Venezuela – so obscure, out of sight and out of mind, it is difficult to present without notes. Shaky championship so far – must have been a problem with sound professionalism. Not every year teams were relegated from the top league or promoted from the lower level. 1983 had no promotions and relegation, but there were 2 teams going up in 1984.The exact formula, leading to promotion is unclear – there is second level champion, but how this scheme was played? On what grounds the second team was promoted? No idea.
UCV FC was the second promoted team. Fine.
Caracas-Yamaha FC was the champion of second level. Rightfully promoted. Or so it appears.
May be this was the winning squad. May be… However, no such name appeared in the next season – it was changed. Yamaha was dropped and it was just Caracas FC.
First Division had two-stage formula. 11 teams participated in 1983, same teams played in 1984. The first stage – regular league formula – was important only for relegation: the last 3 were going down. Mineros de Gayana (Puerto Ordaz) ended last, Petroleros del Zulia (Maracaibo) was 10th, and Deportivo Carabobo (Valencia) – 9th. Only Deportivo Carabobo put a fight – the other two were too weak for anything.
The top 8 teams started the second stage afresh – no points were carried over from the first stage, so everybody had a chance to win the title. Of course, no weak team in the first stage suddenly came to life – the battle was between the leaders in the first stage: Deportivo Italia and Deportivo Tachira. The only relative surprise was the drop of form of Atletico San Cristobal – they were 2nd in the first stage, but played no role when really mattered, sinking to 6th place in the final table. On the other hand, Atletico Zamora improved – they were 5th in the first stage, but challenged the leaders in the second stage, finishing with 19 points – the same as Deportivo Italia. This gave them 3rd place at the end, not bad at all, but the feeling is, that they were not really able to go higher.
ULA Merida had relatively weak season – traditionally, one of the strongest clubs in the country, but this year not a factor: 6th in the first stage, 4th in the second stage and in the final standing.
Deportivo Italia won the first stage by 2 points, then lost the title by 2 points. Fairly equal performance, so it was to a point losing a battle of equals.
Deportivo Tachira prevailed – they were 3rd in the first stage, 5 points behind Atletico Italia. But this stage did not matter… in the second stage they were stronger and finished on top with 21 points – 9 wins, 3 ties, 3 games lost. Great! Third title – the club was rapidly establishing itself as a leading Venezuelan club. One can say that foreigners were the big reason – 5 players: 3 Uruguayans, 1 Argentine and one Brazilian. No familiar names at all, but enough for lowly Venezuelan football.