Second Division Group B did not have even the small drama Group A had: one team dominated the championship. At the other side of the table the battle for survival preoccupied about 7 clubs, except the very last: Stade Malherbe Caen was the outsider. 18th with 22 points.
UES Montmorillon ended 17th with 27 points and was relegated along with Caen.
Of the group which escaped relegation Paris FC – 15th with 28 points – was the interesting name.
Birth defects, one could say. A decade ago the newly formed Parisian club was split in two by the decision of the Federation and Paris FC was left almost with nothing. The club fought bravely to establish itself, even played in the top division, but… Paris St. Germain got the money and since France was not crazy about football, even Paris was not the kind of city where two clubs, especially new, could prosper. Paris FC was still positioned higher than two older and more famous Parisian clubs – Stade de Francais and Racing – but it was undeniably small club, sinking deeper and deeper. At the turn of 1980s its sole ambition was to stick in second division, however perilously. By now, the company Paris FC kept was insignificant – teams like
AAJ Blois, 12th this season and perhaps happy with that. Merchadier captained them, but even for him success was already a distant memory.
Yet, it was not Paris FC in true decline, but the most famous French club of the past: Stade Reims. After the end of the 1950s Reims was steadily going down, to find itself not only in the second division at the beginning of the 1980s, but also as a run-of-the-mill team there – mid-table was the best they could do: 10th this year. Reims never climbed back to leading position in French football. Now it was at the level of
AC Le Havre, which occasionally would be able to have a good season and go up, but more likely was to play uninspired second division football – they were 8th this year – or
En Avant Guingamp, which was a stable feature of the second division, but did not dream so far for something better. Typically, Guingamp finished at 7th place – safe mid-table.
Stade Rennes ended 4th with 40 points – however, Rennes was similar to Marseille: they were one of the constantly moving between first and second division clubs, a club in between, so failing promotion was not exactly a big news.
FC Rouen was 3rd with 42 points – a relatively good season, but promotion was clearly not up to them. Perhaps the most memorable thing of them was their kit: by itself, not unique, but always very rare three-colour combination in the history of football.
Excellent season for the small US Noeux-les-Mines – second place. With 44 points they did not really challenge the league champions, but this was one the greatest seasons in the history of a club for which second division was pretty much the highest possible level of success. The squad itself is a testimony of the great contribution of the Poles to French football: 5 Polish names here, although it was traditionally difficult to separate imports from French players of Polish stock. The great season should be attributed to the coach – Houllier was not famous at all yet, but only at the beginning of his own success.
Stade Brest was the dominant champion. They left Noeux-les-Mines 5 points behind and finished with 49 points from 20 wins, 9 ties, and 5 losses. Best attack and best defense, naturally.
Well, Brest was modest club without serious money, but the league was not very strong and a little drop of ambition made the difference between them and the rest. As far as names go, Brest had perhaps more strong players than any other club: three. The French Parizon and Keruzore and the Yugoslavian striker Drago Vabec, who never played much for his native country – because he played for a wrong club, as he said – was a bit whimsical, thus unpredictable and not always reliable, but proved to be very loyal player. He was already a member of Brest for years, come low or high. Promotion for Brest meant a lot and they deserved it without a question. Well done. There is a bit of a problem with the historic record of the club – it was founded in 1903 under the name Armoricaine de Brest, but changed name in 1950 – with that came a new registration, so technically 1950 is given as a founding year and the record runs from there: under this name Brest played so far only 1 single season in First Division – 1979-80. After a single year in the second level, they moved up again for a second try of top level football. Good luck!