Football Journey

 

No big club reached the Cup final. The finalists were curious pair: the penalized for bribery and fielding illegal player teams, Iraklis (Thesaloniki) and AGS Kastoria (Kastoria). If Iraklis, thanks to fixing matches, was solid mid-table club, Kastoria was lowly, fighting to survive in the league. On paper, Iraklis was favourite – they had arguably the greatest star in the country, Hadzipanagis, plus a Polish import, Wawrowski. Kastoria had no famous player at all and entirely Greek squad. Yet, they destroyed Iraklis – 5-2! It did not possible at first – Iraklis scored opening goal from a penalty early in the final. Kastoria managed to equalize near the end of the first half and the second half was entirely theirs. For a second consecuitve year the Cup went to small club – Panionios won it in 1979 and now – Kastoria.

The ‘Gounarades’ (Fur-traders) were small fry by any standard: they were born in 1963 from a merger of three local clubs: Aris, Atromitos, and Orestias. The new club was not much stronger than the former clubs, but eventually gathered some strenght and won promotion to first division in 1973-74. They did not take the league by storm, though – yet, this period is the best in the history of the club: they played in first division from 1974 to 1983. After that they managed just a single season among the best – 1996-97. Winning the Cup was their crown achievement – and their only trophy.

Naturally, the boys were happy and

the fans even more so. This was a great day for small Kastoria. The greatest day!

The Cup winners were nothing much so far – the victory made them famous instantly, but also it was ominous. A small club had no chance of keeping good players… The big clubs immediately took the strongest – Simeoforidis, Papavasiliou, Dintsikos, and Sarganis. The captain of the team, Giorgios Paraschos, was called to the national team, but did not establish himself there – he played only 4 times for Greece. The only real star emerging from the Cup winners was their goalkeeper Nikos Sarganis: he was bought by Olympiakos right after the Cup victory and debuted for the national team. Later he played for Panathinaikos too and between 1980 and 1991 played 58 matches for Greece. During his career he scored 6 goals – in the days when goalkeeper very rarely scored goals. Well, good for the players, but not so for Kastoria, which after the great victory only saw the best players leaving one after another. But a great victory is great victory – the best moment in the history of Kastoria remains in memory.

The 1970s were a decade of steady ascent of Greek football, culminating with Greece playing at 1980 European Championship finals. But there was dark side to Greek football, making it an enigma. Success and scandal went hand in hand, as if there was no way to better the game without illegal means. 1979-80 was no exception: the Federation announced that Greek football was to be professional , starting with the next championship. This decision immediately triggered a strike of the players. There were some bugging questions and unsolved to this very day problems, but the most immediate result was penalties. The decision of the Federation concerned only first division – the players of the second division felt unfairly treated and went on strike. Since the championship was nearing its end, the Federation decided to award wins to these clubs which fielded players in the last games. In case of both teams not showing up, the no-show game had no winner and nobody got points. Fair and simple? No… A glance of the final tables of the 2 groups of Second Division shows that only 1 of the 40 participating clubs finished without deducted points! 39 clubs had points deducted, ranging from 1 (Atromitos) to 11 (Levadiakos). Perhaps nowhere in the world there was ever been such a dirty championship. The sole exception, therefore, deserves mentioning:

A.O. Vizas Megaron. They finished 2nd in the Southern Group of Second Division, unfortunately far behind the winners, so… fairplay did not pay out. The winners had 2 games in which they did not get points for failing to show up, plus 1 point deducted – and were promoted.

Well, that is almost all what is clear. The RSSSF website provides something like explaination: because of the strike, ‘the last four days of the championship were not played. Not all teams went on strike, and these won their matches 2-0.’ This explaination does not match deductions and awarded games: 4 days in practical terms means just one round. Yet, some teams are shown with more than one awarded game. May be what is meant is ‘the last four rounds’? This doesn’t tally either. Nothing is said about deductions – if we consider that actually teams were penalized with deuctions for not showing up, 4 rounds barely make sense – yet, short of justifying deductions of more than 8 points. Most likely teams were penalized for other infringements, which paints very unpleasant picture: 39 of 40 clubs were found guilty! Corruption of so vast scale is scarry even to think about it, immediately suggesting that it was not peculiar only to second division – at the end, the big clubs were untouchable… And because of that, the small fry was not really punished either – there had to be 2 promotions and with only one clean club in the Second Division… promotions went to the unclean. But this is not all.

The strike itself triggers the question what was the status of Greek players until 1980? Amateurs? Impossible, because of the massive presence of foreign players: in the 1979-80 season Olympiakos had 8 foreigners! When foreigners were allowed to play in Greece is ever-lasting mystery – there were foreigners since the late 1950s, but officially even in the 1970s foreigners were not allowed… and fake documents were made to them, often changing the original names to Greek ones. But not every name was changed… ‘Oriundi’ rule had been applied for a long time: foreign players of Greek descent were considered domestic. This perhaps applied to Cypriots as well. Inventing ‘Greek roots’ helped bending the general rule of using foreign players in the 1970s: 2 per game. A glance at line-ups shows that on paper Greek clubs followed this rule (international games were different matter – UEFA had no rules about foreigners, so in the European torunaments not only the Greeks often used more foreigners than allowed by the domestic leagues). Many foreign players were fielded as Greeks – and this explains why Olympiakos had such a big number – but the mess was tremendous. Who was domestic and why? The German born Maik Galakos was listed as Greek in the Olympiakos squad – yet, when he played in West Germany, he was listed as German! At the same time Panathinaikos listed Helmut Kirisitz – seemingly, of Greek descent – as Austrian import. Yet, Panathinaikos also had a certain player named Niko Kovi, listed under Turkish nationality – not the first Turkish-born Greek, who came to Greece – and as a rule of thumb, getting Greek citizenship according to etnicity, the very reason for emigration. But Olympiakos topped that: Christos Kaltsas, born 1956, is given as Romanian. Yes, he was born in Romania – but he did not play in Romania at all: his first club is a Greek one, and he joined it in 1973! From the dates, it is quite clear that he came to Greece as teenager, most likely his parents decided to return to their homeland. So, how was he a foreign player? Meantime some genuine foreigners took Greek citizenship (and some settled in Greece for the rest of their lives!) – naturalization is hardly ever shown in statistics: such players are listed as foreigners. Case in point: the Uruguayan born Julio Losada of Olympiakos. Contrary to his case is the one of Vassilis Hatzipanagis, biographically listed with dual citizenship – Greek and Soviet – but statistically given as domestic Greek player. The mess has one practical application, though: the foreigners were not amateurs. And if they were not, Greek stars were not either – Hatzipanagis always speaks about his restrictive contract with Iraklis, preventing him of playing for bigger clubs, including Arsenal (London). And get this: Iraklis was relegated at the end of 1979-80 season to the remaining non-professional Second Division! What was he in the next season? If amateur, what stopped him from moving to bigger club? All boils down to constant infringement and violation of rules and massive corruption, which was a public knowledge and the general attitude was to pretend not seeing it. So the championship ended with finals tables ‘normalizing’ the situation.

Atromitos (Athens) won the Southern Group and was promoted to First Division. They got no points for 2 matches, apparently striking players did not show up, and 1 point deducted for something else. With such record, they finished 6 points ahead of clean Vizas (Megaron).

Panserraikos (Serres) won the Northern Group – they also failedto show up at 2 games and got no points and had 2 points deducted for who knows what. No worries… they still finished 8 points ahead of Niki Volou and moved up to top flight.

 

The battle between new and old was not decisive. Malmo FF reached the Cup final, which turned out to be a challenge between the ‘losers’ of the championship – IK Brage was the other finalist. Attendance was low, so fans just missed the fun: the final ended 3-3 and went to penalty shoot-out. In it Malmo FF won 4-3.

Unfortunately for IK Brage, they were just a tiny bit bellow the other strong clubs this year. Fortunately for Malmo, the team was still strong enough and transition perhaps was going to end well – the season was not lost at all, they still won a trophy.

Winning the cup was perhaps vastly important for Malmo, because the moment was crucial: this was no longer the old great team. Their already legendary coach Bob Houghton returned to England. Gone were stars of the 1970s – Bo Larsson, Staffan Tapper, Jan Moller. As most often happens with strong teams, the sign of coming decline is when the least significant members of the old great squad becomes the defining star of the moment – Ingemar Erlandsson here. The newcomers were a bit alarming: another English coach was hired to replace Houghton. But when Houghton arrived, he was at least young and promissing coach – with his development the team developed. Keith Blunt was not young and so far not successful – he came from Sutton United, a club not even a member of the professional leagues. His arrival suggested stagnation, not development. He also brought two English players with him: Tim Parkin, b. 1957, formerly of Blackburn Rovers, and Paul McKinnon, b. 1958, who played for Blunt in Sutton United. Young players, but… when unknown players from low leagues are imported, that means trouble: Malmo apparently had no strong players left and the general quality was so low, that unknown imports were the only solution. So it looked like… and may be so it was, and the club needed to jump over difficult hurdle – if winning something this year, they had a good chance of avoiding crisis. If not – it was going down all the way. It is familiar story. Malmo FF won the Cup. They also had rapidly rising new star – Robert Prytz.

 

 

Sweden went through a minor decline at the end of the 1970s. It was mot visible at the 1978 World Cup – at club level it was different: Malmo FF achieved the biggset success ever of a Swedish club at the same time. The problem was peculiar and unlike any other country: since Swedish clubs were never relly strong, they were pretty much the same. The crisis was visible in the national team and international transfers: the great players of the first half of the 1970s aged, but there were no new stars coming. Transitional period of changing generations. 1980 was perhaps the turning point – the next generation was taking charge, but it was till too young to make really strong impression. Tiny signs defined the moment: Malmo FF changed their coach and employed foreign players, as if stating that locals were not good enough. And the team stpped back a bit, becoming a second fiddle. In the same time IFK Goteborg was rising, but was not dominant force yet. On the surface, Swedish football looked the same, though – like Denmark, ups and downs were common, for there were no big clubs dominating the scene. Perhaps IFK Sundsvall captures Swedish football best:

Domestic squad, not a single recognizable name, thus similar to almost any other Swedish team. They finished 7th in 1980 – right in the middle of the table, with 26 points of 26 matches. It would have been possible to finish higher, it would have been possible to finish lower – depending to the momentary form not only of the squad, but also depending on the form of the other clubs. Anonymous team. But not so bad compared to some more familiar names…

Second Division winners were at least well known names:

Örgryte IS (Goteborg), the oldest club in the country, and

AIK (Stockholm). A testimony for the strength of the Swedish clubs – ‘big’ names struggled in Second division when little known clubs played relatively well in top flight. But these two managed to go up rather quickly.

There was little drama at the bottom of First Division – two teams were obviously bellow the class of the league.

Mjällby AIF were last with 11 points.

Landskrona BoIS ended with 6 points more than poor Mjällby AIF, but they also had 4 points less than the nearest teams above them. 13th place was there and that was the second relegation spot. At 12th place finished Djurgardens IF and 11th – Atvidabergs FF. Gone were the years when these two clubs were among the best. If Djurgardens IF was moving up and down, as most Swedish clubs did depending on momentary form, Atvidabergs FF was just fading away, going further and further down, and permanently.

At the end, what really mattered was the top of the league. Four clubs were clearly better than the rest and contested the title.

IF Brage finsihed 4th with 33 points. Strong season for one of the traditionally lesser clubs For some reason the magazine which published their picture credited Brage with bronze medals, but even without them it was great season for the boys. Brage rarely finished that high and earned a spot in the UEFA Cup.

IFK Goteborg finished 3rd. The club had rather mediocre decade, but now were going up. Few young promising players were in the squad – the next generation of great Swedish players: Glenn Hysen, Dan Corneliusson, Olle Nordin, Tord Holmgren. Still too young for success, but talented enough to move Goteborg up the ladder. Similarly young was their coach – Sven-Goran Eriksson. This was the team for the future, going up, but not yet at its peak.

Malmo FF finished 2nd with 35 points – one more than IFK Goteborg. To a point, this was the club going down. The best team of the 1970s was unable to win the title. It was not real decline, but inevitable changing of generations. It looked like Malmo was staying among the best just on inertia and there was the big risk of sinking unless a new team was build quick enough.

With Malmo over the hill and Goteborg not at its peak yet, another club took advantage.

Östers IF won the championship in 1978, which was more or less a surprize, but they were best in 1980 too. Not supreme, but just a bit better than their opponents. They lost only 2 games this season and finished with 37 points – 2 more than Malmo FF, 4 more than Brage. As is often the case of not so great champions, they depended on defense – the best in the league – which helped squirrel point here, point there, and at the end – more than anybody else. But the champions also had few of the next generation stars: Tomas Ravelli, Peter Stromberg, Andreas Ravelli, Hakan Arvidson. Two foreigners aleso helped: the Finnish national team player Peter Utriainen and one of solid Icelandic players, who impressed Europe in the 1980s – Teitur Thordarson (who eventually became well respected coach in the early 21st century). Their young coach Bosse Johansson was instrumental and rising – with time, he was to coach the national teams of Iceland and Denmark. May be not a great team at big scale, but these years were perhaps the strongest period in the history of the club – second title in three years, and not the last one either.

 

 

The Cup final opposed teams from the lower half of first division – Hvidovre IF (11th) and Lyngby BK (12th). Theoretically, Lyngby BK had the edge, for the final was played at their home town and they were higher scorers, but reality was different. In front of high for Denmark attendance of 23 500, Hvidovre destroyed the hosts 5-3. The crowd was obviously disappointed, but at least was well entertained.

Lyngby was typical Danish squad, but they had one eventually famous player – Klaus Bergreen. Well, he was not yet known name and not enough for victory. Hvidovre had no current or future star in its squad, but it did not matter.

It was glorious day for the boys in red – they won the very first Cup for Hvidovre. History is made of such days – and this day grew even larger in time, for Hvidovre so far did not win a second Cup. In a way, it is understandable why: a club sponsored by entity called ‘Yankie Bar’ can hardly have the funds for building and maintaining strong team. The case of Danish football in a nutshell. But it was excellent victory for the club and its fans.

As a last note on this season: Denmark became one of the most exciting European teams a few years later and perhaps there were some signs of coming greatness in 1980? None of it… Not in any squad, not even individual players. Apart from the goalkeepers – the weaker post in the future great squad – who never became memorable, let alone famous, the only future star playing at home in 1980 was the full back John Sivebaek (Vejle). Those, who became world famous were already playing abroad.

 

Denmark was fully professional by 1980, but still the top players were looking to play for foreign clubs. Nothing really changed – talent was not concentrated into 2-3 clubs, but dispersed around the league. There were no more fantastic sponsor deals, so there were no longer teams showing different add on each player’s shirt, but there was obviously no way a big sponsor to elevate a Danish club to the best European ones – it was rather money helping clubs to survive. But the championship was dramatic this year.

Down in Second Division,

Viborg FF,

B 1901 (Nykøbing Falster), and

Herfølge BK were best and won promotions. Since ups and downs were traditionally a mark of Danish football, it is pointless to evaluate what future contribution to top flight the newcomers may have had.

First Division was point in case: at the bottom were two clear outsiders.

AaB (Aalberg) were last with 6 points.

BK Frem ended 15th with 12 points – one may expect Frem to be among the title contenders, but in Denmark no club was favourite for long and relegation was often in the cards too. Miserable season for Frem – they were tremendously weak. The 14th in the final standings and the 3rd relegated club had more than twice Frem’s points – 26.

Fremad Amager were a likely candidate for relegation, but they fought to the end and were perhaps a bit unlucky – they lost a battle for survival between three clubs. Lyngby BK and Kastrup Boldklub finished with 27 points and Fremad Amager went down with 26. So much for the bottom of the league.

The drama at the top was much more interesting. There were no favourites head and shoulders above most in the league, but gradually three clubs took slight advantage and preserved it to the end. Eventually, one of the three leaders dropped out:

OB Odense finished 3rd with 38 points – two more than the 4th placed and two less than the top teams. Which finished with equal points – 40 each – and goal-difference decided the championship.

Næstved If, not a club usually found at the top, had excellent season and almost won the title. Almost… To lose on goal-difference is really tough and unfortunate. The team also enoyed most victories this season – 18. The champions had only 16. Still, the team had to either score more or to be less adventurous – apparently, they played for all or nothing, and nothing they got in 8 matches they lost. If they tried to keep a tie for a change… bit they did not.

At the end – lucky champions KB.

Kjøbenhavns Boldklub – ancient, successful, representing the capital city: usually, such clubs were big fish in their own country, but not in Denmark.

The champions had a single recognizable name: the national team goalkeeper Ole Quist and ‘recognizable’ is all to be said about him. KB clearly were not ‘a big fish’… but they won their record 15th title! As it happens, their very last success. Ever! The club is not existing since 1991, when they merged with B 1903 into FC Copenhagen. The last triumph was tricky and just lucky.

The misery of Istanbul continued in the Cup tournament – Galatasaray reached the final and it looked like they will save face. Their opposition was not much – Altay. But the old rivalry between Izmir and Istanbul was stronger than momentary form. Altay won the first leg 1-0. The result favoured Galatasaray… but Altay managed 1-1 tie in the second match and the Cup went to Izmir. Disastrous season for Galatasaray.

Great victory for the old club, no doubt. Football in Izmir is old, yet, success was rare – the rivalry with Istanbul was not in their favour at all. And worse – the clubs declined during the 1970s and lost their historic significance to Trabzon and Ankara. They were not even ‘also run’ mid-table clubs anymore, but fighting to escape relegation. Altay barely survived this season. Which enjoyed, because their local enemies Goztepe did not. It was even better to end the season with a trophy, when poor Goztepe went down. It was great to beat Galatasaray and come on top of Istanbul. It was a rare success too – so far, Altay won a single trophy: the Turkish Cup in 1966-67. A second trophy was fantastic. It is also their last so far…

 

So much for the second division winners. The First Division was the real thing anyway. Most of the league was fairly equal this season, which boiled down to concerns not of winning, but about surviving: 8 points divided silver medalists from the relegated 14th placed team. Some unlikely clubs had to fret to the end… Diyarbakirspor were the seasonal outsiders, finishing last. Above them were the unlucky newcomers Kayserispor. They fought as much as they were able to, but evidently they had weak squad – Kayserispor was the lowest scoring team this year, which placed them 15th at the end with 25 points. Above them bitter fight for survival lasted to the end:

Orduspor finished 7th with 30 points – seemingly safe, when one looks at the final table.

Demirspor (Adana) – or Adanademirspor, depending of correct or incorrect writing of the name – was 8th with 29 points. Talking stable mid-table teams? Not really: 4 clubs finished with 29 points. Two with 28. Half of the league was largely trying to escape relegation… and in this group were two clubs usually competing for the title. Besiktas finished 11th.

Galatasaray was 9th. Both mighty clubs finished with 29 points, perhaps having their worst season in history. But they at least survived. Two other old and highly respected clubs were also down, but unlike the giants from Istanbul, the clubs of Izmir were declining during the 1970s. Altay survived – they ended at 12th place with 28 points. Goztepe were not so lucky – they earned 27 points and finished 14th. Two points divided Galatasaray from Goztepe – well, Izmir was pretty much equal to Istanbul. Except that Besiktas and Galatasaray remained in first division, but Goztepe was going down to second division.

Pretty equal league up to the top. Small differences and may be luck decided failure and success.

Zonguldakspor certainly had fantastic success: they finished 3rd. Not only strong season, but the best ever for club of the coal mining town (the original name of the club was exactly that: Kömürspor. ‘Kömür’ is coal, hence, the nickname ‘Kara Elmas’ – Black Diamond). Great success for a modest club, but… thanks to the weakness of the other clubs, especially the big ones. And thanks to luck – Zonguldakspor finished with 33 points. Bursaspor had the same, but worse goal-difference.

Two points better than the miners were Fenerbahce.

Silver is not what Fenerbahce cares about, but at least they finished high and compared to their archenemies Galatasaray and Besiktas, had a strong season. On the other hand, it was not a strong season at all – the team was not really above the rest of the league and, even worse, they were not contenders – they were not unlucky losers of a race for the title, but rather more consistent than the bulk of the league. Confidently above them were Trabzonspor. Nothing surprising about them by the end of the 1970s.

Standing from left: Necati, Hüsnü, Şenol, İskender, Cengiz, Güngör

First row: Mustafa, Yaşar, Selahattin, Tuncay, Turgay.

Their 4th title, a consecutive too. Trabzonspor were the strongest Turkish club since 1975. They had no real opposition this season, finishing 4 points ahead of Fenerbahce. They were also very pragmatic team – clearly depending on defense. Trabzonspor lost only 3 matches, but tied half of their championship games – 15. Iron defense, allowing just 11 goals – the next best defense permitted 19 – but that was their only strategy. The team was not concerned with scoring and entertaining, but with collecting points. Minimal victories and ties was enough to stay… above every other club. They scored 25 goals in 30 matches! And with such record they remained unchalanged the whole season. No matter what, they were the 4th big Turkish club by now and the only not from Istanbul.

Turkey had a peculiar 1979-80. No doubt, Turkish football improved during the 1970s and became stronger opponent to the best in Europe, but by the end of the decade it reached the problem of the Italian and the Soviet football – very low scoring and abundance of tied matches. This season was perhaps the worst: only 4 of the 16 first division teams finished with less than 10 ties. Three clubs, the champions among them, managed to end in a tie 50% of their matches – 15. In the same time scoring was pitiful – only 2 clubs scored more than 30 goals during the season. The most scored Rizespor, but even this was very low record: 37 goals in 30 matches. The next high scoring team practically averaged a goal per game: Fenerbahce scored 31 goals total. The champions were happy with 25… May be the teams were relatively equal. May be the dominant concept was play safe and get the point. The most open team were Rizespor and no wonder they had the fewest number of ties – 4, scored the most goals in the league, and won the most matches -14. They also lost 12 – the second worst record in the league.. and the same goes for their defensive record: they allowed 34 goals. Only the last in the league received more then them. Pinching points and keeping back in their own half were evidently the tactics in almost the whole league. Not a pleasant picture.

But the season ended and with the end – the ups and downs, the joys and disasters. Promoted from second level were:

Boluspor

Mersin, and

Kocaelispor (Izmit).

A historic moment for this squad: Kocaelispor were not only the youngest club among the winners of second division, but they never played top flight football. This year was their best in their short history – of course, speaking of the history of the club under this name, because in 1966 three older clubs merged into one. To a point, the birth of Kocaelispor happened because of regulations – originally, Bacspor had the ambition to be strong professional club, but they lacked proper facilities and did not have three teams (youth system, presumably) required by the rules. The merger accomplished that and the new club finally climbed up. The winning squad is anonymous here, but no doubt the boys carved their names for posterity at home.