Yugoslavia the Cup

 

The Cup final was familiar duel: Crvena zvezda vs Hajduk. One more chapter in the long rivalry between Serbian and Croatian leading clubs and increasingly getting more than football rivalry, but into nationalistic struggle. Crvena zvezda prevailed thanks to early goal – Darko Pancev scored in the 12^th minute.

Hajduk lost the Cup final and thus ended the season without a trophy, despite having a cluster of stars: Bokšić, Bilić, Štimac, Jerkan, Asanović, Pudar, Jurković, Jarni. Well, rather future stars, but still it was a team of plenty of talent. But Crvena zvezda was stronger presently. Apart from the lost final, Hajduk left Yugoslavia without a team for the Cup Winners Cup: they were banned from UEFA and Crvena zvezda were going to play in the European Champions Cup.

Crvena zvezda won a double this year, confirming their superiority. It was their 13^th Cup and 5^th double. Remarkable season, which increasingly meant more than football – it was Serbian victory, Serbian dominance over the rest of the country, over Croats, in particular. Nationalism was getting the upper hand, although disintegration of Yugoslavia was not envisioned yet – but it was coming and football was big part of it. But Yugoslavia was still one country and to a point Crvena zvezda symbolized this unity: Serbians, Montenegrans, Macedonians, even a Croat made the squad. Plus a worthy foreigner, perhaps representing the political turmoil of Eastern Europe best, was here: Miodrag Belodedici. The Romanian of Serbian descent, already famous as a member of the great Steaua (Bucharest) team, run away from his native land and took asylum in Yugoslavia. In Romania 'the traitor' was promptly sentenced to jail in absentia, but Crvena zvezda was glad to have him in its defensive line and very likely Yugoslav citizenship was quickly granted. But the situation was rapidly changing... by the summer of 1990 the Communist regime of Romania fell down and the political change brought among other things annulment of Belodedici's sentence – he was able to play again for Romania and there was no need anymore to be called Belodecic (the Yugoslav spelling of his name). The irony of the times: Belodedici became Romanian again, but soon his teammates will seize to be Yugoslavs and become Croats (Prosinecki), Macedonians (Pancev, Kanatlarovski, Najdoski), and so on. For the moment, though, Crvena zvezda practically had the squad eventually winning the European Champions Cup in the very near future – Dragan Stojkovic (the best Yugoslav star at the moment), Belodedici, Prosinecki, Pancev, Sabanadzovic, Savicevic, Najdoski, Mrkela, Stojanovic, etc. The strongest Yugoslav squad for sure, but what was missing was largely the coach leading them to European glory: presently the former club legend Vladimir Petrovic was at the helm, but international success was achieved with his successor Ljupko Petrovic.

Life was good: a double! Life was good – this team had great potential, great future. Politics were nothing, football was everything... what a grave illusion.

Yugoslavia I Division

 

First Division. One dominant leader, one hopeless outsider. Apart from that, a surprising relegation and late punishment – UEFA slapped 2-year ban from European competitions on Hajduk (Split) in 1987. It was for the behavior of the fans in the 1987-88 Cup Winners Cup match against Olimpique (Marseille), but earlier incidents in the first half of the 1980s contributed as well. Since Hajduk did not qualify to play in Europe at the time, the punishment was enacted for seasons when Hajduk qualified to play in the European tournaments, that is, now.

Vardar (Skopje) – last with 25 points and relegated. Standing from left: fiz. Belevski, pom. trener Gruevski, Markovski, Filevski, A.Stojanović, Sinani, Naumovski, Urošević, Grošev, Simovski, pom. trener Mojsov, trener Dončevski. Sitting: Kocić, Trajanovski, T. Trajčevski, Z. Trajčevski, Boškovski, Džipunov, Vasilevski, Angelovski, G. Stojanović.

Velez (Mostar) - 17^th with 36 points and relegated. A surprise, really – Velez had strong reputation. Top row from left: Emir Tufek, Josko Popovic, Andjelko Kvesic, Marinko Knezovic, Ronald Hrkac, Sejo Rebac, Stipe Juric.
Middle row: Vukasin Petranovic, Ahmet Gosto,Anel Karabeg, Sead Kajtaz, Nenad Dzidic, Ismet Sisic, Ivan Jurilj, Vladimir-Vanja Gudelj, Elvis Margeta, Vela Pudar.
Sitting: Mili-Toza Hadziabdic, Zijad Repak, Meho Kodro, Zeljko Cavar, Darko Birjukov, Veselin Djurasovic, Zdenko Jedvaj, Ibro Rahimic.

NK Osijek (Osijek) - 16^th with 38 points. Top row from left: S. Končalović, I. Perić, R. Špehar, G. Skeledžić, M. Miličević, D. Lepinjica, N. Gluhačević, T. Štajnbrikner. Middle row: M. Janković, J. Sinanović, G. Radojević, M. Žitnjak, M.Maričić, B. Šerić, I. Kolar. Sitting: S. Vidović, Ž. Pakasin, M. Vukčević, I. Maras, Z. Stanković, I. Grnja, A. Batinić, D. Živković, S. Mišković, A. Lukić.

Radnicki (Nis) - 15^th with 38 points. Top row from left: Nikolić, Zarić, Cvejić, Manojlović, Mehinagić, Mladenović, Veljković, Manojlović, tr. Janković. Middle row: Kocić, Antić, Stojiljković, Momirović, Momčilović, Višnjić, Jakšić, Mitrović, tr. Milenković; Front row: Sudimac, Dimoski, Pejić, Savov, Dimoski, tr. Halilović, Milošević, Antonijević, Lukić, Radosavljević.

Borac (Banja Luka) - 14^th with 39 points.

FK Sarajevo (Sarajevo) -13^th with 40 points.

Spartak (Subotica) - 12^th with 40 points.

Vojvodina (Novi Sad) - 11^th with 42 points. The previous season champions dropped down and practically out of sight.

Buducnost (Titograd) - 10^th with 42 points. Standing from left: B.Brnović,Ž.Leković, M.Božović, D. Leković, Dmitrović, Janović. Crouching:Vlahović, Mirotić, Mijatović, Petrović, Stanisavljević.

Sloboda (Tuzla) - 9^th with 45 points. Third row from left: fiz. Sabitović, Verlašević, Pilipović, Čogurić, Mrkić, Peštalić, Jovanović, Konjić, Hadžimahović, Šulović,
Middle row: Nalić, Ivanović, C. Milošević, Smajlović, Jogunčić, Radovanović, Šarić, dr. Muminhodžić, Memišević, pom.trener Hukić;
First row: Z. Milošević, Sadiković, Ibrić, tr. Jovičić, Lukić, G. Milošević, Hasanbašić, Tahirović.

Sloboda was the only team without penalty shoot-out win – they lost all 4 shoot-outs.

Olimpija (Ljubljana) - 8^th with 46 points.

Zeljeznicar (Sarajevo) - 7^th with 46 points. Back row from left: trener Braculj, Curic, Viteskic, Jurisic, Bogdanovic, Stilic, Komsic, Milosevic, Pavlovic, Alihodzic, trener Smajlovic. Front: Nikic, Hadzijalagic,Nikolic, Krunic ,Skrba, Gajic, Osim, Ilic, Velic

NK Rijeka (Rijeka) - 6^th with 47 points.

Rad (Belgrade) - 5^th with 52 points. Rad, behind Olympiakos (Athens), dressed in blue, had impressive season for top-league newcomer.

Partizan (Belgrade) - 4^th with 55 points.

Hajduk (Split) - 3^rd with 56 points.

Dinamo (Zagreb) - 2^nd with 56 points. They finished first in the first half of the season, but dropped out of the championship race in the spring.

And the well-known new champions – Crvena zvezda (Belgrade). Top row from left: Vladimir Petrovic, Bukumirović, Najdoski, Pančev, Kanatlarovski, Belodedić, Radinović, Bešić, Dujković.
Third row: Stojanović, Marović, Vasilijević, Milojević, Prosinečki, Raosavljević, Simeunović, ?.
Second row: Nešović, Stanojević, Mrkela, Šekularac, Stošić, Vujović, Antonijević.
Front row: Šabanadžović, Lukić, Jurić, Stojković, Savićević, Musović.

Nothing surprising in their victory, except that they were behind Dinamo (Zagreb) at the end of the first half of the season and it was hard to imaging in December 1989 that they will be so dominant in the srping. At the end: 24 wins, 3 penalty shoot-out wins, 2 penalty shoot-out losses and 5 regular losses. Scored 79 goals, received 29, earned 75 points. Dinamo (Zagreb) had stronger defensive record (25 goals), but when it came to scoring goals Crvena zvezda had no rival: Dinamo, second-best scorers, managed only 53 goals. Crvena zvezda left them 19 points behind, there was no rivalry really in the spring, it was just Crvena zvezda. Thus, the 17^th title was collected.

Yugoslavia II Division

 

Second Division. 20 teams now, the top 2 directly promoted to First Division, the last 4 relegated to third level. 3 points for a win, no ties – penalty shoot-outs instead and the winner gets 1 point.

Mladost (Lucani) – last with 5 points. Absolute outsiders, even if they had all points they earned – the team was penalized 6 points for match fixing in the last round of the previous season. Justly relegated this time.

Celik (Zenica) - 19^th with 18 points. What a disaster for a club mostly known for playing top league football, some times very well. Now going to third level. Standing from left: Bolić, Šehić, Zekotič, Šišić, Jevtić, Komšić. Front: Bajrić, Petrović. B. Gavran, Fočić, Bilješko.

Liria (Prizren) - 18^th with 23 points and relegated. Standing from left: Gadžolli, Marjanović, Đinali, Beriša, Belanica, Čejku. Crouching: Harun Isa, Kapra, Luma, Ramadani, Bylykbashi.

Rudar (Ljublja) - 17^th with 32 points. Fought to escape relegation, but lost the battle and went down.

Borac (Cacak) – barely survived: 16^th with 33 points. Top row from left: Nikitović, Kovačević, Dragutinović, ?, Maričić, Biberčić, Panić.
Middle row: Marković, Stojanović, Petrović, Lučić, Sušić, Maričić, Kaličanin.
Sitting: Jelić, Ristić, Božović, Vulović, Ćirković (assistant coach), Rajevac (coach), Dragićević, Vujčić, Đačić.

OFK Beograd (Belgrade) – terrible decline and almost relegated further down: 15^th with 33 points.

Napredak (Krusevac) – also in great decline. 14^th with 34 points.

Iskra (Bugojno) - 13^th with 34 points.

Macva (Sabac) - 12^th with 34 points.

Leotar (Trebinje) - 11^th with 35 points.

GOSK Jug (Dubrovnik) - 10^th with 36 points.

Pelister (Bitola) - 9^th with 36 points.

Dinamo (Vinkovci) - 8^th with 37 points.

Kikinda (Kikinda) - 7^th with 38 points.

Sloboda (Titovo Uzice) - 6^th with 39 points. Second row from left: Čumić, Cvetković, Bosiljčić, Vičević, Gudurić, Popov. Crouching: Divac, Simić, Tutić, Omerhodžić, Savić.

Sibenik (Sibenik) - 5^th with 41 points.

Prishtina (Prishtina) - 4^th with 43 points.

Sutjeska (Niksic) - 3^rd with 43 points. They excelled in scoring and goal-difference, though: 70 goals and +36.

The top 2 teams were well ahead of the rest and fought for the first place between themselves.

Proleter (Zrenjanin) lost the battle and finished 2^nd with 50 points: 23 regular wins, 4 penalty shoot-out wins, 2 penalty shoot-out losses, and 9 regular losses. 55-30 scoring record. No trouble, though – Proleter earned promotion and was happily returning to top flight.

FK Zemun (Zemun) clinched the Second Division title with 51 points: 23 wins, 5 penalty shoot-out wins, 1 penalty shoot-out loss and 9 regular losses. 59-35 was their scoring record – not the best at all. They scored only 1 goal more than lowly OFK Beograd and Prishtina and Sutjeska outscored them. Proleter and Sutjeska had better defensive record, but lowly Borac (Cacak) permited the same number of goals in their net as the champions. Proleter and Sutjeska had better goal-difference. Yet, what mattered was point and Zemun had the most, so they triumphed.

It was great to win the championship and get promoted to First Division – Zemun hardly ever played there, unlike second-placed Proleter. Thus, a truly triumphal season.

Yugoslavia III Division

 

Yugoslavia. Ranked 10^th. One more country to experiment with new rules in the 1980s: 3 points for a win, but also no ties – penalty shoot-out instead, giving 1 point to the winner and nothing to the loser. Political problems were boiling as well in the country, although the bloody disintegration was not yet expected. Crvena zvezda dominated the season entirely. Second Division was now unified in a single league of 20 teams, the last 4 relegated to third level, the Inter-Republic Leagues. A glimpse of teams from third level – because some were former First or Second Division clubs and others will emerge from obscurity after the disintegration of Yugoslavia.

FK Novi Sad (Novi Sad)

Kabel (Novi Sad)

GIK Ramiz Sadiku (Prishtina)

Jedinstvo (Brcko)

Junak (Sinj)

Pobeda (Prilep)

Rabotnicki (Skopje)

Teteks (Tetovo)

FAMOS (Hrasnica)

AIK (Backa Topola)

FK Novi Pazar (Novi Pazar)

But most important were the teams winning promotion to Second Division: 4 teams, all of them having quite significant past and practically returning to the spotlight:

Mogren (Budva), Radnicki (Belgrade), FK Bor (Bor), and

NK Zagreb (Zagreb).