France. The usual reshuffling of Second Division teams from one group to the other before the season. After that – the championship with some former strong teams now struggling in obscurity. Second Division Group B.
CS Blenod 18th with 16 points and relegated.
RC Fontainebleau – 17th with 21 points and also going down to third level.
Montseau-les-Mines survived with 22 points – 16th place.
Stade Francais (Paris) – 15th with 25 points. Nothing left from their former glory.
CS Cuiseaux-Louhans – 14th with 26 points. Pretty much satisfying – not relegated, thank you.
CS Thonon – 13th with 28 points.
FC Gueugnon – 12th with 31 points.
RCFC Besancon – 11th with 32 points.
Red Star (Paris) – 10th with 33 points. They had to embrace nostalgia too, for the present was not good.
FC Grenoble – 9th with 34 points.
US Orleans – 8th with 34 points, but better goal-difference placed them ahead of Grenoble.
AS Cannes – 7th with 38 points. Some former stars playing their last days here – Revelli, Rampillon, Pleimelding. Nice life under the sun, but nothing else.
FC Martigues – 6th with 39 points.
US Dunkerque – 5th with 40 points.
Olympique (Marseille) – 4th with 41 points. Tough time – anonymous squad, able only to compete with clubs like Dunkerque. Return to first division? Hard to imagine.
OGC Nice – 3rd with 48 points. Much better than Marseille, even coming close to the promotional race, but just that. Nice used to compete with Marseille for the top spots in the top league… Slightly better squad than Marseille’s, but far cry from what they had ten years ago.
Srade Reims finished 2nd with 52 points. Lost first place on goal-difference, then lost the promotional play-off against the 2nd in Group A, and continued its second division existence. Vercruysse, Troussier… not enough for going up.
May be just lucky, but SC Toulon finished 1st. Since Reims, Marseille, Nice, Stade Francais, Red Star were in the group, the victory of lowly Toulon was surprising. 52 points, but better goal-difference made them winners, promoted to the top league. Dalger and Courbis were quite enough to invigorate the team. Well done.