Poland I Division

First Division. Apart from new rules and infringements, the season in a nut shell was rather plain: the recent dominance of Gornik (Zabrze) continued and some former leading clubs struggled and were relegated.
Motor (Lublin) finished last with 13 points. However, they were penalized with 8 points by the new rule – they lost 8 games by 3 or more goals. No wonder they were found guilty of ‘lack of motivation’ and replay of a match may have been much too cruel penalty for a team which apparently gave up already.
Stal (Mielec) was not even a pale shadow of the great team of the 1970s – they finished 15th with 17 points and were directly relegated.
Ruch (Chorzow) was the other big name in dire straits now: they finished 14th with 18 points. Not only that, but they won the least number of games in the championship – just 3! The relegation play-off gave them a chance to stay in the league, but they lost both legs against Lechia (Gdanks) 1-2 and went down. It was quite amazing, for the squad – by names – does not seem to be so bad. Miroslaw Bak and Krzystztof Warzycha were in it, for instance – true, still very young, but going to Second Division? Well, they did.
Polonia (Bytom) was 13th with 21 points. Nothing strange or new – usually they were found near the bottom fighting for survival and sometimes failing. And this time they failed – they lost the relegation play-off on away goals and were relegated.
Olimpia (Poznan) was lucky. They finished 12th with 22 points, but survived at the play-offs. The first leg – away in Bytom – did it: Olimpia managed a 2-2 tie. At home neither they, nor Polonia scored and 0-0 tie benefited Olimpia.
Lechia (Gdansk) was 11th with 24 points – the only team in the group at the league’s bottom not to be involved with illegal schemes for survival, but the brief strong period of the club clearly was finished. However, under usual rules Lechia would have been safe and not worried with relegation – the new rules put them in immediate danger, but they were still the better team and won both legs against Ruch (Chorzow) 2-1. Good for one more season at least.

Gornik (Walbrzych) finished 10th with 25 points. Nothing much, but that depends… for a modest club it was great. Gornik was enjoying perhaps their best period in history – which in their terms meant staying in the top division longer than year or two. If some teams finished the season with 29 games, Gornik played 31 – because their match against Motor (Lublin) had to be replayed. Not Gornik’s fault – Motor was found lacking motivation, so the replay looked like unjust penalty for Gornik. But all ended well.
LKS (Lodz) – 9th with 27 points. Nothing special, as usual.
Zaglebie (Lubin) – 8th with 28 points. Not bad – for them.
Lech (Poznan) – 7th with 29 points. Rather insignificant season.
Widzew (Lodz) – 6th with 36 points. Much stronger than all those bellow, but seemingly their great period came to end. No longer a title contender.
Legia (Warszawa) – 5th with 38 points. Given the squad they had the season was quite a disappointment.
Slask (Wroclaw) – 4th with 40 points. Not bad at all.
GKS (Katowice) – 3rd with 43 points. It was wonderful achievement of traditionally unheralded club. Arguably, Katowice was going through their best ever period. Jan Furtok was the big star here.
Pogon (Szczecin) – 2nd with 44 points. Who would believe it? If playing at all in the top league, Pogon were usually at the bottom of the table. Now – silver medalists out of the blue. True, they never challenged the leaders, but left behind teams like Widzew, Legia, Slask. Pogon scored most goals this season: 64 – 12 more than the dominant champions! They looked like one-time-wonder, but if so then even more intense the joy of their achievement.
Gornik (Zabrze) had no rival at all this season: 16 wins (7 with 3 or more goals), 10 ties, 4 losses (none with 3 or more goals) – that gave them 49 points, 5 more than Pogon. Scored 52 goals (second-best scoring record), allowed 21 (best defensive record). Confident leaders, winning rather easily their 13th title. Truly the best team at this period – this was their 3rd consecutive title, their dominance was well established and Gornik was enjoying strong period similar to the one they had at the late 1960s. The most solid Polish squad by far – also a similarity with the great 1960s team. Really, hard to believe they have been relegated to Second Division not that long ago.