As for going down, the season did not provide anything really big, so West Germans are chosen to represent disgrace here. Tough choice – both relegates have ‘merits’. Have them both then…

Eintracht Braunscweig ended 17th, which was very bad for their goalkeeper.
Bernd Franke was a national player, a backup for Sep Maier. It is hard to tell who was really #2 in West Germany – the competition was stiff with Nigbur and Kleff playing strong. Franke, however, already managed to push away another national player – Horst Wolter, from the World Cup 1970 selection. He actually made him redundant and Wolter moved to Hertha. Which was good luck for Wolter – Franke continued to play reliably, but the rest of Eintracht was not much and down they went. And Franke was not called to the national team for a while and missed his chance to become champion of the world. But it would have been extravagant to include a third division player in the national team… West Germany did not have Second Division yet and Franke sunk to the semi-professional regional championships…

Rot Weiss Oberhausen finished last. They did not have any player worth a note, yet the club deserves a line – this was their very last top division season. So far, they were not able to earn promotion and judging by the current football situation it is unlikely a club from a small town to climb to the universe of the rich and famous. And with this sour note 1973 has to end.

Going up from 3rd to 2nd Division in Bulgaria:

Botev (Novi Pazar). Absolute beginners.

Chavdar (Byala Slatina). Both teams moved up to the Northern Second Division, a dreamland of a kind, although for only one season. One year later they were relegated.

And more climbing up the scale – the Soviet Second Division winners. Both Chernomoretz (Odessa) and Nistru (Kishinev) played previously among the best, but without making any waves. Now they returned, finishing first and second in the Second Division, thus continuing the Southern dominance. The Moldovian club – Nistru – was not anything special and were somewhat of a surprise: even the club acknowledged that, for normally they dwelled in the bottom half of the Second Division. Chernomoretz stirred another problem – which would be the second important Ukrainian club? Voroshilovgrad (the champions of 1972), Donetzk (the first provincial Cup-winners), Lvov (the first and only Second Division Cup-winners), or Odessa? Dnepropetrovsk nobody counted, except for confirming the Ukrainian dominance: 6 First division teams! Unlike the Moldovians, the Odessites were not to be a punching bag for others – unknown yet at the end of 1973. Just moving up and happy about it:
Chernomoretz (Odessa), champions of Second Division:
Top, left to right: Yu. Zabolotny – team’s director, Yu. Romanov – director of the ‘Vodnik’ Voluntary Sport Organization, A. Nefedov, V. Zubkov, A. Degtyarev, V. Leshtuk, A. Aleskerov – coach, V. Tomashevsky, V. Feydman, S. Shmerlin – assistant coach, S. Krulikovsky, V. Korostynsky – doctor, V. Sokolov – masseur, V. Gayantzky – administrator.
Bottom: V. Borovsky, L. Baranovsky, G. Sapozhnikov, A. Shepel, V. Kuzmin, N. Ivanenko, V. Butenko, V. Moskvichev, V. Nechaev – captain.
A. Shepel was the emerging star – he was the top scorer of the 2nd Division with 38 goals. However, he never materialized the promise.
Nistru (Kishinev) finished 2nd and returned to top football, where they played briefly before under different name.
Top, left to right: V. Korolkov – coach, V. Kirichenko – assistant coach, V. Folomeev – assistant coach, G. Tegletzov, V. Pavlov, I. Nadein, V. Karev, V. Gaspersky, R. Atamalyan, A. Rybak, V. Volostnykh, V. Zadnepranov – administrator, E. Losenko – doctor, V. Dryzhenko, P. Burd – team’s director.
Bottom: V. Zhuravlyov, V. Katkov, I. Tabachuk, V. Kutzev, N. Mikhailov, P. Chebanu, A. Afanasenko – boots’ caretaker, A. Teslev, N. Karas.
Not a single memorable player… unless one is a fan.

Going up. Queens Park Rangers surely. They finished second in the Second Division and moved upstairs. Unlike many a former second division club, they were not just to fight for survival.

QPR promoted. Look who is here: Gerry Francis, Stan Bowles, Phil Parkes – all to be soon invited to the national team of England. Don Givens already was a national player of Republic of Ireland. Terry Venables – you know the coach, right? Well, meet the second division dude here. A second division squad… many a top club would like to have such line up. A line up, which was not even able to win Second Division – Burnley bested QPR.

But nothing remains empty in football – new players always replace the old. A giant stepped retired, new unknowns disgrace the holly grass… Jean-Marie Pfaff debuted in 1973. Nothing fancy and nothing memorable – Beveren, a rather run of the mill Belgian club, sported new goalie. Small clubs, being small, may take greater risks and field suspect youngster in the futile hope of major turn of luck. Alas, nothing doing… neither Beveren, nor Pfaff attracted attention.

Pfaff debuted for the Belgian national team in 1976, but in general he was under the radar in the 1970s – he was recognized as one of the best goalkeepers in the world during the 1980s. Little we knew in 1973… well, little we know about the future anyway. For Jean-Marie it turned out to be great future. He was going up.

Going down, going down… Bobby Charlton retired in 1973. His last match was in the summer Anglo-Italian club tournament. Perhaps nobody remembers it today, but it was played for a number of years from late 1960s to pretty much the end of the 1970s. There was no particular trophy and not even real cup structure: the whole concoction was cooked up with more financial than football aims – to provide semi-competitive excitement to the paying public during the depleted summer season. It was clear that no club would be really fit yet, so the tournament also served for training and team-building purposes. Some new players, some candidate players, some guys coming back from injuries… let see them what they can do. Various clubs played the tournament, always a mixed bag – big clubs normally avoided it; smaller clubs did not mind participating. And this year Manchester United played against Verona. It served as a benefit to Bobby… rather low key tribute, but in that years it was not fashionable yet to stage maniacal mega-events. Low key, but much more humane in my mind.
Bobby just scored his last goal in the net of Verona.
Addio Bobby – Verona fans paid their own tribute to Charlton with standing ovation. I cannot envision something like this happening today: cheering the ‘enemy’.
Sad moment… one of the all-time greatest players stepped down. It turned out, Bobby retired only from Manchester United – and went to play a little longer in the lower levels of English football:
A new Preston North End player. Somehow this didn’t count in 1973: to the mind of the world football fans Charlton regretfully retired.

If Eusebio’s ‘good bye’, however in graceful style, was expected, another ‘good bye’ was neither graceful, nor expected. Ajax was to rule the football world for ever and ever, right? Without departed Cruijff and coach Stefan Kovacs Ajax won the European Supercup – the brand new creation, which was to replace the declining Intercontinental Cup. At least this was the idea in 1973. Two-legged challenge between the European Champions Cup winner and the Cup Winners Cup winner. Ajax destroyed Milan and collected the trophy. Best in the world again!

1st Leg, San Siro Stadium, Milan, 9 Jan 1974, att 15000

Milan (0) 1 Ajax (0) 0

77' 1-0 M: Chiarugi

Milan Vecchi, Sabadini, Maldera, Schnellinger, Anquiletti, Turone, Borini (Bergamaschi), Benetti, Biaziolo, Rivera, Chiarugi

Ajax Stuy, Suurbier, Krol, Blankenburg, Hulshoff, G. Mühren, Rep, Neeskens, Mulder, Haan, Keizer

2nd Leg, Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, 16 Jan 1974, att 25000

Ajax (2) 6 Milan (0) 0

26' 1-0 A: Mulder 35' 2-0 A: Keizer 71' 3-0 A: Neeskens 81' 4-0 A: Rep 84' 5-0 A: Mühren (pen) 87' 6-0 A: Haan

Ajax Stuy, Suurbier, Krol, Blankenburg, Hulshoff, G.Mühren, Rep, Neeskens, Mulder, Haan, Keizer

Milan Vecchi, Sabadini, Maldera, Schnellinger, Anquiletti, Turone, Dolci, Benetti, Biaziolo (Tresoldi), Rivera, Chiarugi

Gianni Rivera ‘teasing’ Dutch defense. Teasing did not work… in the twilight of both clubs Ajax was much better.

Piet Keizer and Barry Hulshoff still supreme and some desperate Italians.

Ajax, dressed in something suspiciously looking like bathrobes, posing with the Supercup. It was a Pyrrhic victory… the matches were played in early January 1874, attendance was low, and Milan played half-heartedly at best. Even then there was strong suspicion that Milan did not care much for this cup and played pro forma only. As for Ajax… they were already destroyed, but the narration of that will go to 1974’s story. Winning the Supercup was not even a swan song… it was a desperate attempt to preserve dignity. To win something…anything. The Supercup never achieved really important status in Europe.