Second Division or Serie B.
Top 4 teams promoted to Serie A and the last 4 teams relegated to Serie C1. Head-to-head results used as tie-breaker if three or more teams had same points: this rule determined one of the relegated teams.
Catanzaro – last with 25 points and going down. They shared number one place in tied games with Pisa: 19 ties each. Exactly half the games played during the season.
Como – 19th with 27 points and relegated. They made their own record – few Second Division teams used foreign players and no foreigner played bellow second level, so Como was perhaps the first team with foreigner to go down to Third Division. Yet, it was not certain at all that Brazilian Milton will actually play for Como next season – most likely he would be transferred between seasons.
Licata – 18th with 28 points and out.
Monza – 17th with 34 points. Relegated as victims of the head-to-head rule: 4 teams ended with 34 points and if goal-difference decided Monza would have been 14th.
Messina – 16th with 34 points. If goal-difference decided, they were going down, but head-to-head rule saved them at the expense of Monza.
Barletta – 15th with 34 points.
Cosenza – 14th with 34 points.
Triestina – 13th with 35 points.
Avellino – 12th with 35 points.
Padova – 11th with 37 points.
Brescia – 10th with 37 points.
Pescara – 9th with 39 points. So far, the second team with a foreigner, but Queiroz Tita played little.
Foggia – 8th with 39 points.
Reggiana – 7th with 40 points.
Reggina – 6th with 42 points.
Ancona – 5th with 43 points.
Parma – 4th with 46 points. Promoted, which was enormous success for the club. If they played top league football before, it was so long ago nobody remembered. Parma was a fresh change – for years former First Division teams usually got promoted not long after relegation. Club and squad were yet unknown and confusion have to be avoided here: on the picture is not the well-known Yugoslav Safet Susic, but an Italian Massimo Susic.
And here is the full squad of Parma – their surprising success deserves a second picture.
Cagliari – 3rd with 47 points and promoted back to top flight.
Pisa – 2nd with 51 points and sharing first place in ties with relegated Catanzaro – 19 games out of 38 total. They were also the team with least losses – only 3. Pisa meandered between First and Division during the whole decade, now were going up again and hoping to stay with the best longer than a 1-2 seasons.
Torino won the championship with 53 points from 19 wins, 15 ties, 4 losses, and 63-24 goal-difference. As a team recently relegated from First Division, Torino had the most famous squad in the league and thus expected to be end among the best, if not first. They were the only Second Division team with 2 foreign players – the Yugoslav national team player Haris Skoro was well known, but Brazilian winger Luis Muller was world-class star, who went to play his second World Cup shortly after winning Second Division with Torino. The 1980s were difficult and troublesome decade for Torino, eventually plummeting them to second level, a real shame, but now there was hope the terrible times were over and perhaps the 1990s will restore the faded glory… well, hopes for the future.
For the moment, Torino was Second Division champion and returning to First Division.
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