Cyprus

Cyprus – its football jumped up in the 1980s. It was not a sudden and impressive jump, but improvement eventually was noticed around mid-80s. However, the development did not manifest in any changes in the clubs status – the strong remained strong, the outsiders remained outsiders.

Alki (Larnaca) and Aris (Limassol) topped the Second Division and earned promotion.

The First Division was divided into four groups – three outsiders, 7 lower-positioned teams, 3 clearly stronger teams, but not as strong as to be able to challenge the sole leader, and one singular dominant favourite. In the final table everything was very familiar. Evagoras (Paphos) was hopelessly last with 13 points, nothing surprising. Keravnos (Strovolos) and APOP (Paphos) fought head to head for survival – both finished with 19 points and APOP clinched the safe 12th position on better goal-difference. So, Evagoras and Keravnos were relegated as expected to be.

The next group, the mid-table teams, were pretty much equal.

Paralimni was typical example – 8th with 23 points. Once the danger of relegation was out of the picture, there not a care in the world. At the top of this group finished AEL (Limassol) – 5th with 28 points.

Apolon (Limassol), APOEL (Nicosia), and Pezoporikos (Larnaca) fought not for the title, but for silver and bronze, all ending with 34 points. Goal-difference decided final positions – Apollon was 4th and Pezoporikos, perhaps the pleasant surprise of the season – second.

And at the top, without any competition, was the usual suspect – Omonia (Nicosia).

20 wins, 4 ties, only 2 matches lost, 61-9 scoring record, and 44 points – Pezoporikos was 10 points behind. Omonia was absolutely and completely dominant – they also reached the Cup final. Apollon (Limassol) was the other finalist and put mighty fight – the match ended 2-2 and replay was scheduled. And that was all… Apollon managed one match, but the replay was too much for them – Omonia destroyed them 4-1. A double and no need to even count… winning was routine.

One may argue that the improvement of Cypriot football was largely done by Bulgarian imports – coaches in the 1970s and now players too. Cyprus was prime destination for Bulgarian export – it may not have been wise to sell cheaply by the bulk, but since the players were all veterans it was the easiest, if not very lucrative or reputation-building market. Old stars, at the end of their playing days, were still good enough to make a difference in Cyprus. Even a joke was made – if Atanas Mikhaylov managed to drop a few kilos and slim himself to, say, 120 kilos weight, his second division club may escape relegation. It was a joke and it was not – those in better shape helped their new teams to stronger performance, absolutely true for Omonia. The club employed Bulgarian coaches since the early 1970s and Vassil Spassov was currently in charge. The aging midfielder star Bozhil Kolev was added as a player and Omonia remained dominant, even more so. And other Bulgarian players were employed during the 1980s.