Venezuela – arguably, the least complicated South American championship: 11-team professional league. No relegation. The first 6 teams go to final tournament after the standard first phase. The bottom five go to vacation. Eventual promotion from the lower level – very likely depending on financial requirements. Something no other South American country had: a Cup tournament as played in Europe – a separate tournament, not attached in some way to the championship. Atletico Zamora and Valencia FC competed at the final – Zamora won.
Atletico Zamora – the 1980 Cup winners of Venezuela. Some unknown Brazilians helped the club to the trophy.
The Second Level championship opposed Union Deportiva Valera to Falcon FC (Coro). Falcon FC won. They won in 1979 as well, but this victory was different – they were promoted to First Division. Curiously, the other first division team from Coro was also Falcon – but Atletico Falcon. A derby between birds next year.
The first phase of the first division championship was only important for deciding the 6 teams going to the final tournament. Deportivo Portugues was the hopeless outsider – they got only 9 points and scored 8 goals in 20 championship matches. But nothing to fear – no team faced relegation. Deportivo Galicia made another record – they tied 12 games, a league record. However, only Deportivo Portigues won less matches than them and Deportivo Galicia did not reach the final stage: they finished 8.
Deportivo Galicia – masters of ties.
The unlucky club was Deportivo Tachira – they finished 7th with 21 points: if they had one point more, they were to play the final tournament, for they had better goal-difference than 2 of the finalists.
But they lacked that one point and exited the championship with only one thing worth notice: lovely kit.
The lucky 6 were equal at this stage: 4 teams ended with 22 points – Deportivo Lara, Estudiantes de Merida, ULA Merida, and Atletico Zamora. Above them were Valencia FC with 25 points and Portuguesa FC with 29. Everything the top clubs got from the first stage was bonus points – Valencia 1 point for finishing 2nd, and Portuguesa – 2 points for finishing first. At this time Portuguesa appeared head and shoulders above the competition and the likeliest champion: they lost just a single match, they won most games, and received only 9 goals. But 2-staged championships are tricky: there are always teams playing just enough to qualified for the finals, preserving their strength for what really matters.
The final stage had one and only favourite and it was not Portuguesa. Atletico Zamora seemingly did not care much at this stage – they did not win even one match, finishing last with 5 ties and 5 losses. Like the first stage, 4 teams were more or less equal, but there was interesting development: except the champions, only one team finished with positive goal-difference. And it was not a medalist:
ULA – Universidad Los Andes (Merida) – finished with 12:11 goal-difference, but with 9 points, they were 4th in the final table.
Valencia FC was 3rd with 11 points – they would have been at the same place even without their bonus point, carried from the opening stage.
Portuguesa FC (Acarigua) was nothing much at this stage – they finished 2nd and like Valencia FC the 2 bonus points from the first stage did not matter, but they were not contenders. Supreme in the opening stage of the championship, now they were only distant second – 3 wins, 5 ties, 2 losses, and 9:10 goal-difference. Valencia finished with 9:11 goal-difference – medalists with negative goal-difference occurred now and then in football history, but it was just one such anomaly in a final table: here 2 of the three top teams finished with negative goal-difference. Perhaps unique event.
Which, of course, did not bother the strongest team at the slightest – Estudiantes de Merida soared at the final stage, leaving the rest far behind. 8 wins, 1 tie, 1 loss, 19:7 goal-difference. Hard to believe when looking at the final table of the first stage – and perhaps that was the trick: Estudiantes saved their strength for the final, fooling the competition with their originally mediocre performance. When it mattered, they were just too strong.
Champions in a grand way. Historic victory too – the first title for the club.
Estudiantes were formed in 1971 and 10 years later celebrated their first title – wonderful achievement for a young club, which was not even the number one club in their home town: ULA was. There was even a connection between the two clubs – it seemed that Estudiantes was something like farm-club to ULA, at least if one considers the people involved with organizing and running the clubs, and the obvious relation with the University Los Andes. Anyhow, ULA finished 4th and Estudiantes were the new champions of Venezuela.