First Division. Let say this season was transitional – the effort of transforming Soviet football into properly professional sport was a combination of inventions, experiments, wrong decisions, and resistance to change. On one hand transfers of players to foreign clubs accelerated, immediately creating a problem with replacing departing stars. On the other hand were the clubs still run the old way even when selling players abroad – the transfers were not even handled buy the clubs, but by special body of the Federation. Anyhow, the season was dominated by 2 teams and was marked by experiment in democracy, producing drastically different results – the champion and the outsider. Nationalism was rising and after the season ended Georgian teams left the Soviet championship, soon followed by others – the next season started with 14 teams and finished with 13, so this one was the last full and regular championship of USSR.
Zenit (Leningrad) was the outsider this season – last with 19 points. Various problems, boiled down to conflict between players and coach, led to the relegation of the 1984 champions. Who was right and who was wrong… most players did not want Sadyrin to coach them. Some were loyal to the coach. Pavel Sadyrin sanctioned key players, who lacked discipline and motivation, the players thought he was unfair. The scandal ended with the team voting the coach out. The direct democracy did not bring anything good – the best players also left (Dmitriev joined Sadyrin in CSKA, Salenko went to Dinamo Kiev, etc), those who were accused and punished by Sadyrin (goalkeeper Biryukov, for example) stayed. Under new, theoretically acceptable to the players coach, Zenit sunk. The democratic experiment failed miserably – and only fueled debates over democracy as such: it was destroying sports. Yet, the same approach won the championship… go figure.
Lokomotiv (Moscow) finished 15th with 23 points and was also relegated. A bit unfortunate – they ended bellow Shakhter because of less wins. Their relegation was not a surprise, unlike the grand failure of Zenit – Lokomotiv was traditional candidate for relegation. The squad, although having some strong players (Gorlukovich, champion with Dinamo Minsk some time ago, for instance), was generally weak and what was worse, it depended often on players coming from the bigger Moscow clubs – when their original clubs needed them, those players did not hesitate to leave Lokomotiv (as goalkeeper Cherchesov did before the season).The interesting thing about Lokomoiv was their coach – Yury Semin. He went down with the club and stayed, so next season he faced another rapidly rising coach, Gazzaev, in the Second Division and both climbed up with their teams to become the new face of post-Soviet Russian football. Sometimes the road to fame and success goes down, it seems.
Shakther (Donetzk) finishead also with 23 points, but rules were on their side – in case of equal points, the tiebreak was more wins. Thanks to that, Shakhter finished ahead of Lokomotiv and escaped relegation at 14th place. Top row from left: Vladimir Yurchenko, Oleg Serdyuk, Vassily Evseev, Sergey Shterbakov. Middle row: Valery Goshkoderya, Yury Gulyaev, Aleksandr Rolevich, A. Konkov – coach, V. Malyshev – assistant coach, Sergey Svistun, Aleksey Kobozev, Evgeny Drachunov. Sitting: Sergey Shipovsky, Sergey Podpaly, Igor Petrov, Viktor Grachev, Igor Leonov, Sergey Yashtenko, Aleksandr Sopko, Mikhail Mikhaylov.
Pamir (Dushanbe) – 13th with 24 points. The debutantes achieved what usually a newcomer achieves: managed to survive and were not relegated right away. Late in the season they became the first club using foreign players in the First Division, although it was mostly a novelty (2 of the 3 imported Zambians played 3 games each and were dismissed). Top row from left: A. Yuldashev, A. Azimov, ?, V. Ermolaev. Middle row: T. Akbiev, H. Fuzaylov, I. Omelchenko, V. Manasyan, A. Manannikov. Front: A. Gertner, R. Rakhimov, D. Kamaletdinov, A. Volovodenko.
Ararat (Erevan) – 12th with 24 points.
Dinamo (Tbilisi) – 11th with 25 points. They were in decline, but it did not matter much, for this was their last season in the USSR championship.
Rotor (Volgograd) – 10th with 27 points. Apparently, adjusting well to top league football. Second row from left: Sergey Kuznetzov, Aleksandr Nikitin, Aleksey Bolshakov, Valery Kleymenov, Anatoly Koval – assistant coach, Andrey Fedorovsky, A. Sevidov – coach, Aleksandr Khomutetzky, Sergey Sergeev, Oleg Krushin. Front: Yury Kalitvintzev, Oleg Stogov, Sergey Khudorozhikov, O. Sizov, S. Polstyanov, R. Manassipov.
Dinamo (Minsk) – 9th with 29 points. Top row from left: S. Shiroky, D. Klyuyko, E. Yakhinovich, S. Gomonov, S. Gerasimetz, V. Demidov, A. Metlitzky, A. Zygmantovich, S. Pavlyuchuk, P. Rodnenok. Middle row: E. Kuznetzov – assistant coach, A. Gorbylev – assistant coach, M. Vergeenko – assistant coach, Yu. Kurbyko, M. Markhel, L. Garay – team chief, E. Malofeev – coach, I. Shtekin – assistant coach, M. Tzeytin – assistant coach, A. Shalimo, V. Dmitrakov – doctor, A. Satzunkevich, A. Chernukho – masseur, L. Vassilevsky – administrator. Front row: E. Kashentzev, S. Gotzmanov, Yu. Antonovich, A. Timoshenko, I. Gurinovich, S. Aleynikov, V. Sokol, G. Lesun.
Dinamo (Moscow) – 8th with 30 points. Top row from left: I. Bulanov, A. Borodyuk, S. Silkin, I. Dobrovolsky, I. Sklyarov, S. Dmitriev, S. Neyman, A. Smirnov, S. Derkach. Middle row: D. Kharin, A. Yardoshvili – doctor, N. Tolstykh – team chief, S. Altman – assistant coach, A. Byshovetz – coach, N. Gontar – assistant coach, A. Gassov – masseur, A. Uvarov, R. Sabitov. Sitting: V. Dolgopolov, B. Pozdnyakov, V. Lossev, I. Kolyvanov, V. Karataev, A. Eremenko, E. Smertin, A. Chernyshev, A. Kobelev.
This squad should have been a title contender… but it was not.
Metallist (Kharkov) – 7th with 30 points. From left: A. Kanishtev, I. Yakubovsky, V. Shterbak, R. Kolokolov, A. Essipov, Ya. Lantzfer, Yu. Tarassov, S. Ralyuchenko, A. Ivanov, V. Simakovich, V. Suslo.
Chernomoretz (Odessa) – 6th with 31 points.
Torpedo (Moscow) – 5th with 35 points.
Zalgiris (Vilnius) – 4th with 36 points. Perhaps at their peak, but for them the end of playing in the USSR league was approaching. Unlike Dinamo (Tbilisi), they started the next season, but left the championship after a few games.
Dinamo (Kiev) – 3rd with 38 points. Not one of their best seasons for sure. It was considered that Dinamo was demoralized quite early, when Spartak (Moscow) practically destroyed them 4-1, but the factors for their dropping out of the race for the title were more complex. On one hand, Dinamo lost a number of key stars exported to the West. Others aged. Dinamo still provided the bulk of the Soviet national team, which meant that the team had much more games to play than any other team in the league, fighting on various fronts. Lobanovsky did not always all of his best due to injuries too. And it was more difficult to recruit top talent from other clubs now – Lobanovsky was on the losing side competing with foreign clubs, some players did not want to work with him, because of his heavy-handed methods, and on top of everything players now had the opportunity to negotiate better pay with other clubs and were not particularly interested in playing for winning club, but in better paying club. Still, Lobanovsky got new talent, but the players were still too young to play key roles (Luzhny, Onopko, Nikiforov, Yuran, Salenko, Kanchelskis will be big stars during the 1990s, but before the start of 1989 season they collectively had 58 games played, 47 of which belonged to Salenko, playing for Zenit). Dinamo still had enough top players for a good run, but it was also very clear that the days of Belanov, Mikhaylichenko, Protassov, Litovchenko, Ratz, Kuznetzov are numbered – they surely were going to play abroad, and very soon. In the same time Bessonov and Demyanenko were not only getting old, but were plagued with injuries. It was difficult time for Dinamo and not winning was not surprising.
Dnepr (Dnepropetrovsk) finished 2nd with 42 points. The champions of 1988 were running strong, they tried to win again, but eventually lost the battle. Standing from left: Kulish, Gerashtenko, Sidelnikov, Lyuty, Gorodov, Shokh, Puchkov, Yarovenko. Sitting: Tishtenko, Yudin, Son, Bagmut, Kudritzky, Cherednik, Chervony, Shakhov, Sorokalet.
Dnepr, although often criticized for their physical and not very attractive play, were mostly praised – they were considered the only club which managed to successfully transform into proper professional club and thus achieving success. A great example to follow. May be so, but there was something else – Dnepr had team generally of second-rate players, often recruited not from Ukraine, but from far away. That helped them keeping solid and competitive team for years – bigger clubs did not find anybody particularly stronger than the players they had and were not interested in luring Dnepr players, so the core of the squad remain the same. This stability and familiarity helped them staying on top. With time, there was also growing feeling in the club that its best players were unjustly ignored by the national team – but that was mostly injured local pride.
Champions! Crouching: A. Hadzhi – administrator, E. Kuznetzov, F. Cherenkov, G. Morozov, V. Shmarov, A. Mostovoy, I. Shalimov, A. Prudnikov. Standing: Zhilyaev – assistant coach, S. Cherchessov, B. Pozdnyakov, O. Romantzev – coach, S. Bazulev, Yu. Vasilkov – doctor, S. Rodionov, V. Pasulko, V. Zernov – assistant coach, G. Belenkin – masseur, A. Ivanov, Yu. Susloparov, V. Kulkov
Spartak (Moscow) won the championship with 44 points from 17 wins, 10 ties, and only 3 lost games. 49-19 goal-difference. Not a big advantage over Dnepr – just 2 points – but Spartak excited fotball obeservers and was called a ‘phenomenon’. That, because direct democracy was applied and produced excellent result. It was the same case as Zenit – players elected their coach. Zenit failed in that, Spartak prospered… All came from the knowledge that long time and highly respected coach Konstantin Beskov was stepping down – it became known well in advance and not just the club, but the players had plenty of time to think the next step. The players came to the decision they want to chose who will coach them, the club, willingly or not, agreed and presented two options. The players voted for Oleg Romantzev – they knew him well, for he captained them for years. He knew them well too, for he played with most with them. Their was mutual respect. Even more important was that he started well his coaching career, choosing to get experience in lower leagues, where it was easier to implement new ideas and methods. The players liked that as well. Romantzev was not only well known to them, but his modern methods were in sink with the ideas the players had about modern football. Of course, players voting who will coach appeared frivolous and highly dangerous, it looked as a road to self-indulgency and lazy passing of time, but the results were quite the opposite. Romantzev faced severe problem immediately – top stars left to play abroad: Rinat Dassaev moved to Spain and soon Aleksandr Bubnov went to France. There was no enough time to find new big names and Spartak in any case had difficulty getting stars from elsewhere for years, so Romantzev addressed the looming problem in unusual way – that depends on point of view: it was unusual, but also typical for Spartak, recalling the approach of Beskov a decade earlier, when he built a team of nobodies and won the title right after climbing back from Second Division. Romantzev himself was part of that team. Now he did pretty much the same – calling some former Spartak players and inviting lower league talent. The newcomers were mostly former Spartak players – Morozov, Bazulev, Prudnikov, Boris Kuznetzov, Sochnov, Pozdnyakov, Crechessov. None of them was what one could call top-class player and their return was met with skepticism – after all, what players failing develop further earlier, could do better now? But they were familiar to the rest of the team and to the coach, their limits and qualities were well known, relationships between coach and players were friendly and some had desire to prove themselves: after all, it was desire to play forcing goalkeepers Cherchessov and Prudnikov to leave Spartak, because with Dassaev in the team they were doomed to keep reserve’s bench warm. Now Dassaev was gone and they had a chance – competing between themselves, unfortunately, but no scandal formed (Cherchessov won the regular position, Prudnikov appeared only twice and left again after the end of the season). Romantzev did not have the best team, but he managed with what was available, mindful not to criticize heavily his players and particularly the team captain Fedor Cherenkov. Spartak won the title one round before the last, extracting 2-1 victory at home over Dinamo (Kiev), after losing 0-1 at halftime.
Sitting from left: Gennady Norozov, Aleksandr Bubnov (he went to play abroad at half-season), Fedor Cherenkov, Viktor Pasulko, Valery Shmarov, Igor Povalyaev.
Middle: Aleksandr Prudnikov, Gennady Belenkin – masseur, Oleg Romantzev – coach, Nikolay Starostin – team chief, Fedor Novikov – assistant coach, Viktor Zernov – coach of the B team, Aleksandr Hadzhi – administrator, Stanislav Cherchessov.
Top row: Vassily Kulkov, Boris Pozdnyakov, Yury Susloparov, Andrey Ivanov, Aleksandr Boky, Sergey Rodionov, Evgeny Kuznetzov, Sergey Novikov, Oleg Kuzhlev.
Missing: Sergey Bazulev, Aleksandr Mostovoy, Igor Shalimov, Boris Kuznetzov, Vladimir Kapustin, Sergey Gradilenko, D. Popov.
Well, Spartak won its 12th title and also democracy not just lost this year, but also won – and its victory was called ‘a phenomenon’.