The 1978–79 Yugoslav First League season was the 33rd season of the First Federal League (), the top level

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

competition of SFR Yugoslavia, since its establishment in 1946. Hajduk Split won the league title. A total of 18 teams competed in the league, with the defending champions Partizan nearly relegated, finishing the season in 15th place, one point above the relegation zone. Hajduk Split and Dinamo Zagreb both finished the season equal on 50 points, but Hajduk won the championship due to better goal difference. The season began on 12 August 1978 and concluded on 17 June 1979. This was the third and last national title win for Hajduk under the guidance of manager Tomislav Ivić, who previously led the club to four consecutive

Yugoslav Cup The Yugoslav Cup (; ; , ), officially known between 1923 and 1940 as the King Alexander Cup (; , and between 1947 and 1991 as the Marshal Tito Cup (; ; ; ), was one of two major association football, football competitions in Socialist Federal Re ...

wins in 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1976 (not contested in 1975). Striker Dušan Savić of

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won the Golden Boot with 24 goals scored, his second, having previously topped the scoring table four years earlier in the 1974–75 season.

Rijeka Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...

, which finished 10th in the league, defeated Partizan in the final of the 1978–79 Marshal Tito Cup under the guidance of Marijan Brnčić, and qualified for the 1979–80 European Cup Winners' Cup. Other standout players this season were Hajduk's Vedran Rožić, Mišo Krstičević, and Slaviša Žungul, Dinamo Zagreb's forwards Snješko Cerin and Zlatko Kranjčar, Sarajevo's attacking midfielders Safet Sušić and Srebrenko Repčić, the Velež stalwart Vahid Halilhodžić. The season was marked by controversy after

's 2–1 win over Dinamo at Kantrida in the first round. Dinamo claimed that Rijeka's player Edmond Tomić, who had joined the club in pre-season from Lirija Prizren, should have served a one-match suspension for two yellow cards received while playing for his former club. They appealed to the Football Association of Yugoslavia (FSJ), which after two months of deliberation decided to award the match 3–0 to Dinamo. After more appeals and counter-appeals from both Rijeka and Dinamo, in the spring of 1979 FSJ ruled in favor of Rijeka. The case was then brought to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, which four years later ruled Dinamo as champions.

Teams

A total of eighteen teams contested the league, including sixteen sides from the 1977–78 season and two sides promoted from the 1977–78 Yugoslav Second League (YSL) as winners of the two second level divisions East and West. The league was contested in a double round robin format, with each club playing every other club twice, for a total of 34 rounds. Two points were awarded for wins and one point for draws. Čelik Zenica and Trepča Kosovska Mitrovica were relegated from the 1977–78 Yugoslav First League after finishing the season in bottom two places of the league table. The two clubs promoted to top level were Napredak Kruševac and Željezničar Sarajevo.

League table

Results

Winning squad

Source: NogoNet - Nogomet na netu - 1.liga , , 1978, , 79 , ,
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Top scorers

External links