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 Fudbalski klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Партизан, ; ), often referred to in English as Partizan Belgrade, is a Serbian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Belgrade. It forms ...

was crowned champion due to better goal difference than second-placed

Red Star Belgrade Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club), commonly referred to as Crvena zvezda () and colloquially referred to as Red Star Belgrade in anglophone media, is a ...

. However, after weeks of public pressure and huge public outcry, on 20 June 1986, the Yugoslav FA presidency headed by

Slavko Šajber Slavko Šajber (25 February 1929 – 3 November 2003) was a Croatian politician, football official and former president of the Football Association of Yugoslavia. Early life Šajber was born in Gradina, near Virovitica, to a Jewish family, . ...

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 The 1986–87 season was the 32nd season of the European Cup, Europe's premier club football competition. The tournament was won by Porto, who came from behind in the final against Bayern Munich to give a Portuguese club its first title since 19 ...

. 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 FK Vardar () is a professional Association football, football club based in Skopje, North Macedonia, which competes in the Macedonian First Football League, Macedonian First League. They are the most successful football club in Football in Maced ...

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 The 1987–88 European Cup was the 33rd season of the European Cup club football tournament. The competition was won for the first time by PSV Eindhoven, who defeated two-time winners Benfica in the final at Neckarstadion in Stuttgart. PSV becam ...

League table

Results

Winning squad

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. ^† results of matches suspected being fixed

Top scorers

Attendance

*Overall league attendance per match: 8,507 spectators

References

External links

Yugoslavia Domestic Football Full Tables
{{DEFAULTSORT:1985-86 Yugoslav First League Yugoslav First League seasons Yugo 1985–86 in Yugoslav football