Football Journey

The East German First Division was the same as ever – whatever different this season, it was only nuances. Four clubs made the outsiders group, but no big shake up – the better known clubs still survived: with 18 points each, BSG Sachsenring (Zwickau) and BSG Wismut (Aue) finished safely at 11th and 12th positions.

BSG Chemie (Bohlen) finished 14th and last with 16 points. It was expected – they were promoted for the first time in 1976-77, barely survived in their debut first division season, relegated 1978-79, promoted 1979-80. At most, Chemie was trying to become one of the ‘in-between’ clubs, but otherwise – prime candidate for relegation.

With 17 points BSG Stahl (Riesa) ended 13th and also relegated.

Same as Chemie (Bohlen) – true, they had longer and better first division history, but essentially ‘in-between’ club at best. Relegation was rather the rule, not the exception.

Five clubs were typically just mid-table clubs, not worrying about relegation, not thinking for a place higher than 5th.

1.FC Lokomotive (Leipzig) had a relatively weak season, for they were normally among the best teams, but still they topped the mid-table teams, finishing 6th with 28 points.

The names here were familiar, the same clubs year after year, with minor internal shuffling.

FC Rot-Weiss (Erfurt) finished 7th, which perhaps was a good season locally, but nationally – nothing suggested real improvement.

FC Hansa (Rostock) – 10th with 21 points – was a bit more interesting: the 1970s were terrible decade for them. They were promoted for N-tieth time the previous season and managed to survive. Not a great performance, but may the vicious circle ‘relegation-promotion-relegation’ was about to end.

Well, when 9 of the league members are taken aside, only 5 remain – nothing new, such was the predicament of East German football. Lokomotive (Leipzig) was somewhat outside this group, but it was clear that the club suffered only a minor temporary slip. On the brighter side was FC Vorwarts (Frankfurt/Oder) – 31 points and 5th place.

Once upon a time the Army club was the leading one in DDR, but their almost dominating years ended in the beginning of the 1970s, pretty much with their relocation from Berlin to Frankfurt/Oder. The club sunk to second division. In 1979-80 they won promotion and now they were not fighting for mere survival, but climbed high. It looked like Vorwarts was restoring its leading role, only they were at still early stage and better year was about to come. However, times changed… and Vorwarts was never to win a title again.

SG Dynamo (Dresden) was 4th , but it would be a mistake to say they were going down: perhaps a title contender this season, but solid as ever, losing bronze medals only on goal-difference. The team, however, was shaken by a scandal – it did not come to press coverage at the time, but in January 1991 three stars were arrested and brought to trial. Gerd Weber, Peter Cotte, and Matthias Muller were arrested at the airport, just before the DDR national team was leaving to tour South America – the players planned to escape to West, but were uncovered. Weber was sentenced 2 years and 3 months in jail, the other were not, but were expelled from Dynamo (Dresden), banned from the national team, and extended bans from playing any level of organized football – for DDR officially did not recognize professional sports – were slapped on them. Considering the tremors of such political scandal, Dynamo actually performed very well.

1.FC Magdeburg (Magdeburg) ended with bronze medals, thanks to better goal-difference. Like all leading clubs, they maintained their class without any sign of erosion. About 8 former and current national team players here, lead by the top East German striker of the 1970s and one of the all-time best players, Joachim Streich, who was the top scorer of the league for a third time.

FC Carl Zeiss (Jena) finished 2nd with 36 points: 2 points ahead of Magdeburg and Dynamo (Dresden), 3 points behind the champions. Best defensive record in the league – they allowed only 29 goals.

Top row, from left: Dietmar Sengewald, Gerhard Hoppe, Hans-Ulrich Grapenthin, Detlef Zimmer, Rudiger Schnuphase.

Middle row: Hans Meyer – coach, Eberhard Vogel, Ulrich Oevermann, Andreas Bielau(?), Jurgen Raab, Martin, Topfer, Helmut Stein – assistant coach.

Front row: Wolfgang Schilling, Dieter Noack, Konrad Weise, Andreas Bielau(?), Lutz Lindemann, Jorg Burow.

On the surface – typical and no big deal: Carl Zeiss, like all the favourites, had a large number of former, current, and emerging stars, thus able to stay on top. An excellent international season, culminating at Cup Winners Cup final perhaps excused them from really competing for the title. But that was only on the surface – reality was already different, increasingly becoming whispered about: no matter how good were other teams, including Carl Zeiss, the title was reserved for only one club.

BFC Dynamo (Berlin) won its 3rd consecutive title with 39 points. They won 17 matches, tied 5 and lost 4. Goal-difference: 74-31, the only team scoring above 60 goals this year. Plain numbers tell all? On the surface, they did.

Champions again – three years in a row, and the future looking very bright:

Looking at the squad, two things immediately bring attention: first, the team was very young, unlike the other leading clubs. With their average age of 23.4, these guys were going to be a factor for the next 10 years. Only 2 veterans – Reinhard Lauck and Frank Terletzki, and if Lauck was aproaching retirement, Terletzki seemingly was just arriving at his peak as a player. Second, these were the up and coming stars of East German football – apart from 2 veteran national team players, Lauck and Hans-Jurgen Ruidiger, the rest were just starting their national team career, but almost all of them already played for the other national team formations, those under 23. So much for purely football advantages. The real ones were outside the pitch, and by now at least in East Germany, people were not only suspecting – they were sure what was going on. Dynamo belonged to the Police and not even in a brod sense, but to the Secret Police, the ominous Stasi. Not only the club was able to get the top players – the Stasi ensured the success by clout, direct interference, and threats. After all, it was Stasi arresting and putting on trial the three stars of Dynamo (Dresden). It was clear that Stasi had a long-term intentions for its club and no matter what, Dynamo (Berlin) was designated winner for years to come – even the Army was unable to compete, Stasi ruled. So, no matter how good and promising this Dynamo squad looked like, their qualities really did not matter – they were going to win simply because Stasi ordered so.

 

DDR – the clubs were ranked 7th for 1981 and also 7th in the 5-year table concerning the number of teams a country had to play in the next UEFA Cup. The national team, however, did not rank that high, routinely missing World and European finals. To a point, DDR passed its peak – 1974-75 – but the new changes in the game itself were quite suitable for the straight no-nosense, physical, tough football, which emerged in the late 1970s and was to dominate the 80s. High ranking internationally, but hardly anything new domestically. The Second Division was still more of an appendix than anything else: the difference in class continued to be so great, that hardly anyone expected promoted teams to last more than a season or two among the best. And speaking of the best – they were sharply divided too. But Second Division – divided into 5 groups, the winners going to promotional play-off, the best two promoted. Usually a few former members of First Division competed for promotion. Occasionally, one or two of those missed the boat.

This year Chemie (Leipzig) failed to run for promotion, but this was rather the exception than the rule.

The winners of the five groups were: BSG Energie (Cottbus), BSG Chemie Buna (Schkopau), 1. FC Union (Berlin), BSG Schiffahrt Hafen (Rostock), and BSG Motor (Suhl). The final tournament set the record straight: Motor (Suhl) obviously was not at the same level as the rest and finished last.

Motor was unable to win even a single match, finishing with 3 ties and 5 losses.

Schiffahrt Hafen put a fight, but was not a real contender – they ended 4th with 3 wins, 1 tie, and 4 losses.

Union (Berlin) perhaps disappointed: as freshly relegated from First Division, they were expected to be stronger than the rest and climb up again. But they finished 3rd with 3 wins, 2 ties, and 3 losses. This opened the door for a surprise:

BSG Chemie Buna (Schkopau) finished 2nd with 4 wins, 2 ties, and 2 losses, thus promoted. Parctically unknown club, which appeared in second division in 1971-72, when the second level championship was enlarged – and precisely because of that. Chemie Buna was relegated immediately, but came back after one third division season and this time not only stayed, but gradually climbed up the table. 1980-81 was their best season ever: they won their group and earned promotion. The club never played first division football before, so promotion was great achievement.

Energie (Cottbus) topped the promotional play-off with 5 wins, 2 ties, and single loss – obviously, the strongest team among the candidates.

Third row:Karl-Heinz Jahn, Bernd Müller, Robert, Reiß, Klaus Pohle, Bernd Mudra.

Middle row: Andreas Göhlich (Co-Trainer), Dieter Schulz (Cheftrainer), Ralf Lempke, Uwe Weller, Bernd Kulke, Peter Zierau, Michael Braun, Dr. Klaus-Dieter Schubert.

Crouching: Petrik Sander, Roland Balck, Rolf-Dieter Kahnt, Andreas Wendt, Hagen Wellschmidt, Bernd Deutschmann.

Energie was a small club at the time, one of the ‘unsettled clubs’, constantly moving up and down, so at least they were typical winner of promotion. However, they played First Division football for the last time in 1975-76, so it took them quite a long time to move up again – which was great for their supporters. Apart for that, the next season would really tell how good were both promoted clubs – Energie had better chances for survival than Chemie Buna, but if only compared to the absolute newcomer to top league.

The Cup final reflected the championship – the second best teams reached the final in one last attempt to prove their worth: Standard vs Lokeren. The final was unquestionable triumph of the up and coming younger team, which may not have been ready to win the championship, but was very strong indeed – Standard won 4-0.

Lokeren finished twice second-best, which was rightful testimony for the real class of the team – it was just that: second-best, not a winner.

Standard had a lot in its own favour: bright squad and great coach – Ernst Happel turned everything he touched with his bad temper and brandy glass into gold. Feyenoord, FC Brugge, Holland, now Standard. Too bad this was last year coaching Standard – he was moving to new and greater conquests. Plenty of talent here, both domestic and foreign, slightly younger players than Anderlecht’s squad, a team with a future. A second life for Ralf Edstrom, who returned to the spotlights after what seemed to be steady decline. Wonderful Eric Gerets.

May be the team needed one or two finishing touches, but for the moment – 4th cup, their first since 1966-67. Also their biggest success since 1970-71 – clearly, Standard was back at last.

The Belgian First Division showed nothing new in terms of emerging wider competitiveness – the leading clubs were the same,which defined the league during the 1970s, with one, and clearly temporary at that, exception: FC Brugge had a relatively weak season. The only mystery was at the bottom of the table.

Berchem Sport was the absolute outsider – 18th with 19 points, but it was no surprise at all. Relegation was more or less expected and normal.

The mystery was about the second relegated team.

With 24 points R. Beringen FC finished just above Berchem Sport – 17th – and had to be relegated. But it was not.

Instead, Beerschot VAV (Antwerpen), 15th in the final table, went down. Why is not clear – unless there was a relegation play-off. Lucky break for lowly Beringen and the city of Antwerpen lost its derby, at least for the next year.

Nothing really strange in the league – minor moves up or down among the bulk of not very strong teams. The only drop happened to FC Brugge – 6th place this season with 37 points.

Third row from left: Birger Jensen, Walter Meeuws, Dirk Ranson, Patrick Verhoosel, René Vandereycken, Zoran Filipovic, Philippe Vande Walle.

Middle row: Han Grijzenhout (coach), Eddy Warrinnier (kine), Paul Courant, Jan Sörensen, Leen Barth, Jan Ceulemans, Georges Leekens, Istvan Magyar, Raymond Mertens (assistant-coach).

Sitting: Laszlo Balint, Jos Volders, Fons Bastijns, Danny Vandenhende, Luc Vanwalleghem, Jacky Debougnoux, Gino Maes, Pettri Kupiainen.

The slip was clearly temporary and most likely due to rebuilding – FC Brugge aged and had to change generations, almost always a problem, at least for awhile. One thing which perhaps made FC brugge shaky this year seemingly was the absence of new bright Belgian talent: the local stars, Jan Ceulemans included, were not new rising boys. Foreign players seemingly were compensating for that and, whether experienced veterans of the league, or new recruits, they also aging players – Birger Jensen, Leen Barth, Laszlo Balint, Istvan Magyar. Jan Sorensen and Pettri Kupianen were not what one may call a star, and Zoran Filipovic, perhaps the most valuable foreign asset, most likely was not going to last. However, in Belgian context, FC Brugge had more than enough class to return quickly to the top.

RWD Molenbeed finished 7th, but the club was slowly slipping down for some time, so nothing surpirsing. Second row: Borremans, Ruiter, De Bolle, Desaeyere, De Cubber, Jansen, Olsen, Cnops, Bogaerts, Deleu ;

Sitting: Devriese, Erkens, De Kip, Boskamp, Cneudt, De Wolf, Martens, Gorez, Luyckx, Soors.

Like it or not, RWD Molenbeek suffered from its predicament – the club was not able to compete with financially stronger clubs, particularly with local rival Anderlecht, and depended on players no longer needed in other teams: Ruiter, De Cubber, Boskamp. They tended to be older and beyond their peak, hence, the club struggled to maintain mid-table position only.

SK Beveren was still running high, but they were even more limited than RWD Molenbeek, so the 4th place was more of an inertia. The strong teams were 3, all of them familiar. Standard (Liege) finished 3rd with 42 points.

Standing from left: ? , Edstroem, Preud’homme, ? , ? .

Crouching: Voordeckers, ? , ? , Renquin, Gerets, Tahamata.

For the moment, just overcoming Beveren, but a team with plenty of talent and potential – not at its peak, though, so they were not a real factor this season.

Lokeren finished comfortably 2nd – not competing for the title, but without a rival for the second best either – 46 points left Standard 4 points behind.

Now, Lokeren was among the stronger Belgian teams for the most of the 1970s and still maintained their position – a good team, but not really a team capable of running for the top spot. It depended largely on increasingly aging foreigners, particularly on once upon a time written off Polish great Lubanski. His compatriot Grzegosz Lato eventually joined the club, but he was not getting younger either, and the Czechoslovak star of the 1970s Karol Dobias was 33 when he came to Lokeren before this season started. The Islander Gudjohnsen was building a good reputation, but he was never a big star, and Preben Elkjar-Larsen was still trying to establish himself, his fame would come later in the decade and not with Lokeren. A good time, but getting stronger was impossible – maintaining good performance was the best possible.

Which left one club dominating the championship. Anderlecht had an easy season, without a real rival. They sailed to yet one more title with 26 wins, 5 ties, and only 3 losses, fantastic goal-difference – 83-24, and 57 points, which was 11 more than what Lokeren managed.

Nothing new under Belgian sun – 17th title, although it was their first after 1973-74. One name is missing here – Maertens is on the first row, between Vercautern and Nielsen. Admirable job for coach Tomislav Ivic, who was still building his European reputation and perhaps this season was the true point of recognition. As usual, Anderelcht was a blend of domestic and foreign stars – the Danish Morten Olsen and the Yugoslav Peruzovic were not young players, but the fitted well. Perhaps the emphasis was too much of foreigners and young Belgian talent was absent, but Anderlecht was the most resourceful Belgian club, so it was just a matter of need and time to get rising local star. This may not have been the most impressive squad, but it was one of the easiest victories of Anderlecht.

 

Belgium was enjoying fine turn of a decade: vice-champions of Europe and at club level – ranked 12th for 1981, but 5th for the more important 5-year table, kept by UEFA. Behind the numbers was inevitable reality – no matter how great a generation was, Belgium was small country, and, including foreigners, there were no more than 100 classy players or 4-5 stronger clubs. Nothing new and a look beyond those few strong teams the picture was just as it ever was: not so great. That was why only the champion of Second Division was directly promoted and the second promotional spot was decided by play-off tournament. The lower league was sharply divided – two absolute outsiders at the rear end: ROC Montignies s/S. – 15th, and SK St.-Niklase SK – 16th and last, both not only with 17 points, but with exactly the same goal-difference – 27:54. Since both clubs were going down to third level, final positions mattered only for the record – number of wins decided that: ROC had 5 – 2 more than St.-Niklase – and got the next to last place. Above them were three clubs with 25 points – KFC Diest, 14th, RC Jet de Bruxelles, 13th, and KRC Mechelen – 12th. In the safe middle part of the table all was placid enough up to the top 5 teams – those from 2nd to 5th place qualified for the final promotional play-off. Charleroi was perhaps a bit unlucky, finishing 6th with 32 points. The lucky ones were KV Mechelen – 5th with 33 points, SC Hasselt – 4th with 34, KSK Eendracht Aalst – 3rd with 37, and RFC Sérésien – 2nd with 40 points. Technically, it looked somewhat unfair to RFC Seresien, for they had strong season and finished clearly above a whole bunch so-so teams, but rules are rules, and they had yet to earn promotion. Which was not to be, for RFC Seresien lost steam and finished last in the round robin play-off tournament. Just the opposite happened to KV Mechelen, the weaker team in the championship – now they put a fine effort and finished comfortably on top with 3 wins, 1 tie, and 1 loss.

Standing from left: Freddy Verbelen, Stanley Brookes, Mark Talbut, Gustavo Lisazo, Dirk Crabbé, Henk van Rooy, William Janssens, Francis Spinnael

First row: Ronny Lambrechts, Robert Immens, Marc Decoster, Dirk Mertens, Bruno Charels, Karel Kesselaers.

Not a squad to brag about, but happily promoted.

That left the winners: KSK Tongeren practically had no rival this season – 18 wins, 9 ties, and 3 losses, 63-26 goal-difference, and 45 point – the nearest pursuer was 5 points behind. Going up again, but the real test would be next season. Same for KV Mechelen.

 

St. Etienne had a great chance for celebrating a double this year, for they reached the Cup final. Winning the cup was quite important, for it was elusive trophy for ‘the greens’: the last time they won it was in 1975. The moment was perfect – Bastia was the other finalist and they had a rather weak season. Surely Platini and company would won easily… but no! Bastia fought bravely and prevailed 2-1, winning their first Cup against odds and reason.

St. Etienne as they lined up before the final, which looked like mere formality: standing from left: Gérard Janvion, Patrick Battiston, Jacques Santini, Bernard Gardon, Christian Lopez, Jean Castaneda

Crouching: Johnny Rep, Laurent Roussey, Michel Platini, Jacques Zimako, Jean-Marie Elie.

Well, the lost final perhaps showed that this new St. Etienne was not yet the finished product, not ready to truly dominate the French football.

Brave Bastia not only upset the big guys: they won their very first – and so far, only – trophy. May be the team, reaching the UEFA Cup final in 1977-78 is considered legendary outside France, but these guys are the real club legends, for they won, not only played a final. Compared to St. Etienne, they wee almost nothing. They were also less famous squad than the UEFA Cup finalist – there was no world class star among them, Rep was playing against them now. In fact, they had famous players earlier – Rep and Dragan Djajic before the Dutch striker. Now… Rajkovic was not first rank Yugoslavian player, Roger Milla so far nobody heard of outside Africa – he was not a major name in France. Papi, Orlanducci, Hiard, Lacuesta… good, but second tier players – local stars surely, but no more. It was a great victory of the underdog. Nothing wrong with that: Bastia had something to put in its trophy room at last.

The French First Division was characterized by clear separation at top and bottom this season: two outsiders and two title contenders. Nothing surprising in between – the known stronger teams ended high, the lesser teams – low.

Angers was last with 24 points.

Nimes finished 19th with 26 points, joining Angers in relegation. Both teams were well bellow the rest of the league.

Tours was 18th , but with 31 points they were out of danger for a long time – although at the bottom of the table, Tours were successful in their own way: managed to remain in the first division without much trouble.

Laval was similar to Tours – staying with the best was their maximum goal, so the season was fine: they were 16th.

The crisis of Nice continued – the squad was not that bad, considering the names, but the club was going downhill for some years and there was no reversal of the fall: Nice was not yet in direct danger of relegation, but it was just a matter of time. 15th this year.

Mid-table had expected clubs in it: Lens, Sochaux, Nancy, Valenciennes, the usual dwellers.

Perhaps Metz deserves a note: they had relatively strong season, taking 9th place at the end with 36 points. Not much by itself, but a good beginning of coaching career for Kasperczak, one of most impressive members of the 1974 Polish national team. And practically the first of the key stars to switch from playing to coaching.

Auxerre finished 10th – not bad at all for a virtually unknown club only 3 years ago. Coach Roux was becoming familiar name, pushing his creation higher and higher. The formula was stubbornly uncompromising: local boys, helped by foreign stars – so far, only Polish. Three this season – Klose, a reserve by now, and Wieczorek, remembered form the 1974 World Cup. The third is not on this photo, but on the following one:

Andrzey Szarmach, one of the best Polish strikers in the 1970s, the most famous player in the squad of Auxerre. Next to the Poles, two local boys were getting stronger and stronger – Ferreri and Bats. Auxerre was the club steadily going up.

The top of the table was familiar:

Lyon was 6th, although they were really at the top of the mid-table bulk. May be a bit weaker than usual, but just a bit – they were constant feature of top French clubs year after year.

Paris SG was 5th with 46 points, 5 more than Lyon, but like Lyon, they were continuously among the best, without really able to contest the title. Perhaps the club philosophy was essentially wrong: for years Paris SG depended on oldish stars. Big names technically helped building followers – something important for a still very young club with ambitions – but on the negative side was the simple fact that the veterans were beyond their peak and the chemistry was not good enough for conquering the league. Bathenay, Rocheteau, Huck, Baratelli already had their best years elsewhere. Toko, Dahleb, and Pilorget never became first-class stars and the same was true for the Portuguese import Silva Braga. Luis Fernandez was practically the only younger player with star qualities – experienced and solid squad, but not a champion squad. Again.

Monaco, notoriously unstable, was at a good stretch and finished 4th with 49 points. They lost bronze medals only on goal-difference, but the future looked bright: Petit, Amoros, Ettori, Couriol, Emon, Bellone, the foreign solid players Umberto Barberis (Switzerland) and Victor Trossero (Argentina) – a well mixed skeleton of young and old stars, with reliable talent at the fringe. Stability was the constant issue, but the potential was very strong.

Bordeaux fully recovered its leading position in French football this season, but the team was not yet at its peak – 3rd place corresponded to their near-peak situation. Like Monaco, this was a squad with a future, perhaps better one than Monaco’s, for Bordeaux had a team of fighters: Tresor, Giresse, Lacombe were already the big leaders. May be Bracci and Gemmrich were a bit over the hill and van Straelen – not exactly the player expected to be five years ago, but there was solid and rising players like Rohr, Thouvenel, and Soler. Eime Jacquet was making his name coaching this team and whatever was still missing was easy to correct – it was a team needing only a fine tuning, a bit of a finishing touch.

The race for the title was familiar – between Nantes and Saint Etienne, the best French clubs since 1970. Both teams managed to change generations without losing class. Perhaps two ago Nantes was fresher, but now they needed a bit of reshaping – St. Etienne meantime had their new team, promising to be at least as strong as the one of the mid-70s, possibly greater. Yet, the race was tight and St. Etienne prevailed minimally – they won one match more than their rival. One more title.

Coach Robert Herbin must be on focus: he was with the club since 1957, first as a player, and in 1972 he took the coaching position from Albert Batteux. St. Etienne was already leading French club in the 1960s – with Herbin in it – and the 33-years old inexperienced coach only improved on the team, making it a leading European team, which culminated in 1976. But Herbin did not allow the inevitably aging team to sink – on the contrary, he managed to keep it at top of French football while he changed generation and by 1980 his new squad was ready. This time it looked like that Herbin took one more step up: St. Etienne started as strong French team, became European leading team, and now had the appearance of world class team: it was no longer making players, but buying great stars: the new team was based on Michel Platini and Johnny Rep. By now only 4 players of the old wonderful team remained – Ivan Curkovic, Gerard Janvion, Christian Lopez, and Jacques Santini, but transition had been smooth – Curkovic, for instance, was no longer the regular starter, replaced by Jean Castaneda, who was included in the French national team. The old-timers no longer defined the team, but the next generation was firmly in charge: Patrick Battiston, Jean-Francois Larios, Jacques Zimako. Of course, Michel Platini, coming to his peak, was central figure. Perhaps the squad needed a few finishing touches, but now it looked like that they will be at the level of Platini or Rep and the 1980s looked more than promising – St. Etienne started the new decade clearly determined to be even stronger than it was in the 1970s. Bright future on the horizon, but… wait a few years, keeping an eye on Italy. At the moment – a record 10th title, all but one of them achieved with Herbin as either player, or coach. Who would have expected this will be the last title?

 

 

Second Division Group B did not have even the small drama Group A had: one team dominated the championship. At the other side of the table the battle for survival preoccupied about 7 clubs, except the very last: Stade Malherbe Caen was the outsider. 18th with 22 points.

UES Montmorillon ended 17th with 27 points and was relegated along with Caen.

Of the group which escaped relegation Paris FC – 15th with 28 points – was the interesting name.

Birth defects, one could say. A decade ago the newly formed Parisian club was split in two by the decision of the Federation and Paris FC was left almost with nothing. The club fought bravely to establish itself, even played in the top division, but… Paris St. Germain got the money and since France was not crazy about football, even Paris was not the kind of city where two clubs, especially new, could prosper. Paris FC was still positioned higher than two older and more famous Parisian clubs – Stade de Francais and Racing – but it was undeniably small club, sinking deeper and deeper. At the turn of 1980s its sole ambition was to stick in second division, however perilously. By now, the company Paris FC kept was insignificant – teams like

AAJ Blois, 12th this season and perhaps happy with that. Merchadier captained them, but even for him success was already a distant memory.

Yet, it was not Paris FC in true decline, but the most famous French club of the past: Stade Reims. After the end of the 1950s Reims was steadily going down, to find itself not only in the second division at the beginning of the 1980s, but also as a run-of-the-mill team there – mid-table was the best they could do: 10th this year. Reims never climbed back to leading position in French football. Now it was at the level of

AC Le Havre, which occasionally would be able to have a good season and go up, but more likely was to play uninspired second division football – they were 8th this year – or

En Avant Guingamp, which was a stable feature of the second division, but did not dream so far for something better. Typically, Guingamp finished at 7th place – safe mid-table.

Stade Rennes ended 4th with 40 points – however, Rennes was similar to Marseille: they were one of the constantly moving between first and second division clubs, a club in between, so failing promotion was not exactly a big news.

FC Rouen was 3rd with 42 points – a relatively good season, but promotion was clearly not up to them. Perhaps the most memorable thing of them was their kit: by itself, not unique, but always very rare three-colour combination in the history of football.

Excellent season for the small US Noeux-les-Mines – second place. With 44 points they did not really challenge the league champions, but this was one the greatest seasons in the history of a club for which second division was pretty much the highest possible level of success. The squad itself is a testimony of the great contribution of the Poles to French football: 5 Polish names here, although it was traditionally difficult to separate imports from French players of Polish stock. The great season should be attributed to the coach – Houllier was not famous at all yet, but only at the beginning of his own success.

Stade Brest was the dominant champion. They left Noeux-les-Mines 5 points behind and finished with 49 points from 20 wins, 9 ties, and 5 losses. Best attack and best defense, naturally.

Well, Brest was modest club without serious money, but the league was not very strong and a little drop of ambition made the difference between them and the rest. As far as names go, Brest had perhaps more strong players than any other club: three. The French Parizon and Keruzore and the Yugoslavian striker Drago Vabec, who never played much for his native country – because he played for a wrong club, as he said – was a bit whimsical, thus unpredictable and not always reliable, but proved to be very loyal player. He was already a member of Brest for years, come low or high. Promotion for Brest meant a lot and they deserved it without a question. Well done. There is a bit of a problem with the historic record of the club – it was founded in 1903 under the name Armoricaine de Brest, but changed name in 1950 – with that came a new registration, so technically 1950 is given as a founding year and the record runs from there: under this name Brest played so far only 1 single season in First Division – 1979-80. After a single year in the second level, they moved up again for a second try of top level football. Good luck!

France, rapidly moving up on international scale, was still pretty much the same domestically: no really big clubs emerged, even St. Etienne and Nantes did not come close not to Real Madrid, Juventus, or Bayern, but to, say, Anderlecht or Ajax. Second division football was pretty much like everywhere else except England – there was sharp difference between first and second division football. The lower level distinctly belonged to modest clubs without much money and, thus, without big ambitions. One thing France differed from the rest of Europe was that the two groups of the second division had not only relegated and promoted newcomers, but clubs were moved from one group to the other every year. For the 1980-81 season Besancon, Angouleme, and Montlucon were moved from Group B to Group A, and Paris FC, Blois, and Orleans went the other way. The rest was business as usual: 18 teams in a group, the winner promoted to First Division and the last two relegated to Third Division. Hm, not quite – three teams were relegated from Group A and two from Group B – Third Division was organized into five groups, that was why.

AS Corbeil Essonnes finished 18th and last.

Olympique Avignon – 17th. Both clubs at the bottom finished with 21 points, the outsiders of the league, but if Corbeil was more or less expected to be there, Avignon was playing first division football not very long ago – first division they were not, seemingly second division was their right level, but now they were going down and rightly so.

The third relegated team finished with 24 points and lost the battle for survival by a single point, but frankly US Tavaux Damparis were not the kind of club able to stay in the second tier for long.

Right above the relegated were teams expected to be in the lower half of the table:

Etoile Motlucon – 15th, AS Libourne – 14th, and

FC Grenoble – 12th. Pure survivalists. Down on its luck was a club with more familiar name –

Gazelec Ajaccio ended 13th which was not all that surprising – the club’s performance amplitude was very wide and unpredictable, but there was also confusing element in tracing their records: the city of Ajaccio had two clubs with very similar names, same colours, and practically identical logos. Since they rarely played in the same division, usually were referred to just as ‘Ajaccio’, making difficult to know which one was actually playing in the upper divisions: on this occasion it was Gazelec, seemingly the stronger club in 1960-70s.

The mid-table was more or less familiar and true to expectations:

AS Cannes was 9th, FC Gueugnon – 8th.

Standing from left: C.Nowotarski (entr) – Ch.Trivino – Mamessier – JC Berthommier – M.Berthommier – en équipe A.Chaussin – JP.Segaud – P.Rossin – Lecroat – Godot – Bandera – Conrath.

Sitting : J.Duch – Clopin – Soulier – Stropoli – A.Bernard – Segard – JL.Fournier – Borgna – Regaisse.

Neither team developed ambitions as yet, continuing there rather mellow existence in the second level of French football. The biggest disappointment was Olympique Marseille.

6th place with 39 points, 3 points behind the the 5th and not even remotely close to the actual top – if there was a big downfall, it happened to Marseille: the leading French club at the beginning of the 1970s went into severe crisis – sure bad decisions and likely deep financial problems reduced the club often considered as true French giant to relegation and even the second division was a bit too much: the squad was not even pedestrian, but almost anonymous. Only the veteran Zvunka remained from the great old days, and he was only a veteran now.

AS Angouleme, just moved to this group, finished 5th , but their glory days were clearly over long time ago – solid, as it seemed, Angouleme was not in the race for promotion. Only three clubs aimed higher and perhaps one of them was more of an accident than the real thing: RCFC Besancon finished 3rd, losing second place on goal-difference. Still, Besancon was unlikely candidate for promotion – the top two were seen as potential candidates. As far as a strong team is recognized by the players in the squad, FC Toulouse and Montpellier were stronger than the rest.

FC Toulouse had the most famous players – only two, but that was much more the rest of the league members had: the former Belgian international van Binst, still vividly remembered from the great exploits of Anderlecht a few years ago, and the well traveled Hungarian refugee Atilla Ladinsky – unfortunately, both were at the end of their careers and no longer the players they used to be. Toulouse obviously lost steam and was able only to finish second, edging Besancon on goal-difference, but 3 points behind the champions.

La Paillade Montpellier topped the league with 50 points from 21 wins, 8 ties, and 5 losses. Their strongest point was defense – the team allowed just 17 goals in 36 championship matches. Like Toulouse, their stars were older players of better past than future – Mezy and Saramagna. As a whole, Montpellier were old – one of the original members of French professional football, but a modest club, more often found in second division than first. To a point, they wanted to return to top flight and succeeded this season.

The Cup final opposed the two best teams this season – Ajax vs AZ’67. Normally, Ajax should have been the favourite, but AZ’67 were so strong this season, so it was difficult to bet – still Ajax was the likelier winner: on one hand, they had to compensate for losing the tile; on the other – Alkmaar, playing on three fronts, was under heavy pressure and no matter how good they were, this was not a club used to winning. Predictions, expectations, arguments… on the pitch AZ’67 destroyed Ajax 3-1.

Kees Kist triumphal with the Cup. Treytel next to him was also happy – he was used to winning trophies, but may be this season was special for him too: it was one thing to get titles and cups with Feyenoord and entirely different to win with small club at an age nobody expects anything from you.

Ajax lost twice this year, finishing with nothing – second-best equals failure. The team was not bad, but there was something missing, something not quite good, not quite right – after 1973 Ajax was just unable to make a great team. Of course, it is hardly possible to keep a new team at par with true geniuses, like Cruijff &Co., but Ajax was not getting even close. Unlike Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven, Ajax did nothing wrong and never sunk into a crisis – they sold the great players one by one, adding young talent all the time, plus their special brand of always buying old solid player with big reputation. They stayed strong in Holland, but lost their leading position in Europe – and 1979-80 was just continuing the pattern. Not a single player of the great team remained – Krol moved in the summer of 1980 first to Canada and from there – to Italy. Now the leading veterans were not associated with the glory years at all – Schrijvers, La Ling, Schoenaker. Add Henning Jensen, who arrived from Real Madrid, having made his fame with Borussia Moenchengladbach – unfortunately, he was 32 years old by now and no longer the same. In terms of leadership, the current veterans were not just what was desired. Behind them were young stars – Wim Kieft, Wim Meutstege, Edo Ophof to a point, but largely the Danish midfield duo Soren Lerby and Frank Arnesen. Not a bad ‘skeleton’, but somewhat unfinished – as were previous versions of Ajax after 1974. If Ajax made a mistake in rebuilding, it was in their eagerness to sell stars – veterans were one thing, but may be they sold too quickly younger players – like Tahamata – which left in the position of having half-a-team, never finished and constantly searching for leaders. And it was quite sure now that Lerby and Kieft will not be around for long. A bit shaky, Ajax lost both the championship and the Cup.

AZ’67 won a double – this was the best year in the history of the club: champions, cup winners, and UEFA Cup finalists – this cup they lost just by a single goal, they really came close to win a third trophy. What a season! And the funny white bathrobes donned for the picture, evoking the memories of the great Ajax. As if coming back again. The best season in the history of AZ’67 to this very day, a legendary season. Alas, there were some dark clouds on the horizon: since the typical life span of a strong team is about 5 years, AZ’67 just reached its peak and the inevitable decline was coming. If this was a bigger club, the downfall may have been avoided, but there was the predicament of small clubs instead: once such a club came into focus, there was no way to keep the stars and develop further. Three key players of this wonderful squad were already wetting the appetites of both Dutch and foreign clubs – and Kees Kist was sold to Paris SG in 1982, John Metgod – to Real Madrid in 1982, and Kurt Welzl to Valencia in 1981. AZ’67 were simply not in a position to build a dynasty, but what a season they had, crowning their 5-years long climb with fantastic and difficult to match success. No accident in their case, no just a lucky year.