1985–86 Yugoslav First League

The 1985–86 Yugoslav First League season was marked by scandal and controversy due to allegedly wide match-fixing during the last week of fixtures.

Summary

After the last week was played, FK Partizan was crowned champion due to better goal difference than second-placed Red Star Belgrade. However, after weeks of public pressure and huge public outcry, on 20 June 1986, the Yugoslav FA presidency headed by Slavko Šajber decided to impose extraordinary measures that included the following:

• voiding the already played week 34 matches of the 1985–86 season and ordering a replay of every single one (nine fixtures in total)
• docking 6 points from each of the 12 clubs suspected of being involved in match-fixing, meaning they would start the following league season with -6 points

Each club agreed to play the replay except for Partizan. As a result their week 34 fixture was registered as a 3–0 defeat, and the club was thus stripped of the league title, which was now awarded to Red Star. Based on this decision, it was Red Star Belgrade who got to represent SFR Yugoslavia in the 1986–87 European Cup.

What followed on domestic front was a series of appeals and lawsuits and the entire case eventually went all the way to the Yugoslav Constitutional Court. By the time Yugoslav Constitutional Court delivered its final ruling to the Court of Joint Labour of SR Serbia on 29 July 1987, the next league season was already completed with FK Vardar winning the title due to 12 teams starting the season with -6 points.

The court's ruling was that there was no evidence of wrongdoing in the week 34 of the 1985–86 season and thus that season's title was given back to Partizan. That also meant that there was no merit for the 6-point docking in the 1986–87 and now that season's table was re-counted so that now Partizan became a new champion.

Still, Vardar got to represent SFR Yugoslavia in the 1987–88 European Cup.

Winning squad

Champions: FK Partizan

Player	League
	Matches	Goals
Template:Flagicon Fahrudin Omerović (goalkeeper)	34	0
Template:Flagicon Zvonko Varga	32	17
Template:Flagicon Ljubomir Radanović	32	4
Template:Flagicon Vladimir Vermezović	32	1
Template:Flagicon Admir Smajić	30	2
Template:Flagicon Slobodan Rojević	29	0
Template:Flagicon Goran Stevanović	28	3
Template:Flagicon Nebojša Vučićević	27	6
Template:Flagicon Miloš Đelmaš	26	11
Template:Flagicon Zvonko Živković	24	12
Template:Flagicon Bajro Župić	24	0
Template:Flagicon Milonja Đukić	23	1
Template:Flagicon Vlado Čapljić	21	3
Template:Flagicon Radoslav Nikodijević	17	0
Template:Flagicon Miodrag Bajović	15	0
Template:Flagicon Miodrag Radović	12	0
Template:Flagicon Milinko Pantić	9	2
Template:Flagicon Milorad Bajović	6	0
Template:Flagicon Dragan ManceTemplate:Efn	5	2
Template:Flagicon Goran Bogdanović	5	0
Template:Flagicon Jovica Kolb	4	1
Template:Flagicon Isa Sadriu	4	0
Head coach: Nenad Bjeković

Match-fixing controversy

As mentioned, week 34, the last week of 1985–86 Yugoslav First League season, featured some highly suspicious results. All the matches started at the same time on Sunday, 15 June 1986.

Home team	Score	Away team	Notes
Partizan	4–0†	Željezničar	In order to become league champions, Partizan needed to beat Željezničar by at least the same margin that Red Star potentially beats Sarajevo by in their match. Since both matches were scheduled to start at the same time, Partizan came up with an impromptu pre-match ceremony for their famous striker Momčilo Vukotić who retired the previous year, meaning that their match versus Željezničar actually started 10 minutes later than Sarajevo-Red Star match.
Sarajevo	0–4†	Red Star	In order to become league champion, Red Star needed to beat Sarajevo by a larger margin than Partizan potentially beats Željezničar by in their match. Red Star ended up winning away by a four goal margin.
Vojvodina	1–7†	Dinamo Zagreb	Vojvodina was already mathematically relegated while Dinamo Zagreb needed to win, hopefully by a big margin, in order to have a chance at getting a third UEFA Cup spot through better goal difference. The game ended with a huge win for the visitors who scored 7 goals.
Hajduk Split	5–3†	Dinamo Vinkovci	Hajduk needed a win in their quest for the third UEFA Cup spot, while Dinamo Vinkovci's Davor Čop was in the middle of a scoring race and needed goals in order to become the league's top scorer. Hajduk won the game while Dinamo's Čop scored a hat-trick for the losing side.
Sutjeska	5–5†	Budućnost	Budućnost and Sutjeska both needed points to have a chance at avoiding relegation. The game ended in a draw.
Čelik	1–1†	Rijeka	Rijeka needed points in their fight for the third UEFA Cup spot, while Čelik needed points to have chance at avoiding relegation. The game ended in a draw.
Osijek	2–1	Sloboda
Velež	2–3†	OFK Belgrade	Velež already ensured a UEFA Cup spot, while OFK Belgrade needed a win to have a chance at avoiding relegation. The game ended with lowly visitors winning at the ground where even the top Yugoslav teams had trouble getting points all season long.
Priština	0–0	Vardar

^† results of matches suspected being fixed

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Template:Flagicon Davor Čop	Dinamo Vinkovci	22
2	Template:Flagicon Miloš Bursać	Sutjeska	20
3	Template:Flagicon Zlatko Vujović	Hajduk Split	18
4	Template:Flagicon Zvonko Varga	Partizan	17
5	Template:Flagicon Predrag Jurić	Velež	15
	Template:Flagicon Marinko Stojaković	OFK Beograd
7	Template:Flagicon Radmilo Mihajlović	Željezničar	14
8	Template:Flagicon Milko Đurovski	Red Star	13
	Template:Flagicon Haris Škoro	Željezničar
	Template:Flagicon Muhidin Teskeredžić	Sarajevo
	Template:Flagicon Miroslav Ćurčić	Vojvodina

Attendance

Club	Average home attendance	Average away attendance
Red Star Belgrade	19,882	16,471
FK Priština	15,000	7,353
FK Partizan	13,765	16,059
Čelik Zenica	12,412	4,706
Dinamo Zagreb	12,353	12,647
FK Vardar	9,941	5,000
FK Velež	9,529	6,471
Hajduk Split	8,882	15,647
FK Vojvodina	7,294	6,059
Budućnost Titograd	6,059	6,412
FK Željezničar	5,941	11,882
NK Rijeka	5,588	6,412
OFK Beograd	5,529	6,118
FK Sarajevo	5,471	7,706
Dinamo Vinkovci	4,176	6,176
NK Osijek	4,000	5,706
Sutjeska Nikšić	3,882	5,647
Sloboda Tuzla	3,412	6,647

• Overall league attendance per match: 8,507 spectators

See also

• 1985–86 Yugoslav Second League
• 1985–86 Yugoslav Cup

External links

• Yugoslavia Domestic Football Full Tables