Category: 1986

Denmark. Not much fire at the top of the table, a battle for survival between outsiders, and last trophies for two clubs. With the great stars playing abroad, the season was business as usual.

Hvidovre IF and
AaB (Aalborg) topped the Second Division and were returning to top flight once again.
Three teams were definitely weaker than the others in First Division and battled for safety – Kastrup Boldklub was successful, clinching 12th place with 14 points. Esbjerg fB with 13 points and Randers Freja with 11 points took the bottom two places and the final table and went down.
Nothing spectacular up the table – 4 teams were above the rest, but one of them dominated the championship.
OB (Odense) was one of the typical teams of the season – 8th with 26 points. Top row from left: Carsten Margaard, Christian Holst, Johnny Hansen, Leon Hansen, Tommy Møller Nielsen, Ulrik Moseby, Leif Andersen, Erik Birkholm, Per Bartram.
Middle row: Walther Richter (træner), Holger Henriksen, Erik Jørgensen, Kim Ziegler, Torben Overgård, Allan Hansen, Thorbjørn Sørensen, Palle Bo Hansen, Bjarne Hansen.
Front row: Johnny Kwasniak, Torben Frederiksen, Lars Høgh, Tom Sterobo, Peter Nørgård Nielsen, Lennart Simonsen.
Among the leaders,
Lyngby BK looked like losing steem – 4th, but rather distant 4th with 32 points.
Næstved IF had great season, ending 3rd with 35 points.
Brøndby IF finished 2nd with 37 points, continuing their solid performance, but unable to challenge this season’s leader.

AGF (Aarhus) dominated the championship and comfortably won it with 41 points. 17 wins, 7 ties, and only 2 lost games. Scored 49 goals, received 22. Wonderful victory and their 5th altogether. They had to wait some time for this one, but it was also their last championship success for a very long time. Who would know – the title promised bright immediate future. But never mind – it was a season of triumph.

The Polish Cup final was a great chance for Gornik to win a double. GKS Katowice, the other finalist, was relatively smallish club – they had good season, but Gornik outclassed them. Tradition was also on the side of Gornik, but the final proved class and tradition wrong. GKS Katowice annihilated Gornik 4-1.
Gornik lost the Cup and no double for them. Second row from left: Cebrat, Dankowski, Urban, Komornicki, Ossowski, Majka
Crouching: Gunia, Zgutczyński, Matysik, Kostrzewa, Iwan.
Why they lost so badly? Perhaps because of the relative decline of Polish football in the 1980s – Gornik had the best squad in the country, but compared to the stars of the previous decade, the players were not all that great. Iwan, who was expected to become the next great Polish star, failed to fulfill expectations. A motivated tough opponent could beat this squad occasionally and Cup finals are just such an occasion.
GKS Katowice really made history – they did not play top league football all that often nd never won anything before. This was their best season in history so far and eventually a beginning of their golden period. One is tempted to say that the big difference between GKS and Gornik was Jan Furtok – Iwan was somewhat stuck and not getting better, but Furtok was up and coming. Of course, a single player rarely is the sole reason for success – GKS had good and ambitious squad. Well deserved first trophy, whetting their appetites for more. The fans were jubilant, naturally – success at last!

First Division. Not a very intriguing season – Gornik (Zabrze) was the strongest team at the moment and quite easily won another title.
Zagłębie (Sosnowiec) was the weakest – last and relegated with 20 points.
Bałtyk (Gdynia) was the other unfortunate – 15th with 23 points. Down they went.
Lechia (Gdańsk) was lucky – 14th with 24 points.
Motor (Lublin) – 13th with 25 points. They were the team with most ties this season – 13.
Zaglebie (Lubin) – 12th with 25 points. The lowest scoring team in the championship: only 22 goals.
Stal (Mielec) – their glorious years were long gone. 11th with 25 points. Standing from left: Duchnowski, Lizończyk, Pazdan, W.Łukasik, Gruszecki, Wnuk
Front row: Śliwowski, Urbanek, Porębny, Bedryj, Barnak.
Pogoń (Szczecin) – 9th with 27 points. Standing from left: Hawrylewicz, K.Sokołowski, Urbanowicz, J.Sokołowski, Szczech, Makowski
Crouching: Benesz, Kuras, Ostrowski, Kensy, Leśniak.
Ruch (Chorzow) – 9th with 28 points.

LKS (Lodz) – 8th with 28 points. Standing from left: Bako, Wenclewski, Kruszankin, J.Robakiewicz, K.Baran, Gajda
Front: Różycki, Gierek, Chojnacki, Sibilski, Ziober.
Slask (Wroclaw) – 7th with 29 points.
Górnik (Wałbrzych) – 6th with 30 points.
GKS Katowice – 5th with 31 points. Standing from left: Krzysztof Zając, Franciszek Sput, Piotr Piekarczyk, Marek Matys, Jerzy Kapias, Zbigniew Krzyżoś
Crouching: Józef Łuczak, Jan Furtok, Mirosław Kubisztal, Marek Biegun, Wiktor Morcinek.
Lech (Poznan) – 4th with 36 points. Standing from left: Ryszard Jankowski, Czesław Jakołcewicz, Mariusz Niewiadomski, Piotr Skrobowski, Dariusz Szwagiel, Krzysztof Pawlak
Front row: Hieronim Barczak, Rafał Stroiński, Jerzy Kruszczyński, Mirosław Okoński, Bogusław Pachelski.
Widzew (Lodz) – 3rd with 41 points.
Legia (Warszawa) – 2nd with 42 points.
Gornik (Zabrze) – comfortable champions with 46 points from 21 wins, 4 ties, and 5 losses. They scored the most goals this season – 70 – and allowed the least: 17. Perhaps not as great a team as the one of the late 1960s, but stronger than any other presently. Hubert Kostka did wonderful job coaching the squad to a second consecutive title. It was also their 12th title.
Proud new-old champions.

Poland. Nothing really new, except for rather high scoring average in the top league – 2.49 per game. Second Division. Group 1. Gwardia (Warszawa) decline was permanent by now – 11th with 29 points. One team dominated the league:
Olimpia (Poznan) finished 6 points ahead of 2nd-placed Zawisza (Bydgoszcz). 16 wins, 8 ties, 6 losses, 33-20 goal-difference and 40 points. Champions and promoted – wonderful season.
Group 2. Tougher competition here, but Wisla (Krakow) lost the battle.
Olimpia (Elblag) barely escaped relegation – 12th with 29 points.
Jagiellonia (Białystok) ended 3rd with 35 points.
Wisla (Krakow) lost the battle for return to top flight – 2nd with 39 points. Standing from left:
Robert Gaszynski, Marek Świerczewski, Kazimierz Moskal, Marek Motyka, Janusz Krupiński, Michał Wróbel, Władysław Starościak, Zenon Małek, Jerzy Zajda
Crouching: Włodzimierz Siudek, Robert Markowski, Zbigniew Klaja, Jarosław Giszka, Jacek Mróz, Ireneusz Salamon, Marek Banaszkiewicz.
Polonia (Bytom) won the championship with 41 points. 17 wins, 7 ties, 6 losses, 46-26 goal-difference. Sweet return to first division football.
There was a rare anomaly this season – the rival teams of the city of Radom – Radomiak and Bron – did not play in the same group and there was no local derby.

The Cup was Budapest derby – Vasas vs Ferencvaros. Although both teams were not in their best shape , a final is a final and a trophy much desired by each team. The match ended scoreless and went to penalty shoot-out. Lady Luck smiled to Vasas and they prevailed 5-4.
This was no longer the strong team the club had in the 1970s and the season was rather lean, but they won the Cup and it was great. Perhaps the venerated coach Rudolf Illovszky was the prime factor for their success – like the club, he was already over the hill, but experience could help in single combats. Times changed, by now it was more or less clear that Vasas lost its edge and would not be able to come back, so winning the Cup was something to cherish – winning trophies was becoming accidental event.

Hungary. Top league dominated by one team, three competed for the two promotional spots in the Second Division.
Szegedi EOL Delep SE lost the battle and finished 3rd with 51 points.
Eger SE – 2nd and promoted with 53 points.

Dunaujvarosi Kohasz SE clinched 1sr place with 54 points and also returned to top flight.
First Division. Honved reigned supreme and the rest,,, well, nothing special. But still it was improtant season in some respects: shirt advertisement was going on, still selectively and carefully, and also the first foreign import played this season: an African player named Umoh played for Csepel (Budapest). Thus, Yugoslavia and Hungary were the pioneers of import in Eastern Europe, in the same year, but Hungary was the technically the first country at the other side of the Iron Curtain to do so. Once again, it was done the same careful way as introducing export – nothing much in the press, one player at a time, and in small clubs at first. But it started.
Volan (Budapest) finished last and relegated with 22 points.
Csepel (Budapest) with its African import was still very weak – 15th with 22 points and relegated.
Siofok – managed to avoid relegation. 14th with 24 points.
Debreceni MVSC – 13th with 25 points.
Bekescsaba – 12th with 25 points.
Ujpesti Dosza – arguably, their weakest season. Shamefully weak – barely escaped relegation, judging from the final table. 11th with 25 points.
Haladas – 10th with 27 points.
Vasas – 9th with 29 points.
Tatabanya – 8th with 29 points.
MTK-VM – 7th with 29 points.
Videoton – 6th with 32 points. Curiously, for a leading team, they were terribly low scorers this season: 25 goals in 30 games. Only one team scored less.

Ferencvaros – 5th with 34 points. Top row from left: Mihaly Havasi – technical director, Erdélyi, Pölöskei, Szabadi, Jozsef Bodnár – masseur, Pintér, Haaz, Zsiborás.
Middle row: Laszlo Pusztai – szakosztályvezető, Szántó, Zsinka, Hámori, Jenő Dalnoki – coach, Peter Vépi – assistant coach, Fischer, Zsivótzky, Rab, Karoly Monostori – doctor.
Front: Strausz, Deák, Ebedli, Takács, Kvaszta, Bánki, Keller, Jancsika, Kincses
Zalaegerszegi TE – 4th with 36 points. Surprisingly strong season – or, the others were too weak…
Raba ETO – maintaining consistency: 3rd with 37 points.
Pecsi MSC – 2nd with 39 points. Surprisingly high position, perhaps one of their best season, but that was also to maximum of their aim – title contender they were not. Even lost rather badly to the champions: 2-4.
Honved – overwhelmingly stronger than the rest of the league. 17 wins, 11 ties, only 2 lost games, 63-29 goal-difference. They won over the next teams in the table, they topped all Budapest clubs – thrashing Ujpesti Dosza 6-0 was perhaps the sweetest victory. They also had the record victory of the season – 7-0 vs Debrecen, and the most unusual result – 5-5 tie with MTK. They had it all… including the greatest Hungarian player of the 1980s Lajos Detari. And one more title to their collection.

Wales. Ranked 19th by UEFA this year, but it did not matter – only the Cup tournament counted for anything and the final was the typical duel between Welsh professional club, playing in the Englsih leagues and English semi-professional club outside the league system. Wrexham vs Kidderminster Harriers. The final ended undecided – 1-1 after overtime – and had to be replayed. This time Wrexham prevailed 2-1.
Kidderminster Harriers tried hard to win a trophy, but even if they did they were not going to play in the Cup Winners Cup. But they still had a good run and were equal to their professional opponents.
Wrexham prevailed, won the Cup and, with that, their chance to play some European football. Wonderful success for the Robins.

The Cup final opposed the best teams in the country – Malmo FF vs IFK Goteborg. Exciting final for sure – both teams were determined to win and prove who was really the best in Sweden. Malmo FF clinched 2-1 victory.
IFK Goteborg ended the year with nothing. Bad luck, but to a point – since the cup tournament had different schedule, played in 2 years – 1985-86 – vs single year championship, the final was played much earlier than the end of the championship. Thus, they lost the Cup almost in the middle of the championship and Malmo FF, already running strong got additional bust. Small difference, but in favour of IFK Goteborg – at the end, they did not reach the championship final. Tiny differencies, leading to unpleasant results.
Malmo FF collected a double this year – does not happen often, so it was fantastic result of very strong season. May be not the greatest squad in the history of the club, but very successful and in excellent from. Motivation was not lacking either – credit must go to Roy Hogdson, who was quietly developing into fine coach.

First Division. Still the same formula used in the previous years: after the regular season the top 4 teams proceeded to play-offs and the winner in the final was the champion. Weakened IFK Goteborg, losing key players every year, was not quite up to the task and another club – perhaps the most consistently strong Swedish club – stepped in. Only 3 teams finished with positive goal-difference and one more managed to end with neutral goal-difference. Looked like a division between strong and weak club was emerging, quite atypical for Swedish football, but times were changing… may be.
Djurgardens IF had miserable season, finishing last with 15 points. Down the Second Division.
Kalmar FF was other relegated – 11th with 17 points. Top row from left: Ulf Nordenhem, Mikael Marko, Henrik Hasselgren, Anders Jonsson, Peter Karlsson, Billy Lansdowne, Niklas Karlstrom.
Middle row: Bjorn Wigstedt, Martin Holmberg, Magnus Arvidson, Jan Jansson, Bjorn Nilsson, Hakan Jagerbrink, Magnus Nilsson, Magnus Pettersson, Peter Nilsson, Johny Erlandsson.
Front row: Hakan Arvidsson, Niklas Friman, Allan Hebo Larsen – coach, Kjell Nyberg – manager, Johnny Wiksten – physical trainer, Peter Engstrom. Ulf Karlsson.
IF Elfsborg survived – 10th with 18 points.
Orgryte IS – 9th with 19 points. Lucky.
IK Brage – 8th with 20 points.

Osters IF – 7th with 20 points.

Hammarby IF – 6th with 20 points.
Halmstads BK – 5th with 21 points.
The top 4 qualified to the championship play-offs.
IFK Norrkoping – 4th with 21 points.
AIK – 3rd with 25 points.
IFK Goteborg – 2nd with 31 points.
Malmo FF was superior by far in the regular season and topped the league with 37 points, losing just once, but nothing was done yet. The actual battle for the title followed…
And in the semi-finals Malmo FF was almost eliminated: they were tied twice by IFK Norrkoping – 2-2 and 0-0 – and qualified only on away goals.

Really unfortunate IFK Norrkoping. What a bad luck.
There was no winner in the other semifinal too: IFK Goteborg and AIK ended 0-0 and 1-1. AIK, however, was lucky to score in Goteborg.
IFK Goteborg was out. Misfortune, but they were unable to beat AIK and had only themselves to blame.
AIK and Malmo FF met at the final, but it was not much of a clash, nothing like the semifinals. AIK won the first leg at home 1-0, but they were destroyed in Malmo 2-5. And that was that.
Strong season for AIK were clearly outclassed.
Malmo FF collected one more title, but it was not by chance: they had great season, better than anybody, and faced difficulty only in the semifinal against IFK Norrkoping. Still, they lost only 2 games this year – one in the regular stage of the championship and the second – at the final. There was no doubt they deserved the title. Roy Hodgson at the helm. Good players like Jonas Thern, tied squad, tradition – all was working fine.

Second Division Södra – the Southern group. Here 3 teams were clearly stronger than the rest, but not quite equal – one was still better than the rivals, losing only twice this season.
Norrby IF was the outsider – last and out with 11 points.

Markaryds IF was slightly better, yet, also an outsider: 13th with 15 points.
Helsingborgs IF was the third infortunate: 12th with 19 points and relegated.

BK Hacken was weak, but not in real danger of relegation: 11th with 22 points.
Myresjo IF – 10th with 23 points.

Karlstad BK ended 9th with 25 points, but looked like that had some troubles and their future in the league was uncertain. May be going down…
Karlskrona AIF – 8th with 25 points.
Trelleborgs FF – 7th with 25 points.
Landskrona BoIS – 6th with 25 points.
Kalmar AIK – 5th with 26 points.
Atvidabergs FF – 4th with 29 points, but curiously with negative goal-difference: -2.
GAIS – 3rd with 38 points. Much stronger than the rest of the league, but somewhat not a title contender.
Mjallby AIF – 2nd with 39 points. The best scorers in both groups of Second Division – 72 goals in 26 games, and finishing with best goal-difference also in both groups: +48. But it was not their year…
Vastra Frolunda lost only 2 games this season and eventually built a 3-points lead by the finish. 18 wins, 6 ties, 2 losses, 48-11 goal-difference, 42 points. Excellent defense, which probably gave them the edge over their opponents. In any case, they won promotion and returned to top flight.