Yugoslavia was still in transition, but the next generation was becoming more affirmative. Yet, it was a season equally disturbing and encouraging – international success on club level, but the national team was shaky. Some clubs on the rise or maintaining position, others plunging down. Of course, Yugoslavian football was never short of talent, but it looked like the new stars were not as great as their predecessors. The lower levels were largely unknown outside the country – naturally, the best was concentrated in the first division and the rest was mere footnote. Mass of small clubs hardly ever heard of – like Rusanda (Melenci).
Standing, from left: Petrović, Nemčev, Stankov, Ćuluman, M. Radišić, Gazibarić, Batanjski.
First row: Krasić, Baćan, Milivojev, Ćurčić,Kirćanski, R. Radišić, Franić.
Third division? Fourth? Who knows – most clubs were such: small, local, playing somewhere in the lower leagues, supplying talent to the big clubs. Some players even went to play abroad – Yugoslavians played in every country importing footballers and not at all only in the top divisions.
The Yugoslavian second division was no better known than the lower ones: most clubs were entirely unknown. Like Famos (Hrasnica). Or Majdanpek (Majdanpek). Clubs akin to Rusanda above – if playing in the second division, they were just happy. It was their best achievement. 32 clubs in total, divided geographically into two leagues – Eastern and Western. Former first division members usually competed for promotion. The last 4 clubs were relegated, the winner – promoted. The Eastern league was more dramatic this season: Tikves (Kavadarci) and Buducnost (Pec) were not up to the task, and ended at the very bottom, their combined points still not enough for 14th place. Which was also relegation place, but life and death battle between 10 clubs marked the season. At the end 4 points separated Sutjeska (Niksic) – 5th – from the relegated at 13th and 14th place. Some kind of scandal occurred as well – match fixing most likely – because Radnicki (Pirot) had 6 points deducted as a penalty. With full record they were to be 4th, after the deduction – 6th. Five clubs finished with 28 points and head-to-head results determined their final positions: Rad (Belgrade), familiar name nowadays, but not in the 1970s, ended at the top of this group – 10th. The unlucky ones were Jedinstvo (Bijelo Pole) and Lirija (Prizren) – relegated. Curiously, Jedinstvo, 14th in the final table, had the best goal-difference among the 5 clubs with 28 points and the 13th , Lirija – the worst. The drama at the bottom was less interesting than the drama at the top. Two clubs competed for first place and promotion – both recent members of top flight. Trepca (Kosovska Mitrovica) was just relegated, but played at the Cup final in 1978. They wanted back, of course – arguably, those were best years of the club. Vardar (Skopje) were just down on their luck – normally, they played first division. In fact, they rank 11th in the all-time Yugoslavian table – second division was not entirely new environment for them, but their normal habitat was first. They won promotion by a point. Trepca finished 2nd with 42 points, but very curious scoring record: 27-18. Apparently, defensive minded team – they rarely received goals, but just as rarely scored themselves – 27 goals in 30 matches, less than a goal per game… Vardar were the very opposite: attack and scoring was their forte: 63-29. They scored more than twice the goals their rivals scored. And prevailed at the end, returning to the top league.
Not a team to concur the first division, but certainly better one than Trepca. Grncarov, Gruevski and few others were good and experienced players. Micevski was perhaps their best – and he eventually played for the national team.
The Western league lacked drama – no penalized club, only one favorite, and even the battle for survival was decided simply on points. Merkator (Ljubljana) was the hopeless outsider.
Standing, from left: Bališek, Samatović, Oblak, Popovič, Žužek, Gašperšič, Bagarić, Poljanšek, Terčič, Magič
Crouching: Potočnik, Protić, Smiljanić, Rebić, Kolarič, Vrhovec, Drevenšek
Ten points behind the 15th placed Rudar (Ljubija). Eleven clubs were in grave danger of relegation this season, but it was a bit different than the Eastern league – Rudar ended with 27 points, like Segesta (Sisak) and Radnik (Bijeljina), but all others endangered clubs had more – may be a point or two, but more points. The three clubs with 27 points took the three relegation positions in the final table. There was no clear grouping in the league, though – most teams were fairly equal – 7 points was the difference between 15th and 2nd place. Maribor (Maribor) finished second, thanks to goal-difference better than Novi Sad’s by a single goal.
Standing from left: Simeunović, Irgolič, Dubovina, Jurišič, Samardžija, Deveskovi, Vujović, Vuksanović, Janković, Dinović, Nalbantić, Fatur, Donko.
First row: Radmanović, Mujkanović, Krempel, Pirc, Pećnić, Zolotić, Jasić.
Maribor used to play in first division, but really were second division club. Finishing second was impressive on paper, but they did not compete for promotion. It was one-horse race this year and the winners were recently relegated from top flight.
Celik (Zenica) had their occasional strong year, but normally belonged to the lower half of the first division, fighting for survival. Not always successfully, but they were too strong for second division and did not stay there for long. Confident winners with 40 points, losing only 4 matches during the campaign. No famous players here, so it was just return to the familiar effort of maintaining place among the best.
If anything, the winners followed the pattern – former members of first division coming back after short spell of bad luck. Proleter (Zrenjanin) were perhaps really down on their luck.
Top row, from left: Milimir Dubljević, Delivoje Šarenac, Zlatomir Mićanović, Vladan Dimitrić, Milan Majstorović, Radovan Golijanin, Arsen Tošić,
Middle row: Tomislav Manojlović – chief of the coaching staff, Miloš Vidović, Zoran Mišić, Žarko Soldo, Jožef Ezveđ, Jovica Glišin, Milorad Zorić, Đuro Ivančević, Dragan Vavan.
Sitting: Dragan Škorić, Radislav Dragojlov, Željko Stanić, Radomir Radulović, Zoran Kalezić, Jovo Sučević, Milivoje Kovačević, Đuro Zobenica.
Similar to Celik, Proleter usually played in first division. Perhaps they had slightly better squad than Celik, but were not a factor this season – they finished 5th in the Western Second Division with 32 points. Closer to the relegated than to the winners… But they played very well in the cup torunament, reaching the semi-finals. Well, they had to try again – Vardar and Celik went up.