Second Division. As usual, the division was divided into two groups – Western and Eastern – of 18 teams each. The winners were promoted to First Division and the last 4 in each group – relegated to third level. Interestingly, three former members of the top league were relegated in the Western group – Crvenka, last in the table, Maribor, 16th, and Olimpija (Ljubljana), 15th.
Western Group.
Hard to believe, but Olimpija (Ljubljana) was going down to third level. Formation from back to front:
Dalanović,
Podgajski, Vujnović,
Hudarin, Terčić, Lalović
Komadina, Bošnjak
Židan, Komočar, Voljč.
Radnik (Velika Gorica) was the 4th relegated team – they finished 17th – and the only one among the lowest which did not play top level football before.
Compared to the former first division members, modest Vrbas did well – 12th with 33 points.
Leotar (Trebinje), similar to Vrbas, also did relatively well – 10th with 34 points. Standing from left: Klimović, Mehić, Baraković, Grabovac, Škrbo, Primorac;
First row: Bajrić, Bešić, Zrilić, Šarović, Slato.
Olimpija was not the only long lasting top member down on its luck now – Borac (Banja Luka) was also suffering sharp decline, although not as terrible as Olimpija – they finished 8th with 35 points.
At the top of table were teams with familiar names in much better shape, trying to climb up. Proleter (Zrenjanin) ended 4th with 38 points. Spartak (Subotica) – 3rd with 42 points.
Sibenik – 2nd with 43 points.
But Celik (Zenica) bested all, finished 1st with 46 points from 21 wins, 4 ties, 9 losses, and 52-30 goal-difference, and earned promotion. They were longing to return to top flight as quickly as possible and succeeded.
Eastern Group. Compared to the Western group, fewer former top league members here and not as famous as those playing in the West. FK Bor and Napreadak (Krusevac) were no in good shape, but at least they were not so weak to face relegation. Apart from Liria (Prizren), there was no clearly weaker team, so fierce battle for escaping relegation involved about 12 teams. Kolubara, OFK Titograd, and Vellaznimi (Gjakova) lost the battle at the end and joined Liria in the unhappy move to the lower leagues.
Sloboda (Titovo Uzice) survived – 13th with 33 points. Vellaznimi also had 33 points, but Sloboda had better goal-difference- the whole difference between survival and relegation.
Perhaps the football played was not great, but the Yugoslav second division was fairly equal and competitive – no internal divisions, few points made the difference between higher and lower positions, everybody was equally close to relegation and top spot:
Rad (Belgrade) was 5th with 35 points. They had worse goal-difference than Sloboda, 13th; lost more games than Bor, 12th. How close they were to relegation during the championship? Well, quite close – Vellaznimi went down with 33 points. Kolubara and OFK Titograd finished with 31 points each. Rad fought slightly better, that was all.
Radnicki (Pirot) was 4th with 37 points, Pelister (Bitola) – 3rd with 37 points,
Novi Pazar enjoyed 2nd place with 39 points. And they had the best goal-difference this season: +24 points. But promotion was out of their reach.
OFK Beograd won the championship and was promoted: 18 wins, 8 ties, 8 losses, 53-33 goal-difference, 44 points. 6 points ahead of Novi Pazar, but it would be a mistake to think of OFK Beograd as really superior to all others – the club was in decline for quite some time, the squad was insignificant , if compared to the teams this club had in the past, and the only aim was to return to the top league. Survival there was another matter. Standing from left: Milenković, Bjelić, Stojaković, Đurić, Ivanović, Kuzmanovski;
First row: Stojadinović, Kahrović, Marković, Stevović, R. Stanković.
Well, that was that – Celik (Zenica) and OFK Beograd (Belgrade) were promoted or rather returned to first division.