Cyprus – nothing new neither on international front, nor on the domestic one. 26th in Europe. Evagoras (Paphos) won the Second Division. Their city rivals APOP finished 2nd and both teams were promoted. Once again, one should add.
Aris (Limassol) was the First Division outsider – last with 17 points. Alki (Larnaca) was perhaps unfortunate – worse goal-difference placed them 13th and they joined Aris in relegation. Four teams struggled the escape the road to the lower level, all ending with 21 points. EPA (Larnaca) survived, so did AEL (Limassol), thus preserving top league derbies in their towns – there were the stronger at the time Apollon (Limassol), 6th, and Pezoporikos (Larnaca), 3rd. But the battles at the end of the table concerned only the teams involved – at the top the usual clash between APOEL and Omonia decided the new-old champions. APOEL lost the least matches this season – only 3, but they tied too many games – 10 – and their city enemies excelled in winning. 16 wins, 6 ties, 4 losses, 56-21, and 38 points made Omonia once again champions.
They also reached the Cup final, where they met Enosis Neon Paralimni, which had a strong season – they were 4th in the championship – and tried to win a trophy at last. The final ended 1-1 and had to be replayd. Alas, the strength of Paralimni was only enough for one match – they lost the replay 0-3.
Omonia (Nicosia) triumphed with a double. It was not easy sailing, but they won everything. The Bulgarian connection was to a large point the reason for continual success: Omonia employed often Bulgarian coaches – Vassil Spassov at this time – and the results were so great, so soon Omonia was going to increase the Bulgarian presence with a string of players as well. It may have been political connection – the left-wing Omonia naturally looked for help from Communist countries, which in turn was safe for Bulgaria to permit coaches and eventually players to work for Omonia. But no matter – by now, it was just the familiar, predictable, even boring – Omonia with more trophies.