Football Journey

First Division. Two teams fought for the title, leaving the others far behind.
K. Berchem Sport finished last and was relegated.
RFC Seresien – or Seraing – ended 17th with 20 points and was relegated.
KAA Gent – or La Gantoise, or ARA Gantoise – survived. 16th with 23 points.
KV Kortrijk – 15th with 24 points.
Antwerp FC – or Royal Antwerpen – 14th with 26 points.
RWDM – or RWD Molenbeek – 13th with 28 points.
Racing Jet – 12th with 30 points.
Cercle Brugge – 11th with 30 points.
Standard – 10th with 31 points.
K Beerschot VAC – 9th with 33 points.
KSV Waregem – 8th with 34 points.
R Charleroi SC – 7th with 35 points.
RFC Liege – or FC Liegeois – 6th with 38 points.
KSK Beveren – 5th with 44 points.
KSK Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen – 4th with 44 points.
FC Brugge – or Club Brugge KV – 3rd with 45 points. Top row from left: Yves Audoor, Kurt Hinderyckx, Peter Creve, Alex Querter, Ronnie Rosenthal, Henk Houwaart jr.
Middle row: Eddy Warrinnier (kine), Luc Beyens, René Verheyen, Hugo Broos, Jan Ceulemans, Tew Mamadou, Kenneth Brylle, Raymond Mertens (assistent-coach).
Sitting: Franky Van der Elst, Birger Jensen, Stefan Vereycken, Henk Houwaart (coach), Marc Degryse, Philippe Vande Walle, Leo Van der Elst.
KV Mechelen – 2nd with 55 points. They, rather surprisingly, aimed at the title, but lost it by 2 points.
Anderlecht prevailed and collected one more title: 25 wins, 7 ties, 2 losses, 82-25 goal-difference, 57 points. Even under heavy pressure from KV Mechelen, they were still the best and most deserving team.

Belgium – ranked 4th by UEFA. Now, here ranking seems right: Belgian football enjoyed great period, having strong generation of players and strong clubs. For a small country, it was incredible. Spain had all the money and was behind modest Belgians – that speaks volumes.
II Division. Two teams battled for top position, which gave direct promotion.
St. Truiden VV won the championship with 45 points – 17 wins, 11 ties, 2 losses, 51-18 goal-difference.
KFC Winterslag trailed by a point and went to promotion play-offs with the next 3 teams in the final table.
KRC Harelbeke – or FC Harelbeke – 3rd with 39 points.
KSK Tongeren – 4th with 34 points, and FC Assent, 5th with 33 points.
At the promotion tournament FC Harelbeke curiously lost steam and ended last with 3 points. FC Assent was also weak – 3rd with 4 points and KSK Tongeren and KFC Wintereslag fought for the desired first place – Tongeren eventually lost and finished 2nd with 8 points.
Dramatic season for KFC Winterslag – lost direct promotion by a single point and won promotion play-offs by a point. It was well deserved victory, given their performance during the whole season.

The Cup final provided great drama. The finalists were well known names of the recent years, both having rathee weak season, but still ambitious. Atletico Madrid vs Real Socieadad. Real Sociedad scored quickly – Lopes Ufarte in the 5th minute, but Atletico came back just as quickly – equalizing in the 24th minute (Da Silva). Then Real Sociedad took the lead again – Txiki Begiristain scored in the 35th minute. Atletico managed to equalize in the 74th minute, thanks to Rubio. No more goals were scored and the final went all the way to penalty shoot-out. And only here Atletico gave up… Real Sociedad scored perfect 4 of 4, but Atletico missed twice and lost 2-4.
Atletico Madrid in a way confirmed its reputation for eternal losers… one can easily make a list of lost finals. Dramatically lost, but lost… second-best never counts.
Important victory for the boys from San Sebastian – they were still winners, not ready to fade away, still having solid squad full of stars and Toshack proved his great coaching abilities. It was difficult to fight against the odds – no matter what Real Sociedad tried, they were going to be robbed by key players from the big clubs, so keeping strong squad was objective impossibility. Take what you can… and they did. Begiristain and Bakero were yet world-wide famous – and they will become playing for Barcelona, so the victory was both sweet and sour: winning the Cup meant more exposure and losing players. With such predicament, the victory almost doubles in value.

Primera Division. After the first phase the league was divided into three groups of 6 teams each – the championship group, the intermediate group, and the relegation group. The late decision to increase the league to 20 teams affected only the relegation group – originally, the last three were to be directly relegated, but the increase of the league reduced the relegated teams to one and additional phase was added. The last three teams in the relegation group went to decide between themselves which team will go down. Records of the first phase were carried to the second, but the relegation play-offs started with clean sheets of the unfortunate participants.
The Relegation Group. The last 6 teams in the final table of the first phase.
Cadiz – last with 29 points.
Racing Santander – 5th with 33 points.
Osasuna – 4th with 38 points.
Sabadell – 3rd with 38 points. By the rules – ahead of Osasuna because of better head-to-head record.
Las Palmas – 2nd with 41 points.

Athletic Bilbao – 1st with 42 points.
Originally, the last three were to be relegated, but the mid-season to increase the league changed that – now one team was going down and for that the last three in the relegation group proceeded to relegation play-offs. The last tournament ended awkward as everything this season: two teams played 2 matches and one team ended with game played – and was relegated. Why? Who knows…
Osasuna finished first with 1 win and 1 tie – and remained in the league. Standing from left: Sabido, Ibáñez, Lumbreras, De Luis, Castañeda,Vicuña.
First row: Aguirre, Rípodas, Benito, Bustingorri, Martín.
Cadiz also survived – 2nd with 2 ties.
Racing Santander played only one match, which they lost: 1-3 to Osasuna. That relegated them. Too bad, for they played better than Cadiz during the whole season and were ahead of them until this last phase.
Intermediate group – the teams which took 7-12 place in the opening phase. Playing for nothing… the never answered question when championships were organized in such way: what could motivate teams with no chance of going neither up, nor down to play 10 more games after already went through 34 grueling matches? Anyway…
Sevilla – 6th with 39 points.
Real Murcia – 5th with 41 points.
Real Valladolid – 4th with 41 points.
Real Betis – 3rd with 45 points. Top row from left: Cervantes, Rincón, Reyes, Gail, Medina, Hadzibegic, Salva.
Middle row: Soto, Parra, Piriz, Del Sol, Retamero, Calderón, Ito, Pitero, Montiel.
Sitting: Diego, Chano, Alex, Casado, Romo, Quico, Gabino, Ortega.
Real Sociedad – 2nd with 47 points. However, they had nothing to complain of at the end of the season.
Atletico Madrid – 1st with 47 points.
The Championship Group – the top 6 after the first phase.
Mallorca – 6th with 42 points.
Real Zaragoza – 5th with 44 points.
Sporting Gijon – 4th with 45 points.
Espanol – 3rd with 51 points. Excellent season for the smaller team from Barcelona.
Barcelona – 2nd with 63 points. As usual, the rest of the league was left far behind and the dog fight with Real Madrid went to the end, but it was lost by Barcelona. The English approach lost to the Dutch, in a way. Strong squad, but… nothing.
After 44 games played, Real Madrid was once again Spanish champion. They were first after the first phase and first after the second phase, increasing their lead from 1 point to 3. 27 wins, 12 ties, 5 losses, 84-37 goal-difference, 66 points. Leo Beenhakker confirmed he was one of the top coaches in the world at the moment, but his squad was formidable – the addition of Hugo Sanchez proved great. Veteran greats Santillana and Camacho added another title to their illustrious record sheets, which was wonderful in their fading years. Like Barcelona, Real employed more foreigners than actually allowed to play – a long-lasting tactic of both great clubs, which easily afforded to have a great international star sitting on the bench, ready to replace another great star if something did not work right. But at the end of teh day, nothing really needed to be said: Real Madrid was Real Madrid, ever hungry for

Segunda Division – Second Division. The 18 teams played two-phased championship: after the regular season, the league was divided into three groups in accord with the final table of the first phase. Two groups played for promotion and the third was relegation group. As it turned out later, the relegation group played for nothing, because of newly decided increase of the top two divisions, which eliminated relegation this season. The winners of the each promotional group were promoted up and the third promoted team was going to be the second finisher with better record. The same rule applied for deciding the league champion. Points from the first phase were carried over to the second. Here the final standings after the second phase are given.
Group B – the Relegation Group, consisting of the teams taking 13-18 places at the end of first phase.
Jerez Deportivo – 6th with 22 points.
Castilla CF (Real Madrid B team) – 5th with 33 points.
Real Oviedo – 4th with 40 points.

Cartagena FC – 3rd with 42 points.
UA Figueres – 2nd with 42 points.
Barcelona Athletic (Barcelona B team) – 1st with 42 points.
Promotion groups:
Group A2:
CD Malaga – 6th with 40 points.
Rayo Vallecano – 5th with 41 points.
CD Castellon – 4th with 44 points.
Deportivo La Coruna – 3rd with 51 points.
Sestao – 2nd with 52 points. What a misfortune: rules were against them. They had worse final record than the 2nd placed team in the other group and missed promotion.
Celta (Vigo) won the group with 54 points and earned promotion. But they had worse record than the winners of the other group and did not win the Segunda championship. It was a matter of 3 points.
Group A1.
Bilbao Athletic (Athletic Bilbao B team) – 6th with 39 points.
Hercules – 5th with 41 points.
Elche CF – 4th with 48 points. Standing from left: Escobar, Robi, Nunes, Quesada, Miguel.
Crouching: Juanín, Boria, Pedro-Pablo, Asensio, Blanco-Vila, Claudio.
Recreativo Huelva – 3rd with 50 points.
CD Logrones – 2nd with 54 points and promoted: they finished with 2 points more than Sestao.
Valencia CF – 1st with 57 points. Not only promoted, but also declared champions of Segunda Division, for they finished ahead of Celta, which ended with 54 points.
And that was that: Valencia, Celta, and Logrones were promoted to the top league.

Spain – ranked 5th by UEFA. This was the longest Spanish championship in history: the structure was changed from standard European format to complicated 2-phase formula. First, there was the usual league schedule and after playing it the league was divided into three groups of 6 teams each – the top 6 proceeded to play for the title, the last 6 were in relegation group – three were going down, and 6 played in the intermediary group – for nothing, so… hard to see reason for motivation to play 10 extra games. But in midseason the Federation decided to increase the two top divisions to 20 teams and the relegation rules changed: after the relegation group ended relegation play-off was hastily included and loser in it was going down. Only one team relegated from La Liga, 3 teams promoted from Segunda Division, which also had complicated two-phase championship. Relegation, however, was not going to materialize, for the newly introduced increase of the top division left Segunda with 16 teams – 4 teams were promoted and none relegated to make the numbers right. Third level – Segunda B – also was changed for the next season, which effectively resulted with 63 teams getting promoted to the new Segunda B of 80 teams divided into 4 groups of 20 teams each. The changes made the season messy – for instance, there were 2 promotion groups in the second phase of Segunda Division, but no final match between the winners of each to decide the second level champion – instead, the team with better record was declared champion. Better record also decided the third promoted team – rather unfair: a play-off between the second-placed teams in the two promotion group should have been played. The teams promoted from Tercera Division to Segunda B were rather loosely based on final standings – seemingly, financial requirements were also involved.
Segunda Division B – Third Division. 22 teams, standard championship formula, the top 4 teams promoted and 1 team relegated to forth level.

Gandia – 16th with 38 points.
Alzira – 10th with 41 points.
Linense – 8th with 44 points.
Salamanca – 5th with 53 points. Close to promotion, but missed it by a single point.

Real Burgos – 4th with 54 points and promoted to Segunda Division.
Granada – 3rd with 56 points and promoted.
Lleida – second with 57 points and promoted.
Tenerife – champion of Segunda Division B with 59 points from 21 wins,17 ties, and 4 losses. 70-33 goal-difference – second best in the league, but no matter. The winners were promoted, of course.

The Cups. The Football League Cup was contested by Arsenal and Liverpool. Arsenal was 8 years without a trophy already, so they very much wanted to stop the dry run. And they managed to do so, thanks to Charlie Nickolas. He scored twice and Ian Rush scored for Liverpool, but only one goal. So, another ‘first’: this was the first match Liverpool lost after Rush had scored. 2-1 Arsenal.
A rare season for Liverpool – finished without a trophy. Blame it on ‘transition’… yet, Kenny Dalglish was going to stay at the helm. Ian Rush was not going to stay, though, so the first order of business was to find a replacement. But that was for the summer. No trophies, but Liverpool was still mighty and no signs of decline.
Arsenal was more than happy, of course, but winning the League Cup was very important for moral too – it was affirmation of both manager and players that they were on the right road and talent was matching success. Charlie Nicholas was the great hope for the future – which did not materialize, but that was later. George Graham practically established himself as great coach with this victory.
Ending the 8-year drought – winners again!
The FA Cup opposed Tottenham Hotspur to Coventry City. By current strength, the Spurs looked like favourites. Coventry never won anything so far. Then again… it was English final, so predictions were not worth a penny. At the end of regular time the result was 2-2 and in the overtime Coventry scored – and Tottenham did not. Blame it on Gary Mabbutt… he scored twice: once for Tottenham and once for Coventry. His own goal gave the victory to the enemy – 3-2.

May be unfortunate in losing the final, but there was also sense that the Spurs were at the end of a good spell and had to think of rebuilding. Ardiles was getting old and so was Ray Clemence. Chris Waddle was most likely going to play abroad. The Belgian striker Nico Claesen was good, but hardly huge star. Yet, he and the prolific scorer Clive Allen were the future, possibly the starting point of rebuilding.
What a day! Coventry City won its very first major trophy!
Of course, this squad became instant legends in the home city, but otherwise it was modest team – practically only Cyrille Regis and Steve Ogrizovic were well known names if not first-rate stars. Modesty has its own charm – it was a victory of humble underdog, no argument. They fought bravely and won the trophy. Unfortunately, they could not test themselves against Europeans because of the ban on English clubs.

First Division. What a great championship is the one where European cup winners could be relegated. One point of view. What a terrible state of affairs when European cup winners cannot keep strong sides. Another point of view and perhaps more in line with tough financial reality. By now top British players were quite eager to go abroad – something entirely new. Of course, English football was competitive, but right now the drama was set mostly at the bottom of the table. At the top – one team dominated.
Aston Villa – last with 36 points and relegated.
Manchester City – 21st with 39 points and relegated.
Leicester City – 20th with 42 points and relegated.

Charlton Athletic – 19th with 44 points. Under normal circumstances they would have been safe, but because of the reduction of the league and the new rules, they went to promotion/relegation play-offs. Luckily, they won the play-offs and kept place in the top division.
Oxford United – 18th with 46 points.
Newcastle United – 17th with 47 points.

Queen’s Park Rangers – 16th with 50 points.
West Ham United – 15th with 52 points.
Chelsea – 14th with 52 points.
Sheffield Wednesday – 13th with 52 points.
Southampton – 12th with 52 points.

Manchester United – 11th with 56 points. This photo is from the crucial November 1986: Manchester United was next to last, rapidly going to be relegated. Ron Atkinson was fired and Alex Ferguson was hired. A great era just started – well, not so great yet. Ferguson was not exactly to everybody’s taste – Gordon Strachan was not happy, for he had experienced Fergie already in both Aberdeen and the Scottish national team. However, the new manager delivered right away – the team climbed to 11th place. Higher was not possible after so weak a start and Ferguson started to build hos own team, which of course needed time. And money.
Coventry City – 10th with 63 points.
Watford – 9th with 63 points.
Nottingham Forest – 8th with 65 points. Brian Clough was genius, right? Well, if he was, then this squad should have been a title contender. Certainly had the players… but not the delivery.
Luton Town – 7th with 66 points.
Wimbledon – 6th with 66 points. Great!
Norwich City – 5th with 68 points. If English clubs were not banned by UEFA, Norwich would have played in the UEFA Cup. Tough luck… but also it was quite telling that modest clubs like Norwich, Wimbledon, Luton were at the top part of the final table and famous clubs were relegated and playing in the lower divisions: money was at the bottom of it – those of modest, but balanced budgets were seemingly doing better than big clubs running enormous debts and on the brink of bankruptcy.
Arsenal – 4th with 70 points. The good work of George Graham was felt and because his squad was young – great things were expected from the future. Near future.
Tottenham Hotspur – 3rd with 71 points. The Spurs were still running their good spell, but it was clear way before the start of this season that they reached their peak and could do no better. The title was not for them, they were not real contenders.

Liverpool – 2nd with 77 points. Not really competing with their city rivals for the title, but new hurdle was successfully overcome: the beginning of manager’s career for Kenny Dalglish – playing manager this season – and inevitable transfer pf Ian Rush to Italy. Let say second place was just the minor tremor felt from the transition.
Everton run supreme: 26 wins, 8 ties, 8 losses, 76-31 goal-difference and 86 points. Arch-enemy Liverpool was left 9 points behind.
Wonderful victory of wonderful team, whose members felt that if there was ban on English clubs to play in Europe, thanks to the villains from across town – Liverpool, Everton would have conquered the world in no time and build a true dynasty. Because of Liverpool, they were left relatively anonymous and even their development was cut short from the lack of European exposure. But they won the title.

Second Division. Going to be of 23 teams next season, because of the reduction of First Division. The top two – automatically promoted, the next 3 teams plus the 19th in First Division going to promotion/relegation play-offs. The bottom 2 automatically relegated and the 20th going to promotion/relegation play-offs against 3 Third Division teams. One dominant leader, one hopeless outsider this season.
Brighton & Hove Albion – the outsiders this season. Last and out with 39 points.
Financially troubled Grimsby Town ended 21st with 44 points and was relegated.
Sunderland was 20th with 48 points and went to promotion/relegation play-offs, which they lost and plunged to Third Division for the first time in their history. Some called them victims of the new rule, but victims they were not – under the traditional rules, they would have been directly relegated. Now they just blew a chance for last minute escape.
Birmingham City – 19th with 50 points. Barely survived.
Shrewsbury Town – 18th with 51 points. Good for another season.
Huddersfield Town – 17th with 51 points. (Back) Smith (coach), Trevitt, Cork, Mitchell, Jones, Cox, Webster, Brown, Winter, Shearer, Robson (coach)
(Front) Thackeray, Wilson (Phil), Cowling, Burke, Doyle, Buxton (manager), Bray, Cooper, Raynor, Wilson (Paul), Worthington.
Millwall – 16th with 51 points.
West Bromwich Albion – 15th with 51 points.
Hull City – 14th with 53 points.

Reading – 13th with 53 points.
Blackburn Rovers – 12th with 55 points.
Barnsley – 11th with 55 points.
Bradford City – 10th with 55 points.
Sheffield United – 9th with 58 points.
Stoke City – 8th with 58 points.
Plymouth Argyle – 7th with 61 points. One of their best ever seasons. Coming close to promotion/relegation play-offs, but even failing to reach this stage was wonderful.
Crystal Palace – 6th with 62 points.
Ipswich Town -5th with 64 points. Going to promotion/relegation play-offs.
Leeds United – 4th with 68 points. Going to promotion/relegation play-offs.
Oldham Athletic – 3rd with 75 points. Going to promotion/relegation play-offs. The new rule was hardly to their liking: they were confident third-placed, leading Leeds by 7 points. Under the classic rule – directly promoted and rightly so. Now… promotion was not certain and a team significantly bellow them during the long tough season could get promotion instead of them.
Portsmouth – 2nd with 78 points and directly promoted. Well deserved success and also return to top flight after very long absence.
Derby County – winners of the championship with 84 points. 25 wins, 9 ties, 8 losses, 64-38 goal-difference. Now, Derby County was playing Third Division football in 1984-85… their free fall was finally halted back then and they were coming back fast: promoted for a second consecutive season.
The promotion/relegation play-offs ended the hopes of former greats Leeds United and Ipswich Town, but probably Oldham Athletic had to suffer most – First Division Charlton Athletic won and kept its place in the top division. Under the old rule they were going down without any fuss and Oldham Athletic – up.

Third Division. Two teams directly promoted to Second Division, the next three teams going to promotion/relegation play-offs; the bottom 3 teams – directly relegated, and the 21st going to promotion/relegation play-offs against three Forth Division teams. Both top and bottom were decided early, so real battle occurred only for the remaining places giving a chance for going or down.
Newport County – last with 37 points. Last on worse goal-difference, but no matter – relegation was sure thing for a long time.
Darlington – 23rd with 37 points and out.
Carlisle United – 22nd with 38 points and relegated. Played top league football once upon a time? Hard to imagine.
Bolton Wanderers – nothing to laugh about… 21st with 45 points and going to promotion/relegation play-offs. Which they lost and were relegated.
York City survived – 20th with 49 points.
Bristol Rovers – 19th with 51 points.
Fulham – 18th with 53 points. The club knew better days, but now it was bad time. The season had just started when Fulham was defeated 0-10 by Liverpool in second round of the League Cup.
Chesterfield – 17th with 54 points.
Bury – 16th with 55 points.
Chester City – 15th with 56 points.
Rotherham United – 14th with 57 points.
Doncaster Rovers – 13th with 57 points.
Port Vale – 12th with 57 points.
Brentford – 11th with 60 points.
Mansfield Town – 10th with 61 points.
Blackpool – 9th with 64 points.

Walsall – 8th with 75 points.
Notts County – 7th with 76 points. Back row: Davis, Benjamin, Leonard, Hunt, Barnes
Middle: Jones(Physio), Sims, Waitt, Yates, Bate(Coach)
Front: Smalley, Clarke, Edge, Sirrel(Manager), Kevan, Harbottle, McParland
Bristol City – 6th with 77 points. Missed promotion/relegation play-oofs by a point.
Gillingham – 5th with 78 points. Going to promotion/relegation play-offs.
Wigan Athletic – 4th with 85 points. Going to promotion/relegation play-offs.
Swindon Town – 3rd with 87 points. Going to promotion/relegation play-offs.
Middlesbrough – 2nd with 94 points and directly promoted. In July 1986 they were in court because of debts in excess 1 million pounds. Bankruptcy and expulsion from professional football was coming… but they were eventually saved and finished successfully.
Bournemouth won the championship with 97 points: 29 wins, 10 ties, 7 losses, 76-40 goal-difference.
This was fantastic success: Bournemouth never played Second Division football before – this was their biggest achievement so far. A former West Ham United player, one Harry Redknapp, was coaching them. What a thrill.
In the promotion/relegation play-offs Swindon Town, Wigan Athletic and Gillingham were joined by Sunderland, 20th in Second Division. If Bournemouth never played in the Second Division, Sunderland never played in the Third Division… so, another ‘first’ was going to happen, because they lost the play-offs and were relegated.
Swindon Town won the play-offs and with that – a promotion to Second Division.
Another great success, worth wild celebration: it was second consecutive promotion for Swindon Town and in two years they climbed from Forth to Second Division.
Thus, promoted to Second Division were: Bournemouth, Middlesbrough, and Swindon Town. Cinderella story…