Finland established complicated championship formula, seemingly suitable for the level of the game in the country: two-phased championship. At first standard league format was played. The second phase continued with the top 8 clubs of the league playing mini-league final tournament for the title. Every team carried half of their first-stage points to the final. The bottom 4 clubs plus the top 4 clubs of the second league proceeded to relegation/promotion tournament. Bonus points were given, depending on each club’s place in the opening stage – 4 points for the highest placed, going down to 1 point for the lowest. This combination worked fine for sifting out inferior teams, but in the same canceled winners of lower divisions and up and down movements were not guaranteed. OTP Oulu, Reipas Lahti, KTP Kuopio, and KPV Kokkola were the bottom 4 in the first stage of top division. MP Mikkeli, RoPS Rovaniemi, MiPK Mikkeli, and Kuusysi Lahti were at the top of the second division preliminary stage. The 8 clubs made the relegation/promotion group, which proved second division members better – at this moment – than the top flight teams. Only KTP Kuopio finished among the top 4, going to play first division football next year. KTP Kuopio finished 1st, but places are a bit misleading – all four teams finished with 11 points, a combined record of earned and bonus points. RoPS Rovaniemi, MP Mikkeli, and MiPK Mikkeli were promoted.
The final tournament for the title mirrored the preliminary stage – OPS Oulu, TPS Turku, HJK Helsinki, and Haka Valkeakoski were well above the rest of the league. With 30 points, HJK Helsinki and Haka Valkeakoski ended 6 points ahead of the 5th placed KTP Kotka. The original superiority brought instant advantage before the second stage started: the top clubs kept the gap by carrying more points. The top 4 were tightly packed in the first stage and went also together in the second – there was no outstanding favourite in neither phase. At the end, TPS Turku finished 4th with 23 points, HJK Helsinki got bronze medals with 24 points, Haka Valkeakoski clinched silver with 25, OPS Oulu were champions with 26 points.
OPS Oulu won a consecutive title, repeating their success in 1979. They did not dominate the championship at all, prevailing by a single point, but in itself their record is remarkable: OPS lost only one match this season. Their only loss came during the preliminary tournament – nobody managed to beat them in the final stage. But the champions did not depend on defensive tactics: they attacked and scored a lot. With 70 goals, they outscored the second best, Haka Valkeakoski, by 13 goals.
Arguably, those were the best years of the club, but on a larger scale, they were unknown. It was a team best measured only by Finnish standards: about 15 players were used in the campaign, mostly young. Among the regular substitutes were 21, 19, and 16 years olds. Two national team players and 2 Olympic team players, whose performance at the Moscow Olympic Games left no memory. More or less, the typical Finnish squad… perhaps what made difference was the employment of two foreigners:
Hugh Smith, 23-old Scottish midfielder, and
Keith Armstrong, 23-years old English forward. The duo came together from Hong Kong, where they played previously, after failing to impress English and Scottish clubs. They shined in Finland, however, and both cherished hopes of breaking into British professional football. Given their age and evident success abroad, their hopes were perhaps plausible, but there is no escape from measuring Finnish football against top European leagues: Smith and Armstrong instantly elevated the class of OPS Oulu and helped the club to a second title – the foreign stars, however, failed to establish themselves in Heart of Midlothian and Workington…
But let not judge OPS Oulu harshly: they were happy champions, prevailing over close and equal pursuers.