Date of birth was important in another country as well, but in another part of the world – North and Central America. Nothing really changed there – only two championships worth mentioning. Mexico was elbowed by USA-Canada, thanks to the famous players moving to NASL, but still Mexico had the only good championship outside Europe and South America. The structure of the championship is very strange – a mixture of North American professional sports leagues and South American concepts. Like South America, championship went through different stages, mixing regular format with Cup-like direct elimination. Like North American sports, the league was not simple collection of clubs, but of franchises. The 20-team league was divided into 4 groups, teams playing against each other, but also playing against teams from other groups. North American formats are forever confusing for non-Americans, largely because it is never clear why clubs face some of the rest, but almost never other clubs. In Mexico was clearer – looked like every club met all others twice in the first stage. At least the total of games played – 38 – suggests so. Which makes a mystery of the division into 4 groups – the best two of each progressed to the next stage, but it would be just the same in regular undivided league. Anyway, it was not all – the US sports model is closed league: no relegation-promotion, same 'franchises' play always in the league. Bankruptcy is practically the only way of changing the members, a franchise can change owners and move to another city. Usually, the name is preserved – it is part of the franchise. The franchise concept in Mexico was a bit different: entirely different club can buy the rights of one playing in First Division and replace it in it. This was done fairly often, so the league members changed, but it was not entirely closed league like in the USA. There was promotion-relegation too – one club went down at the end of the season and another went up to replace it. Strange championship, but otherwise it was normal professional football: big clubs gathering the best players and there were many imports, generally from South America. The trouble with Mexican clubs is their location – some moved from place to place back then, but it is more frequent nowadays, so it is hard today to make sense – one sees Atlante, but is it the same club of 30 years ago? Now Atlante plays in Cancun... same name back in the 1970s, but for a club located in Mexico City. Yes, it is the same club after all – the only question is what happened to the supporters. Did they move to Cancun too?

No matter. Back in 1976-77 Atlante struggled to return to First Division. They were relegated the previous season, quite a blow for the old club, but eventually they reached the promotional final – facing Queretaro. Queretaro also played in the First Division not long ago and was eager to return, but it was not to be. Atlante won 4-2 at home and 2-1 away in Queretaro. Back among the big boys after a year in exile and getting powerful sponsors – a state owned mighty company, which poured tons of money, wishing to make Atlante the strongest club. This, however, happened after the club succeeded in winning a promotion. So much for second division and promotion.

Relegation, then. The rules were simple – among the last placed clubs in the 4 groups, the two with least points met in relegation play-off. Theoretically, it was possible for a club to finish with less points than one of the unfortunates – if playing in one group with the weakest one – but this year there was no confusion: UANL and Zacatepec were last with clearly less points than any other club. UANL are also known as 'Tigres', and the 'tigers' finally showed some teeth... not very sharp teeth, but enough for survival. They managed a 2-2 tie away and clinched a home victory in Nuevo Leon 2-1. Zacatepec was relegated.

Lucky tigers. The club is one of University-based clubs. Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon. Students club, by the name – in reality, a professional club financed by the University. May be that is why such clubs are known by their nicknames, thus confusing foreigners: UANL is the official name and the one seen in most records. But in Mexico a glance at a newspaper shows no trace of UANL – there is Tigres. Now the nicknames are actually incorporated into the official names of such clubs. Clear? Better be, for Tigres survived difficult season and remained for the next. So much for bottom of the league.

Down the South American line information becomes scarcer and scarcer, particularly pictorial information. However, there was something interesting at the very bottom. Portuguesa FC won the Venezuelan championship. The club from the agricultural capital of Venezuela – Acarigua – was founded in 1972. A baby, in a sense, but they won their first title in 1973. Not many clubs in the world win championships in their second year of existence, especially in the 1970s, when hierarchies were established for a long time already. It was not just accidental victory either – in 1977 Portuguesa won its 4th title, third consecutive as well. Some babies!


The Venezuelan league was small – only 12 clubs – but, following the South
American pattern, the championship was complicated affair of three stages. The culmination was two-legged final between the first and second from the 6-team championship playoff group (second stage). Portuguesa won every tournament, beating their competitors Estudiantes (Merida) in both final matches – 4-2 in Merida, and 3-0 in Acarigua. Portuguesa played a total of 34 championship games, losing only 3 matches during the campaign. In the first standard league stage they left the nearest pursuer, Deportivo Italia, 8 points behind. Clearly supreme squad. The best goalscorer of the championship was also Portuguesa player – Juan Cesar Silva with 20 goals.

Four titles in 5 years of existence – what a record! Of course, names of players mean nothing... like everywhere in South America, Venezuelan football had plenty of imports and foreigners more or less dictated the fate of their clubs. They were fairly unknown players, though – except for Brazilian striker playing for the champions. Here he is, second in the first row – Jairzinho. Already 33 years old and a pale shadow of his glory days, nevertheless, a world famous star. Did he really made a difference, or not – doesn't matter. Portuguese was proud to have a legendary name in its squad – and to add one more title. May be Jairzinho was very happy too – world champion he was, but on club level he had few titles. Venezuelan championship was may be weak and not glamorous, but... a title is a title. Jairzinho won and... left the club, returning to Brazil. Portuguesa stayed where they were, of course – on top. On top of the bottom, one may say, but who cares – just recall their date of birth.

Colombia – like Paraguay, unknown and uninteresting to outsiders. The great years of Colombian football – the 1950s – were long gone. With them – whatever novelty existed for outsiders. So far, Colombian football produced nothing – even in South America it did not rank high: may be above Bolivia and Ecuador, but lower than anybody else. Why Colombian football stayed so low is difficult to figure out: the sport was popular and drug money were available in the 1970s just like they were in the 1980s and later. Money were good by South American measures – the country attracted foreign players for long time and continued to be preferable destination. May be foreigners stifled local development – they were too many. But foreign players were beneficial to local football elsewhere, so why not here? Foreigners came in every possible shape – from veteran stars, nearing retirement, to virtual nobodies. They were all South Americans, unlike the 1950s, when some European players joined Colombian clubs. Ladislao Mazurkiewicz, Juan Veron, and Oscar Mas played in Colombia in 1977 – perhaps the biggest, but also over the hill stars. The Argentinians were perhaps the biggest group, a traditional trend. Some were fairly famous, like Nestor Leonel Scotta, who played for the national team of Argentina. Others were of smaller caliber, but became Colombian legends. Evidently, foreigners shaped Colombian football – 8 of the top ten goalscorers of the 1977 season were Argentinians – Veron, Mas, Scotta, Osvaldo Marcial Palavecino, Miguel Angel Converti, Jorge Ramon Caceres, Ramon Orlando Gomez, and Alberto Benitez. The two Colombians were not in the top three... Colombian football depended on foreigners too much. To the point of naturalizing foreign talent, like Caceres. A foreign talent, which was second rate at their native countries...


Anyhow, football is football. In the South American tradition, Colombian championships were complicated – two separate phases, Apertura – a standard two-legged tournament, followed by Torneo Finalizacion, in which the 14-team league was divided in two 7-team mini-leagues. Some results were carried over from the Apertura, so in the final table of Finalizacion each team ended with 21 matches total. Either that, or there were some inter-league fixtures. The logic of such complicated tournaments is incomprehensible, unless the motive is to keep fans intrigued and thus get full gates.

But even this was not the end: after Finalizacion the top three of each group played Final Hexagonal – two-legged round robin championship, finally deciding the champion of the year. Hard to tell what for the Apertura was played for - unless the champion was to be decided at last by a final between the winners of both championships. If so, there was no need this season – one club won both tournaments. Whatever the quality of Colombian football was, one thing cannot be denied – there was a lot of it. A fan of so-so club was able to see 47 matches. A fan of the contenders – 57.

Aperture was practically two team race – Atletico Junior and Deportivo Cali. Atletico Junior won by 2 points, seemingly thanks to supreme defense. Bellow the best was a thick group of fairly equal clubs – 7 teams positioned themselves largely on goal-difference. America finished 3rd with 29 points and Deportivo Quindio ended 9th with 27 points. Four clubs had 28. America topped Independiente Santa Fe with better goal-difference as well. The clear outsider was Cucuta Deportivo, finishing last, 7 points behind 13th placed Deportes Tolima. So far – so good, first stage finished.

In the second stage things were... confusing at best. Atletico Junior finished dead last in Group A. Deportivo Cali won the group very confidently – with 29 points, 3 points better than 2nd placed Millonarios and 5 points above Atletico Nacional at 3rd place.

Group B was either weaker or tougher, for there was no obvious leader – three clubs finished with 20 points and goal-difference decided their final places. The winners, Atletico Bucaramanga, ended with 2 points more. The pariah of Apertura – Cucuta Deportivo – finished 3rd! Looked like clubs chose in which tournament to play at full force, neglecting entirely the other. But Cucuta earned nothing at the end, for they did not make it to the real final...

Torneo Hexagonal – 6 participants. On what criteria, though? The best 6 of Apertura? Or the top three of each group of Finalizacion? Or may be combination of both phases? The top three of Group A were among the last six – Deportivo Cali, Millonarios, and Atletico Nacional. However, Millonarios was 5th in Apertura, and Atletico Nacional – 6th. Atletico Bucaramanga was 1st in Group B, and measly 11th in Apertura. Atletico Junior – winners of Apertura, but last in Group A of Finalizacion. Deportes Quindio and Cucuta Deportivo were 2nd and 3rd in Group B of Finalizacion, but 9th (Quindio) and last 14th (Cucuta) in Apertura. Seems the final six was made of the champions of the two groups of Finalizacion, plus the winners of Apertura, plus the next three of Apertura, allowing for duplications of winners in both stages. And it came to the already mentioned above plus Independiente Santa Fe - 4th in the Apertura, and also 4th in Group A of Finalizacion. Did not make much sense, except for providing some incentive for the clubs playing Group B – the lower half of Apertura final table. If not having a chance to go up, why playing at all? But to be the best among the worst hardly pays off – Atletico Bucaramanga finished last in the final group. They won only 2 games, earning a total of 4 points. No surprises by them. No surprises by Independiente Santa Fe either – steady, but not great in either earlier stage, they finished 5th at the end with 7 points. Atletico Nacional, also steady, continued to be just that, finishing 4th with 10 points. Millonarios and Deportivo Cali finished neck to neck with 12 points each – goal-difference decided their final position and more: the second placed club was going to represent Colombia in the Copa Libertadores. The most famous abroad Colombian club – Millonarios – ended empty handed – 3rd. And the championswere Atletico Junior – once again they sailed confidently, winning 7 matches and losing only 2. Two points ahead of the nearest pursuers – seemingly, they saved strength by neglecting Torneo Finalizacion... and now were fresher than the rest.

Deportivo Cali – silver medalists and thus earning the right to play in Copa Libertadores as the second Colombian participant. Some Colombian legends here, but one important member of the team is missing – the coach. One Carlos Bilardo.

Atletico Junior – the team of Barranquilla won the title. Old 'Bruja' Veron getting a title again. If anything, at least he was nearing the end of his career as a winner. For the club it was much cherished moment – their very first title! Always special, the first victory. One can even explore the magic: Atletico Junior faced mighty opposition – 'El Gordo' (Escobar), 'Frijolito' (Gomez), 'Pescadito' (Calero), 'Tola' (Scotta), 'Obelisco' (Landucci), 'La Tortuga' (Otero), 'El Tigre' (Benitez), and 'El Maestro' (Arboleda). But all together were no much for the old 'Witch' Veron! 'La Bruja' tamed them all. More seriously, it was Argentines vs Argentines: coach Bilardo, Alberto Cardacci, Abel Da Graca, Angel Landucci, Ricardo Cesar Luis Moreno, Carlos Alejandro Leone, Roberto Rogel, Alberto Benitez, Nestor Scotta, and the Paraguayan Aristides del Puerto for flavour (Deportivo Cali) vs coach Jose Varacka, Juan Ramon Veron, Camilo Abelardo Aguilar, Juan Carlos Delmenico, Cesar Lorea, Eduardo Solari, Carlos Alberto Vidal, and the Uruguayan Julio Avelino Comesana (Atletico Junior). Varacka either left or was sacked during the season and Juan Veron finished the season as playing coach. 'The Witch' prevailed over 'El Flaco' Carlos Bilardo, quite an irony from today's point of view, for Bilardo became world champion, and Veron's coaching career was mediocre. Just the opposite back in 1977, though, when both coaches practically started.

For Atletico Junior it was a long road to success – back in 1968 they even employed Garrincha (for whatever a single match is worth), but finally succeeded. Thus, Colombia became – without an administrative design – unique in South America: its football was not dominated by the capital, but it was diverse – clubs from Bogota, Cali, Medellin, and Baranquilla were fairly equal competitors. The strength depended largely on foreigners, mainly Argentinians. Colombian football was saturated by the 'Argos':

Here is Deportiva Independiente Medelin, known as simply DIM in South America. Without any search two Argos: Jose Peckerman and Hugo Horacio Londero. Neither was wold famous player, but Londero is well remembered not only in Colombia. As for Peckerman – he was coaching Argentina at the 2006 World Cup. Colombia appeared quite a fertile ground for good coaches in retrospect.

Paraguay – practically off the radar for years. Used to be known for reliable, fearless, and often brutal players, flocking in Spain. Never stars, though. Paraguayans were the way to avoid Spanish prohibition on imports – they were often from provable Spanish descent and therefore permitted to play as 'oriundi'. But the 60s were gone and Paraguayans were forgotten. No great clubs in the country – that is, no club had international success – and Paraguay did not qualify to World Cups for a long time. One thing known, thanks to common sense, was that the country had regular championship. Which in 1977 was won by Cerro Porteno.

Libertad, the champions of 1976, still played strong and finished second. They were may be the third club in Paraguay – by 1977 they had 8 titles, but hardly known abroad, especially in Europe. This year they lost a bit more familiar name – Cerro Porteno.

19th title for Cerro Porteno – much more than Libertad, but still behind the arch-rivals Olimpia – they had 23 titles so far. If anything, the general picture of Paraguayan football can be made clear: a duopoly of Olimpia and Cerro Porteno, occasionally disturbed by Libertad and very rarely – by some other club. All of the above hail from Asuncion, so the big clubs were located in the capital, leaving nothing to provincial football. As in many a country, the best football was concentrated in the capital, which had large number of clubs. Yet, this is very general knowledge, if it is knowledge at all. The champions left no names.

No names, but there is no certainty that the photo is from 1977 – it is from the time period alright, but which season exactly? Mysterious champions at best.

The only real news of Paraguayan football was the debut of talented striker, almost immediately compared to Pele. The desire of new Pele was strong – and pretentious – but the talent of young boy was impressive. Curiously, the rising star did not play for any club from Asuncion:

He debuted for Sportivo Luqueno from the city of Luque. And the name?

Julio Cesar Romero. He became known right away - called in South America 'Romerito'. A different player from the usual perception of Paraguayan footballers – he was skillful and deadly striker, a leader. He dazzled not just the Paraguayans and quickly became one of the best South American players. May be he deserves to be even bigger world star, but his career choice practically prevented that – he not only never played in Europe, but did not join South American giants: Romerito went to USA to play bypassing even the big Paraguayan clubs. He joined Cosmos, but NASL was regarded almost as a joke and Romerito was never fully appreciated. He got recognition largely in South America. As for Paraguay – he is the best ever player of the country, something seemingly clear from the moment he debuted. It turned out, 1977 was an important year for Paraguayan football.

First Division – 8 clubs from Santiago, the rest – provincial. Chile, compared to other South American countries, evidently achieved all-inclusive championship. Still, the big clubs were from the capital and it was difficult to diminish their traditional positions. Times changed, however. Standard championship, except relegation: the last in the final table went directly down. The 16th and the 17th played relegation play-off against each other. The loser was relegated, the winner, along with the 15th placed went to new play-off tournament with the 3rd and 4th of the Second Division. A bit tricky, but apparently the difference of quality between top flight and second division was recognized factor. Antofagasta finished last – an absolute outsider, they lost 22 of their 34 championship games and finished 10 points behind the 17th team. Which was Santiago club – Santiago Morning. They ended second to last on goal difference, finishing with 27 points. Ovalle was just above them, but Santiago Morning won the relegation play-off 1-0 and Ovalle went directly to Second. Santiago Wanderers (Valparaiso) finished 15th , on goal-difference as well – three clubs finished with 28 points, but Nublense (Chillan) and Universidad Catolica (Santiago) had better record. Bad year for some of the well known names: Santiago Wanderers, Santiago Morning, Universidad Catolica.The promotion-relegation mini-league brought no luck to Santiago Wanderers – they finished third there ,and thus were relegated. Santiago Morning on the other hand won the tournament and remained in First Division. So much drama at the bottom of the league.

Nublense – the luckiest team at the bottom of the table: safe 15th place was achieved only by better goal-difference. A single point – the difference between life and death. Note the striped shirt of the goalie – by the late 1970s, such shirts were seen only in South America. In Europe they were gone many years ago, so the kit looked exotic.

In the upper parts of the table some decline was visible – Universidad de Chile, 5th and Colo-Colo, 4th, were entirely out of the championship race. Colo-Colo finished 5 points behind the 3rd placed and Universidad de Chile was lagging 3 points behind Colo-Colo. Practically the mightiest Chilean clubs were evidently not in good shape. Colo-Colo failed to win the title again – already 5 years in a row!

Hard to tell why Colo-Colo was so miserable – may be politics played a role, may be not, but the most popular Chilean club was without a title since 1972. For clubs used to constant winning such a dry spell means more than disaster.

Universidad de Chile – not exactly happy at 5th place, but at least the club was used to lower expectations. One thing is sure – this squad is rather pedestrian. Peralta, may be Pellegrini, may be Salah... and that is all. Second division Cobreloa had almost the same number of known players, but bigger names. Clearly, Universidad did not have good enough team to be a real factor.

Third finished Palestino. An old club, founded in 1920 by Palestinian immigrants and having won a single title so far – in 1955. They had the reputation for attracting star players, obviously having money to do that. Hence, Elias Figueroa arrived. He came with the hallo of superstar: three consecutive years voted best player of South America, voted the best player of the world, champion in Uruguay and Brazil, a living legend. And he was not all that old either at 31. His arrival boosted Palestino: they lost only 5 games and scores were the second-best in the league – 70-33.

Standing from left: Mario Varas, Edgardo Fuentes, Rodolfo Dubó, Elías Figueroa, Manuel Herrera, Enrique Vidallé.

First row: Alberto Hidalgo, Jorge Zelada, Oscar Fabbiani, Sergio Messen, Pedro Pinto.

Sudden transformation . One player can make a miracle? May be. The question is for how long – just one time wonder, or permanent improvement. By the end of 1977 the question stand open – the hard fact was bronze medals.

Yet, Palestino was not able to go all the way to the top – Everton won two more games than them and that made the difference between third and second. Everton (Vina del Mar) is practically the provincial answer to Santiago, preventing monopoly. One of the consistently strong clubs and usually finishing in the top 5.

Another strong year, silver medals, close pursuers of the leaders, but... second. 2 points behind the champions – it was a matter of one match: the champions won 21 games and lost 4; Everton lost 5 and won 20.

The champions were best in everything, as champions normally are: 21 wins, 9 ties, and 4 lost matches. They scored 72 goals, allowing only 28. Strong attack, strong defense – obviously the most balance team. As for the name – Union Espanola. Familiar name in the 1970s.

5th title for Union Espanola – the 1970s were their best decade. By the end of the 1977 Union Espanola already climbed among the most titled clubs in Chilean football. How it measures in Santiago is difficult to tell – there are old rivalries and very likely the success of Union Espanola annoyed various supporters: Colo-Colo's and Universidad de Chile's, for smaller club topped them; Universidad Catolica's – Union not only bested them, but their own club performed poorly; Magallanes', Palestino's, Audax Italiano's , Santiago Morning's – for their glories were in the distant past, but Union Espanola won in the present. As for Union's supporters – they were rightfully happy. They were the best! Again. And in the future – more. Which did not happened... it was the last Union Espanola victory for a long, long time.

Chile – the country was constantly in the news, condemned for the military rule. Yet, compared to the rest of South America... the Junta was not as bloodthirsty as nearby dictatorships; the economy was improving; there were no drug-lords and ultra-left-wing armies, determined to preserve perpetual internal warfare. The general state of affairs affected football as well – the championship was not as messy as most South American championships are, players did not leave the country in great quantities, and there was, although modest so far, rise of clubs from industrial cities. Stars, playing abroad so far, started coming back, even those known as politically against the General Pinochet's regime. If Chilean football was not exactly improving, at least it was not declining. The big news was the return of the great defender Figueroa from Brazil – in 1977 he joined Palestino (Santiago). Another interesting news was made by second division club – Cobreloa, from the mining city of Calama. They acquired the services of the Chilean star Sergio Ahumada and the Uruguayan national team defender Jauregui. There were money in Calama, quite obviously. Running a bit ahead both Palestino and Cobreloa benefited immediately from their new players.


Standard championship. The 18-team Second Division consisted mostly of little known clubs. The first two teams were directly promoted to First Division; the 3rd and 4th played promotion-relegation tournament with the 15th and 16th teams of First Division. The last in the Second Division table was relegated. Coquimbo Unido and Rangers (Tacna) earned direct promotion, finishing 1st and 2nd , but the championship was quite competitive – six clubs competed for the top spots, some former First Division clubs, like La Serena (6th) and Rangers (2nd). Two were hardly known and one of them is actually important to note. Malleco Unido finished 3rd and Cobreloa – 4th, both teams still having a chance of promotion. Cobreloa, so far modest club, was prime example of improving economy: so far, they finished 4th in Second – a success by itself, but they had one more chance at the promotion-relegation tournament.

Even the colours of Cobreloa – orange – suggested ambition. Bright, fiery kit. Two stars in the team, meaning money. Cobreloa was strong, finishing 2nd in the relegation-promotion mini-league. They did not lose at all, ending with a win, two ties, and the best defense. Cobreloa went up to First division and it was not fleeting success – the club not only established itself among the best, but very soon was major force winning titles. 1977 was just the beginning.

Santiago Morning finished first in the mini-league and preserved its place in First Division. Santiago Wanderers and Malleco Unido were the unlucky ones: Santiago Wanderers, the old and respected club from Valparaiso, went down. Malleco Unido failed to go up and stayed in Second.

South America, even when appear normal, is never entirely normal – last in Second Division finished Magallanes (Santiago). Above them, thanks to better goal-difference finished another club from Santiago – Ferroviarios. Ferroviarios is small club, but Magallanes is something special: they were founders of the professional league back in 1933. Back then the club won in a row 4 titles. They were perhaps the greatest... but long ago. Yet, the club is highly respected and probably had enough clout as well: faded, as they were, Magallanes were not forgotten – they faced relegation, but immediately survived. Second Division was extended to 19 clubs for the next season – Magallanes stayed. It was a decision obviously designed to help the club and it was hardly motivated just by the historic significance of Magallanes. So there: clubs with names were helped by hook or crook in South America.

The future was everything to hope for in Uruguay, but mostly in the abstract. Uruguay, under military rule, suffering economically, had little to really hope for. Football was in sharp decline, not surprisingly under the circumstances. In purely sporting terms, a talented generation was aging and retiring, but there was no new talent – things like that happen often quite independently of politics and economy. And the massive exodus of players did not help a bit – everybody kicking a ball was going elsewhere, to Spain, France, Austria, Greece, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Mexico, USA, anywhere. At the beginning of 1977 Luis Cubilla, Ricardo Pavoni, Juan Masnik had retired. Ladislao Mazurkiewicz was in Colombia (America Cali); Pedro Rocha – in Brazil (Santos), where the father of Diego Forlan – Pablo – also played (Cruzeiro). The big names of the 1960s were out and so were the smaller stars of early 1970s – Baudilio Jauregui moved to Cobreloa (Chile) in 1977 for instance. Impoverished domestic football lacking shining examples to inspire the young. Practically, the only stars remaining were Walter Olivera (24 years old) and Fernando Morena (25), both of Penarol – they were not enough to boost the league; they were not enough even make their club a winner. Penarol lost only a single match in the championship, left the champions of 1976 Defensor 5 points behind, but did not win. Nacional won, by a point.

After the surprise victory of Defensor the previous year, not it was back to normal – Nacional and Penarol. Nacional were more than happy – it was their first title since 1972. Five years of suffering was too much... but no more? Well, it was the 32nd title alright, but it was not earth-shaking squad. Promising at best – with 21-year old Juan Ramon Carrasco and 19-year old debutant Hugo de Leon. Too young to be really great, but may be in the future... if they were to stay at home. Presently, nothing astonishing.

Down the table, Huracan Buceo finished last. There is no point of saying where the club is from – both First and Second Uruguayan divisions consisted entirely of Montevideo clubs. Rather, it was relegation of one neighbourhood, replaced by another: Huracan Buceo are from Malvin.

Small club, more accustomed to Second Division, the most interesting part of Huracan Buceo is their kit – three-colouerd big stripes, black, white, and red. Apart from that – nothing. They won only 2 matches out of 22 total.

Second Division, consisting of only 10 teams, was not exactly a producer of potential challengers of the status quo – at best, promoted club was simply trying to avoid relegation the next season. Some permanently faded clubs, like Albion, played in the lower level; some temporary faded, like Rampla Juniors, Racing, Central Espanol; some modest teams, not hoping for anything better – La Luz, Misiones, Colon. Relegation was complicated matter as a result: just because the clubs were modest and hardly able to deal even with second division realities, relegation was decided by separate table, accumulating the points of the last two seasons. Colon finished last, but was not relegated – their combined record totaled 33 points. Misiones, 8th, and El Tanque, 9th, had 32 points – and went down to third division.

On top there was little fight – Rampla Juniors and Racing were not strong at all, finishing far behind Fenix. One team race really.

May be true to their name, Fenix rised from the ashes and went back to First Division. They moved quite often up and down, so nothing really surprising. They were the strongest second division club by far – ending with 42 points from 27 league matches, in the small league teams played 3 games against each other, scoring 51 goals and receiving only 17. Clearly superior – 7 points ahead of 2nd placed Rampla Juniors. Great addition to first league? Unlikely. But they returned to top flight to the joy of the neighbourhood, Capurro. And to the envy of their traditional rivals and neighbours Racing, who remained down in second division.