Hungary I Division

Hungary was still running its largest first division – 18 clubs – which, given the general decline of the game in the country, perhaps explains the comfortable existence of most clubs. Three clubs were far below the rest in 1979-80.

Good for clubs like DMVSC – or Debrecen – the lowest of the ‘comfortable’: they finished 15th, just above relegation zone, but with 30 points they were never in trouble. The 16th finished with 22 points.

MAV Elore (Szekesfehervar) finished 16th and went down, thus reducing the first division derbies by one. Videoton was running strong, MAV Elore did not – perhaps understandable situation in a smaller city: not enough money to keep two relatively strong clubs.

Salgotarjan, as the club was popularly known, finished 17th with 20 points. Relegation was hardly a surprise – SBTC was lowly club and no stranger to lower division football.

The weakest of the weak was not match even to the other outsiders, finishing with 15 points.

Pecsi VSK was a newcomer, which did not last, as expected. The only thing about their departure from the league was the end of the novelty of provincial derbies: Szekesfehervar lost its derby this season and so did Pecs.

Pecsi MSC, traditionally the stronger club of Pecs, finished like they ever did – in mid-table. Unlike getting stronger Videoton, PMSC just kept their usual level. Their smaller neigbours PVSC did not develop into a rival.

Weak season for Ferencvaros – they finished 6th with 39 points – three more than Pecsi MSC at 7th place.

Videoton ended 4th with 43 points and a point better was Vasas.

Bronze medals for Vasas – they were still going relatively strong.

The title was a contest between Ujpesti Dosza and Honved. Honved had the edge and won the championship 3 points ahead of Ujpesti Dosza. May be Honved took advantage of the shaky generational change of their rivals, but it was historic victory.

Third row, from left: Weimper, Varga, Lukács, Kocsis, Pál, Kozma.

Middle row: Tóth Kálmán gyúró, Paróczai, Garaba, Nagy A., Dajka, Esterházy, Fejes, Tichy Lajos vezetőedző.

Sitting: Menyhárt, Pandúr, Melis, Bodonyi, Pintér, Gujdár.

On one side, it was a victory of the Army over the Police – the traditional rivalry in the Communist countries. It was part of the revival of the Army clubs in Eastern Europe at the end of the 1970s. On the other hand, this was the first title won since 1955! It was their 6th and the number is surpirzing, considering that the old Honved was closely associated with the great ‘Flying Magars’ of the 1950s. But the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 cut the wings of Honved in more than one aspect: not only stars emigrated, notably Ferenc Puskas, but the political changes diminished the powerful status of Honved – a status clearly seen as Stalinist creation. It took 15 years for Honved to come back.

Honved were strong indeed, but were to return to a dominance? Was it a beginning of second golden period? They had a team of contempary stars, unlike the aging Ujpesti Dosza and shaky Ferencvaros. But it was not a great team – Guydar and Pinter were leading players for some time, but never the best at their positions in the country. Garaba, Kozma, Bodonyi, Dajka, Menyhart, Poczik… not a bad bunch, but somewhat unfinished, not the prime stars. Much more perspective squad, compared to Ujpesti Dosza, but not great one. It all depended on further development – Honved returned to the top of Hungarian football, but really strong years were yet to come.