USSR. At the end of the season it was said that it was Dinamo (Kiev) year and the whole championship was practically under its star. But the end was particularly dramatic – two of the 3 last games were between the leaders Dinamo (Moscow) and Dinamo (Kiev), the last match was in Kiev, Moscow leading by 1 point and Kiev extracting 2-1 win and thus prevailing and taking the title. Such victory was exciting, but doe not suggest any dominance of the new-old champions. Why, then, Dinamo (Kiev) was considered dominant? A combination of reasons – first, Dinamo won the Cup Winners Cup and was in everybody’s mouth. Second, it was practically the national team of USSR and played at the 1986 World Cup finals, getting considerable attention. The international involvement led to postponing many championship fixtures of Kiev and the new international season further complicated playing them – thus, Dinamo (Kiev) played at the very end of the season, including both matches against Dinamo (Moscow) – they were 2 of the last three games, the first in Moscow, which ended 1-1, then Kiev had a home game against Shakhter (Donetsk) – they won it 4-1 and before the last home match against Moscow they were trailing by a single point – only a win would give them the title, but they were already on track and before home crowd, they won. Frankly, this championship should be taken with a grain of salt – the Soviets always changed the schedule of the championship in order of accomodating the national team when it was playing at World Cup finals. Changed schedule instantly created opportunities for scheming and this season was not exception: on November 23 the situation was as follows – Dinamo (Moscow), practically without national team players, was leading with 36 points. They played 27 games so far and could have a maximum of 42 points. Spartak (Moscow) was 2nd with 35 points, but they had only 1 match left and their maximum could be 37 points. Zenit (Leningrad) was 3rd with 33 points and had 2 games to play – so, their possible maximum was 37 points. Dinamo (Kiev) at the moment was 7th with 30 points, but they played only 25 games so far. Five games still to play meant they could have maximum 40 points. It was clear that Spartak and Zenit had no chance winning the championship, they were already out of the picture. And for good measure consider that Torpedo (Moscow) at this moment was already going on vacation – they finished the championship, 30 games played already. With games to play at hand, one can calculate… the opposition was greatly reduced and the mood of lower-placed opponents was already restive. One can quite safely suggest that Dinamo (Moscow), in decline for many years, mostly took advantage of the situation – Kiev and Spartak were destructed by international football, having the most national team players in the country, and when nobody was looking Dinamo (Moscow) collected points. Good or bad, one thing was certain – they were among the leaders during the season, but hardly ever on the top position. Thus, they were not some new exciting squad and rightly the focus was on their Kievan namesake. That was the pinnacle of Soviet football, hiding very different reality behind. Not a new reality at all…
At the beginning of the season a survey was organized down in the Third Division – the coaches were asked about the structure and only a handful of them were in favour of it. Third level currently had 153 teams, divided into 9 Zones – or 10 really, for the Ukrainian Zone 6 was itself divided into 2 groups of 14 teams each. The winners of zonal championships proceeded to the promotional tournament – 9 clubs divided in 3 groups, the winners promoted to Second Division. Nothing new… including the problems and because of that old problems most coaches were against the structure. Dividing USSR geographically was good only on paper – in reality, the Far east has always been too weak compared to the European part of the country. But different republics were involved in the zonal championships and they had different rules, requirements and ambitions. Thus, often criticized club from Alma-Ata – SKIF – was excused in the same time: sure, it was a shame having a team regularly finishing last and receiving at least 100 goals per season, but what would you expect from squad made of juniors playing against men? Local rules permitted that, unfortunately. Also unfortunate was that there were hardly enough clubs in the area, so SKIF at least made the numbers. It was recognized that bellow 3rd level only Ukraine had meaningful football system and that was a problem as well, because Ukrainian administrators feared structural changes – they thought, perhaps rightly, that any change will break the system they carefully made. Thus, in the survey the Ukrainian opinions were rather weird: yes, the Third Division structure was a failure and counter-productive, but if changes are to be made, then only with the provision of not touching Ukrainian football. And what was ‘the Ukrainian system’? That: the champion of the Zone 6 was also the champion of Ukraine. Thus the champions of the Ukraine had real chance to go to Second Division – good motivational points. But Zone 6 was made entirely of Ukrainian teams, so it was easy to serve as republican championship as well – the other zones were mixed and none of them could serve as republican championship. The Russian republic was too large to have its clubs in one zone and Russian clubs played in few zones, some of them mixed – Third level was not meaningful solution even for Russian clubs. Thus, republican champions hardly ever had the chance to compete for promotion to Second Division and no big motivation as a result. What third-level coaches considered a better solution was reduction: no more than 60 teams playing in no more than 3 zones. It was not a new proposal – it was suggested 10 years earlier.
Whatever ‘the Ukrainian system’ was, it depended on relatively well-financed and numerous clubs. Vorskla (Poltava) was the champion of the Ukrainian republic in 1986 and they were not Third Division member – they played at even lower level and if there was motivational factor, it was in promotion to Third level, not to Second Division.
What was painfully true, though, was the fact that clubs possibly able to play quite well in Second Division played in Third level, in the European more competitive zones. Clubs like
Niva (Vinnitza), along with other former Second and even First Division members, played in the Ukrainian Zone 6;
Arsenal (Tula),
Rubin (Kazan),
Torpedo (Tolliati), and others playing in various European zones, where Russian clubs were dispersed. Too much competition for going higher…
In the same time mediocre, even plain weak, teams like Kyapaz (Kirovabad) from Zone 9,
Meliorator (Chimkent) – Zone 8, and
Sokhibkor (Khalkabad) – Zone 7 – won their extremely weak zones and had a chance to get promoted to Second Division. Just a chance, for nobody considered them potential winners in the promotional tournament.
For some reason Krassnaya Presnya (Moscow) was not considered potential winner either – as their logo suggests, they belonged to ‘Spartak Society, the reason Oleg Romantsev was starting his impressive coaching career here (last at right, middle row), but former Spartak players were dispersed in many clubs and Krassnaya Presnya apparently was not having strong enough squad for more than winning Zone 1. Similarly, the winners of Zone 3 – Sokol (Saratov) – were not expected to go up. he favourites for promotion were Metallurg (Lipetzk) from Zone 5,
Krylya Sovetov (Kuybyshev), Zone 2, and
Zarya (Voroshilovgrad), Zone 6.
At the end of the promotional tournament it was as expected – Metallurg (Lipetzk) unexpectedly underperformed, but Geolog (Tyumen), Krylya Sovetov and Zarya won their final groups and were promoted. Geolog was somewhat a sensation – not only they never played Second Division football before, but given their Northern geography, were hardly a football place. But Tyumen was producing oil and natural gas, so it was a rich place and money could do miracles – football miracles. As for Krylya Sovetov and Zarya, both clubs were more often associated with First Division than third level football and it was only natural to come back after their huge decline. In terms of possible reforming of Third Division… well, the newly promoted only spelled out the reality again: 2 Russian and 1 Ukrainian teams. Two teams from traditional football centers, but… the rise of Geolog (Tyumen) from deep-northern obscurity seemingly supported the current structure of the Third Division. That in terms of Third Division, of course.