ZSK Spartak went up. The second team of Varna, Bulgaria, won promotion by ending first in the Northern Second Division. Unlike Rome, Varna has glorious football past – three clubs won Bulgarian championships and Varna, not Sofia, was the leading football power of Bulgaria. But that was before 1944… after Communists came to power Sofia became the football centre of the country. Most likely Sofia clubs were going to dominate Bulgarian football even without Communist government, but Communism helped: it promoted the clubs from the capital. Old clubs were dissolved quickly – the three strong clubs from Varna disappeared. Eventually Cherno more and Spartak were established, both clubs taking over the history of the old clubs. Thus, Cherno more is considered inheritor of Ticha and Vladislav, having three Bulgarian titles between themselves and merged together in 1945. Spartak took over the history of Shipchenksi sokol, which was champion once. It is hard to say how much, if at all, the old clubs evolved into new ones. Cherno more became a military club, attached to the Navy, and thus into the sphere of CSKA (Sofia). They played mostly in the first division and with relative success. In Varna, they were the ‘big’ club. Spartak was modest club, less supported, and most likely to play in the second division. By the end of 1960s they moved constantly up and down – one year in first division, relegated to the second the next season, winning promotion once again, somewhat too strong for the second division and too weak to survive in the first.
In the early 1969 Spartak was one of the clubs ‘amalgamated’ by government decree – they were merged with lowly Lokomotiv (Varna), thus becoming ZSK Spartak. It was a merger of little import and hardly anybody paid attention – Spartak had few fans; Lokomotiv – most likely none. Neither club was worth mentioning. Perhaps because of that this was one of the longest lasting mergers of 1969 – it was dissolved in the earl1980s. However, 1969 created new constellation of satellites – until than only CSKA had a network of helping affiliates: the army clubs. Cherno more in Varna. The merger of Levski with Spartak, belonging to the Police, created another network – Police clubs became donors of Levski-Spartak. ZSK Spartak in Varna. It is hard to say for certain how much of ZSK Spartak belonged to the Police and how much to the Railroads (Lokomotiv was railway’s club and this remained after the merger), but clubs with the name ‘Spartak’ became related to Levski-Spartak. Players moved from the ‘mother’ club to the ‘satellite’ and from the ‘satellite’ to the ‘mother’. Hardly helpful for the ‘satellites’ and hardly helpful to football and fair game: in the case of Varna, her clubs played insignificant small role in the championship. But in 1971 ZSK Spartak went up one more time – in terms of the club, a success.
Here they are: front, left to right: R. Nyagulov, H. Mesropov, Iv. Tanev, D. Dyakov, M. Bonchev, P. Gochev, D. Angelov – captain.
Top: Iv. Filipov- assistant coach, D. Donchev, St. Staykov, P. Dimitrov, B. Kotzev, Al. Goncharov, Iv. Kolev, Y. Borisov, N. Dimitrov, D. Berov, P. Kalchev, St. Semov-coach

Well, nothing much in this squad. Some Spartak legends (Mesropov, Angelov, Goncharov, Kalchev) with some status in Varna’s football history. But two players soon to move to Sofia and Levski-Spartak – Stefan Staykov and Metody Bonchev. Satellite system already at work – both came from the ‘mother’ club. Bonchev played for Levski before the merger of 1969 and Staykov came from Spartak (Sofia) youth system. Not needed in the new Levski-Spartak ,they moved or were given to ZSK Spartak. Both played well in Varna and were recalled back to Sofia. Bonchev, a mediocre player, never made much of an impression and didn’t last in Levski-Spartak. Staykov was another story – he established himself as first goalkeeper and was invited to the national team. He played for Bulgaria in the 1974 World Cup. He became a star of a kind – but in Levski-Spartak, not in the small ZSK Spartak. Yet, he was noticed as a big promise when playing in Varna. And that is all to say about this team.
I have soft spot for small clubs. I like them going up. They deserve mentioning now and then. After all, that’s football – surprises, ups and downs. Lazio relegated, ZSK Spartak promoted. Who is ‘big’ and who is ‘small’? Staykov, Chinaglia, and Wilson played in the World Cup 1974.

Champions, award winners, stars, superstars… the glory of the top end of football. Which is not the whole football – most of football is actually well under the flashy top. The world of the losers… and the world of change too. Some went down, others went up in the vast universe of smaller clubs, secondary championships, lower divisions, etc. Going down… Lazio was relegated in 1971. Lazio?! Well, Lazio were rather small club at that time. The football roads did not lead to Rome yet – Rome was insignificant, and Lazio was even less significant, usually struggling to survive in the first division, if there at all.

Lazio going down… nothing to suggest that Giorgio Chinaglia and Wilson will be Italian champions and national players. Nothing to suggest that Lazio will be big name, causing troubles with its Fascist inclinations and followers… Nothing to suggest that Rome will have big derby and big clubs… But fate is strange: Mazzola II captained the sinking team. This is Ferruccio – the younger brother of the superstar Sandro, and the second son of the great Italian legend Valentino Mazzola. It was still common in Europe to mark relatives by Roman numbers instead of first names, but what a faith: in 1971 one brother was champion and the other – relegated to the second division. Ferruccio soon moved to Fiorentina, but nothing helped: justly or not, he was not a star, always in the shadows of his father and his elder brother. At least Ferruccio got a title to his name: he returned to Lazio for his last top division season, when Lazio won the Italian championship. He played one game this season, so is a champion by default. Football fate is strange: in 1971 Lazio went down.

Josip Skoblar won the Golden Boot or Shoe trophy in 1971. The youngest and the most ill-fated European award was established in 1967 by the magazine France Football. It was award for the European top goal scorer in the season – all championships were treated equally. True, it was not the same to score goals in the Albanian and the Italian first divisions, but those were still innocent romantic days. The first winners were at least well known strikers and goal scoring geniuses: Eusebio, Petar Zhekov, and Gerd Muller. By mid-1970s Cypriots and others from lower leagues got the upper hand and the Romanians discovered that they can arrange a winner: just allow a guy to score 15 goals in 3-4 matches at the end of the season and he will top everybody else by a goal or two… which eventually killed the award. The new version is organized differently and championships are no longer considered equal. Anyway, in 1971 it was still fair competition. Skoblar scored 44 goals in the French First Division for Olympique Marseille, a record so far. Another French-based player, Salif Keita followed closely.

Josip Skoblar is a legend of Olympique Marseille today, yet he was hardly a mega-star. Born 1941 in Yugoslavia, he is a Croat, which today is a mild statistical problem: where to place him? He played 32 matches and scored 11 goals for Yugoslavian national team between 1961-67. He played in the 1962 World Cup. Yet, Yugoslavia always had much more famous players. By 2008 Croatia has bigger legends as well… Skoblar hardly played for a Croat club – he had one early season for lowly NK Zadar (1958-59) and moved to OFK Beograd, where he stayed from 1959 to 1966. Interestingly, he did not join one of the big Yugoslavian clubs – neither Serbian, nor Croat – but the smaller Belgrade club OFK Beograd. Generally, a mid-table club, always in the shadows of Partizan and Crvena zvezda. Then he went to Olympique Marseille – in 1966. Played 15 matches and scored 13 goals, but somewhat did not impress and was transferred to West German club – Hannover 96. Again not a big name. In 1969 moved back to Marseille – the Germans were reluctant to let him go, but eventually did, and finally Skoblar became known. His best years were in Marseille, where he played until 1975, collecting impressive total of 169 games in which he scored 138 goals. Getting long in the tooth, he returned to Yugoslavia and joined again small club – the Croat based NK Rijeka. He played for them from 1975 until his retirement in 1977. But he is well remembered in Marseille and is voted in the all-time 11 of the club. Mind, people like Jairzinho, Alen Boksic, and Rudi Voller (to name just a tiny few) graced Marseille’s squad – and they are not legends, but Skoblar is. He scored and scored, and scored. Recognized as a great player in France, he made modest impression to larger European mind: noticed as a great goal scorer, but hardly at the level of Cruiffs and Mullers, and other giants. Nevertheless, nobody disputes his marksmanship.
The last curiosity about Skoblar is his original transfer to West European club: Yugoslavia always exported players, but there was a rule – a player to be minimum 29 years old and no longer needed for the national team. It was kind of reward for ‘old horses’ - after giving glory to Yugoslavia, to spend their late years making money in the West. But Skoblar was 25 years old when he joined Olympique Marseille in 1966… no longer needed for the national team, obviously, yet too young. Why the ‘iron rule’ was not applied I have no idea. Was it the first time the rule was ‘twisted’ a bit, I don’t know either. I suspect, the reason was that Skoblar was not huge Yugoslavian star and quietly allowed to go abroad. I may be wrong, of coarse, but Yugoslavians abandoned the 29-years-old rule after 1975 and carefully at that.
Well, if nothing else, Skoblar deserved his Golden Shoe in 1971. He scored his goals fairly and his total of 44 in the season is a number unlikely to be bettered.

And yearly individual awards. Every country has them, so this is only a sample – the best goalkeeper for 1971 was Evgeny Rudakov, Dinamo (Kiev) and the National team. It was his second award so far. The award was established in 1960 by the weekly magazine ‘Ogonyok’ – Lev Yashin won it three times, but he hardly dominated the Soviet football: Kavazashvili and Bannikov won the prize twice, and Rudakov just added a second one to his name. Unlike Yashin, the competition was still playing.
So… who is the best goalkeeper of the world? Yashin? Not in USSR, judging by the list: he won the prize in 1960, 1963, and 1966. Still leading in 1971, but Rudakov had many years more to play. And Rinat Dasaev was only a kid… Awards are misleading… or aren’t they?

The Soviets were running a separate championship for ‘reserve teams’ for years. Actually, many countries practiced the same , and these ‘lesser’ championships attracted solid interest and attendance. Nobody remembers such championships today, but there was good reason for them: rarely playing reserves, promising juniors, titular players recovering from injuries played in the ‘second team’. It was good system to my mind – these tournaments paralleled to schedules of the first teams, usually games played just before the first team match. Often well performing players in the second team were directly included in the selection of the first team, thus, some players had to play two games in the same day. The second teams were middle ground with its own atmosphere and fun: it was not uncommon crowds watching the reserves to be bigger than those watching the first teams – recovering from injury star combined with raising young talent was the bait.

Dinamo (Moscow) won the Second Teams Championship of USSR in 1971:
Front, left to right: S. Nikulin, A. Yakubik, A. Piskunov, G. Arkhipov, N. Antonevich, S. Kamensky.
Top: V. Ilin – coach, V. Balyasnikov, S. Chernov, V. Komarov, V. Utkin, A. Petrushin, A. Mosin, A. Golodetz – assistant coach.

A typical ‘second team” – some players reached the national team, some sunk to oblivion. Some already known names and some promises… Few of this team played at the Cup Winners Cup final a year later.

Ararat (Erevan) finished second in 1971 – the biggest and generally unexpected success of Armenian club so far. A novelty? It turned out to be just the beginning of the best years ever for Armenian football. It was another sign of the shifting centre of power in USSR from North to South. In the same time Soviet football was plummeting into decade long crisis… the national team was full of Southern-based players and losing.

Top, left to right: E. Grigoryan – director of the team, N. Glebov – coach, O. Zanazanyan, S. Kapidi – doctor, N. Kazaryan, N. Kolpakyan – masseur, F. Abramyan, S. Israelyan – administrator, L. Ovsepyan, A. Kegyan – assistant coach, A. Kovalenko, A. Sirakanyan – assistant coach.
Front: E. Markarov, R. Avanesyan, A. Abramyan, S. Bonaderenko, N. Mesropyan, A. Andriasyan, L. Ishtoyan. Soviet teams present an interesting question, which emerged after 1990: foreign players. Two Ukrainians and one Russian in Ararat’s squad (Bondarenko, Kovalenko, and Markarov). Similarly, Spartak featured two Georgians and Dinamo (Kiev) – an Armenian. In USSR they were all domestic Soviet citizens. After 1990 – different countries claim some players as their ‘own’ legends. No matter what one thinks today, Soviet clubs often recruited players from ‘other’ republics of the Union. The closest Soviets came to import of players – a nightmare for contemporary football historian, but interesting topic for investigation nevertheless.

The Cup was won by Spartak (Moscow). Somewhat curiously the winners of 1971 forecasted the future – Dinamo (Kiev) and Spartak (Moscow) dominated Soviet football from the late 1970s until the collapse of USSR. But football is ironic and full of twists: in the first half of the 1970s Dinamo was ascending and Spartak was rapidly declining, eventually ending in the Second Division. Neither of the above was obvious in 1971… winners both clubs.

Front, from left to right: M. Bulgakov, V. Papaev, V. Mirzoev, S. Olshansky, G. Logofet, G. Husainov, S. Osyanin, D. Silagadze.
Top: E. Lovchev, N. Kiselev, V. Kalinov, A. Isaev, V. Egorovich, A. Kavazashvili, N. Simonyan, N. Starostin.
Spartak were also in transition, but unlike Dinamo (Kiev) the new recruits were disastrous. Note Evgeny Lovchev – the first red-carded player at the World Cup finals (in 1970). And also Nikita Simonyan – the legendary player and now a coach, is to be one of the reasons for the glory days of Armenian football.