Football Journey

England. So big was English dominance in club football that without playing in Europe for 3 years already the country ranked 12th. There was to be a big drop for the next season, but there was also the end of banishment coming. Not entirely, though… 2 teams were going to play in the 1990-91 Cup Winners Cup and UEFA Cup, but that was all – Liverpool and Nottingham Forest qualified, but were still excluded from international competitions. The domestic scene was not great either: Liverpool’s domination irritated many observers and aficionados, but there was nothing to be done about it: grumblers could not stop Liverpool from winning on the pitch and there was nobody able to challenge them. The solidifying of English football system with direct relegation and promotion between 4th and, now. 5th level brings closer attention to Non-league football, with its own complexity and variety. In general, 6 competitions stayed at the top there: 2 Cups and 4 championships. The vast realm of semi-professional football is impossible to show in full – too many teams. Like
Altrincham.
The winners should suffice:
FA Vase: Yeading
FA Trophy: Barrow
Southern League: Dover Athletic
Northern Premier League:
Colne Dynamoes.
Isthmian League: Slough Town
Football Conference: the top of the Non-league pyramid – the winner of this championship was promoted to Forth Division.
Darlington won the championship and went up to the professional system. They were just relegated in 1988-89, so climbing back right away.

The Cup final opposed lowly teams – Montpellier and Racing (Paris). For Racing winning the Cup may have been a way out of trouble – perhaps, may be, probably… for their financial problems were big. Montpellier had single success in the ancient past: they won the Cup once, in 1929. After that they had insignificant, modest at best, existence and given that, it almost a miracle they reached the final. Toa point, a battle of equals, but Montpellier was slightly better this season and managed to prevail at the final 2-1.
Racing lost the final and with that any chance to avoid destruction. Too bad… No point to evaluate the team – most of it was not going to play for Racing the next season.
Grand victory for Montpellier, immediately opening new vistas – it was not just winning a trophy at last, but going to play in the Cup Winners Cup tournament practically demanded the team to be reinforced, somehow to get more players with names, as it was ‘proper’ for a club with fresh trophy. They had a few well respected players, including Brazilian national team defender Julio Cesar, but Valderama, who played in the previous and the next season was missing. Instead, Eric Cantona was here for for a little while. Montpellier enjoyed big victory, a trophy, the boys became instant legends.
Here are the winners again – standing from left: Jean-Claude Lemoult, Franck Lucchesi, William Ayache, Daniel Xuereb, Albert Rust, Pascal Baills.
Crouching: Kader Ferhaoui, Julio César, Laurent Blanc, Vincent Guérin, Eric Cantona

First Division. 2 Teams directly relegated, the 18th going to promotion/relegation play-off against the best of second-placed teams in Second Division, still 2 points for a win. Two teams were entangled in a battle for the title, but the bitter efforts to avoid relegation involved about 8 teams. Perhaps the most bitter part of this season was the end of the ambitious project for re-vamping Racing (Paris) – it worked for a while, but only for a while.
Mulhouse – last and relegated with 28 points. Expected, to a point.
Racing (Paris) – 19th with 30 points. It was not that much a weak squad, nor it was incapable coach – Racing was not all that bad, even reached the Cup final, but money dried up again and the project to restore once upon a time strong and well respected club failed. Perhaps Paris was indifferent to the club, prefering Paris SG. And Racing was relegated, but not to Second Division – they were relegated to third level, which clearly suggested great financial troubles, perhaps at the brink of bankruptcy. What a bitter story.
OGC Nice – lost their leading role in French football many years ago and now preoccupied only with survival. 18th with 31 points – direct relegation was avoided, but they had to go to promotion/relegation against Strasbourg – luckily, they prevailed and remained in the top league.
Lille OSC – 17th with 33 points.
Caen – 16th with 34 points. Not bad for a modest club – survival was all they hoped for. A well-known in the past English striker was with them – Rix, getting old and certainly not good enough for Arsenal anymore.
St. Etienne – 15th with 34 points. No miracles… the return of Herve Herbin at the helm was helping only to keep place in the top league. Dutch star Witschge was here, but the team was generally weak – nothing in common with the great squad Herbin marshaled to glory in the 1970s. Decline was seemingly unstoppable.
FC Metz – 14th with 34 points.
Montpellier-Herault SC – 13th with 34 points. Nothing special, as usual, yet, this season happened to be their best ever. A few strong players were instrumental: young Cantona and Blanc plus grizzled veterans Rust, Xuereb, Der Zakarian and Brazilian star Julio Cesar. Coached by well-known Jacquet. Enough for success in Cup format, but not for a whole long season.
Toulon – 12th with 35 points. Presently, their coach Delio Onnis was the biggest name. There was some talent in the squad, but still too young.
AS Cannes – 11th with 36 points. Still strangers to top-league football and perhaps not caring for more or better: Cannes had its Film Festival and all movie stars, who cares about football?
FC Brest Armorique – 10th with 38 points. Modest club with sturdy attitude.
Toulouse – 9th with 38 points. Soviet defender Vagiz Khidiatoulin was the bigger name in the team, which achieved curious record: from 38 games, they had 13 wins, 12 ties, 13 losses, 39-39 goal-difference, and 38 points.
Olympique Lyon – 8th with 39 points. Trying hard to climb back from the decline, but not having yet significant squad.
Nantes – 7th with 40 points. Apparently, trying to rebuild, but new team was not ready yet. The Yugoslav already well respected coach Blazevic had a mix of well known, but aging player – Burruchaga (Argentina), Vercauteren (Belgium), Amisse (France); current French national team regulars – Le Guen and Ouedec, and talented youngsters, who became famous eventually, but at the moment were too young – Deschamps, Henry, Kombouare.
AJ Auxerre – 6th with 41 points. The magic of Guy Roux was already established as something constant and self-evident: Auxerrre was keeping highly competitive squad no matter who was moving to play elsewhere. And the Polish connection was maintained – Matysik. That was the secret for their success: Guy Roux and Polish imports.
Paris Saint-Germain – 5th with 42 points. True to its own tradition: strong, but not strong enough to be really a decisive factor, expensive team full of aging stars, coached by big name. Tomislav Ivic had his Yugoslav compatriots Susic and Vujovic, the Argentine Calderon, Bats, Bravo, Bibard, Le Roux… and was entirely out of the battle for the title.
FC Sochaux-Montbeliard – 4th with 43 points. Compared to Paris SG, Sochaux was… insignificant. Silvester Takac was good coach, but not at the level of fellow Yugoslav Ivic and he had only 2 famed players, from Yugoslavia as well: Bazdarevic and Hadzibegic. They were also a notch bellow Paris SG’s Susic and Vujovic. Yet, Sochaux finished ahead of expensive Paris SG.
AS Monaco – 3rd with 46 points. Keeping strong in their own peculiar way – not a title contenders, but got the bronze medals. Poor scorers (38 goals in 38 games), good defenders, masters of the tie (16 matches. Sure, Wenger was making his name rapidly, but Monaco was keeping only decent squad. Ettori and English stars Hoddle and Hateley were aging, but there was group of talented youngsters – Thuram, Weah, Toure. If Monaco was able – or willing – to keep them… but that was about the future.
Girondens de Bordeaux – 2nd with 51 points. Only a year ago it looked like the strong years of Bordeaux ended, but they were back. They fought for the title, the only rival of Marseille this season, but lost it – no big deal, on the surface, but a deeper look suggests that Bordeaux was on dangerous path: to stay competitive, the club was doing patchwork – getting old players for year or two instead of building a new team. Battiston was bought before the start of the season from Monaco. Both goalkeepers were veterans well over 30-years – Dropsy and Cameroonian Bell. The West German defender Manfred Kaltz. Ayache, Thouvenel, Ferreri… All of them were yesterday’s news, close to retirement. The only player for the future was Lizarazu. From this perspective, too bad Bordeaux lost the title – for it was almost certain that they were not going to be in race the next year and beyond.
Olympique Marseille prevailed over Bordeaux and won the championship with 53 points from 22 wins, 9 ties, and 7 losses. 75-34 goal-difference – attack was their main quality, scoring plenty of goals and no surprise in it, for they were captained by wonderful goalscorer at his prime – Papin. An ambitious project, based on money, and aiming at elevating Marseille to the top of not only French, but European football. And since money was not a problem – buying classy players was the answer for whatever problems emerged. If Bordeaux chose to buy old players to patch the moment, Marseille had already strong mix of old and young, foreign and domestic. Amoros was added for this season, but he, Tigana and Vercruysse were mostly for the moment – strong, famed, reliable veterans, helping those at their peak – Papin, the Brazilian national team regular Carlos Mozer, English Chris Waddle, Francescoli (Uruguay), K-H Foerster (West Germany) And along with them – young and already more than noticed Franck Sauzee, Alain Roche, Gaetan Huard, Di Meco. Second title in a row and 7th altogether for Marseille. With big promise for more.
Sitting from left: Belly (?) – masseur, Tigana, Deschamps, Diallo, Thys, Papin, Amoros, Dr. Duby – doctor.
Middle row: Gili – coach, Vercruysse, Francescoli, Di Meco, Mura, Durand, K-H. Foerster, Bernes – administrator.
Top row: Huard, Waddle, Germain, Mozer, Roche, Sauzee, Castaneda.

Second Division Group B. Four – if not five – teams fought for the first place.
Stade Quimperois (Quimper) was the outsider – last with 22 points. They won only 4 matches. Yet… no relegation.
Abbeville – 17th with 27 points. Relegated.
FC Lorient – 16th with 27 points and relegated for some reason.
La Roche sur Yon – 15th with 28 points.
FC Tours – 14th with 30 points.
En Avant Guingamp – 13th with 31 points.
AS Saint-Seurin – 12th with 31 points.

USL Dunkerque – 11th with 33 points.
SCO Angers – 10th with 33 points.
US Creteil – 9th with 33 points.
Lens – 8th with 34 points.
Chamois Niortais (Niort) – 7th with 35 points.

AS Beauvais-Marissel – 6th with 38 points.
Le Havre – 5th with 40 points.

Stade Lavallois (Laval) – 4th with 41 points. Cameroonian star Omam-Biyik will go to the World Cup shortly after the end of the season. Bulgarian Valery Kulinov was one of many East Europeans moving in flocks to play in the West at this time. The foreigners were not enough for Laval to return to top flight.
FC Rouan – 3rd with 41 points. Known to do more than expected with their modest budget, they were unable to climb back to First Division this season.
US Valenciennes Anzin – 2nd with 44 points. One more former top-league member trying to climb back to it, but losing the battle in dramatic manner: on goal-difference. They ended with +11, their rivals with +12. Such misfortune…
Stade Rennais FC (Rennes) clinched top position on one goal better goal-difference. Dramatic victory for a team which somewhat did not impress: 18 wins, 8 ties, 8 losses (Valenciennes had exactly the same record), but poor scorers: 39 goals in 34 games (8 teams outscored them, including Tours, which finished 14th ). Had the best defensive record, though, and at the end that was the difference giving them 1-goal advantage over Valenciennes. Tremendously lucky, but returned to First Division.

France. Ranked 10th along with Yugoslavia: both countries had 23,200 points at the moment, so they shared 10-11 place. Two teams fought for the title, leaving the rest far behind. Sadly, the project Racing Paris came to bitter end. On the other hand the super-project Olympique Marseille seemingly was sailing fine.
Second Division Group A. 18 teams, the champion directly promoted. Relegation depended not only on performance, but on financial and other situations. The second-best team had some chances for promotion, providing it reached promotion/relegation play-off against the 18th in First Division.
FC Montceau-Bourgogne was last with 18 points, an absolute outsider and relegated.
AS Red Star 93 (Paris) was 17th with 28 points, but was not relegated – which was just fine for the aging Soviet defender Bubnov, one of the long-time players of the strong USSR team during the 1980s. Now he barely avoided plummeting down to third level.
FC Grenoble – 16th with 28 points. They were relegated, most likely for financial reasons. Young Djorkaeff already left the club, so he was lucky.
Entente Chaumontaise (Chaumont) – 15th with 29 points.
FC Annecy – 14th with 30 points.
Louhans-Cuiseaux 71 – or Cuiseaux Louhans, this club is ever confusing, for the name is written alternatively – 13th with 30 points.
US Orleans – 12th with 30 points.
FC Gueugnon – 11th with 30 points.
CF Dijon – or Cercle Dijon – 10th with 31 points.

Istres SF – 9th with 31 points.
Olympique Avignonnais (Avignon) – 8th with 34 points.

Stade de Reims – 7th with 35 points.
SEC Bastia – 6th with 39 points.
FC Martigues – 5th with 40 points.
Olympique Ales – 4th with 43 points.
Nimes Olympique – 3rd with 43 points.
RC Strasbourg – 2nd with 43 points. Came 2nd on best goal-difference : +31. Reached promotion/relegation play-off, but lost it and remained in the Second Division.
Nancy dominated the championship and won it 7 points ahead of Strasbourg, Nimes, and Ales. 21 wins, 8 ties, 5 losses, 62-24 (second-best scorers – Strasbourg scored70 goals, but best defensive record) and 50 points. Strasbourg had better-known players, but Nancy topped them easily and was happily promoted back to First Division.

The Cup final was familiar duel: Crvena zvezda vs Hajduk. One more chapter in the long rivalry between Serbian and Croatian leading clubs and increasingly getting more than football rivalry, but into nationalistic struggle. Crvena zvezda prevailed thanks to early goal – Darko Pancev scored in the 12th minute.
Hajduk lost the Cup final and thus ended the season without a trophy, despite having a cluster of stars: Bokšić, Bilić, Štimac, Jerkan, Asanović, Pudar, Jurković, Jarni. Well, rather future stars, but still it was a team of plenty of talent. But Crvena zvezda was stronger presently. Apart from the lost final, Hajduk left Yugoslavia without a team for the Cup Winners Cup: they were banned from UEFA and Crvena zvezda were going to play in the European Champions Cup.
Crvena zvezda won a double this year, confirming their superiority. It was their 13th Cup and 5th double. Remarkable season, which increasingly meant more than football – it was Serbian victory, Serbian dominance over the rest of the country, over Croats, in particular. Nationalism was getting the upper hand, although disintegration of Yugoslavia was not envisioned yet – but it was coming and football was big part of it. But Yugoslavia was still one country and to a point Crvena zvezda symbolized this unity: Serbians, Montenegrans, Macedonians, even a Croat made the squad. Plus a worthy foreigner, perhaps representing the political turmoil of Eastern Europe best, was here: Miodrag Belodedici. The Romanian of Serbian descent, already famous as a member of the great Steaua (Bucharest) team, run away from his native land and took asylum in Yugoslavia. In Romania ‘the traitor’ was promptly sentenced to jail in absentia, but Crvena zvezda was glad to have him in its defensive line and very likely Yugoslav citizenship was quickly granted. But the situation was rapidly changing… by the summer of 1990 the Communist regime of Romania fell down and the political change brought among other things anullment of Belodedici’s sentence – he was able to play again for Romania and there was no need anymore to be called Belodecic (the Yugoslav spelling of his name). The irony of the times: Belodedici became Romanian again, but soon his teammates will seize to be Yugoslavs and become Croats (Prosinecki), Macedonians (Pancev, Kanatlarovski, Najdoski), and so on. For the moment, though, Crvena zvezda practically had the squad eventually winning the European Champions Cup in the very near future – Dragan Stojkovic (the best Yugoslav star at the moment), Belodedici, Prosinecki, Pancev, Sabanadzovic, Savicevic, Najdoski, Mrkela, Stojanovic, etc. The strongest Yugoslav squad for sure, but what was missing was largely the coach leading them to European glory: presently the former club legend Vladimir Petrovic was at the helm, but international success was achieved with his successor Ljupko Petrovic.
Life was good: a double! Life was good – this team had great potential, great future. Politics were nothing, football was everything… what a grave illusion.

First Division. One dominant leader, one hopeless outsider. Apart from that, a surprising relegation and late punishment – UEFA slapped 2-year ban from European competitions on Hajduk (Split) in 1987. It was for the behavior of the fans in the 1987-88 Cup Winners Cup match against Olimpique (Marseille), but earlier incidents in the first half of the 1980s contributed as well. Since Hajduk did not qualify to play in Europe at the time, the punishment was enacted for seasons when Hajduk qualified to play in the European tournaments, that is, now.

Vardar (Skopje) – last with 25 points and relegated. Standing from left: fiz. Belevski, pom. trener Gruevski, Markovski, Filevski, A.Stojanović, Sinani, Naumovski, Urošević, Grošev, Simovski, pom. trener Mojsov, trener Dončevski. Sitting: Kocić, Trajanovski, T. Trajčevski, Z. Trajčevski, Boškovski, Džipunov, Vasilevski, Angelovski, G. Stojanović.
Velez (Mostar) – 17th with 36 points and relegated. A surprise, really – Velez had strong reputation. Top row from left: Emir Tufek, Josko Popovic, Andjelko Kvesic, Marinko Knezovic, Ronald Hrkac, Sejo Rebac, Stipe Juric.
Middle row: Vukasin Petranovic, Ahmet Gosto,Anel Karabeg, Sead Kajtaz, Nenad Dzidic, Ismet Sisic, Ivan Jurilj, Vladimir-Vanja Gudelj, Elvis Margeta, Vela Pudar.
Sitting: Mili-Toza Hadziabdic, Zijad Repak, Meho Kodro, Zeljko Cavar, Darko Birjukov, Veselin Djurasovic, Zdenko Jedvaj, Ibro Rahimic.
NK Osijek (Osijek) – 16th with 38 points. Top row from left: S. Končalović, I. Perić, R. Špehar, G. Skeledžić, M. Miličević, D. Lepinjica, N. Gluhačević, T. Štajnbrikner. Middle row: M. Janković, J. Sinanović, G. Radojević, M. Žitnjak, M.Maričić, B. Šerić, I. Kolar. Sitting: S. Vidović, Ž. Pakasin, M. Vukčević, I. Maras, Z. Stanković, I. Grnja, A. Batinić, D. Živković, S. Mišković, A. Lukić.
Radnicki (Nis) – 15th with 38 points. Top row from left: Nikolić, Zarić, Cvejić, Manojlović, Mehinagić, Mladenović, Veljković, Manojlović, tr. Janković. Middle row: Kocić, Antić, Stojiljković, Momirović, Momčilović, Višnjić, Jakšić, Mitrović, tr. Milenković; Front row: Sudimac, Dimoski, Pejić, Savov, Dimoski, tr. Halilović, Milošević, Antonijević, Lukić, Radosavljević.
Borac (Banja Luka) – 14th with 39 points.
FK Sarajevo (Sarajevo) -13th with 40 points.
Spartak (Subotica) – 12th with 40 points.
Vojvodina (Novi Sad) – 11th with 42 points. The previous season champions dropped down and practically out of sight.
Buducnost (Titograd) – 10th with 42 points. Standing from left: B.Brnović,Ž.Leković, M.Božović, D. Leković, Dmitrović, Janović. Crouching:Vlahović, Mirotić, Mijatović, Petrović, Stanisavljević.
Sloboda (Tuzla) – 9th with 45 points. Third row from left: fiz. Sabitović, Verlašević, Pilipović, Čogurić, Mrkić, Peštalić, Jovanović, Konjić, Hadžimahović, Šulović,
Middle row: Nalić, Ivanović, C. Milošević, Smajlović, Jogunčić, Radovanović, Šarić, dr. Muminhodžić, Memišević, pom.trener Hukić;
First row: Z. Milošević, Sadiković, Ibrić, tr. Jovičić, Lukić, G. Milošević, Hasanbašić, Tahirović.
Sloboda was the only team without penalty shoot-out win – they lost all 4 shoot-outs.
Olimpija (Ljubljana) – 8th with 46 points.
Zeljeznicar (Sarajevo) – 7th with 46 points. Back row from left: trener Braculj, Curic, Viteskic, Jurisic, Bogdanovic, Stilic, Komsic, Milosevic, Pavlovic, Alihodzic, trener Smajlovic. Front: Nikic, Hadzijalagic,Nikolic, Krunic ,Skrba, Gajic, Osim, Ilic, Velic
NK Rijeka (Rijeka) – 6th with 47 points.
Rad (Belgrade) – 5th with 52 points. Rad, behind Olympiakos (Athens), dressed in blue, had impressive season for top-league newcomer.
Partizan (Belgrade) – 4th with 55 points.
Hajduk (Split) – 3rd with 56 points.
Dinamo (Zagreb) – 2nd with 56 points. They finished first in the first half of the season, but dropped out of the championship race in the spring.

And the well-known new champions – Crvena zvezda (Belgrade). Top row from left: Vladimir Petrovic, Bukumirović, Najdoski, Pančev, Kanatlarovski, Belodedić, Radinović, Bešić, Dujković.
Third row: Stojanović, Marović, Vasilijević, Milojević, Prosinečki, Raosavljević, Simeunović, ?.
Second row: Nešović, Stanojević, Mrkela, Šekularac, Stošić, Vujović, Antonijević.
Front row: Šabanadžović, Lukić, Jurić, Stojković, Savićević, Musović.
Nothing surprising in their victory, except that they were behind Dinamo (Zagreb) at the end of the first half of the season and it was hard to imaging in December 1989 that they will be so dominant in the srping. At the end: 24 wins, 3 penalty shoot-out wins, 2 penalty shoot-out losses and 5 regular losses. Scored 79 goals, received 29, earned 75 points. Dinamo (Zagreb) had stronger defensive record (25 goals), but when it came to scoring goals Crvena zvezda had no rival: Dinamo, second-best scorers, managed only 53 goals. Crvena zvezda left them 19 points behind, there was no rivalry really in the spring, it was just Crvena zvezda. Thus, the 17th title was collected.

Second Division. 20 teams now, the top 2 directly promoted to First Division, the last 4 relegated to third level. 3 points for a win, no ties – penalty shoot-outs instead and the winner gets 1 point.
Mladost (Lucani) – last with 5 points. Absolute outsiders, even if they had all points they earned – the team was penalized 6 points for match fixing in the last round of the previous season. Justly relegated this time.
Celik (Zenica) – 19th with 18 points. What a disaster for a club mostly known for playing top league football, some times very well. Now going to third level. Standing from left: Bolić, Šehić, Zekotič, Šišić, Jevtić, Komšić. Front: Bajrić, Petrović. B. Gavran, Fočić, Bilješko.
Liria (Prizren) – 18th with 23 points and relegated. Standing from left: Gadžolli, Marjanović, Đinali, Beriša, Belanica, Čejku. Crouching: Harun Isa, Kapra, Luma, Ramadani, Bylykbashi.
Rudar (Ljublja) – 17th with 32 points. Fought to escape relegation, but lost the battle and went down.
Borac (Cacak) – barely survived: 16th with 33 points. Top row from left: Nikitović, Kovačević, Dragutinović, ?, Maričić, Biberčić, Panić.
Middle row: Marković, Stojanović, Petrović, Lučić, Sušić, Maričić, Kaličanin.
Sitting: Jelić, Ristić, Božović, Vulović, Ćirković (assistant coach), Rajevac (coach), Dragićević, Vujčić, Đačić.
OFK Beograd (Belgrade) – terrible decline and almost relegated further down: 15th with 33 points.
Napredak (Krusevac) – also in great decline. 14th with 34 points.
Iskra (Bugojno) – 13th with 34 points.
Macva (Sabac) – 12th with 34 points.
Leotar (Trebinje) – 11th with 35 points.
GOSK Jug (Dubrovnik) – 10th with 36 points.
Pelister (Bitola) – 9th with 36 points.
Dinamo (Vinkovci) – 8th with 37 points.
Kikinda (Kikinda) – 7th with 38 points.
Sloboda (Titovo Uzice) – 6th with 39 points. Second row from left: Čumić, Cvetković, Bosiljčić, Vičević, Gudurić, Popov. Crouching: Divac, Simić, Tutić, Omerhodžić, Savić.
Sibenik (Sibenik) – 5th with 41 points.
Prishtina (Prishtina) – 4th with 43 points.
Sutjeska (Niksic) – 3rd with 43 points. They excelled in scoring and goal-difference, though: 70 goals and +36.
The top 2 teams were well ahead of the rest and fought for the first place between themselves.
Proleter (Zrenjanin) lost the battle and finished 2nd with 50 points: 23 regular wins, 4 penalty shoot-out wins, 2 penalty shoot-out losses, and 9 regular losses. 55-30 scoring record. No trouble, though – Proleter earned promotion and was happily returning to top flight.
FK Zemun (Zemun) clinched the Second Division title with 51 points: 23 wins, 5 penalty shoot-out wins, 1 penalty shoot-out loss and 9 regular losses. 59-35 was their scoring record – not the best at all. They scored only 1 goal more than lowly OFK Beograd and Prishtina and Sutjeska outscored them. Proleter and Sutjeska had better defensive record, but lowly Borac (Cacak) permited the same number of goals in their net as the champions. Proleter and Sutjeska had better goal-difference. Yet, what mattered was point and Zemun had the most, so they triumphed.
It was great to win the championship and get promoted to First Division – Zemun hardly ever played there, unlike second-placed Proleter. Thus, a truly triumphal season.

Yugoslavia. Ranked 10th. One more country to experiment with new rules in the 1980s: 3 points for a win, but also no ties – penalty shoot-out instead, giving 1 point to the winner and nothing to the loser. Political problems were boiling as well in the country, although the bloody disintegration was not yet expected. Crvena zvezda dominated the season entirely. Second Division was now unified in a single league of 20 teams, the last 4 relegated to third level, the Inter-Republic Leagues. A glimpse of teams from third level – because some were former First or Second Division clubs and others will emerge from obscurity after the disintegration of Yugoslavia.
FK Novi Sad (Novi Sad)
Kabel (Novi Sad)
GIK Ramiz Sadiku (Prishtina)
Jedinstvo (Brcko)
Junak (Sinj)
Pobeda (Prilep)
Rabotnicki (Skopje)
Teteks (Tetovo)
FAMOS (Hrasnica)

AIK (Backa Topola)
FK Novi Pazar (Novi Pazar)
But most important were the teams winning promotion to Second Division: 4 teams, all of them having quite significant past and practically returning to the spotlight:
Mogren (Budva), Radnicki (Belgrade), FK Bor (Bor), and
NK Zagreb (Zagreb).

The Cup final opposed traditional rivals, both eager to win a trophy and thus save the season. The classic Vienna derby: Austria vs Rapid. Regular time ended without a winner, but Austria prevailed in the overtime and won 3-1.
Rapid (Vienna) was the big loser this season – no trophy at all.
Austria (Vienna) won the Cup, so at the end it was not so wasted season – still a Cup in their hands and beating Rapid is always sweet. Finally, it was a round record too: their 20th Austrian Cup.