Yugoslavia – ranked 10th. The fashionable efforts to revitalize football did not skip Yugoslavia – new rule was introduced this season: the controversial ‘Saiber rule’, as it became known after his proponent, the Prsident of the Yugoslav Football Federation Slavko Sajber. As in other countries, the ties were abolished and penalty shoot-out followed tied game. Thus, regular win was awarded 2 points, shoot-out win – 1 point, and losers, no matter how, got nothing. It was much hated rule and did not last long, but this season the champion was decided by it. The other news, already announced earlier, was the amalgamation of the 2 groups of the Second Division into one of 20 teams. Many former members of Second Division went down to third level as a result. Finally, at the end of previous championship 2 teams were caught fixing a match and were penalized with 6-point deduction – the penalty was carried on in the new championship, so Celik (Zenica) and Pristina (Pristina) started with minus 6 points the new season. Fan violence brought another penalty – UEFA banned Hajduk (Split) for 2 years because of their behavior against Olympique (Marseille) in the 1987-88 Cup Winners Cup.
Lower divisions should be mentioned mostly in terms of past and future – here is a sample of clubs playing currently in Third Division or lower: clubs, which formerly were top league members and clubs playing top level football during the 1990s:
Pobeda (Prilep). Standing from left: M. Jonuz, Radevic, Salev, Todoroski, F. Jonuz, Najdoski
Crouching: Gunev, Naumoski, Kostov, Dimoski, Trkalinov.
Siroki Brieg. Standing from left: chairman Srećko Mandić, Zdenko Ljubić, Dinko Vranješ, Rajko Ćorić, Mario Prskalo, Zdravko Primorac, Gojko Tomić, Nikola Kovačić, assistant coach Miljenko Ćužić.
Crouching: coach Žarko Skoko, Zoran Galić, Ivan Glavina, Vlado Glavina, Mario Marušić, Anđelko Marušić.
Crvenka
Cukaricki (Belgrade)
FK Smederevo
NK Belisce
Obilic (Belgrade)
NK Izola
Teteks (Tetovo)
Varteks (Varazdin).
However, the real important thing was the group winners of Third Division, for they earned promotion up. They were:
Mladost (Lucani). The photo may or may not be from this season.
Iskra (Bugojno) – the picture may or may not be from this season.
Rudar (Ljubija), and
Zemun (Zemun). Third row from left: Vorkapić, Nikolić, Grozdanić, Tadić, Goranović, Miljković, Vitorović, Spasić.
Middle row: Nikolić, Rajić, Milićević, Pleše, Kežman, Simović, Simović, Makarin, Iskić, coach Kristić,
Sitting: Tupajić, Mirilović, coach V. Pejović, director S. Pejović, head coach Santrač, Lacmanović, Kurčubić.
As it was, only Mladost (Lucani) was a newcomer to Second Division – the rest were long-time Second Division members, which went down because of the reduction of the second level and quickly climbed back. Zemun and Iskra even played a bit in the First Division. Good luck to them all the next season.
A Football Blog