Category: 1989

Greece – ranked 17th. Perhaps this was the season Greek football declared its ambition to join the best of Europe: Olympiakos made the most-expensive transfer in the world. So far, Maradona was the record holder – Napoli paid 11.2 million dollars to Barcelona to obtain him. But Olympiakos paid 12.5 million dollars to Eintracht (Frankfurt) for Lajos Detari and the Hungarian topped Maradona as the most expensive in football history. The Greeks were buying more players and hired more coaches from abroad than ever, thus building stronger teams. The highly respected Polish coach Jacek Gmoch set a record too: he was just hired to coach Olympiakos, thus becoming the first foreigner to coach all of the big 3 of Greek football – Panathinaikos, AEK, and Olympiakos. Of course, Gmoch had a long coaching history in Greece and just won the 1987-88 title with Larissa. Meantime AEK hired Dusan Bajevic, who was their star player a decade ago and now was rapidly rising coach. Panathinaikos chose Swedish coach, the list of foreign coaches was long. Classier teams fueled further ambitions and the top league was going to be increased to 18 teams for the next season, so rules for the current championship must be noted: there was no direct relegation from First Division this year. Instead, the last 3 teams were goinhg to promotion/relegation tournament. The top 3 in the Second Division were directly promoted and the next 3 plus the last 3 in First Division made a promotion/relegation mini-league, the top 2 in the final standing going to play in the top league next season. Similar arrangement was made for completion of the Second Division between the last 3 and Third Division teams. Greece still used traditional point system: 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie. No major scandals were recorded this season – rather, an old one was recalled with the retirement of Juan Ramon Rocha of Panathinaikos. Back in 1980 he was bought from Boca Juniors, but he was introduced in Greece with Greek name – Boublis – and documents. The trick was done many times before, but this time did not work – a big scandal erupted because of the fake documents, Rocha almost ended in jail and Panathinaikos almost expelled to Second Division. But that was only the first round… in the second old ways prevailed: as usual, ‘allegations’ were dismissed by honest authorities and everybody involved was acquitted. Rocha shined on the field, became a Greek citizen, this time legally, and if not for his 3 games for the national team of Argentina between 1973-77, most likely would have been playing for the Greek national team. He became one of the best stars of Greek football in the 1980s and now, 35-years old, stepped down. Ugly beginning, but highly respected finish.
Second Division. 18 teams, the top 3 directly promoted, the next 3 – going to promotion/relegation play-offs, the last 3 – going to promotion/relegation play-offs. Because of the temporary no-direct-relegation rule, actually only 1 teams went down this season:
Kavala was last this season with 23 points, but actually lost its place in the promotion/relegation tournament.
The other 2 outsiders – Kallithea, 17th with 24 points, and Panachaiki, 16th with 32 points – benefited by the new rule – they performed well in the promotion/relegation tournament and kept their places in the Second Division: this was quite important for the next season, when Panachaiki went from rags to riches, but at the moment they were only lucky to avoid sinking to Third Division.
Up the table – mostly according to current form and little to brag about.
Athinaikos finished 11th with 33 points – that is, rather typical season for them. A for many other Second Division members.
Naoussa was 10th with 33 points, ahead of Athinaikos on better goal-difference. And like Athinaikos, there was nothing in Naoussa’s performance to suggest they would go up soon.
The top 6 teams were the important part of the season: Veria took 6th place with 36 points, Korinthos was 5th also with 36 points, and
PAS Giannina – 4th with 38 points. These teams went to the promotion/relegation tournament, having chance to move up.
Ionikos finished 3rd with 40 points and they were very happy indeed, for they earned promotion to top flight.
Panserraikos took 2nd place with 41 points and also was promoted – like Ionikos, they were only returning to top flight, where they played before.
The winners were different story – Xanthi had excellent season and won the championship with 44 points: 17 wins, 10 ties, 7 losses, 60-33 goal-difference. Not a dominant winner, but Xanthi never won anything before and never played First Division football – thus, this was the best ever season of the club, their first promotion and naturally a great joy for club and fans. Xanthi was going to debut in the First Division and good luck to them!
In the promotion/relegation tournament no Second Division team succeeded.
PAS Giannina was the best of the Second Division teams there – they finished 3rd and were unable to return to top flight.
Korinthos ended 4th, Diagoras – 5th and were relegated from First Division, Veria – 6th. Top league teams won the tournament: Apollon Kalamarias (Thessaloniki) finished 2nd with 7 points and Ethnikos (Piraeus) was really superior: they won every match they played and ended 1st with 10 points. Thus, Apollon Kalamarias and Ethnikos preserved their First Division places.

The Cup final was a classic Budapest derby: Honved vs Ferencvaros. It was not Ferencvaros’ year…
Fodor scored the only goal of the final in the 63rd minute and it was enough for Honved to win.
Happy Honved with the Cup in their hands.
Ferencvaros. Top row from left: Rákosi Gyula vezetőedző, dr. Juhász József orvos, Bús, Vaszil, Szeiler, Zsiborás, Józsa, Dzurják, Limperger, Albert Flórián szakosztály-igazgató, Magyar Zoltán technikai vezető, Szűcs Lajos edző.
Middle row: Pintér, Bánki, Fischer, Kincses, Strausz, Keller.
Front: Bodnár József gyúró, ifj. Albert, Nagy Zs., Wukovics, Topor, Dukon, Zsinka, Simon T., Golecz Lajos intéző, Takács József gyúró.
Naturally, Ferencvaros was bitterly disappointed – beaten twice by Honved this season and finishing emptyhanded – but, in a sense, it was just ending. With constantly increasing number of players going to play abroad and decreasing number of really talented juniors, Hungarian football as a whole was sinking down. Of course, Ferencvaros had a strong team by the measures of the moment, but Dzurjak, Limperger, Zsiboras were not what Florian Albert was in the 1960s… and there was no sign of a player similar to Albert emerging… and there was no much left in the provincial clubs to be taken… Ferencvaros was slightly weaker than Honved currently.
Honved was hardly a great team at the moment too, but even if they were more lucky than really outstanding, still they managed to win a double, which is always something to brag about. Honved won their 4th Cup and their only 2nd double. Yes, the team was a far cry from the fantastic team led by Puskas in the 1950s, but Puskas and Co did not win a double… Honved was slightly better than their competition mostly because they chipped-off some of the remaining in Hungary stars from their very rivals: the Disztl brothers from Videoton, Szijjarto from Gyori ETO… that was their small advantage over the other relatively strong Hungarian teams at the moment, an advantage good enough to clinch victories, but not to dominate. In any case, a memorable season for Honved – mostly in terms of record books.

First Division. Five teams above the rest, one outsider. If the championship was played by tradition rules, goal-difference would have been the decisive criterion and the champions would have been the team which finished 4th under current rules.
Dunaujvarosi Kohasz was the outsider of the season – last with 26 points and relegated. Zalaegershegi TE ended 15th with 34 points and was relegated as well.
Vasas SC was 14th with 35 points, beaten on goal-difference by Haladas VSE, 13th, but it was unimportant – both teams went to the promotion/relegation play-offs, won them and preserved their top league positions. Up the table:
Pecsi MSC – 11th with 40 points.
Weak Ujpesti Dosza – 9th with 41 points.
Bekescsabai Elore Spartacus – 7th with 46 points.
Tatabanyai Banyasz – 6th with 48 points. Standing from left: Kiss, Váczi, Dombai, dr. Bíró Péter orvos, Kiprich, Szentmihályi Antal vezetőedző, Tarlósi, Plotár, Mázi.
Middle row: Nagy Győző, Domonics, Lakatos, Járfás, Mészáros, Szabó Gy., Udvardi, Csapó, Dobesch, Vincze J., Hoffmann József.
Front row: Páli, P. Nagy, Sándor gyúró, Pőcze gyúró, Hegedűs, Schmiedt.
The top 5 teams were entangled in a battle for the title, which under traditional rules would have been won by Videoton. But the new rules elevated different team on the top. Gyori ETO SC took 5th place with 56 points. Videoton SC – 4th with 57 points, MTK-VM – 3rd with 58 points.
Ferencvaros – 2nd with 59 points.

Honved clinched the title with 61 points: 16 regular wins, 6 penalty shoot-out wins, 1 shoot-out loss, 7 regular losses, 44-28 goal-difference. Hardly an exceptional season and benefiting a bit of the new rules – under standard rules, Honved would have ended with 37 points – and Videoton with 39 points! Videoton still most wins this season – 17, scored most goals – 57, and had the best goal-difference +25, but they were not good at scoring penalties and won just one shoot-out – Honved won 6 times (second best record after MTK-VM with 8 shoot-out wins). So, the title went to Honved – their 11th.

Hungary. Ranked 18th. Fresh reforms: first, Second Division was back to 2 groups, instead of 1 league – 16 teams played in each group, the winners directly promoted. Second-place teams went to promotion/relegation play-offs against the 13th and 14th finishers in the top division. This was also new. The last change was in the frame of changes introduced in many countries in hope of invigorating the game – 3 points for a win was introduced and there were no ties. If a match ended tied, penalty shoot-out followed and the winner got 2 points, the loser – 1. That made the league tables a bit complicated to figure out, especially from the distance of time. As for the season, 5 teams in the top league were above the rest and more or less competed for the title. However, with top players steadily going abroad and general lack of great new talent coming, the long decline of Hungarian football was unchanged. Even the record transfer involving Lajos Detari could not hide the decline – yes, he was sold to Olympiakos (Piareus) for 12.5 million dollars, thus beating Maradona’s transfer to Napoli by 1.3 million dollars, but the price had nothing to do with general talent available in Hungary.
Second Division. Instead of one league of 20 teams, back to 2 groups of 16 teams each. The last 3 teams in each group were relegated. As usual, the former top-league teams were favourites, but really the only interesting thing in the new Second Division was the 3 teams from Debrecen playing in Group 1: usually, local derbies involved teams from Budapest, but now there was a provincial town having local derbies. Yet, Group 1 was dominated by one team – Group 2 was more exciting.
As for the teams… well, just a glimpse.
Nagykansza Olajbanyasz SE
Dorog – actually, Dorogi Banyasz.
Teams like that… nothing to brag about.
Szeged SC – or SZEOL – finished 2nd in Group 1. Unable to challenge the group leader, but also relatively unchallenged by others. Szeged had a chance to return to top flight, but in the promotion/relegation play-off they lost to Vasas (Budapest) 1-1 and 0-1. No promotion.
DMVSC – Debreceni MVSC – won easily Group 1 with 70 points (20 straight wins, 4 shoot-out wins, 2 shoot-out losses, and 4 straight losses, 54-18 goal-difference) – 8 points ahead of Szeged. They were the strongest club in Debrecen – Debreceni Kiniszi was in decline for a long time and DUSE (Debreceni Universitas SE) were modest little-known club, just happy to play Second Division football – and returned to the top division.
In Group 2 three teams fought for the top place and at the end goal-difference decided the winner.
Oroszlanyi Banyasz – or just Oroszlany – had great season, but was unlucky at the end: they finished with 62 points, but goal-difference (35-28) was against them and they took 2nd place. They also made a record 10 shoot-out wins – the only team with 2-digit number of game won by penalty shoot-out. Unfortunately, they lost the promotion/relegation play-off against Haladas VSE 2-0 and 1-4. Too bad… little known Oroszany had a good chance to reach the top league, but… no.
Csepel SC (Budapest) was lucky – they also finished with 62 points (18 straight wins, 3 shoot-out wins, 2 shoot-out losses, and 7 straight losses), but goal-difference was in their favour: 52-31. Thus, Csepel clinched first place in the group and was happily promoted back to First Division.
As a whole, former First Division members won Second Division and those with less or none top league experience failed.

First Division Second Stage. Teams started with half the points earned in the first stage, final places in the first stage given in brackets. Five teams had more or less equal chances to win the title, which was quite exciting.
FC Luzern won the 12-team first stage with 28 points – a fragile lead by a point placed them on top and
the real battle for the title was going to begin in the final stage.
Servette FC (Geneve, 8th in the first stage) ended 8th with 21 points. Top row from left: Cacciapalia, Hasler, Bonvin, Grossenbacher, Schällibaum, Rummenigge, Eriksen
Middle row: Donzé (Trainer), Favre, Bamert, Colletti, Hertig, Epars, Burri
Sitting: Kok, Fargeon, Liniger, Kobel, Sinval, Besnard
Well, the presence of Karl-Heinz Rummenige did not help… except for the novelty of continuing the tradition of famous German players ending their carriers in Switzerland – but unlike Netzer and Stielike, Rummenige did not win in Switzerland.
AC Bellinzona (3rd in the first stage) – 7th with 21 points. A big drop from top position to the bottom – only better goal-difference placed them above Servette. May be their only aim was to secure place in the champions group, who knows… and once out of danger of possible relegation, no worry. Maybe… yet, the team – by Swiss measures – was not so bad: respected foreigners (Jacubec and Rufer) and the Swiss player bound the be the most famous player of the country in the next decade – Turkyilmaz.
Xamax (Neuchatel, 7th in the first stage) – 6th with 23 points. Could not stay strong for long…
BSC Young Boys (Bern, 6th in the first stage) – 5th with 27 points. Anders Limpar was the big star, but…
FC Wettingen (5th in the first stage) – 4th with 28 points. A success of a kind – Wettingen was more often found in the Second Division, not at the top of the First Division. Great season.
FC Sion (4th in the first stage) – 3rd with 29 points. Solid season, but the title was not up to them.
Grasshopper (Zurich, 2nd in the first stage) – 2nd with 30 points. Frankly, Grasshopper was the likeliest team to win the title – they finished a point behind Luzern in the opening stage, but with the best goal-difference and outscoring Luzern by far. But… they were shaky in the final stage, losing too many games – 5 out of 14 total.
And FC Luzern triumphed at the end with 33 points. They prevailed in the first stage with 10 wins, 8 ties and 4 losses. But their strange goal-difference – 27-25 – put great doubts of their ability to win the title. The 1-point lead was reduced to zero for the final stage: their big rivals also started the final stage with 14 points – half of 27 went to the bigger number by the rules. But Luzern persisted and Grasshopper for some reason was shaky when really mattered: Luzern won 7 games, tied 5 and lost only 2 matches in the final stage – that placed them 3-points ahead of Grasshopper at the end. The team was not scoring much – 17 goals, which put them at the bottom of scorers in the final stage (only Bellinzona scored less) and on top of it their record looked pitiful compared to Young Boys’ 36 goals, but unlike the first stage this time Luzern had best defense and better goal-difference than Grasshopper.
Surprising, but well deserved title, which also was historic: FC Luzern won the Swiss championship for the first time! And so far was unable to repeat this success, so that was the most important season of the club. What a joy!
The Cup final was the chance Grasshopper to win a trophy – FC Aarau was ambitious, but still a Second Division team… Like in the championship, Grasshopper was competing with an underdog and overwhelming favourite… unlike the championship, this time Grasshopper won – 2-1. With difficulty, but they prevailed. Thus, Grasshopper won its 16th Cup and managed to end the season with a trophy. Yet… instead of a double, only a Cup and with great difficulty.

Switzerland – sharing 19-20 position with Poland. Unlike Poland, the Swiss were not going up, but kept their previous ranking. The championship formula was already established – 2-phased championship, mixing divisions in the final stage. The top divisions had 12 teams – 12 in the First Division, and Second Division – 2 groups of 12 teams each. After the familiar stage the teams proceeded to the final according to their standings: the top 8 in the First Division went to play for the title, carrying half of the points earned in the first stage to it. The last 4 top league teams went to promotion/relegation stage – 2 of them played in the final group A with the top 6 teams from the first stage of Second Divsion Group A and the other 2 of the bottom of First Division with the top 6 teams of Second Division Group B. No team carried points to this stage, it was playing a new league format and the top 2 teams in each group were going to First Division in the next season. The bottom 6 teams in the original Second Division groups also played final stage – promotion /relegation final stage, where winners of the Third Division opening stage completed the final groups. Because of the mix, only the final stage is to be given here. A win was still awarded with 2 points.
Those, going to play in the promotion/relegation after the first stage of Second Divison, were largely little known clubs, like
FC Glarus, which finished last in opening stage of Second Division Group B with 8 points.
Few better knows teams had the same fate, like
FC Winterthur, 8th with 22 points in the opening stage of Second Division Group B.
Top row from left: Ernst Rief (Masseur), Urs Güntensperger, Hans Franz, René Rüegg, Markus Michael, Rafael Chèlos, Reto Arrigoni, ?.
Middle row: ?, ?, Beat Meier, René Egli, Daniel Haefeli, ?, Christian Graf, Roland Käser, Paul Hollenstein (Physiotherapeut), Otto Luttrop (Trainer).
Sitting: Joachim Hutka, Vladimir Jakovljev, Urs Isler, Marcel Rapp, Tiziano Sacchetti, Flavio Battaini, Levent Kusogullari, Michael Gänssler.
That is the glimpse at the teams finishing the season in the promotion/relegation stage of Second and Third Division teams.
The promotion/relegation stage between First and Second Division teams was more important. As it turned out, those who started the championship in the top league escaped relegation.
Group A: BSC Old Boys (Basel, starting the season in II Division Group B) finished 8th with 7 points. ES Malley (from II Division Group A) – 7th with 10 points, FC Grenchen (from II Division Group A) – 6th with 10 points, CS Chenois (from II Division Group B) – 5th with 12 points, FC Basel (winner of II Division Group B) – 4th with 14 points,
FC Zurich (from II Division Group B) – 3rd with 14 points.
Lausanne Sport (10th in the first stage of I Division) finished 2nd with 22 points.
FC St. Gallen (11th in the first stage of I Division) – 1st with 23 points.
Well, Lausanne Sport and FC St. Gallen preserved top league places for the next season.
Group B. Etoile Carouge FC (from Second Division Group A) – 8th with 6 points, FC Chiasso (from Second Division Group B) – 7th with 7 points, FC Bulle (from Second Division Group A) – 6th with 9 points, Yverdon-Sport FC (from Second Division Group A) – 5th with 14 points,
FC Baden (from Second Division Group B) – 4th with 15 points, FC Locarno (from Second Division Group B) – 3rd with 15 points.
FC Aarau (9th in the first stage of I Division) – 2nd with 23 points, losing top place on worse goal-difference, but no matter – they were still going to play again the top league.
AC Lugano (12th in the first stage of I Division) – won this group with 23 points and 4-goals better goal-difference than FC Aarau.
So, no changes the next season: Second Division clubs remained in Second Division, and AC Lugano, FC Aarau, Losanne Sports, and FC St. Gallen stayed in First Division.

The Cup final opposed Legia (Waszawa) to Jagiellonia (Bialystok). Jagiellonia was the underdog and it have been great if they won. But Legia destroyed them 5-2.
Jagiellonia just popped-up on the big scene, but… they had no class to match one of the traditionally solid and strong Polish clubs. Really, too bad…

Legia (Warszawa) won an easy victory, judging by the result. It was their 8th Cup and, like Ruch, they had to wait a long time for this success: their last previous Cup was won in 1980. A bit strange… the players Legia had were somewhat stronger and more numerous than the stars of other teams, yet, Legia was not winning anything – their last title was from 1970, their last Cup from 1980. Finally, they added one more trophy – a hope largely for the future.

First Division. Well, the orginally announced reduction of the league was apparently abandoned at the end of the season, for according to the original idea the 13th and the 14th should have been directly relegated and the 11th and the 12th – going to promotion/relegation play-offs. But instead the 13th and the 14th went to those play-offs, which only means that the league was going to be of 16 teams again. The rule of extra point for a win with 3 or more goals – and deduction of a point for a loss by 3 or more goals – makes the final records difficult to comprehend. Well… the record of the champions makes sense: 13 ‘regular’ wins – 26 points, 6 wins by 3 or more goals – 18 points, 8 ties – 8 points, 0 loses by 3 or more goals – 0 deductions, 3 ‘regular’ losses – 0 points. 26+18+8=52 points. Fine. But looking at the record of the last in table makes no sense: 4 ‘regular’ wins – 12 points, 0 wins with 3 or more goals – 0 points, 9 ties – 9 points, 4 losses by 3 or more goals – minus 4 points, 13 ‘regular’ losses – 0 points. 12+9-4=17 points. However, Szombierki (Bytom) finished with 13 points… how come? Who knows… The 1979-80 Polish champions finished last and relegated. Again.
Gornik (Walbrzych) ended 15th with 15 points and was relegated.

GKS (Jastrzebie) was 14th with 19 points. Their Cinderella story ended with the promotion/relegation play-off against Zawisza (Bydgoszcz) – they were eliminated and relegated.
Pogon (Szczecin) – 13th with 19 points – was also out of luck: they were relegated after losing the promotion/relegation play-off against Motor (Lublin).
Wisla (Krakow) – 12th with 23 points. Top row from left: Mateusz Jelonek, Zenon Małek, Marek Motyka, Krzysztof Szewczyk, Marek Świerczewski, Kazimierz Moskal
Middle row: Zdzisław Strojek, Jarosław Giszka, Artur Gaweł, Grzegorz Maśnik, Robert Gaszyński, Wojciech Bujak, Arkadiusz Wołowicz
Sitting: Dariusz Wójtowicz, Marcin Jałocha, Zbigniew Klaja, Artur Bożek, Adam Musiał, Leszek Lipka, Ryszard Karbowniczek .
The recovery from their painful decline was not yet successful and perhaps they were very happy with good luck – originally, Wisla should have been going to promotion/relegation play-off, but the sudden change of the rule saved them.
Olimpia (Poznan) – 11th with 25 points and happy with their good luck like Wisla. LKS (Lodz) – 10th with 26 points.
Jagiellonia (Bialystok) – 9th with 29 points.
Widzew (Lodz) – 8th with 29 points.
Slask (Wroclaw) – 7th with 29 points, Lech (Poznan) – 6th with 33 points, Stal (Mielec) – 5th with 33 points, Legia (Warszawa) – 4th with 43 points.
Gornik (Zabrze) – 3rd with 45 points. Standing from left: Jan Urban, Marek Piotrowicz, Ryszard Komornicki, Joachim Klemenz, Krzysztof Baran. Front row: Miroslaw Szlezak, Jozef Wandzik, Jacek Grembocki, Ryszard Cyron, Robert Warzycha, Jerzy Misztur.
It is practically impossible to tell is the photo from 1987-88 or 1988-89 – the starting 11 are practically the same. At least in the fall of 1988 – eventually, Klemenz and Baran went to play abroad, but not before playing a good part of the first half of 1988-89 season (Klemenz 8 games and Baran – 13). Hard to tell how important was the loss of Klemenz and Baran, but Gornik finished 1st in the first half of the season and looked like they were on the road to 5th consecutive title. In the spring they dropped down and ended 3rd.
GKS (Katowice) took the silver medals with 47 points. The title was out of reach, though…
Ruch (Chorzow) triumphed with 52 points: 13 ‘regular’ wins, 6 wins with 3 or more goals, 8 ties, 0 losses with 3 or more goals, only 3 ‘regular’ losses, 48-18 goal-difference. Not the best league scorers, but the best defenders. Finishing 5 points ahead of the next pursuer speaks of dominance – but it was really the spring half when Ruch made it: after the fall half they were 3rd.
Top row from left: Andrzej Kiebus, Krystian Szuster, Bonk (?), Albin Wira, Jacek Chorzewski, Waldemar Waleszczyk, Grzegorz Wagner, Ryszard Kolodziejczyk.
Middle row: Henryk Wieczorek – assistant coach, Kapitza (?), Krzysztof Warzycha, Waldemar Formalik, Mieczyslaw Szewczyk, Leszek Wrona, Grzegorz Kornas, Dariusz Fornalak, Jozef Nowak, Jerzy Wyrobek – coach.
First row: 5th from left – Genszior (?), the rest unknown juniors.
Unfortunately, available photos of Ruch present a mystery – who is who is not clear. Some players above do not appear in the list of Ruch players – at least, not in the fall of 1988. Miroslaw Bak on the other hand is missing – well, not missing, but even in the recent years he is sometime listed as Miroslaw Bonk, instead of Bak. So, the suspect Genszior most likely is Dariusz Gesior. Wrona played in the fall, then moved to play in the USA. Because the players are not all that well known, the confusion to this very day comes from Polish mistake back in 1989:
The order ‘left to right’ is wrong.
Here the order is correct. The problem is that at the time most players were not famous. But this champion team of Ruch is also very important one: they won the 14th title for the club, thus equalizing the record Gornik (Zabrze) made in the previous season. It was also the first title Ruch won in 10 years – their 13th title was won in 1978-79 and in following decade Gornik came from the back and became the most titled Polish club – but no more!

Poland. Shared 19-20 position with Switzerland, but actually climbed a bit up, for the country was ranked 21st in the previous year. Rules: 2 points for a win, but extra 1 point awarded for a win by 3 or more goals and 1 point deducted for a loss by 3 or more goals. The last 2 teams in the First Division – directly relegated. The winners of each group of Second Division – directly promoted. Second-placed teams in each Second Division group went to promotion/relegation play-off against the 13th and 14th teams in the top league. The top leagues were going to be reduced in the next season – First Division from 16 to 14 teams, but this seemingly was abandoned by the end of the championship – otherwise the last 4 should have been relegated and the 11th and 12th teams going to relegation/promotion play-offs. Second Division was going to be a single league of 18 teams, so massive relegation happened this season: the last 8 teams in each Second Division group were directly relegated and those at 7th and 8th places went to promotion/relegation play-offs. However, the original rule was changed by the end of the season and those which finished 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th went to promotion/relegation play-offs. Such play-offs were no longer to be played – in 1989-90 the last 2 in the top league were going to be directly relegated; the top 2 in the Second Division – directly promoted, and the last 4 in the Second Division – directly relegated.
Second Division Group A.
Sleza (Wroclaw) finished last – 18th with 14 points.
One former top- league club was among the massive group of relegated teams: Arka (Gdynia). Their city rivals Baltyk had also to be directly relegated, but the modification of the rules gave them a chance to survive: Baltyk finished 10th, went to promotion/relegation play-off against Third Division Garbarnia (Krakow) and won it 1-0 and 0-0. The rest of the promotion/relegation play-offs also went in favour of the current Second Division teams, except one. Stilon (Gorzow, 9th) won over Bug (Wyszkow) 0-0 and 6-2, Odra (Wodzislaw, 8th) – Elana (Torun) 2-0 and 2-1, and Piast (Nowa Ruda, 7th) lost without losing to Stal (Stocznia Szczecin) – 2-2 and 1-1, the away-goal rule benefited the Third Division candidate and Piast was relegated.
Teams above 7th place were safe – Moto Jelcz (Olawa, 6th), Polonia (Bytom, 5th), Zaglebie (Walbrzych, 4th), and Gwardia (Warszawa, 3rd).
Zawisza (Bydgoszcz) finished 2nd with 45 points and went to promotion/relegation play-off against GKS (Jastrzebie), the 14th in the First Division. Zawisza managed a 0-0 tie away and at home won 2-0 – and was happily promoted to First Division.
Zaglebie (Lubin) was the group winner with 53 points: 21 wins (6 wins with 3 or more goals, giving an extra point), 5 ties, 4 losses, 60-19 goal-difference. Confident winners, directly promoted to top flight – actually, returning to top flight.
Group B.
Stomil (Olsztyn) – finished 11th and was relegated.
Lechia (Gdansk) – from playing Europe from few years ago to… facing Third Division now. They finished 10th , but luckily won the promotion/relegation play-off against Wlokniarz (Pabianice) 4-1 and 0-1.
Others were not so lucky: GKS (Belchatow, 9th) lost to Siarka (Tarnobrzeg) 1-1 and 1-2 was relegated. The same was the fate of Gornik (Knurow, 8th) – they lost to Miedz (Legnica) 1-2 and 1-0. Curiously, both matches were won by the visitors and Miedz prevailed on away-goal rule. Resovia (Rzeszow, 7th) survived – they won over GKS (Tychy) 3-2 and 1-0. GKS (Tychy) had great time about 15 years ago, but now were struggling in Third Division and had to stay there.
Iglopool (Debica) remained in Second Division – they finished 6th. Top row from left: Drobot, Zieliński, Śliwa, Kotowicz, Garlej. Forth row: Gierałka, Nalepka, Romaniuk, Stefanik, Strojek. Third row: Hadam, Zieliński, Mysiak, Adamczyk, Bajor. Second row: Makuch, Szary, Siarkiewicz, Litke, Antolak, Zub. Sitting: Czapiński, Gajoch, Kucharski, Kłak, Cebula, Kaczówka, Tylak.
Stal (Rzeszow) ended 5th, Stal (Stalowa Wola) – 4th, and Hutnik (Krakow) – 3rd also were going to play in the new Second Division.
Motor (Lublin) finished 2nd with 42 points. Like Zawisza from Group A, they won their promotion/relegation play-off against the 13th in the First Division, Pogon (Szczecin) 2-3 and 2-0 and were happily promoted to the top league.
Zaglebie (Sosnowiec) won the championship with 47 points: 18 wins (5 of them with 3 or more goals), 6 ties, 6 losses, 45-13 goal-difference. Excellent defensive record and confident victory – like their namesake in Group A, Zaglebie (Sosnowiec) were returning to the top league.

The Cups. They were three this year… the old Soviet Army Cup still existed, the Bulgarian National Cup, and newly introduced Supercup – every European country introduced such trophy in the 1980s and Bulgaria followed the fashion: in theory, the the trophy was to be the great clash between the champion and the Cup winner – but, just like the international European Supercup, the national Supercups never attracted great interest and importance. So, such competitions are and will be rarely, if at all, mentioned – the Bulgarian Supercup perhaps will not be mentioned again: the reason it is mentioned now is only because the trophy was created and introduced this season. Apart from that, the narrative is really about CFKA Sredetz – for they won everything this time.
The Soviet Army Cup. Lost its importance years ago, but it was still played. Many clubs were clearly disinterested, which in turn further reduced public interest in the already meaningless trophy. It would be quite correct to say that if a big club for whatever reason wished to win it, it was theirs. Martitza-Iztok (Radnevo) and CFKA Sredetz reached the final this season – Stoichkov, Kostadinov, and Trifon Ivanov against Third Division team. A mid-table Third Division team… they finished 12th in their 18-team South-Eastern Group of the Third Division. What contest? CFKA Seredetz won 6-1. Stoichkov scored 2 goals and Georgy Georgiev 4.

CFKA Sredetz won its 12th Soviet Army Cup. It was just statistics at this point. Sitting from left: Stefan Bachev, Nedyalko Mladenov, Christo Stoichkov, Lachezar Tanev, Krassimir Bezinski, Emil Kostadinov. Middle row: Nikolay Chervenyakov – doctor, Iliya Valov, Doncho Donev, Ivaylo Kirov, Trifon Ivanov, Kiril Kachamanov, Roumen Stoyanov, Roumen Apostolov, Aleksander Aleksandrov – rehabilitation, Spiridon Bachev – rehabilitation. Top row: Stoil Trankov – assistant coach, Petar Vitanov, Georgy Georgiev, Dimitar Penev – coach, Kostadin Yanchev, Iliya Dyakov, Petar Zhekov – assistant coach.
The Bulgarian Cup final also looked decided in advance: CFKA Sredetz vs Chernomoretz (Bourgas). Chernomoretz had a great run reaching the final – they eliminated Sliven, Vratza, and Vitosha – but they were also a Second Division, which even did not win that championship. CFKA Sredetz won 3-0.
Standing from left: St. Trankov – assistant coach, R. Apostolov, G. Georgiev, R. Stoyanov, D. Donev, D. Penev – coach, I. Kirov, St. Bachev, K. Kachamanov, P. Vitanov. I. Valov. P. Zhekov – assistant coach. Sitting: Kr. Bezinski, K. Yanchev, Tr. Ivanov, Plamen Getov, N. Mladenov, Chr. Stoichkov, L. Tanev, Em. Kostadinov, Lyuboslav Penev.
Third consecutive Bulgarian Cup and – at the time – 5th altogether. The Cup won in 1985 did not count, because the Communist Party voided this final and stripped the record. Anyhow, CFKA Sredetz was leading in this competition – the arch-enemy Vitosha had 3 Cups – but already it was clear that both the Soviet Army Cup and the Bulgarian Cup will be amalgamated and in the combined record the Army was behind Vitosha.
The brand new Supercup had to be played between the champions and the national Cup winner. Since CFKA Sredetz won both trophies the first Supercup final was a repeat of the Bulgarian Cup final – Chernomoretz again faced CFKA Sredetz. The match was played in Bourgas, Chernomoretz’s home turf and that plus the date – July 15th – perhaps explains why CFKA won minimally: just 1-0. the goal scored by Stoichkov in the 17th minute.
In the middle of July transfers already took place, so the finalists played with their 1989-90 teams, not 1988-89 squads. Thus, the difference – the new recruits are here and played in this final: A. Dimitrov, M. Bakalov, D, Mladenov, M. Urukov, and E. Dimitrov.
Crouching from left: Aleksandar Aleleksandrov – masseur, Anton Dimitrov, Marin Bakalov, Doncho Donev, Stefan Bachev, Ivaylo Kirov, Trifon Ivanov, Lyuboslav Penev – captain, Christo Stoichkov. Standing: Aleksandar Cherbenyakov – doctor, Stoil Trankov – assistant coach, Marius Urukov, Petar Vitanov, Dobry Dimov – superintendant, Kostadin Yanchev, Roumen Apostolov, Emil Dimitrov, Dimitar Mladenov, Petar Zheov – assistant coach, Emil Kostadinov, Iliya Valov, Dimitar Penev – coach.
CFKA Sredetz won every trophy this season – a quadruple winner, which instantly madse them the most successful squad in Bulgarian history. Even earlier great CSKA squads never won more than a double – but there were only 2 trophies before 1981 and 3 before this season, so no matter how good this team was, it was also lucky to have so many trophies available.