1988–89 Yugoslav Second League

Football league season

Yugoslav Second League
Season	1988–89
Champions	Olimpija Ljubljana
Promoted	Olimpija Ljubljana Borac Banja Luka
Relegated	Radnički Kragujevac Bačka Novi Pazar Belasica
← 1987–88 1989–90 →

The 1988–89 Yugoslav Second League season was the 43rd season of the Second Federal League (Serbo-Croatian: Druga savezna liga), the second level association football competition of SFR Yugoslavia, since its establishment in 1946.

Teams

A total of twenty teams contested the league, including eight sides from the West and eight sides East Division from the 1987–88 season, two clubs relegated from the 1987–88 Yugoslav First League and two sides promoted from the Inter-Republic Leagues played in the 1987–88 season. The league was contested in a double round robin format, with each club playing every other club twice, for a total of 38 rounds. Two points were awarded for a win, while in case of a draw - penalty kicks were taken and the winner of the shootout was awarded one point while the loser got nothing. The 1988–89 season was the first to feature this tie-break system, and the Yugoslav FA's decision to implement this caused a lot of criticism and controversy. Apparently, the biggest proponent of the new system was FA president Slavko Šajber and the system was often derisively referred to in the media as 'Šajber's penalties'.

Prishtina and Sutjeska were relegated from the 1987–88 Yugoslav First League after finishing in the bottom two places of the league table. The two clubs promoted to the second level were Belasica and Bačka.

Bačka
Palanka

Banja
Luka

Belgrade

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Locations of teams' home cities in the 1988–89 Yugoslav Second League

Team	Location	Federal subject	Position in 1987–88
Bačka BP	Bačka Palanka	SAP Vojvodina	—
Belasica	Strumica	SR Macedonia	—
OFK Belgrade	Belgrade	SR Serbia	0022nd in YSL East
Borac Banja Luka	Banja Luka	SR Bosnia and Herzegovina	0088th in YSL West
Borac Čačak	Čačak	SR Serbia	0099th in YSL East
Dinamo Vinkovci	Vinkovci	SR Croatia	0033rd in YSL West
GOŠK-Jug	Dubrovnik	SR Croatia	0022nd in YSL West
Kikinda	Kikinda	SAP Vojvodina	0044th in YSL West
Leotar	Trebinje	SR Bosnia and Herzegovina	0077th in YSL West
Liria	Prizren	SAP Kosovo	0055th in YSL East
Mačva Šabac	Šabac	SR Serbia	0077th in YSL East
Novi Pazar	Novi Pazar	SR Serbia	0066th in YSL East
Pelister	Bitola	SR Macedonia	0033rd in YSL East
Prishtina	Pristina	SAP Kosovo	—
Olimpija	Ljubljana	SR Slovenia	01212th in YSL West
Proleter Zrenjanin	Zrenjanin	SAP Vojvodina	0066th in YSL West
Radnički Kragujevac	Kragujevac	SR Serbia	0044th in YSL East
Sloboda Titovo Užice	Titovo Užice	SR Serbia	0088th in YSL East
Sutjeska	Nikšić	SR Montenegro	—
Šibenik	Šibenik	SR Croatia	0055th in YSL West

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	PKW	PKL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Olimpija (C, P)	38	21	4	3	10	63	37	+26	46	Promotion to Yugoslav First League
2	Borac Banja Luka (P)	38	21	3	5	9	58	34	+24	45	Promotion to Yugoslav First League
3	Proleter Zrenjanin	38	18	7	3	10	68	42	+26	43
4	Kikinda	38	19	4	3	12	61	45	+16	42
5	Šibenik	38	19	4	2	13	57	45	+12	42
6	OFK Belgrade	38	18	4	4	12	71	49	+22	40
7	Borac Čačak	38	17	1	4	16	49	54	−5	35
8	Sutjeska Nikšić	38	15	3	3	17	47	48	−1	33
9	Liria	38	15	3	4	16	40	44	−4	33
10	Prishtina^[a]	38	18	2	3	15	42	40	+2	32
11	Mačva Šabac	38	12	8	2	16	37	47	−10	32
12	Pelister	38	14	4	3	17	38	49	−11	32
13	Sloboda Titovo Užice	38	14	4	1	19	37	48	−11	32
14	Dinamo Vinkovci	38	13	5	7	13	49	43	+6	31
15	Leotar	38	14	3	3	18	53	51	+2	31
16	GOŠK-Jug	38	12	7	3	16	36	39	−3	31
17	Radnički Kragujevac (R)	38	12	3	7	16	43	54	−11	27	Relegation to Inter-Republic Leagues
18	Bačka BP (R)	38	12	2	7	17	43	62	−19	26
19	Novi Pazar (R)	38	11	3	5	19	32	48	−16	25
20	Belasica (R)	38	11	0	2	25	34	76	−42	22

Source: rsssf.org
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored. If a match ended in a draw, penalties were taken, and only the winner of the penalty shoot-out was rewarded with a point.
(C) Champion; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes: