Belgium. Ranked 7th. Five teams much stronger then the rest, but only 3 of them really fighting for the title. One hopeless outsider, 6 teams trying to avoid relegation.
Second Division. 16-team league, the champion directly promoted and the next four going to promotion play-off for one spot.
Beringen FC – absolute outsider: last with 15 points.
K. Waterschei Thor SV (Genk) – 15th with 26 points.
FC Assent – 14th with 27 points.
K. Boom FC – 13th with 27 points.
FC Seraing – or RFC Seresien – 12th with 27 points.
KFC Lommel – or KFC Lommelse – 11th with 27 points.
KSC Hasselt – or Sporting Hasselt – 10th with 28 points.
FC Verbroedering Geel – 9th with 28 points.
K. Berchem Sport – 8th with 31 points.
FC Eeklo – 7th with 31 points.
KSK Tongeren – 6th with 33 points. Missed promotion play-off on worse goal-difference.
K. Lierse SK – 5th with 33 points. Going to promotion play-off on better goal-difference.
RC Harelbeke – 4th with 34 points and going to promotion play-offs.
K. Patro Eisden – 3rd with 34 points and going to promotion play-offs.
KSK Eendracht Aalst – 2nd with 38 points and going to promotion play-offs.
KRC Mechelen – or Racing Mechelen – was champion of II Division: 17 wins, 6 ties, 7 losses, 67-37 and 41 points. That was truly Mechelen’s season – the better known club conquering Europe and their local rivals winning Second Division and promoted up. Mechelen was going to have First Division derby next season.
Promotion play-offs: 4 teams fighting for one place. After playing twice against each other, everything was settled at last.
RC Harelbeke – last with 2 points.
K. Patro Eisden – 3rd with 4 points.
KSC Eendracht Aalst – 2nd with 9 points. They did not a single goal in their net, but at the end goal-difference kept them in Second Division: they finished 3-0.
K. Lierse SV – or K. Lierse SK – also finished with 9 points. Compared to Eendracht’s, their defense was leaky – 4 goals – but the compensation was their attack: they scored 14 goals and that was far, far better than the record of the competition. Lierse SK won the promotion tournament and joined KRC Mechelen in the top league. That was also a great fit of the underdog – or smart planning: in the regular season they ended 5th, the lowest place team going to promotion play-offs and that only thanks to better goal-difference. Which was after all the reason for their final success too.
Admirable brave effort by Vitoria Guimaraes, but class prevailed. Too bad the underdog did not win, but that was the reality: after all, Vitoria desperately tried to escape relegation and barely succeeded in that, when FC Porto dominated not just the Portuguese championship, but was one of the best European teams at the time. True, Vitoria had good coach – Jose Alberto Torres – and plenty of Brazilian and African players, but they were not first-rate stars. Lost the final minimally, but were going to play in the Cup Winners Cup, so there was some reward for their efforts.
This is not the Cup-winning team – just a photo of FC Porto with their reserve kit for variety sake. Standing from left: Jozef Mlynarczyk, Geraldao, Celso, Fernando Bandeirinha, Jorge Placido, Augusto Inacio.
One more time – the double heroes.
Sporting Covilha was the season’s outsider – last with 21 points.
Salgueiros was quite stronger than Covilha, but still an outsider – 19th with 25 points.
Rio Ave – at the bottom of those pretty much equal teams fighting desperately to avoid relegation. Rio Ave was among the losers of the race: 18th with 28 points.
Varzim also lost – 17th with 30 points.
Academica Coimbra – 16th with 33 points. Three teams ended with 33 points and Academica had the worst goal-difference among them.
Elvas – or O Elvas – was the last unfortunate: 15th with 33 points. Goal-difference sealed their sorry fate: a matter of 2 goals. That was the group of relegated teams – the biggest number of teams relegated from European top league.
Vitoria Guimaraes had a weird season – both weak and successful, both lucky and unlucky. They barely escaped relegation this season – 14th with 33 points and only goal-difference saved the: they finished with -2, compared to Elvas -5 and Academica Coimbra -10. What a relieve at the end.
Portimonense also managed to escape relegation, but by a point – 13th with 34 points.
Farense was lucky too: 12th with 34 points.
Sporting Braga – 11th at the end, but they finished also with 34 points and only better goal-difference placed them at the top of those fighting only for survival this season. Standing from left: Vitor Duarte,Vinicius,Gersinho,Hélder,Toni.Moroni
Penafiel – 10th with 38 points.
Maritimo Funchal – 9th with 39 points.
Vitoria Setubal – 8th with 40 points. Note the fashion borrowed from baseball: black grease lines under the eyes – to make opponents see true intentions. Was anybody fooled?
GD Chaves – 7th with 40 points. Perhaps the strongest period of the modest club, made possible by the Bulgarian invasion in Portuguese football – Portugal imported many Bulgarians at that time, which were cheap enough and affordable even to clubs with modest means. Chaves had 2 Bulgarian stars – Radoslav Zdravkov and Georgi Slavkov, both former CSKA Sofia and Bulgarian national team players. Slavkov also won the Golden Shoe, but he failed to satisfy French St. Etienne and moved to Chaves. Helped as much as he could, but it was Zdravkov who contributed most – including scoring a lot, which was not his forte. Yet, the real reason for success was the coaching stuff – learned academicians, a bit of a rarity in the European football world.
Espinho – 6th with 40 points. Bested Chaves on better goal-difference.
Boavista – 5th with 46 points. No matter how good were the smaller clubs, the best 5 were too strong to permit closing the gap – Boavista finished 6 points clear of Espinho and Chaves.
Sporting Lisbon – 4th with 47 points. Fought for medals and lost.
Belenenses – 3rd with 48 points. Were they coming back? At least the fans hoped so.
Benfica – 2nd with 51 points. Not a title contender at all and only succeeding to come ahead of Belenenses, Sporting and Boavista. Perhaps they concentrated only on the European Champions Cup -where came second too, so overall a disappointing season. Standing from left: Carlos Pereira, Carlos Mozer, Dito, Mats Magnusson, Silvino, Alvaro.
FC Porto ruled unrivaled – they were so strong this season, it was practically impossible to beat them. Only 1 match they lost! 29 wins and 8 ties, 88-15 goal-difference. 66 points. Best in everything: 10 wins more than Benfica’s. Best scorers by far – the 2nd best, Sporting Lisbon, scored only 62 goals. Best defensive record also by far: Benfica and Boavista allowed 25 goals in their nets. 15 points ahead of Benfica – fantastic lead, considering that Benfica came close to winning the European Champions Cup! FC Porto was splendid this season.
Braganca – 10th with 39 points.
Famalicao ended 1st with 53 points, but winning on better goal-difference. It was short-lived victory – the club was found guilty of corruption and expelled to Third Division. Still, they remained group champions of this season.
Leixoes finished 2nd with 53 points and was promoted to top flight.
Fafe lost the championship battle – 3rd with 53 points. But the expulsion of Famalicao made them happy – they were promoted to First Division instead of Famalicao.
UR Mirense was one of the unfortunate – 17th with 32 points and relegated.
Beira Mar finished 2nd with 53 points and promoted.
Academico Viseu won the group with 55 points and also promoted.
Santa Clara – last with 23 points and out.
Samora Correia – 18th with 27 points and relegated.
No luck for Lusitania – 16th with 31 points and relegated.
Silves – 10th with 38 points.
Uniao Madeira – 6th with 42 points.
Barreirense – 5th with 44 points.
Estoril ended 4th with 47 points.
Nacional Madeira lost the championship by a single point, but they were solid 2nd with 55 points and were promoted.
Estrela Amadora prevailed with 56 points, won the group championship and was promoted to First Division.
Dundee United was unable to spoil Celtic’s party. From 1980 on Dundee United reached cup finals 8 times and lost 7 times…
Celtic really celebrated their centenary season – with a double! Can’t beat that.
Unlucky Aberdeen. They were keeping their ground even without Ferguson, but winning was out of reach. At least for the moment.
Glasgow Rangers won the League Cup – now called Skol Cup after the sponsor – and ended the season with a trophy, but… this expensive squad should have been much more successful. Just a League Cup was not enough.
Greenock Morton – last with last with 16 points. Newcomers – absolute outsiders. Won only 3 games out of 44. Permitted a round 100 goals in their net.
Dunfermline Athletic – 11th with 26 points. Like Greenock Morton, just came up and was immediately relegated.
Falkirk – 10th with 31 points. Not enough bite too and relegated.
St. Mirren – 9th with 35 points.
Motherwell – 8th with 36 points.
Dundee – 7th with 41 points.
Hibernian – 6th with 43 points.
Dundee United – 5th with 47 points.
Aberdeen – 4th with 59 points.
Glasgow Rangers – only 3rd with 60 points.
Heart of Midlothian – 2nd with 62 points.
Celtic really celebrated their 100th birthday – with title won after superior season: 31 wins, 10 ties, only 3 lost games, 79-23 and 72 points. Rangers outscored them by 6 goals, but nobody came close to their incredible defensive record: almost half-a-goal-per-game average! The squad led by Roy Aitken was not as famous as the the team of their arch-enemies Rangers and that made the victory sweeter. Billy McNeill did excellent job at the helm.
Stranraer – a hopeless outsider even at this lowly level: last with 16 points. Berwick Rangers kept them company at the bottom, but ended above them on better goal-difference.
If both teams’ records were combined, they would have been a point ahead of the 12th , Albion Rovers, which finished with 31 points.
St. Johnstone finished 2nd with 59 points.
Ayr United won the league with 61 points from 27 wins, 7 ties and 5 losses. 95-31 – they scored most goals in all leagues this season.
Partick Thistle perhaps disappointed: they finished 8th with 41 points. Back Row: John MItchell, Hugh Lyden, Archie McLean, Colin McAdam, John Brough, Tommy Elliot, Ian Spittal.
Hamilton Academicals, freshly relegated from top flight, was determined to return to the best and succeeded: 22 wins, 11 ties, 10 losses, 67-39, 56 points. They managed to built a good 4-point advantage at the end, thus confirming reality, guiding the Scottish Federation to reducing the top league again – too many clubs too weak. Hamilton had hard times staying in the top division, yet, it was too strong for second level. But good luck to them in the next season.
Happy winners – the season was somewhat saved!
One can be sorry for Real Sociedad – largely because they had few trophies and would have been great to add one more. The squad was still good, Toshack was doing wonderful job with the team – but no luck. To a point, it was a matter of limited resources – compared to those of Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid. Real Sociedad depended largely on home grown talent and it was not endless well – frankly, Real Sociedad was unable to recruit more great players and pretty much depended on the same team for years now. And predatory big clubs were eyeing some of the stars.
Barcelona saved the season with a trophy and they the Kings of Cups – this was their 21st. But Cups were no championship titles… The project led by Venables was ambitious – perhaps over ambitious, because there were too many foreigners: Schuster, Lineker, Archibald, Hughes, Nayim – more than foreigners employed by Real Madird! But the rules prohibited playing all of them in the same match, so why having that many? No wonder there were tensions and underperformance. Cup or no Cup, the coach was to be blamed and fired. Who else? Not president Nunez…
Las Palmas – last and relegated with 29 points. Top row from left: Chano Lozano, Pedro Luis, Oscar, Almeida, Saavedra, René Hansen, Félix, Pepote, Manolo López.
Sabadell – 19th with 29 points and relegated.
Murcia – 17th with 31 points. Won the promotion/relegation play-off against Rayo Vallecano 3-0 and 0-0 and kept its place in Primera.
Real Betis – survived: 16th with 33 points.
Espanol – great European campaign, but at home… 15th with 33 points.
Hard times for Valencia – 14th with 33 points.
Logrones – 13th with 33 points.
Cadiz – 12th with 35 points.
Real Zaragoza – 11th with 36 points. Frank Rijkard spent some time with them – a clash with Cruijff was the motivation for leaving Ajax, although his real destination was Milan.
Sevilla – 10th with 37 points.
Sporting Gijon – 9th with 38 points.
Real Valladolid – 8th with 38 points.
Celta Vigo – 7th with 39 points.
Barcelona – 6th with 39 points. Terrible season – competing with Celta…
Wonderful season for Osasuna – 5th with 40 points. No European spot, but ahead of Barcelona!
Athletic Bilbao – 4th with 46 points. Too strong for those bellow, too weak for more than that.
Atletico Madrid – very good squad with Futre and Alemao, not to mention the Spanish stars, Menotti coaching, yet, only bronze – 3rd with 48 points.
Real Sociedad – 2nd with 51 points. Running strong, but not a title contender. Standing from left: Arconada,Górriz,Gajate,López Recarte,Larrañaga,Santiago Bakero. First row: Zúñiga,José Mari Bakero,Loren,Zamora,Beguiristain. Two players will achieve much more with Cruijff eventually.
Real Madird – with Leo Beenhakker at the helm, they were superior by far. Excellent squad, of course – and no need even mentioning the key stars: too many, but let say Hugo Sanchez and Butragueno were lethal. 28 wins, 6 ties, 4 losses, 95-26, 62 points. If there was some need, it was a better goalkeeper, but even without star keeper they were too strong for anybody. Aimed to beat their own records – 3rd consecutive title, opening hopes for more – perhaps beating the record of 5 titles in a row, achieved between 1961 and 1965, and may be restoring its old glory with another European Champion Cup? All that was hopes for bright future, but the present nurished such hopes.
Cartagena – last with 24 points. Relegated.
Granada – 19th with 27 points. Relegated.
Hercules (Alicante) – 18th with 29th points. Relegated.
Bilbao Athletic – the second team of Athletic Bilbao – 17th with 31 points. Relegated.
Deportivo La Coruna – 16th with 31 points. Survived on better head-to-head record against Bilbao Athletic.
Recreativo (Huelva) – 15th with 33 points.
Racing (Santander) – 14th with 33 points.
Real Burgos – 13th with 34 points.
CD Tenerife – 12th with 36 points.
CD Castellon – 11th with 37 points. Top row from left: González, López, Javi, Botubot, Casuco, Fontana, Emilio.
Sestao – 10th with 37 points.
Xerez CD – 9th with 41 points.
Barcelona Athletic – the second team of Barcelona – 8th with 41 points.
UE Figueres – 7th with 42 points.
UE Lleida – or Lerida – 6th with 42 points.
Rayo Vallecano – 5th with 45 points. Trying to climb back to Primera Division and, under normal circumstance, failing to do so on worse goal-difference. But they reached the promotion/relegation play-offs anyway – and lost to Murcia 0-3 and 1-1.
Real Oviedo – 4th with 45 points. Clinched play-off spot no matter the circumstances.
And won promotion after besting First Division Mallorca 2-1 and 0-0. Back to Primera next season.
Castilla CF – the second team of Real Madrid – 3rd with 48 points. They were illegible for promotion and thus did not go the promotion/relegation play-offs, which benefited Rayo Vallecano.
Elche CF – 2nd with 50 points and directly promoted to the top league. Standing from left: Sanchez, Robi, Cartagena, Javi, Miguel, Del Barrio.
CD Malaga – Second Division champions this season with 54 points from 22 wins, 10 ties, 6 losses, and 74-39 goal-difference. Strong season and, like Elche, once again they were going to play top-league football. To what result will be ssen next season – for the moment, it was great.