Category: 1990

First Division – final stage. The top 8 teams in the first stage of First Division started the final stage with half of the points earned in the opening stage – the usual problem with complicated championship formulas: the first stage hardly meant anything else than qualifying to the final. So, a strong enough team could play just enough to end among the top 8, preserving its real strength for later. A team spending its best in the first stage got nothing later… and there were also teams concerned only with avoiding the risk of relegation: playing as best as they could to end among the top 8 and than only going through the motions in the final round. To considerable degree, that was the Swiss case in the 1989-90 season.
FC Sion was 5th in the opening stage with 23 points, but cared little for the final stage and finished last with total 19 points (7+12 from the opening stage). They won just one match.
BSC Young Boys ended 8th in the opening stage with 21 points – better goal-difference elbowed Servette to the promotion/relegation group. Escaping the big danger of relegation, Young Boys took it easy in the final stage and finished 7th with 21 points (10 + 11 from the opening stage). Rather curious to see Swedish stars Anders Limpar, Roger Ljung, and Bjorn Nillson in such lowly position, but they were the best Young Boys had at the moment – the Swiss players were not at that level.

AC Lugano was perhaps the prime example of clubs only trying to reach the safety of the final stage: they were 7th in the opening stage and 6th in the final with 23 points (12 +11 from the opening stage). No well-known players here, quite a pedestrian squad perhaps playing overachievening a bit, at least in the opening stage of the season.
FC St. Gallen – 5th with 27 points (14 of them from the opening stage). A show-case of the danger of spending most of their strength early. They won the opening stage, but in the final stage were easily left behind by fresher squads, stepping at the pedals at the right moment. Ivan Zamorano was no longer great help and not because he was weak – it was generally weaker squad, now tired and inevitably dropping out.
FC Luzern – 4th at the end with 28 points. Even season – they were 4th with 24 points in the opening stage, apparently not able to go higher, but not going down either.
Xamax took 3rd place with 30 points. There were 2nd in the opening stage 27 points and although managed to play well in the final stage, seemingly, they spent most of their strength too early. Not quite up to really fight for the title – may be a little was missing, but this little was decisively missing.
Lausanne-Sport – well, they clearly preserved their strength for the final, finishing 6th with 22 points in the opening stage. But formidable they were in the final stage – starting with 11 points, they added 20! Lost only one match. Allowed just 9 goals in 14 games in their net. The strongest team in the final stage – and they had the squad for such performance – but were unlucky at the end. They lost dramatically the title – not on points, not on goal-difference, but only on head-to-head record. Tough luck – or lack of it. To a point, their season served as example of the risks teams were taking with preserving strength for the final stage in complicated championship formulas: if Lausanne-Sport got 1 more point in the opening stage, the title would have been theirs. But they played just enough to qualify to the final stage in the fall of 1989 – and paid the price for it.
Grasshoper clinched the title – like Lausanne-Sport, they finished with 31 points, but very different record: they won 9 games in the final stage and lost 5. They score more goals than Lausanne-Sport and received more too, ending with 28-15 – Lausanne finished with 23-9, which gave them +14 goal-difference to Grasshoper’s +13. Like Lausannne-Sport, Grasshopper preserved strength in the opening stage, but they finished 3rd in it with 25 points – better than Lausanne-Sport, so they started with 13 points the final stage and that was their luck in the long run: Laussane-Sport had wonderful final stage and was clearly the strongest team, but they started with 2 points less than Grasshopper and that was their undoing at the end. Plus the fact that Grasshopper prevailed in the head-to-head clash – at the end the rivals ended with 31 points each and Lausanne-Sport had better goal—difference, but the decisive factor was head-to-head record and Grasshopper came on top and won the championship.
For a good measure Grasshopper won the Swiss Cup as well – again, minimally: they prevailed 2-1 over Xamax. Hardly the most inspiring and memorable victories – rather a matter of ‘blood, sweat, and tears’ mixed with good luck, but the at the end Grasshopper won a double and very impressive totals: 21st title (and their first after 1983-84), 17th Cup (third consecutive Cup), 8th double. Very impressive numbers, yet… it looks like this squad did not leave great memory. As if fans and club historians recognize lucky season and not a great squad.

Switzerland. Ranked 19th. Still keeping its strange championship formula of two stages: 12 team top league, which after the end of the first stage continued without the bottom 4 teams anew, carrying half the points from the opening stage to the second. Meantime Second Division was divided into 2 groups for its second stage in which the last 4 teams in the first stage were included and the top 2 teams in each groups were promoted to start the next season in the top league. The complicated formula will be shortened only to the second stage here. Switzerland still used 2 points for a win and had intriguing mix of imported players – some aging and fading stars, some middle of the road players, some bright talent rather expected to play in bigger championships. By itself, nothing new about such a mix, but Europe was rapidly moving to permit 3 foreigners on the field and Switzerland seemingly was going a step further, for few clubs had more than 3 foreigners this season. And some of them apparently were behind the current success of their teams.
FC St. Gallen was the prime example of this new tendency: they had 3 Chilean national team players plus forth foreigner. If Patricio Mardones and Hugo Rubio do not ring many bells, Ivan Zamorano does – at the time, he was not yet the mega-star, but only beginning his great European journey, yet the impact of the Chileans was immediate: FC St. Gallen won the opening stage of the championship with 28 points: 9 wins, 10 ties, 3 losses, 40-24 scoring record. They clinched top position only by a point, but it was memorable performance for usually St. Gallen occupied the lower half of the table. And in the same time their great first stage meant almost nothing… the final stage started with clean sheets, so it was hard to tell who was playing their best in the opening stage and who was playing just enough to qualify to the final stage, preserving strength for it.
Down the table in the first stage ended Servette (9th), FC Wettingen (10th), FC Aarau (11th), and AC Bellinzona (12th) – they were joining the Second Division teams in the second stage, hoping to finish among the top two in their respective group and maintain top-league place. However, some well known clubs were in Second Division now – if St. Gallen jumped up, FC Zurich and Basel already plunged down and played in the Second Division. Hoping to climb back to their familiar environment, no doubt. But all depended on the second stage of the season and the usually leading Swiss clubs had it tough: they were in stronger final Group A, where Servette and Bellinzona also came to play – 4 teams competing for 2 promotion spots.
Group B was not all that tough – those coming from the top league seemingly had considerable advantage. Possible challenge was absent, for those who had stronger history, presently had only history:
FC Winterthur finished 7th with 7 points – only CS Chenois was more miserable than them (last with 6 points). Top row from left: Paul Hollenstein (Physiotherapeut), Flavio Battaini, Urs Güntensperger, Roland Käser, Marco Filomeno, Mario Uccella, Markus Portmann, Helmut Gabriel, Christian Graf, Mauro Ferrari.
Middle row: Ernst Rief (Masseur), Alfons Bosco (Trainer), Stephan Zwahlen, Joachim Hutka, Patrick Meili, Daniel Haefeli, Reto Arrigoni, Urs Isler, Tiziano Sacchetti, Urs Rüegg (Assistenztrainer).
Front row: Armin Krebs, Marcel Balmer, Oliver Bellwald, Sergio Gurrieri, Antonio Santini, *, Michael Gänssler, Markus Michael, Andreas Nickel.
FC Locarno was 5th with 13 points.
FC Grenchen ended 6th between Winterthur and Locarno with 9 points. FC Baden was 4th with 16 points and FC Bulle finished 3rd with 17 points. So, the teams starting in the Second Division was no problem for those from top flight:
FC Wettingen took second place with 22 points, losing the first place on worse goal-difference: +20, but they lost just a single match in the final stage and permitted only 9 goals in 14 games in their own net.
FC Aarau clinched the top place, thanks to 22 points and better goal-difference than Wettingen: +25. They won the most games and scored the most goals in Group B: 10 wins and 35 goals. But all that was academic – the important thing was that both FC Aarau and FC Wettingen preserved their First Division places for the next season.
No drama in Group B, but Group A had 4 teams potentially eager to go back to the top league. The other 4 were not contenders: FC Schaffhausen finished last with 7 points, FC Chur – 7th with 9 points, FC Fribourg – 6th with 11 points, and Yverdon-Sport FC – 5th with 13 points.
AC Bellinzona lost the race among the stronger: 4th with 15 points and thus relegated from First to Second Division. FC Basel was unable to succeed too: 3rd with 17 points.
FC Zurich finished 2nd with 20 points – similarly to Wettingen in Group B, they ended second only on worse goal-difference. Looking at the squad, it is quite strange to see FC Zurich in the Second Division : apart from strong Swiss players, they had Norbert Eder (West Germany), Jan Berger (Czechoslovakia), and Marcel Raducanu (Romania). Aging all of them and fading, but Berger and Raducanu were national team players for years and still useful for their home countries and Eder was solid regular in Bayern’s defense in the last 6 years. FC Zurich was not relegated with this trio, but the current squad was clearly made having restoration of leading position in mind. So far – so good: FC Zurich earned promotion back to top flight. Yes, they finished 2nd, but promotion was the goal and it was achieved.
Servette clinched the first place, coming ahead of FC Zurich on goal-difference: 20 points from 8 wins, 4 ties, 2 losses (the same as FC Zurich), 29-13 scoring record (scored 1 goal less than FC Zurich, but had 4-goal better defensive record), giving them +16 goal-difference to FC Zurich’s +13. Servette kept their top league place. Top row from left: inten: Bersier, Cacciapaglia, Besnard, Fargeon, Epars, Acosta, Burri
Middle row: Sinval, Djurovski, Rufer, Locca, Pazmandy, Ritschard, Schällibaum, Barrel, Grossenbacher
Sitting: Türkylmaz, Favre, Guex, Pedat, Kobel, Hertig, Bonvin, Stiel
Like FC Zurich, it was puzzling why Servette was so down this season – enough the mention that Kubilay Türkylmaz was in their squad, along with other good players. Well, weak season for sure, but at least they avoided the shame to start the next one in the second level.

The Cup final presented a battle between Communism and democracy as well: Honved vs Pecsi MFC. Honved, quite shaken at the moment and in danger of relegation, still managed to reach the Cup final and had a good chance to win a trophy. Pecsi MFC had strong season, but they were smallish provincial club, which never won anything before. Freedom prevailed, though – at least if one wants to see the Cup final in such light. Pecsi MFC won 2-0.
Honved lost and for many that was great: the club largely symbolizing Communist rule was rapidly going down. Yes, they were the most famous club abroad thanks to the great team in the 1950s, lead by Puskas, but it was also well remembered how Honved came into existence and how the great team was assembled. The name of small Budapest club came back: Kispest. There was Kispest once upon a time and Communists made their Honved out of it. Let’s restore the original – the idea was ripe at the time, then, as elsewhere in Eastern Europe, it turned out that it is not easy to erase Honved. But the club lost its leading role.
Forget politics – there was football and enormous joy: Pecsi MFC won their very first trophy to the delight of the denizens of Pecs. Smallish club from provincial town, normally playing in the First Division, but nothing more than that. Success was entirely unfamiliar to them during their long history. Now it finally arrived. Delightful moment to be fondly remembered. Especially because it was not repeated. So, the team was instant legend at home.

Hungary. Ranked 18th. Political changes affected the country, football included, as elsewhere in Eastern Europe – Honved was in decline as a result, players were looking to play abroad, and clubs were looking for imports largely from Africa and USSR. 3 points for a win and dramatic battle for the title decided by one goal. Two teams were relegated from First Division directly and the 13th and the 14th went to promotion/relegation play-offs against the second-placed teams in the two groups of Second Division.
Second Division. Two groups of 16 teams each, the champions promoted and the second-placed going to promotion/relegation play-offs. The last 3 teams in each group relegated to third level. Both groups were dominated by single team, so nothing exciting at the end.
Szeged SC won the Keleti group with 61 points.
Diosgyori VTK ended 5th with 46 points: one of the former top-league teams now in Second Division, but unable to climb back to top flight.
Volan SC won the Nyugati group with 65 points. Both teams were promoted to the top league.
Second in Keleti group was Kazincbarcikai Vegyesz SE with 52 points – they lost the promotion/relegation play-off against Honved (Budapest) 0-1 and 2-2.
Dunaferr SE was 2nd in Nyugati group with 57 points – they also lost the promotion/relegation play-off against Debreceni MVSC 1-1 and 0-1.
First Division.
Csepel ended last and relegated with 25 points. They were the outsider of the league this season.
Haladas – 15th with 33 points was the other relegated team.
Debreceni MVSC finished 14th with 35 points, but won the promotion/relegation play-off and remained in the top league.
Honved suffered terribly and finished in the danger zone – 13th with 35 points. Like Debreceni MVSC, they managed to survive, but barely.
Gyori ETO – 12th with 35 points. Like Honved, Gyori ETO suffered and avoided relegation only on goal-difference.
Vaci IZZO – 11th with 36 points. Escaping relegation was largely their aim and it was achieved.
Bekescsabai Elore – 10th with 38 points.

Videoton – 9th with 38 points. Like Honved and Gyori ETO, Videoton’s decline was mostly likely related to the political changes in the country.
Vasas SC – 8th with 39 points.
Siofoki Banyasz – 7th with 39 points.
Veszpremi LC – 6th with 41 points.
A possible photo of Tatabanyai Banyasz 1989-90 – they finished 5th with 43 points.
Pecsi MSC – 4th with 48 points. Their strongest season ever, as it happened.
Ferencvarosi TC – 3rd with 48 points.
Two teams were entangled in the fight for the title and at the end the victors triumphed on one-goal better goal-difference. The leaders left the rest of the league far behind.
MTK-VM was bitterly disappointed: they finished with 58 points from 18 wins, 4 ties, and 8 losses. 48-26 scoring record gave them +22 goal-difference. It was not enough…
Ujpesti Dosza clinched the title on goal-difference: like MTK, they finished with 18 wins, 4 ties, and 8 losses and 58 points. They scored less than MTK – 43 goals – but also had better defensive record, permitting 20 goals in their net. This gave them goal-difference of +23 – one goal better than MTK – and the title. Symbolically, the results showed the transitional struggle between Communist and democratic forces – although Hungary for years lacked the big involvement of state forces in sports, still Honved represented the Army and Ujpesti Dosza – the Police. Even the names remained unchanged yet and the ‘old regime’ seemingly was not ready to give up: old and considered victims of Communism clubs like Ferencvaros and MTK were unable to prevail (and in the case of Ferencvaros even to challenge Ujpesti Dosza). Honved was in shambles, but Ujpesti Dosza was not fading away, but actually coming back: this title was the first they won since 1978-79 and their 19th altogether. Soon they were going to get rid of Communist taint – ‘Dosza’ will be removed and the club will restore its original name Ujpesti TE – but it will be many years until they won a title again and generally stopped playing leading role in Hungarian football. So… their dramatic victory could be seen as the last gasp of the Communist regime and not as real revival of the club.

The Cup final opposed Olympiakos to OFI Crete. A chance for Olympiakos to save face, but they played against one of the steadiest clubs outside Athens-Piraeus-Thesaloniki during the 1980s, a team perfectly capable to disturb a big club. But not this time – OFI tried, but lost 2-4.
OFI Crete lost the final and with that the chance to play in Europe again – too bad, but the chances were against them anyway: ambition was one thing, reality another.
Olympiakos saved the season by winning the Cup for 18th time. It was also winning it after considerable gap – their 17th Cup was won in 1980-81, so it was fine to get it again. But the season as whole was weak… Olympiakos made the news by buying the Hungarian star Lajos Detari from Eintracht (Frankfurt), yet, the massive transfer fee paid did not bring the desired returns. The erratic Detari perhaps was more of a problem and certainly no solution: there was no other foreigner in the squad at this time – perhaps Detari’s transfer left no money for other imports. What was envisioned as a great and dominant project with Detari in the heart of it became a great failure – a cup was fine, but still a consolation prize and actually Olympiakos had rapidly to start significant and expensive changes: it would not do to stay in the dust behind Panathinaikos.

First Division. The usual suspects way above the rest, but no big clash between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos this season.
Ethnikos (Piraeus) – last with 20 points and relegated.
Ethnikos Olympiakos (Volos) – 17th with 22 points and relegated.
Apollon Kalamarias (Thesaloniki) – 16th with 27 points and relegated.
Apollon Smyrnis (Athens) – 15th with 28 points.
Ionikos – 14th with 28 points.
Levadiakos – 13th with 28 points. Penalized with 4 points deduction, though.
Panserraikos – 12th with 29 points.
Xanthi – 11th with 29 points.
Doxa (Drama) – 10th with 29 points. Doxa depended on Bulgarian imports during the 1980s and the tradition remained: aging Mikhail Valchev and Plamen Tzvetkov, formerly of Levski (Sofia), played this season.
Panionios – 9th with 30 points.
Larissa – 8th with 34 points.
Aris (Thesaloniki) – 7th with 35 points.
OFI Crete – 6th with 36 points.
Iraklis (Thesaloniki) – 5th with 39 points.
Olympiakos (Piraeus) – 4th with 45 points. Of course, Olympiakos was much stronger than most teams and there was no way to drop down the table, but it was a weak season by their standards: not a title contender.
PAOK (Thesaloniki) – 3rd with 46 points. Like Olympiakos, not a title contender.
AEK (Athens) – tried hard, but ended 3 points behind the champions: 2nd with 50 points. Coached by their former Yugoslavian star striker Dusan Bajevic, who proved to be as able a coach as he was a player, but it was a bit strange to see a team coached by prolific goal-scorer to excel in defense – AEK permitted only 18 goals in the 34 championship games in their net.
Well, hardly a news… Panathinaikos won the championship with 53 points from 21 wins, 11 ties, only 2 lost games, and 75-35 scoring record. Like the other leading clubs, Panathinaikos depended on Eastern Europeans – Olympiakos was coached by Imre Komora (Hungary), AEK by Dusan Bajevic (Yugoslavia), Panathinaikos had the greatest Bulgarian midfielder in the 1970s Christo Bonev at the helm. Young, well educated in West Germany, up and coming ambitious coach, well known in Greece, for he played there in the early 1980s. However, not for Panathinaikos, but, ironically, for their current rival AEK. Bonev depended on another Bulgarian – Christo Kolev, very well known to the coach, for Kolev was a product of the same club which made Bonev once upon a time – Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) – and it was more than co-incidence both coach and player had the same first name: Kolev was an attacking midfielder like Bonev, he was more or less discovered by Bonev and even played a bit like Bonev. Unlike Bonev, who arrived to play a bit in Greece at the end of his career, Kolev was at his prime. The other important foreigner in the team was the Polish striker Krzystztof Warzycha, a great scorer, who will be a key star of Panathinaikos for years – whether by chance of by design, Bonev had in his hands better players than the other leading Greek clubs at the moment. There were 3 more foreigners in the squad – 3 young Australians, who were somewhat an investment for the future: Lou Hristodoulou (22 years old midfielder), Chris Kalantzis (21 years, midfield), Jason Polak (21 years, midfield). The Greek descent of at least two of the trio permitted them to play as domestic players, which benefited Bonev. Of course, there were Greek stars as well and as ever – notably, Dimitris Saravakos. Between the goalposts was very young goalkeeper, Antonis Nikopolidis, barely 19 years old, who after many, many years will be European champion – who would believe it in 1989-90? For the moment, Panathinaikos had the strongest and best balanced squad and won its 15th title. Ironically or not, the battle of former AEK star players now couching the rivals ended with AEK’s loss.

Greece. Ranked 17th. The usual leaders and no surprises.
Second Division. 18 teams – the top 3 promoted up, the bottom 4 relegated down.
Sparta – last with 24 points and relegated.
Niki Volos – 17th with 24 points and relegated.
Kallithea (Athens) – 16th with 25 points and relegated.
Naoussa – 15th with 30 points and relegated.
Pierikos – 14th with 33 points.
Atromitos (Athens) – 13th with 33 points. Penalized with 1 point deduction.
Diagoras (Rodos) – 12th with 33 points.
Rethymniakos – 11th with 33 points.
Veria – 10th with 33 points.
Eordaikos – 9th with 34 points.
Korinthos – 8th with 34 points.
Makedonikos (Thessaloniki) – 7th with 35 points.
Charavgiakos – 6th with 36 points.
Edessaikos – 5th with 36 points.
Kastoria – 4th with 39 points. Lost promotion by a point.
PAS Giannina – 3rd with 40 points and promoted back to top flight.
Panachaiki – 2nd with 43 points and promoted. What a roller-coaster the last few years were: first, relegation from the top league, where the club was a solid member for a long time, then barely escaped relegation from Second Division in the previous season, but now going up again.
Athinaikos (Athens) – champion with 46 points: 18 wins, 10 ties, 6 losses, 50-26. Recently, the club was performing well and finally won the Second Division championship. A great success of one of the least known clubs of Athens, which never played top league football before. But ambition paid of.
Brand new champions in their finest moment – a dream came true and perhaps Athinaikos was going to grow some grass on the their field for the debut in the First Division. Lovely and memorable season for the guys sporting yellow and red.

The Cup tournament perhaps was the best example of the rapid and fundamental political changes: for the first time 2 Second Division teams reached the semi-finals and one of them – the final. And when one looks at the whole Cup record the finalists did not appear to the very end, when they suddenly popped-out as if from nowhere. SG Dynamo (Dresden) and SG Dynamo (Schwerin) won the semi-finals, but 1.FC Dynamo (Dresden) and PSV Schwerin (Schwerin) played at the final. Well, the same clubs, but they were renamed in the pause between semi-finals and final. Considering the poor season the team from Schwerin had – they finished 13th in Group 1 of Second Division – the final was between David and Goliath. But the chance to win – and to win big – motivated the lowly club. They opened the score in the 5th minute and only 6 minutes before the end of the game mighty Dresden managed to get the lead, thanks to Kirsten. Dramatic battle in which, just like in the championship, Dresden prevailed however minimally: 2-1.
It would have been great if PSV Schwerin won the Cup, but no luck. No famous players here – naturally – but they came very close to success. The photo also shows the rapid changes in DDR: not only club names were changing during this season, but shirt adds appeared eventually in the second half of it.
1.FC Dynamo (Dresden) won the Cup – with difficulty, but won it. It was their 6th – overall, Dynamo was the second-best East German club in both titles and cups: former Dynamo (Berrlin) had more titles and 1.FC Magdeburg the same number of cups. It was the 3rd double for them. Presently, the team had 11 national team players, but in the new reality was not going to keep them: Matthias Sammer and Ulf Kirsten were going to the West for money and fame.

First Division. In short: clubs were renamed, the ominous Dynamo (Berlin) disappeared not just as name, but as an institution and lost its power, dramatic battle for the title, decided by goal-difference, otherwise the same… 4 outsiders struggled to survive, 3 teams were above pretty much equal middle group of 7 teams – the East German top league remained sharply divided as ever.
BSG Fortschritt (Bischopswerda) – last with 16 points and relegated. Their second top league adventure ended just like the first time: last.
FC Wismut (Aue) – 13th with 18 points. How unlucky – relegated on single goal worse goal-difference.
BSG Stahl (Eisenhuttenstadt) – 12th with 18 points. They won only 2 games this season (5 less than the last in the league!), but made a second record too – 14 ties. Luckily escaped relegation on goal-difference – theirs was 1 goal better than Wismut’s. The debutantes survived almost miracolously and were going to play a second season among the best.
FC Rot-Weiss (Erfurt) – 11th with 19 points.
BSG Stahl (Brandenburg) – 10th with 24 points. Top row from left: Jan Voß, Jens Pahlke, Uwe Hessel, Kay Wenschlag, Tino Scholtissek, Timo Lange, Eberhard Janotta, Trainer Gerd Struppert
Middle row: Mannschaftsleiter Günter Boede, Co-Trainer Helmut Wilk, Frank Jeske, Uwe Schulz, Hubert Gebhardt, Detlef Zimmer, Christian Knoop, Steffen Freund, Mannschaftsarzt Dr. Rainer Wilke, Physiotherapeut Jens Jogwer
Sitting:  Dietmar Bletsch, Falk Zschiedrich, Andreas Schmidt, Jens Pfahl, Roland Gumtz, Andreas Lindner,   Silvio Demuth, Christoph Ringk
HFC Chemie (Halle) – 9th with 24 points.
1.FC Lokomotive (Leipzig) – 8th with 25 points.
BSG Energie (Cottbus) – 7th with 27 points.
FC Hansa (Rostock) – 6th with 27 points. Standing from left: Jens Wahl, Gernot Alms, Volker Röhrich, Frank Rillich, Axel Rietentiet, Thomas Gansauge, Andreas Babendererde, Juri Schulz und Rainer Jahros. Vordere Reihe: stehend v.l.n.r. Trainer Werner Voigt, Trainer Jürgen Decker, Mannschaftsarzt Dr. Wolfgang Anft.
Sitting: Jens Dowe, Artur Ullrich, Hilmar Weilandt, David Hoffmann (Torwart), Henri Fuchs, Jens Kunath (Torwart), Jens Leonhardt, Axel Schulz, Florian Weichert, stehend v.l.n.r. Physiotherapeut Günter Blum, Trainer Hans Albrecht und Mannschaftsleiter Herbert Maron.
FC Carl Zeiss (Jena) – 5th with 30 points.
FC Berlin (Berlin) – 4th with 30 points. 11 national team players, Thom and Doll among them, but political changes shook the club. Losing political power and renamed, the former mighty Dynamo immediately lost its long supremacy. The best players certainly were looking for lucrative contracts with West German clubs.
1.FC Magdeburg (Magdeburg) – 3rd with 34 points. Battled for the title, but unsuccessfully.
Dramatic race for the title, which was decided by goal-difference. Perhaps politics were largely on the minds of the East German population and football was somewhat secondary even for the players, but still there was big drama.
Usually modest FC Karl-Marx-Stadt (Karl-Marx-Stadt) suddenly became a title contender, fought bravely to the end, but ended 2nd on worse goal-difference. 13 wins, 10 ties, 3 losses, 35-20, 36 points. It would have been ironic if they won – in the year of the fall of Communism a team with the most Communist name to win the championship. Almost happened, but almost and soon there was no more a city and a club with such a name – it was reversed to the original Chemnitz.
SG Dynamo (Dresden) clinched the title thanks to 12 wins, 12 ties, only 2 losses, and 47-26 scoring record. Like their challengers, Dynamo finished with 36 points, but with +21 goal-difference – FC Karl-Marx-Stadt had +15. Objectively, Dynamo had much stronger squad, but political turmoil was perhaps the big equalizer. Still, Dynamo prevailed and won its 8th – and, as it turned out, last title.

DDR. Ranked 16th. Perhaps the biggest change happening in the Eastern Europe – the Berlin Wall fell down in mid-season, so the football season started in one kind of reality and ended in different kind. The process of unification of Germany spelled out the end of East German football as separate entity, but that took time and there was one more season to be played yet. However, there were changes happening during the season, some of them confusing. The first one was scheduled earlier and had nothing to do with politics: it was decided that the second teams of top league clubs would no longer be able to play in the Second Division: this decision affected only 2 teams – the second teams of Dynamo (Berlin) and Dynamo (Dresden), which were excluded from Second Division and replaced by other clubs before the season started. The the Berlin Wall unleashed more significant changes – the process was stretched in time from early 1990 to the end of the 1990-91 season and basically was a process of re-organization of clubs from state-run to ‘independent’ professional clubs, which included often change of names. In most cases the change is barely noticeable: East German clubs mostly had combined names of some abbreviation and the popular name. Since the abbreviation was popularly excluded, a change of it did not confuse anyone, yet… in the records the DDR champion of 1989-90 is SG Dynamo (Dresden), but the Cup winner 1.FC Dynamo (Dresden). Same well known club, but it changed its name between the end of the championship and the Cup final. More problematic was the other Cup finalist – its name is nowhere to be found in the early stages of the competition and in the same time one semi-final winner suddenly disappeared: that’s because the club changed its name between the semifinals and the final and in more radical manner than Dynamo (Dresden). The change was also made before the end of the championship, so in the final tables the club was under its new name. The biggest changes affected 2 well-known clubs and they were practically the earliest changes in East German football: on January 30, 1990 BSG Sachsenring (Zwickau) changed its name to FSV Zwickau (Zwickau) and on Feburary 19, 1990 the hated Stassi club BFC Dynamo (Berlin) became FC Berlin (Berlin). The first changes represented a problem faced everywhere in East Europe: desire to get rid of Communist yoke and symbols and restoration of original names, often confronted by the popularity of the Communist name among fans. The early East-German changes represented both tendencies: in Zwickau original name was restored. In Berlin there was no original club, so no old name to go back to – a new one had to be created. For the moment, re-naming the club signifying entirely Communist oppression seemed enough and final, largely because it was hated club with few fans, But, like elsewhere in Eastern Europe, with time it turned out that the hated club still had enough supporters, even new ones, perhaps attracted largely by its history of success, and the abolished name was restored – today Dynamo (Berlin) exists. Few other clubs changed radically their names before the end of the season – neither attracted big interest, for they were all smallish Second Division clubs and even politics were played on mellower scale than in the cases of Dynamo and Sachsenring: Dynamo (Eisleben) changed to MSV Eisleben (Eisleben), SG Dynamo (Schwerin) changed to PSV Schwerin (Schwerin), ASV Vorwaerts (Stralsund) changed to TSV 1860 Stralsund (Stralsund), and Vorwaerts (Dessau) became SG 1898 Dessau (Dessau). Actually, Dessau’s club changed name earlier – in the 1988-89 season, which may have been because the Army opted to exclude this team from their system. If one pays attention to the names, the problems – and solutions – become clear: as elsewhere in Eastern Europe, Police and Army clubs played leading role during Communist rule and also represented exactly that rule – in DDR Police clubs were named Dynamo, Army clubs – Vorwaerts. Changing their names into something else was practically getting rid of Communist rule, but it was mostly symbolic gesture when it came to secondary clubs in smaller town without rival clubs in them. Dynamo (Berlin) really represented ominous oppression, not Dynamo (Eisleben). Forget the Second Division small fry, even Dynamo (Dresden), the original Police club of DDR, did not symbolize oppression for a long time – Dynamo (Berlin) became that, changing the whole picture – from a club signifying ominous state power Dynamo (Dresden) was seen as a club resisting it, confronting Dynamo (Berlin). As for the Army, looks like the Police took the upper hand in the invisible struggle between Communist powerful structures and Army clubs faded since 1970. In 1990 renaming of Army clubs perhaps was not that much a drive to get rid of Communist symbols, but rather the Army getting rid of expensive baggage in entirely new reality. Especially in smallish cities there was no question of folding the Communist club – locals needed their own club, change the name and keep it, one symbolic gesture is enough. And the new reality already presented its own problems – money first of all – so the revamped SG 1898 Dessau disappeared just as quickly as it apperead: Vorwaerts (Dessau) started the 1989-90 season, SG 1898 Dessau finished it, but FC Anhalt (Dessau) started the 1990-91 season – between seasons SG 1898 Dessau merged with SG Waggonbau’05 (Dessau) into FC Anhalt. Thus, radical name changes affected only Army and Police clubs in the second half of 1989-90 season, the only different case was Zwickau, which was getting rid of the Communist club no matter what its name and to which institution it belonged (Sachsenring belonged, or attached, or financed, or represented the large automotive plant in Zwickau) and restore the name of the club existing before the Communist took power. Then again Zwickau was provincial city with one club – Berlin quickly developed complications, for there were ‘split’ clubs existing under same names in both East and West Berlin, both claiming to be the original club and thus unwilling to fold, rename, even amalgamate.
It was not only a matter of names and ownership: freedom shook the season – there was uncertainty, other things on the minds than football, lost financing, and perhaps the most important problem: out of the blue East German players could go and play for real money in West Germany. Now in the minds of players was not that much the championship, but getting lucrative contract with rich and famous Bundesliga club. There was no doubt where Sammer, Doll, Thom, Kirsten will be in the next year. There was also little doubt that even if not wanting to go to the Bundesliga a long established players like Bodo Rudwaleit will change clubs for the once they played many years for were no longer able to pay them enough. It was a season of both hopes and despair, a season of turmoil. And in the same time it looked the same as before…
Apart from name-changes there was nothing to distinct this season from any other before in the Second Division: former top-league clubs were stronger than the rest and if there was any battle for promotion, it was was between 2-3 of those. There was no battle at all, however. Perhaps the only important thing was to mention clubs which did not appear in the next season – relegation is relegation, but few clubs simply disappeared. Judging by tradition, 7 teams were possible candidates for top positions and promotion and only one of them slipped down the table. Still, as it often happened before one teams was dominant leader in each Second Division group.
In Group A TSV 1860 Stralsund (which started the season under the name Vorwaerts (Stralsund) was weak and finished 10th – the only former member of First Division which was weak this season. 5 teams did not appear in the league next season: Motor (Schonebeck) – last and relegated anyway, Motor (Ludwigsfelde) – 17th and also relegated, KWO Berlin (Berlin) – 15th, Dynamo (Furstenwalde) – 12th, and BSG Chemie (Velten) – 3rd. Apart from them keep in mind PSV Schwerin, which started as SG Dynamo (Schwerin) and finished 13th.
BSG Chemie (Velten) finished 3rd with 40 points – 7 points behind the second-placed.
1.FC Union (Berlin) was 2nd with 47 points. Much stronger than the rest of the league, yet, not a real challenge to the winners.
Vorwaerts (Frankfurt/Oder) won the championship with 53 points from 22 wins, 9 ties, 3 losses and 80-30 scoring record. They dominated the championship and climbed back to First Division from which were relegated in 1987-88. Once upon a time a leading DDR club, Vorwaerts faded away long time ago and even their brief revival during the 1980s was very short. Hard to tell what the future of the number one team of the Army would be in entirely different reality – seemingly they were going up with new confidence, but there was also big uncertainty, judging by this team photo, dated alternatively 1989-90 and 1990-91.
Group 2. 4 teams did not appear in the next season: Union (Muhlhausen) – last and possibly relegated, Aufbau ddk Scharfenstein/Krumher. – 16th, MSV Eisleben (Eisleben) – 15th, and BSG Chemie Buna (Schkopau) – 14th. The former First Division clubs were all at the top of the table, but there was only one dominant team. FSV Zwickau (Zwickau) may have been the earliest and most rebellious club in DDR, but changing their name from Sachsenring to FSV Zwickau did not help their strenght: relegated in the previous season, now they ended 4th. BSG Stahl (Riesa) was 3rd and BSG Chemie (Leipzig) – 2nd with 39 points. They clinched second place by a point, but first place was not even a dream. However, sometimes even no-dreams become reality…
BSG Chemie (Bohlen) dominated the season and won the championship with 51 points: 22 wins, 7 ties, 4 losses, 77-35 scoring record. In the beginning of the 1980s they had a brief strong period, meaning, they got promoted to First Division a few times never lasting more than a season among the best. Now they got a new wind for another try. Dominant this season and promoted, but… they were not going to play top league football: just before the start of the 1990-91 season they disappeared in a matter of 4 days: on July 27 they changed their name to FSV Bohlen and on August 1st they merged with FC Grun-Weiss 1990 (Leipzig) – as BSG Chemie (Leipzig) renamed itself right after the 1989-90 season – to form FC Sachsen (Leipzig). And this club played in the First Division. At least geographically not Chemie (Bohlen), but the team they left 12 points behind moved to First Division.