First Division was divided into one outsider, 9 equal teams, generally fighting to eascape relegation, two stand-alone teams, and three competing for the title.
Békéscsaba gave up early and apart from their nice and unusual kit, there was nothing to be sorry for them: they finished 16th with 17 points.
Debreceni MVSC, or DVSC, as the team appears more often in statistics, lost the battle between 9 clubs – they finished with 25 points, as two other teams, but they ended relegated on worse goal-difference.
Pécsi MSC took the 14th place, safe for one more first division year.
Videoton had strange weak season, also finishing with 25 points – but positive goal-difference. By now , they were considered one of the stronger teams in the league and in fact had their best squad, the one which made waves in Europe just a few years later, so it was unexpected flop.
MTK-VM was 12th with 26 points, the worst of the Budapest clubs, but once-upon-a-time mighty club was struggling for quite some time, so nothing new.
Zalaegerszegi TE, a mouthful of a name, usually abreviated to simple ZTE, took the 11th place also with 26 points – their usual lowly position.
Nyiregyhaza VSSC was likely pleased with their final standing – 10th place was almost significant achievement. They just a point above relegation zone and ended in midtable thanks to better goal-difference, but it was fine.
Diosgyory VTK – 9th with 27 points. Their usual.
Haladas VSE – 8th with 28 points. Like Diosgyor – escaping relegation was just fine, ending above 10th place – a bonus.
Vasas was 7th, but their position was a bit misleading: on the surface, the club appeared to be where it usually was – in the upper half of the table. But they no longer had a team similar to the one of the 1970s and it was relegation, not medals, the real concern this year. Three points above the 15th-placed and ahead of Haladas only on goal-difference.
With 29 points, Tatabanya – or Tatabanya Banyasz SC – topped the group of equal clubs. 6th place was great, even if achieved more by good luck than by actual strong performance. It was amazing that Kiprich, already among the top stars of the country, did not move to bigger and stronger club.
Ujpesti Dozsa – 5th with 32 points. Weak season, but not unexpected one – rebuilding was not going well so far, so there were no chances for another title. Yet, they were stronger than most of the league members and their only concern was building a new team – which surely was not going to be based on the star Torocsik: it was certain he will go to play abroad soon.
Csepel enjoyed a strong spell – their last, in fact. Having a few strong, although hardly first rate stars, kept them going. Good selection, well balanced squad, but not a title contender. 37 points was much more than the rest of the league, including Ujpesti Dozsa, was capable of – it was also far less than what the best three clubs were able of. So, comfortable 4th place – great for a club traditionally the weakest among the big Budapest representatives.
And lastly the strongest – they finished divided by 2 points, so the battle for the title was fierce.
Honved, the most defense-minded of the leaders, finished 3rd with 42 points. Perhaps they should have been more daring.
Ferencvaros finished 2nd with 43 points. They had the leakiest defense of the top trio – in fact, 6 teams had better defensive record than them this season. If Honved dared to attack more, Ferencvaros needed the opposite to win the title. May be so, but the final table is final and they were 2nd. And Tibor Nyilasi was surely going to play abroad – a bad news for the future.
Raba ETO (gyor) prevailed with 44 points and triumphed as the Hungarian new champions. 19 wins, 6 ties, and 5 losses – just a tiny bit better record than their rivals’. Second-best difense in the league – 37 goals allowed, only Honved managed less. Best attack and by far – 82 goals scored; Ferencvaros was distant second with 73. So – joy and happiness.
May be not the most outstanding squad, but well balanced and having a few national team players. May be taking some advantage from the relative shakiness of the traditional leading clubs, but who can blame them? They won a tough race, also sygnifying the end of the dominance of the Budapest clubs – in the 1980s provincial teams became powerful enough to fight the capital. It was second consecutive title, won with more difficulty than the the one in 1981-82, but confirming than Raba ETO was not one-time wonder. A total of 3 titles to date.