First Division. No outsiders at all, but only favourites and they were not the usual ones.
Radnicki (Nis) finished last with 27 points. Quite a surprise – only a year or two ago this team was praised to the skies and now they were going down to second division. Top row from left: Bankovic, Binic, Pejic, Aleksic, Nikolic;
Middle row: Duvancic, Vojinovic,Mitrovic, Jocic, Zlatanovski, Milenkovic;
Sitting: Gogic, Gajic, Stojkovic, Milosevic.
Iskra (Bugojno) was not a surprise – they were expected to struggle. 17th with 27 points. One may feel sorry for them – soared to top flight for the first time in their history, but unable to last longer than a single season. Back to second division.
Vojvodina (Novi Sad) was in a midst of crisis and decline, but managed to survive – 16th with 29 points. Standing from left: Marić, Jovanic, Ćurčić, Dimitrić, Todorović, Zovko;
First row: Novaković, Đurović, Rac, Mesaroš, Vrga.
Buducnost (Titograd) – 15th with 30 points.
Dinamo (Vinkovci) did well – by their own measures – and secured at least one more season in the top division: 14th with 30 points.
Sloboda (Tuzla) – 13th with 31 points. They had their ups and downs, but generally survival on their minds. Hardly an impressive season, but reaching their main goal.
Osijek also reached their main goal – escaping relegation. 12th with 31 points.
Velez (Mostar) – shaky and not as good as they used to be. 11th with 32 points.
Pristina – 10th with 32 points. Not bad. Standing from left: Rama, Šuica, Domi, Šengulji, Mehinović, Gruevski.
Crouching: F. Domi, F. Murići, Vokri, Cana, Batrović.
Sutjeska (Niksic) – 9th with 33 points. Standing from left: Bakrač, Bajović, Radonjić, Giljen, Vukčević, Kuzeljević.
Crouching: Nenezic, Medin, Bajović, Vuković, Tupajić.
Rijeka – 8th with 34 points.
Zeljeznicar (Sarajevo) – 7th with 34 points. Hard to tell… this period was seen as a revival, but only if compared to recent disasters, plunging them to second division. Compared to the teams of late 1960s-early 70s, the current team was not even close.
Dinamo (Zagreb) – 6th with 36 points. Could be said that the competition was strong and thus nothing wrong to be just one of the leading clubs. Could be also said that Dinamo was unable to build really strong squad and was more likely to lose top players than to add new ones. Standing from left: Bogdan, Stojic, Arnautovic, Arslanovic, Dzeko, Zvezdan Cvetkovic.
First row: Cerin, Petrovic, Mlinaric, Borislav Cvetkovic, Lulic.
Vardar (Skopje) – 5th with 37 points. Excellent season for generally modest club and beginning of one of their best periods. Standing from left: Ilija Dimovski – chief of staff, Branislav Belevski, Vassil Ringov, Goran Zivanovic, Kocho Dimitrovski, Dragi Setinov, Ilija Najdoski, Milko Simovski, Angel Efremov, Cedomir Janevski, Petar Sulincevski – coach.
Crouching: Goce Aleksovski, Borce Micevski, Tomce Trajanovski, Darko Pancev, Pepi Georgievski, Gordan Zdravkov, Gore Jovanovski, Toni Savevski.
Crvena zvezda (Belgrade) – 4th with 38 points. A weak season, for sure. By the club’s standards, rather pedestrian squad. Crvena zvezda was not a club to leave things like that, though.
Partizan (Belgrade) – 3rd with 39 points. The title was out of reach, so they were just happy to finish above the arch-rivals. Top row from left: Jovo Simanić, Miloš Đelmaš, Zoran Vujičić, Nikola Marjanović, Radoslav Nikodijević, Jovica Kolb.
Middle row: Milonja Đukić, Dragi Kaličanin, Fahrudin Omerović, Slobodan Rojević. Vladimir Vermezović, Darko Belojević, Saša Petrović, Dragan Mance.
Sitting: Zvonko Varga, Admir Smajić, Miodrag Ješić, Zoran Dimitrijević, Zvonko Popović, Goran Stevanović, Nebojša Vučićević, Miodrag Radović.
A squad similar to Crvena zvezda’s: not bad, but needed additional classy players and quite below the great squads of the past.
Two teams were above the rest and battled for the title.
Hajduk (Split), covered with mud here, did what they could, but it was not their year and finished 2nd with 44 points. Like Crvena zvezda and Partizan, their current squad was good, but not great, and in need of reinforcements. Like Crvena zvezda and Partizan, Hajduk kept its leading position in Yugoslav football even when relatively weak.
FK Sarajevo had fantastic season and won the championship: 19 wins, 10 ties, 5 losses, 51-30 goal-difference and 48 points. 4 points ahead of Hajduk. Well deserved victory, wonderful success and everything, but the squad was not all that strong and it was clear case of one-time wonder. Objectivity would be lost on Sarajevo’s fans and for good reason: it was only the second title for them and they had to wait almost 20 years for it. And there was more: Sarajevo was now ahead of its city rivals Zeljeznicar, which remained with just one title. Still, this squad was not as great as the winners of the 1966-67 championship, there was no player in the current squad as great as Fazlagic – the only one who won both titles: back in 1967 as player, now as coach. A victory of the underdog is always enjoyable, though: Crvena zvezda, Partizan, Hajduk, Dinamo had stronger players and were left behind. Far behind.