England – ranked 6th. With English clubs banned from European tournaments, going down the table was natural, but since Englsih football was so successful for so long, slipping down was slow. Domestically, there were some happy people, who mainatined that Englsih football is best and because of that there was no need to waste time with ‘continentals’, but many were not happy at all – just ask the Everton players of that time. There was bigger glory to be achieved abroad and now it was impossible, which clipped the wings of great teams – Everton, in particular, but also Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur. Tem years ago may be the clubs would have been more on favour of playing only domestic football, but now the view was different – the current generation of players knew very well that the true measure of greatness came with international success and the leading clubs also had the same view. There was a sense English football as a whole was the loser – not playing international football was only going to leave English football behind the new trends, to weaken it. But there was only domestic football to play now. There was little drama this season – solitary leaders dominated every league.
Not much drama may be, but many new and first things. First Division was going to be decreased to20 teams, but gradually, so more teams were relegataed than promoted – 3 directly going down and two up, to make it 21-team league for the next season. Second Division was going to be enlarged to 23 teams. But promotion/relegation play-offs were introduced for the first time in English football – one team in the danger zone of upper division and 3 teams directly bellow the automatically promoted went to the play-offs and the winner was going to play in the higher league. For the first time in English football history there was direct relegation from Forth Division and corresponding direct promotion: the last in the table was going out to play in Conference, which champion in turn was promoted to Forth Division. That was the big news on structural level. The rest were histoiric news: quite many ‘firsts’: some teams went up to play in a league they never played before, some went down to a level they never played before. A plethora of young managers emerged – George Graham most noticeably. Alex Ferguson debuted at the helm of Manchester United and not exactly in the regular way, but almost at half-season, when Manchester United was next to last in the table and Ron Atkinson was sacked. Bankruptcy was looming large for many clubs and city councils interfered to save Wolverhampton Wanderers, Middlesbrough, Halifax Town. A plan for merger between Fulham and Queens Park Rangers was scrapped after the Football League vetoed it. Hooliganism continued in full force meantime and the English Police organized its biggest operation against violent fans this season.
Scarborough became the first ever team promoted from Conference to the League – at last such move was regulated, although fans and clubs from Conference grumbled that the League made ridiculous requirements, especially about venues. Thus, Conference effectively became 5th level which champion was promoted to Forth Division.