy to understand and follow, but… the championship ended with a scandal anyway. At the first stage the last teams in every group were decided relegated. It did not really match anything, for only 2 teams from Third Level were going to be promoted. Were they really relegated after the elimination of Third Level? May be a look at the 1989 season is in order…
Here are the teams playing in the 1989 Second Level championship and since there was no final table, the whole season will be shown after that:
1-Associação Esportiva Catuense (Alagoinhas-BA)
2-Fluminense Futebol Clube (Feira de Santana-BA)
3-Ceará Sporting Club (Fortaleza-CE)
4-Rio Branco Atlético Clube (Vitória-ES)
5-Atlético Club Goianiense (Goiânia-GO)
6-Operário Futebol Clube (Campo Grande-MS)
7-América Futebol Clube (Belo Horizonte-MG)
8-Uberlândia Esporte Clube (Uberlândia-MG)
9-Valeriodoce Esporte Clube (Itabira-MG)
10-Treze Futebol Clube (Campina Grande-PB)
11-Grêmio de Esportes Maringá (Maringá-PR)
12-Londrina Esporte Clube (Londrina-PR)
13-Central Sport Club (Caruaru-PE)
14-Clube Náutico Capibaribe (Recife-PE)
15-Americano Futebol Clube (Campos-RJ)
16-Sociedade Esportiva e Recreativa Caxias do Sul (Caxias do Sul-RS)
17-Esporte Clube Juventude (Caxias do Sul-RS)
18-Esporte Clube Pelotas (Pelotas-RS)
19-Avaí Futebol Clube (Florianópolis-SC)
20-Joinville Esporte Clube (Joinville-SC)
21-Associação Atlética Internacional (Limeira-SP)
22-Associação Atlética Ponte Preta (Campinas-SP)
23-Botafogo Futebol Clube (Ribeirão Preto-SP)
24-Clube Atlético Juventus (São Paulo-SP)
First stage.
Group C
Table
1-Náutico 10 6 1/ 1 2 11- 5 21 Qualified
2-Fluminense-BA 10 4 3/ 3 0 10- 4 21 Qualified
3-Catuense 10 4 2/ 2 2 15-12 18 Qualified
4-Ceará 10 2 2/ 1 5 6-11 11 Qualified ———————————————–
5-Central 10 1 3/ 2 4 3- 8 11 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
6-Treze 10 1 1/ 3 5 7-12 8 Relegated

Group D
1-Ponte Preta 10 4 2/ 2 2 13- 7 18 Qualified
2-Americano 10 4 1/ 4 1 14- 9 18 Qualified
3-América-MG 10 4 2/ 2 2 10- 6 18 Qualified
4-Valeriodoce 10 4 2/ 1 3 12-10 17 Qualified ———————————————–
5-Juventus 10 2 2/ 2 4 9- 9 12 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
6-Rio Branco-ES 10 1 2/ 0 7 6-23 7 Relegated

Group E
1-Internacional-SP 10 5 3/ 1 1 11- 6 22 Qualified
2-Botafogo-SP 10 4 1/ 2 3 10- 8 16 Qualified
3-Atlético-GO 10 4 0/ 3 3 17-13 15 Qualified
4-Operário-MS 10 3 2/ 2 3 14-13 15 Qualified ———————————————–
5-Grêmio Maringá 10 3 2/ 1 4 7-13 14 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
6-Uberlândia 10 1 2/ 1 6 9-15 8 Relegated

Group F
1-Joinville 10 4 4/ 2 0 16- 9 22 Qualified
2-Caxias 10 4 2/ 2 2 13-11 18 Qualified
3-Avaí 10 3 1/ 4 2 10- 6 15 Qualified
4-Juventude 10 3 2/ 0 5 6-10 13 Qualified ———————————————–
5-Londrina 10 3 1/ 1 5 8-13 12 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
6-Pelotas 10 2 1/ 2 5 8-12 10 Relegated

Second stage.
Group G
1-Operário-MS 6 5 0/ 0 1 9- 4 15 Qualified
2-Caxias 6 4 0/ 1 1 10- 4 13 Qualified ———————————————–
3-Botafogo-SP 6 1 1/ 1 3 5- 7 6
4-Juventude 6 0 1/ 0 5 2-11 2

Group H
1-Internacional-SP 6 4 1/ 0 1 11- 6 14 Qualified
2-Joinville 6 3 0/ 1 2 5- 4 10 Qualified ———————————————–
3-Atlético-GO 6 2 0/ 0 4 6- 6 6
4-Avaí 6 2 0/ 0 4 8- 6 6

Group I
1-Ponte Preta 4 3 0/ 0 1 5- 3 9 Qualified
2-Americano 4 2 0/ 0 2 3- 3 6 Qualified ———————————————–
3-Fluminense-BA 4 1 0/ 0 3 2- 4 3

Obs.: Alleging financial problems, Ceará abandoned the competition.

Group J
1-Náutico 6 4 0/ 1 1 9- 7 13 Qualified
2-Valeriodoce 6 3 2/ 0 1 7- 5 13 Qualified ———————————————–
3-América-MG 6 3 0/ 0 3 7- 4 9
4-Catuense 6 0 0/ 1 5 4-11 1

Third stage
Group K
1-Internacional-SP 6 4 1/ 1 0 15- 6 15 Qualified
2-Náutico 6 3 1/ 1 1 11- 8 12 Qualified ———————————————–
3-Operário-MS 6 0 2/ 1 3 3-11 5
4-Valeriodoce 6 1 0/ 1 4 9-13 4

Group L
1-Americano 6 3 0/ 2 1 6- 6 11 Qualified
2-Ponte Preta 6 2 2/ 0 2 8- 6 10 Qualified ———————————————–
3-Joinville 6 2 1/ 1 2 6- 7 9
4-Caxias 6 2 0/ 0 4 8- 9 6

Final phase
1-Internacional-SP 6 2 3/ 0 1 7- 6 12 Promoted, Qualified
2-Náutico 6 2 2/ 1 1 6- 5 11 Promoted, Qualified ———————————————–
3-Ponte Preta 6 3 0/ 2 1 10- 6 11
4-Americano 6 0 0/ 2 4 2- 8 2
So far, so good, but…. At first, Ponte Preta was declared promoted. However, as usual, the tiebreaking criteria of the tournament was unclear. Náutico contested Ponte Preta’s promotion, alleging that the first tiebreaking criterion was the number of wins in the whole tournament and not the number of wins in the final phase. CBF decided to award the promotion to Náutico. Back to the old chaos of protesting, contesting…
Anyhow, Inter and Nautico were promoted, but still had to play a final for the Second Level title. The final was played in February 1989 in Limeria and the host team won 2-1.
Nautico – Clube Náutico Capibaribe (Recife-PE) – ended 2nd and perhaps that was fair, considering that they reached the final only after contesting the rules. But they were promoted to First Level and that was what mattered most – back among the big boys!
Internacional – Associação Atlética Internacional (Limeira-SP) – won the Second Level title for 1988. Of course, wonderful achievement of one of the smaller clubs from Sao Paulo state. Going up to play First Level football was also wonderful.

Third Level. The formula was entirely in groups: in the first phase the 49 groups were divided into 12 groups of 4 teams and the the top 2 teams moved to second phase. Now there were 6 groups of 4 teams each and the group winners qualified to the third phase – 2 groups of 3 teams each. The group winners were promoted to Second Level for 1989. Lastly, the group winners played a championship final. Since all teams played only against the other teams in their group, there were not all that many games: the contenders of the title played a total of 20 games. Those eliminated in the first phase – only 6 games. No trouble was envisioned – at least not in the formula of the championship, but there apparently was… a few teams forfeited the championship, most likely for financial reasons. The championship was completed without major problems, but it turned out to be useless championship – the Federation extinguished it in 1989 and enlarged the Second Level. Since the criteria for participation was not very clear, 1988 performance did not matter. Besides, some quite strange teams appeared in the 1988 championship along with clubs which played even First Level football in the last few years. Generally, all states were represented – very likely by teams playing relatively well in the state championships in 1987. Or because of previous participation in the national championship.
First phase:
Group 1.
1.ABC (natal – RN) 6 5 0/ 0 1 9- 5 15 Qualified
2.Campinense (Campina Grande – PB)6 3 0/ 1 2 7- 5 10 Qualified ————————————————–
3.Ferroviário-(Fortaleza-CE) 6 2 0/ 0 4 6- 9 6
4.América-(Natal – RN) RN 6 1 1/ 0 4 7-10 5
Group 2.
1.Botafogo-(Joao Pessoa-PB) 6 4 1/ 1 0 10- 4 15 Qualified
2.Paulistano (Paulista-PE)6 2 1/ 0 3 5- 5 8 Qualified ————————————————–
3.Auto Esporte-(Joao Pessoa-PB) 6 2 1/ 0 3 5- 9 8
4.Alecrim (Natal-RN) 6 0 1/ 3 2 2- 4 5
Group 3
1.Confiança (Aracaju-SE)4 1 2/ 1 0 5- 4 8 Qualified
2.Sergipe (Aracaju-SE)4 1 1/ 1 1 7- 5 6 Qualified ————————————————–
3.Capelense (Capela-AL)4 1 0/ 1 2 1- 4 4
Comercial FC (Viçosa-AL) – forfeited the tournament

Group 4
1.Lagarto (SE)2 1 1/ 0 0 2- 1 5 Qualified
2.Alagoinhas Atlético Clube-BA 2 0 0/ 1 1 1- 2 1 Qualified
Serrano SC (Vitória da Conquista-BA) – forfeited the tournament

Group 5
1.Tiradentes-(Brasilia-DF) 6 4 1/ 1 0 10- 4 15 Qualified
2.Anápolis GO 6 1 2/ 2 1 6- 6 9 Qualified ————————————————– 3.Taguatinga (Barsilia-DF)6 1 1/ 1 3 3- 5 6
4.Mixto (Cuiaba-MT) 6 1 1/ 1 3 4- 8 6

Group 6
1.Comercial-(Campo Grande-MS) 4 1 2/ 1 0 3- 1 8 Qualified
2.Novorizontino (Novo Horizonte-SP) 4 1 1/ 1 1 3- 2 6 Qualified ————————————————–
3.Douradense (Dourados-MS) 4 1 0/ 1 2 3- 6 4
América FC (São José do Rio Preto-SP) – forfeited the tournament

Group 7
1.Ferroviária (Araraquara-SP) 4 2 1/ 0 1 4- 3 8 Qualified
2.Ubiratan (Dourados-MS) 4 1 1/ 1 1 3- 3 6 Qualified ————————————————–
3.XV de Novembro (Jaú-SP) 4 0 1/ 2 1 4- 5 4

Group 8
1.Porto Alegre (Iteparuna-RJ) 6 1 4/ 1 0 7- 6 12 Qualified
2.Desportiva FVRD (Cariacica-ES) 6 2 1/ 2 1 10- 7 10 Qualified ————————————————–
3.Tupi (Juiz de Fora-MG) 6 1 2/ 2 1 7- 9 9
4.AA Cabofriense (Cabo Frio-RJ) 6 0 1/ 3 2 4- 6 5

Group 9
1.União São João (Araras-SP) 6 4 0/ 1 1 7- 2 13 Qualified
2.Esportivo Passense (Passos-MG) 6 2 1/ 1 2 3- 3 9 Qualified ————————————————–
3.Fabril (Lavras-MG) 6 2 0/ 1 3 5- 7 7
4.Mogi-Mirim (SP) 6 1 1/ 1 3 4- 7 7

Group 10

1.Volta Redonda (RJ) 6 2 3/ 1 0 6- 4 13 Qualified
2.Santo André (SP) 6 3 1/ 1 1 6- 2 11 Qualified ————————————————–

3. XV de Novembro (Piracicaba-SP) 6 1 1/ 3 1 5- 4 9
4.Colorado (Curitiba-PR) 6 0 1/ 1 4 4-11 3

Group 11
1.Brusque (SC) 6 2 2/ 1 1 4- 2 11 Qualified
2.Figueirense (Florianopolis-SC) 6 2 2/ 0 2 6- 6 10 Qualified ————————————————–
3.Esportivo-(Bento Gonsalves-RS) 6 2 1/ 1 2 6- 8 9
4.Internacional/(Santa Maria-RS) 6 1 0/ 3 2 4- 4 6

Group 12
1.Marcílio Dias (Itajai-SC) 6 4 1/ 0 1 7- 4 14 Qualified
2.Blumenau (SC) 6 4 0/ 1 1 11- 5 13 Qualified ————————————————–
3.Iguaçu (Uniao da Vitoria – PR) 6 2 1/ 0 3 8- 8 8
4.Guarany (Cruz Alta-RS) 6 0 0/ 1 5 5-14 1
Second phase
Group 13
1.Botafogo-PB 6 4 0/ 1 1 8- 5 13 Qualified ——————————————– 2.Campinense 6 3 0/ 0 3 14-11 9
3.ABC 6 2 1/ 0 3 5- 8 8
4.Paulistano 6 2 0/ 0 4 6- 9 6

Group 14
1.Lagarto 6 2 3/ 0 1 6- 5 12 Qualified ————————————————– 2.Atlético-BA 6 3 0/ 2 1 6- 4 11
3.Sergipe 6 2 0/ 2 2 5- 4 8
4.Confiança 6 1 1/ 0 4 3- 7 5

Group 15
1.Tiradentes-DF 6 4 0/ 0 2 12- 9 12 Qualified ————————————————–
2.Anápolis 6 2 2/ 0 2 5- 7 10
3.Comercial-MS 6 2 0/ 1 3 7- 5 7
4.Ubiratan 6 2 0/ 1 3 5- 8 7

Group 16
1.Esportivo-MG 6 3 0/ 3 0 9- 3 12 Qualified ————————————————–
2.Volta Redonda 6 2 1/ 1 2 6- 7 9
3.Porto Alegre 6 2 1/ 0 3 6- 7 8
4.Desportiva 6 1 2/ 0 3 4- 8 7

Group 17
1.União São João 6 3 1/ 0 2 8- 5 11 [1 1 1/0 0 2- 1 5] Qualified ————————————————–
2.Santo André 6 3 0/ 2 1 8- 5 11 [1 0 0/1 1 1- 2 1]
3.Blumenau 6 1 3/ 0 2 5- 6 9
4.Brusque 6 1 0/ 2 3 4- 9 5

Group 18
1.Marcílio Dias 6 3 1/ 1 1 8- 6 12 Qualified ————————————————–
2.Ferroviária 6 2 1/ 1 2 5- 4 9
3.Novorizontino 6 2 1/ 0 3 5- 6 8
4.Figueirense 6 2 0/ 1 3 3- 5 7
Third phase
Group 19
1.Esportivo-MG 4 2 1/ 0 1 9- 2 8 Qualified, promoted ————————————————–
2.Botafogo-PB 4 2 0/ 0 2 5- 7 6
3.Lagarto 4 1 0/ 1 2 2- 7 4

Group 20
1.União São João 4 2 0/ 1 1 5- 3 7 Qualified, promoted ————————————————–
2.Marcílio Dias 4 2 0/ 0 2 4- 4 6
3.Tiradentes-DF 4 1 1/ 0 2 3- 5 5
Final [Dec 16 and 18]
Esportivo-MG 1-1 2-2 União São João
So far, so good… the finalists already won their Third phase groups and thus earned promotion to Second Level by the 1988 rules. The title, however was decided by the questionable rule Brazil employed for years: in case of a tie, whoever had better season record won. Thus, the title went to Uniao Sao Joao.
Esportivo Passense from the state of Minas Gerais ended vise-champion, but it was unbeaten at the final and promoted to Second Level. Altogether, great season for this quite anonymous club. Standing from left: Roberto Costa, Fronteira, Luis Carlos Bahia, Timoura, Ivanildo, Edson Shel.
First row: Zé Vitor, Marcos Ferrugem, Carlos Roberto, Telo, Helder.
Uniao Sao Joao won the Third Level championship and promotion to Second Level. Fine, but still let see if promotion was honoured in 1989…

Brazil. Looked like Brazilian football hit rock bottom in 1987 and there was no other way, but going back to sanity from there. But once chaos takes roots it is difficult to erase it and convulsions continued. Efforts were made to organize a stable system and simplify the fantastic championship formula, but still chaos was strong enemy. Three levels again in the national championship system – 24 teams in the First Level, 24 in the Second Level, 48 in the Third Level. First Level was to be reduced to 22 teams in 1989, so 4 teams were relegated from there and 2 promoted from Second Level. Two teams (most likely) were to relegated from Second Level and 2 promoted from Third Level. The championship formulas were simplified, but apart from First Level there were still too many group stages and especially in the direct elimination phases rules were muddy – to some point of the championships ties were broken by penalty shoot-outs, but in the last stages there were no shoot-outs, but in a case of a tie records of previous stages were used to declare a winner. And if First Level went through the season more or less smoothly, in the lower levels were teams forfeiting the championship altogether or going to the courts to get what they thought to be right. At the end the system collapsed when in early 1989 the Brazilian Federation suddenly decided to extinguish Third Level, thus voiding promotion/relegation between Second and Third Level – and effectively making a mockery of the 1988 season of Third Level, for now the whole effort to win meant absolutely nothing. No more Third Level, but new humongous Second Level was established for 1989 – made of 96 teams! Chaos was back in full force… once again the participants in the national championship were getting more and more, which in turn called for complicated labyrinthine formula – back to grand insanity of the earlier years of the decade, which lead to the revolt of the big clubs in 1987.
First, the usual peek at Brazilian teams which did not make any level of the national championship – some well known, some obscure, some successful on state level, some not.
Fortaleza.
Bragantino
Flamengo (Teresina)
Flamengo (Varginha)
Maranhao
Sampao Correa
Jundiai
Itumbiara
CSA
Cascavel
Campinense
Catanduvense
Vila Nova
Ibiracu
Noroeste
Rio Negro
Pitangui
Quixada

First Division. Nothing added, just straight league championship of 13 teams. All Montevideo clubs.
Progreso finished last 13 points. A real outsider, but in the relegation table they had better percentage and were not relegated.
Miramar Misiones was the last in the relegation table and went down. In the championship they finished 12th with 18 points. Standing from left: Cardozo, Javier Ortiz, Valdez, López, Julio Montiel, Mario Viera, Martínez, Walter Alvarez, Héctor Salvá
Middle row: Jorge Alvarez, Julio De Souza, Daniel Hernández, Aldo Azzinari, Luis Duarte, Danny García.
Front row: De Oliveira, Barboza, Carlos Laje, Rivas.
Bella Vista – 11th with 18 points.
River Plate – 10th with 20 points. Standing from left: Edgardo Arias, Alvaro Pérez, Jorge Da Silva, Gabriel Correa, Aníbal Arias, Jorge Luveras.
First row: Fabiano Pereyra, Alberto Botto, Daniel Fascioli, Juan R. Carrasco, Carlos Martínez.
Central Espanol – 9th with 21 points. Standing from left: Nelson Quevedo, ?, Pablo Fuentes, Alejandro Heguy, Fabián Tejera, Pablo Fernández.
Front row: Marcelo Fracchia, ?, Juan Mouro, Eduardo Rinaldi, ?.
Cerro – 8th with 21 points.
Nacional – formidable internationally, but at home… 7th with 22 points and negative goal-difference. One of the weakest ever domestic seasons of Nacional.
First row: Mauricio Silvera , Yubert Lemos , Ernesto Vargas , Juan Ramón Carrasco, Héctor Morán.
Wanderers – 6th with 24 points.
Liverpool – 5th with 25 points.

Huracan Buceo – 4th with 28 points.
Defensor Sporting – 3rd with 31 points.
Penarol – 2nd with 31 points. Better than Nacional, which was the only comfort, for they were not a title contender at all, but only fought for second position with Defensor Sporting and clinched it on better goal-difference.
Danubio dominated the championship and won it practically without a rival. 18 wins, 4 ties and only 2 lost games. 52-18 goal-difference and 40 points. Penarol and Defensor were 9 points behind! It was the first time Danubio won the Uruguayan title – great historic success, making the team instant legend for the club supporters. Not only that, but Danubio made another historic point: for the first time since1914 the champion was not Nacional or Penarol two years in a row. Perhaps the winners were not great stars individually; perhaps Uruguayan football as a whole was not at its best… but who would blame Danubio for such things after such dominant season?
What a great moment! Danubio became the 8th club winning the Uruaguayan title.
Danubio, named by immigrant Bulgarian woman, finally won a title – its curious beginning deserves one more photo of their great triumph.

Uruguay. Interesting season when looked at from a distance. First of all, the attempts of the country to break the monopoly of the capital was unsuccessful – only one provincial club played in the top 2 leagues and finished last in Second Division: Villa Teresa. Uruguayan football was still solid Montevideo matter, but the dominance of Nacional and Penarol was strongly and successfully challenged. Yet, perhaps the most interesting was the First Division final table – the team hopelessly last in it… well, shall we wait for the next season to reveal the real stunning event? It would not have been possible if Uruguay had ‘normal’ relegation rules, but since the rules were different better remind them: a separate relegation table was kept, where accumulated in few seasons records decided the unfortunate team going down. Newcomers usually suffered from that, but rules are rules.
Second Division. Traditionally, a tiny one – only 10 teams, so season was somewhat enlarged by having final promotion tournament after the end of the regular season between the top 4 teams. Even with such addition the season was till minimal – 6 teams had 18-games season and 4 played 21 games.
Villa Teresa ended last with 9 points, winning only one match. The only team outside Montevideo in the top two Uruguayan divisions.
Cerrito – 9th with 11 points.
Villa Espanola – 8th with 15 points.
Rampla Juniors – 7th with 15 points.
Italiano – 6th with 17 points.
Fenix – 5th with 18 points. Standing from left: González, Nelson Acosta, Ruben Labandeira, Miguel Messones, Raúl Acosta, Nelson Cedeira.
Crouching: Washington Carrato, Silva, Wolker, Heber Maurojorge, Peluffo.
For these teams the season ended. The top 4 went to the promotion tournament: Sud America – 4th with 23 points, Racing – 3rd with 24 points, El Tanque Sisley – 2nd with 24 points, and Rentistas – the winners of the regular season, beating El Tanque Sisley on goal-difference, because they finished with 24 points too. However, points from the regular season mattered – in the promotion tournament everybody carried their initial points and played one match against the other three teams.
Now El Tanque Sisley lost steam and finished last with total of 25 points.
Sud America ended 3rd with 25 points, but better goal-difference than El Tanque Sisley.
Racing tried their best, but ended 2nd with 28 points. Standing from left: Miguel Leone, Gustavo Ventre, Domingo Cáceres, Vladimir Naidenov, Fernando Rosa, Alejandro Botello.
First row: Néstor Viera, Fernando Vilar, Daniel Malceñido, Leonardo García, Juan Hatchondo.
Rentistas were best at the end – they won 2 games and tied 1 (Racing also won twice, but lost their third match) and that gave them a total of 29 points. Standing from left: ?,?, Andres Lopez, Luis Dagnino, Julio Garrido, ?, ?, ?.
First row: ?, Javier Nunez, Julio Franco, Jose Rey, Alberto Correa, Juan Acosta.
Rentistas (Montevideo) were the champions of Second Division and promoted to top flight – not for the first time, but still it was wonderful achievement of the modest club.