And that was the ‘big’ football… how about the ‘small’ one, the very bottom of amateurism? Let say this is the ‘bottom’, which also had its triumphs:

Zvezda (Star) from the city of Novosibirsk won the Cup designated for ‘Sport Collectives’ in USSR. These guys passed for real amateurs, so they have no names. Only their coach – A. Slepchenko - is mentioned. Who is this Slepchenko? The fat man in military or police uniform. Wait a minute… Soviet football players and clubs were amateur, so why these guys? Well, there were amateurs and amateurs – Zvezda were to be the real ones… Wait a second minute… genuine voluntary organizations did not exist in USSR. These guys were ‘organized’ – most likely a factory team. Every ‘collective’ was attached to something. Which means money was involved one way or another. At the end the point is that: at least these guys were not full time players, not only players. And by 1973 – amateurs were no longer 100% amateurs in the West too. Football was getting expensive adventure in any organized form, no matter how called. Happy winners, getting their photo in the papers – and good for them!

And with them 1973 ends. As for the best of moment of the year – chose either these happy nobodies or Jan Tomaszewski’s save in the earlier posting covering the elimination of England.