First Division. One outsider and two and a half favourites. ‘And a half’, for the third strong team eventually dropped out of the championship race and more importantly, it looked like yesterday – the future belonged to the traditional powers from Bucharest Steaua and Dinamo, no doubt about it.
CS Targoviste (Targoviste) was the outsider, finishing last with 16 points. No surprise there.
Petrolul (Ploesti) – 17th with 25 points.
Dunarea CSU (Galati) was the 3rd relegated team – 16th with 28 points. Tough time for the city of Galati – their other and perhaps better known club, Otelul, had mediocre season and Second Division and Dunarea CSU was relegated from First Division.
FC Maramures (Baia-Mare) was lucky – 15th with 30 points.
ASA (Targu-Mures) – 14th with 30 points. They were much stronger in the 60s and the 70s, but no longer.
Rapid (Buchaest) – 13th with 31 points. The decline in the late 70s pretty much degraded them from 3rd to 4th club in Bucharest and presently they were simply trying to reestablish themselves in the top division, after coming back from second level. So, the lowly place was not so bad under the circumstances.
Corvinul (Hunedoara) – 12th with 32 points.
Jiul (Petrosani) – 11th with 33 points.
FC Olt (Scornicesti) – 10th with 33 points. Standing from left: F. Dumitrescu ( president ), V. Dinut ( assistant coach ), Eftimie, Chivescu, Boriceanu, Căţoi, Minea, Rotaru, Matei, Firănescu, Barbu, F. Halagian ( coach )
Sitting : Kallo, M.Leta, Ionaşcu, M. Popescu, Ariciu, Prepeliţă, State, Bumbescu, Ciurea, Despa.
Chimia (Ramnicu Vilcea) – 9th with 34 points.
Politehnica (Iasi) – 8th with 34 points. Perhaps one their strongest seasons ever.
FC Bihor (Oradea) – 7th with 34 points.
SC Bacau (Bacau) – 6th with 35 points.
FC Arges (Pitesti) – 5th with 38 points. That was the club going down – already lost the leading position they enjoyed in the 70s, although still much batter then most.
Sportul Studentesc (Bucharest) – 4th with 38 points. Standing from left: Iorgulescu, Cazan, Coraș, Terheș, C. Pană I, M. Sandu.
First row: Hagi, Munteanu II, Speriatu, M. Mihail, Șerbanică.
Very strong period for the club. Not able to run for the title, but at least they and not Rapid were the 3rd club of Bucharest. Good team, but their strongest player was very young, very talented, and still unknown: one Gheorghe Hagi. Very likely the success of the ‘students’ club was almost entirely thanks to his talent. And something very important: this is probably the first team using sponsor adds on their jerseys in Romania. Most likely only when playing in the European tournaments and surely with direct state involvement with the deal – in typical Communist manner: elements of professional football were tested with low-profile clubs first.
Universitatea (Craiova) – 3rd with 43 points. Still strong, still one of the leading Romanian clubs, but already a team of yesterday: a bit older than Dinamo and Steaua, where the next talented generation was largely playing. However, this could be taken only from today’s perspective – the bitter battle between the Army (Steaua) and the (Secret) Police (Dinamo), with direct involvement of Nicolae Ceausescu’s family was just beginning. At least 1/3 of the Romanian national team was playing for Universitatea, so, at a glance, it did not look like this squad was going down – it will be, though, thanks to above mentioned battle between state powers, meddling behind the soccer field.
Steaua ended 2nd, 2 points behind the champions. They won the most matches this season – 21, but also lost quite a lot – 8, and that came with a cost. If it was only that… for there surely was some help for their rivals from the ‘backside’ of football.
Dinamo (Bucharest) was one again the champion – a 3rd consecutive title! 19 wins, 11 ties, 4 losses, 69-36 goal-difference, 49 points. They prevailed over Steaua by 2 points, but were unquestionably the best Romanian team at the moment. Playing well in Europe too, so it was not just domestic success.