First Division. It started with 20 teams and after Campeonato Apertura was increased to 22. The league was to be further enlarged, so there was no relegation, but 4 teams were promoted from Second Division for the next year. One may wonder why relatively small country with limited resources should have one of the largest leagues in the world, but the really important issue is just technical: no relegation.
Campeonato Apertura may have been interesting, but only one thing mattered: getting a chance to qualify for the second Chilean spot in Libertadores Cup. Two teams qualified for the final stage – the champions and second placed in Apertura. As for the rest, it was just pride, for the championship did not bring official recognition – unlike Argentina, Chile had single champion. O’Higgins (Rancagua) finished 2nd in Campeonato Apertura, behind Universidad Catolica (Santiago) – both teams qualified for the final decisive tournament, deciding who will represent Chile in the 1984 Copa Libertadores. Universidad Catolica added this otherwise meaningless title to its historic record.
They did well in the Copa Republica too – the tournament was played during Campeonato Oficial, bringing bonus points to the teams reaching semi-finals and the final. Unlike Campeonato Apertura, Copa Republica had official recognition, thus making some sense. It was a tournament only for the first division clubs, but those teams promoted administratively after Apertura were also included. Santiago Wanderers and Iquique lost at the semi-finals, getting 1 bonus point each. The final was reached by Naval and Universidad Catolica. Naval lost 0-1 and got 1 bonus point.
So far, Universidad Catolica did very well – they won Campeonato Aperura, thus keeping a good chance to get the second Chilean Libertadores spot. They won Copa Republica, an official trophy, and added 2 bonus points to their record in Campeonato Oficial. On the surface, a splendid season and a team like that must have been a title contender to the end. Standing from left: Luis Valenzuela, Rubén Espinoza, Patricio Mardones, Oscar Lihn, Atilio Marchioni, Miguel Angel Leyes.
Crouching: Juan Ramón Isasi, Daniel Silva, Osvaldo Hurtado, Miguel Angel Neira, Jorge Aravena.
And now the truly important championship, deciding the title. Standard league championship – every team played twice against every other. No relegation. Two teams were administratively promoted after Campeonato Apertura, so the league was increased from 20 to 22 teams – the format for 1983 Campeonato Oficial. Bonus points were added to the records of those reaching the semi-finals of Copa Republica. Let’s start was the club excelling so far: Univesidad Catolica won both Apertura and Copa. Because of that, one should expect them to be possible title contender. But they were not and actually performed rather poorly in the only important competition: they finished 5th in Oficial with 48 points. And that only thanks to the 2 bonus points for winning Copa Republica – without them, they would have been 7th. With or without bonus points, Universidad Catolica played no role in the championship race – they were very distant 5th – 14 points behind the 2nd placed team. So, the earlier championships could be seen differently: lacking real importance, most likely many a club did not really compete, saving strength for the only important championship of the year – a familiar story in every country having two separate championships, but counting only one as title-giving.
Now let’s take a look at the newcomers – since the criteria was not performance, but stadium capacity and attendance, one may doubt the quality of teams elevated from second division by fiat. If they were really good, they would have been first division members already.
Green Cross (Temuco) finished 13th with 39 points, but with positive goal-difference (69-65) – the only team bellow 7th place with positive goal-difference. Not bad – especially in view of their weak performance in the Second Division Apertura.
Huachipato (Talcahuano) finished 11th with 41 points. Better than Green Cross, which makes sense, since they won Second Division Apertura. Mid-table positions for the former second division members looks like more than plausible performance. More convincing even,when one remembers that Green Cross is one of the historically strongest Chilean clubs and Huachipato was the country champion ten years earlier – these were not exactly unknown novices. But… there was no relegation, so many weaker clubs had to play for really. No reason to put an extra effort – it is difficult to say how good or bad the newcomers were, if others were disinterested and only went throw the motions. Some of the better know clubs finished suspiciously low.
Audax Italiano (Santiago) ended last with 28 points. Terrible. But how terrible? They may have lost interest early in the championship, may be thinking for the next year and not bothering with the current season – there was no relegation anyway and nothing to play for. But… clearly, the club was going down and if the sorry example of Santiago Morning is considered – ending relegated to Third Division – Audax Italiano most likley was in dire straits and in real trouble.
With 29 points, Santiago Wanderers finished 21st. As bad as Audax Italiano and bringing the same questions – were they really so weak or just gave up early and did not care? Santiago Wanderers played well earlier – they reached the semi-finals of Copa Republica, thus getting a bonus point. No clear answer… cup formats have their own logic, so different from regular championship.
Union Espanola (Santiago) – 20th with 33 points. One more club which did not belong to the bottom of the league. True, they had measly season, but not that long ago they were champions.
Atacama (Copiapo) – 19th with 35 points. Now, this was more likely – this was lowly club, if they played first division at all. Survival was only aim, they were normally at the bottom of the table, so nothing unusual this year too – the unusual was the teams bellow them.
Union San Felipe (San Felipe) – like Atacama, normal lowly performance. 18th with 35 points, ahead of Atacama on better goal-difference.
Antofagasta (Antofagasta) – more of the same: 17th with 37 points.
Iquique ( Iquique) – one more traditionally lowly club. 16th with 37 points. However, they played well earlier, reaching the Cup semi-finals and thus earning a bonus point – this point proved important, equalizing their final record with Antofagasta’s and having better goal-difference – placing them ahead of the usual rival.
O’Higgins (Rancagua) was more similar to Universidad Catolica than any other team – they played very well in the Apertura, finishing 2nd, behind Universidad Catolica. But they were mediocre in Campeonato Oficial – 15th with 38 points. Yet, they still had a chance to represent Chile in the 1984 Copa Libertadores. Were they really weak? Did they just get advantage of the disinterest of others in the meaningless early championship or they simply gave up in the important, but nor dangerous championship?
Trasandino (Los Andes), 14th with 39 points, was no mystery – lowly they were, lowly they stayed. From their own historic standpoint, the season was actually satisfying.
13th was the already mentioned Green Cross (Temuco).
Palestino (Santiago) – rather lowly 12th position with 40 points, but the club had traditionally checkered record, so nothing surprising.
Huachipato (Talcahuano) – 11th with 41 points.
Strange picture of Deportes Arica (Arica), but they had rather season – 10th with 41 points.
Fernandez Vial (Concepcion) – surprisingly strong: 9th with 42 points. As a novelty, they had perfectly rounded record: 14 wins, 14 ties, 14 losses.
Everton (Vina del Mar) was 8th with 44 points.
Rangers (Talca) – 7th with 47 points.
Naval (Talcahuano) – 6th with 48 points. Strong year – they played well in Copa Republica too, reaching the final and earning a bonus point.
Universidad Catolica (Santiago) – 5th with 48 points, winning really the battle of bonus points with Naval.
Magallanes (Santiago) ended 4th with 50 points. This position gave a chance to compete for the second Libertadores spot. The big figure here – the national team goalkeeper Adolfo Nef.
With 53 points, Universidad de Chile (Santiago) was 3rd. Nothing surprising, they were routine favourite, although this year not a title contender. Manuel Pellegrini standing at the far left – not as famous back then as he is today.
Cobreloa (Calama) – 2nd with 62 points. Fought for the title to the end and lost by a single point. There was no doubt about them any longer: Cobreloa firmly established itself as a leading Chilean club in just a few years. They were the highest scoring team this season with 96 goals, and the strikers were complimented by the most solid defense, allowing only 31 goals – the champions received 5 more!
As for the champions, hardly any need to even mention the name – Colo Colo (Santiago), who else? They were entangled in great battle with Cobreloa, but managed to finish on top with a single point difference. It was pure race – no bonus points played a role and very likely the opponents did not put great effort in the meaningless early tournaments, conserving strength for the real championship. Difficult victory for Colo Colo and may be more cherished because of that, but otherwise just another trophy added to already huge collection. Standing from left: Leonel Herrera, Luis Hormazabal, Alejandro Hisis, Oscar Rojas, Lizardo Garrido, Roberto Rojas;
First row: Cristian Saavedra, Raul Ormeño, Carlos Caszely, Severino Vasconcelos, Jaime Vera.
As usually, Carlos Caszely was the king of the team.
After the end of the championship a mini-tournament was played to decide the second Copa Libertadores spot. Universidad Catolica quilified from Apertura; Cobreloa, Universidad de Chile, and Magallanes – from Oficial. However… O’Higgins was earlier announced as qualifying to Libertadores, along with Universidad Catolica from Apertura. Now they were out for whatever reason. The four teams played against each other once and final table ended with Univeridad Catolica last and, surprisngly, Magallanes on top.
Magallanes obviously saved enough strength for one lats great effort and won Pre-Libertadores Liquilla. Fine…they were going to represent Chile along with Colo Colo in the 1984 South American cup. But because of the confusion of statistical notes, one really has to look who actually represented Chile in 1984 Libertadores and after that try to discover the reasons why.
The sure thing was only the champions, so one more look at Colo Colo, dressed in rare reserve kit.