Hungary. Ranked 19th. What a time the second half of the 1980s was… scandal after scandal. The Hungarian championship ended, but there was no champion. The Federation put the championship on hold until investigation of wide-spread bribing was completed. Alleged bribing, of course. The Federation did not find anything wrong, but there was much in the press, so the case was given to a state government commission. Like in Greece, football was getting larger than itself, involving the government in Hungary. From another angle, the Federation was in tight situation, for it had to send to UEFA the teams for the European tournaments – so, the investigation was to be completed until June 20, 1988 and if the accusations are confirmed the Federation will not submit any Hungarian teams to play in Europe.
If one looks at the numbers, there was plenty to be suspicious: take the Second Division. In a low-scoring championship, where the best average was 1.6 per game (Dunaujvaros), many games ended with odd results – Volan, for example, won two games 7-0 and 7-2. There were many similar results, seemingly coming out of the blue in games of lowly teams. The league winners, for instnace, never scored more than 3 goals this season and the second-placed scored 4 goals only once – against the league’s outsider. But accusations need prove and in the football world prove is usually available. So let keep just the final standings.
Second Division. Promotion is what that matters.
The already mentioned Dunaujvaros finished 2nd with 48 points and was promoted.
Veszprem won the championship with 49 points: 21 wins, 7 ties, 10 losses, 49-28. Promoted, of course.
Let’s wish good look to the teams going up.
First Division. Fairly balanced season, with one team somewhat the outsider and one somewhat dominant. One big drop – Videoton struggled and managed to escape relegation with difficulty. No surprise… with every player looking for a foreign contract, there was little left in the country and naturally provincial clubs lost their talent to big clubs of Budapest. Videoton’s European success had a heavy price… they lost their leading players. The Disztl brothers, for instance, played for Honved now. Videoton lost its edge. On the other hand, Tatabanya was having great time at the moment.
Kaposvar ended last – hardly a surprise – with 17 points. The other relegated was Debreceni VSC – 15th with 23 points.
Up the table – not much to brag about.
Bekescsabai Elore Spartacus finished 13th with 27 points. Avoided relegation, which was pretty much the most expected from them, but they had great success this year as well.
Vodeoton eventually climbed up to 11th place with 27 points too.
Vaci Izzo – 10th with 28 points. Not bad…
Vasas SC – 9th with 29 points.
Szombathelyi Haladas – 7th with 31 points.
MTK Hungaria FC – 6th with 32 points. The picture is actually from the previous season – the team which won the title. But the 1987-88 the champions were a pale shadow of themselves and left little evidence of their presence.
Ferencvaros – not a memorable season. 5th with 33 points.
Gyori ETO – 4th with 35 points, Ujpesti Dosza – or was Ujpest FC already? – 3rd with 37 points. Lost silver on worse goal-difference.
Tatabanya – 2nd with 37 points. They were pleasant surprise and although prevailed over Ujpesti Dosza only on goal-difference, this was splendid season. If not their best ever, then one of the stronger and memorable performances. They scored most goals too: 58.
Honved (Budapest) had no rival and that was no surprise – they had the best squad by far in the country. Looking at the players… well, some of the best made their names in the provincial clubs. Honved more or less scooped whatever talent remained in Hungary and there was no one now to challenge them. 17 wins, 7 ties, 6 losses, 48-23, 41 points, and one more title to their name. Hardly a great team, but that was the best Hungary had at this lean times.