1988–89 Yugoslav First League
# 1988–89 Yugoslav First League

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

The season began on 6 August 1988 with its fall part completing on 18 December 1988. Following a two-month winter break, the season resumed on 26 February 1989 and ran until 4 June 1989.

## New rule: "Šajber's penalties"

The season saw the introduction of a new way of awarding points when a league match ends in a draw. Two points were still being awarded for a win, while in case of a draw at the end of the ninety minutes — penalty kicks were taken and the shootout winner was awarded one point while the loser got nothing. The 1988-89 season was the very first to feature this tie-break method, and the Yugoslav FA's decision to implement it caused a lot of criticism and controversy. The biggest proponent of the new rule was the Yugoslav FA (FSJ) president Slavko Šajber and it was often derisively referred to in the media as 'Šajber's penalties'.

## League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | PKW | PKL | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Vojvodina (C) | 34 | 18 | 5 | 1 | 10 | 50 | 38 | +12 | 41 | Qualification for European Cup first round |
| 2 | Red Star Belgrade | 34 | 18 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 55 | 30 | +25 | 38 | Qualification for UEFA Cup first round |
| 3 | Hajduk Split | 34 | 15 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 50 | 29 | +21 | 36 | Banned from European competition |
| 4 | Rad | 34 | 13 | 9 | 2 | 10 | 46 | 38 | +8 | 35 | Qualification for UEFA Cup first round |
| 5 | Dinamo Zagreb | 34 | 16 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 42 | 29 | +13 | 34 | Qualification for UEFA Cup first round |
| 6 | Partizan | 34 | 15 | 3 | 4 | 12 | 52 | 37 | +15 | 33 | Qualification for Cup Winners' Cup first round |
| 7 | Radnički Niš | 34 | 14 | 3 | 4 | 13 | 42 | 35 | +7 | 31 | |
| 8 | Osijek | 34 | 13 | 5 | 2 | 14 | 49 | 50 | −1 | 31 | |
| 9 | Vardar | 34 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 14 | 46 | 51 | −5 | 29 | |
| 10 | Rijeka | 34 | 14 | 0 | 7 | 13 | 35 | 34 | +1 | 28 | |
| 11 | Velež | 34 | 13 | 2 | 2 | 17 | 42 | 43 | −1 | 28 | |
| 12 | Sloboda Tuzla | 34 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 11 | 35 | 42 | −7 | 28 | |
| 13 | Sarajevo | 34 | 11 | 6 | 4 | 13 | 35 | 42 | −7 | 28 | |
| 14 | Budućnost | 34 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 15 | 32 | 43 | −11 | 28 | |
| 15 | Spartak Subotica | 34 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 16 | 30 | 39 | −9 | 26 | |
| 16 | Željezničar | 34 | 12 | 1 | 3 | 18 | 34 | 49 | −15 | 25 | |
| 17 | Napredak Kruševac (R) | 34 | 11 | 1 | 4 | 18 | 42 | 59 | −17 | 23 | Relegation to Yugoslav Second League |
| 18 | Čelik (R) | 34 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 18 | 31 | 60 | −29 | 17 | Relegation to Yugoslav Second League |

* ↑ In November 1987, UEFA banned Hajduk Split from European competitions for two seasons. The immediate catalyst for the punishment was crowd trouble during the club's 1987–88 European Cup Winners' Cup second round return leg at home against Marseille on 5 November 1987. However, repeated prior incidents at Hajduk's European home matches throughout early-to-mid 1980s (such as the 1983–84 UEFA Cup semifinal first leg infamous 'rooster incident' against Tottenham Hotspur) also contributed to the decision. Since Hajduk's 1987-88 Yugoslav League performance failed to qualify the club for 1988-89 European competition, the punishment was enacted for seasons when Hajduk did manage to qualify: 1989-90 and 1990-91.
* ↑ Čelik were docked 6 points.

## Results

Results in brackets indicate the results from penalty shoot-outs whenever games were drawn.

| Home \ Away | BUD | ČEL | DIN | HAJ | NAP | OSI | PAR | RAD | RNI | RSB | RIJ | SAR | SLO | SPA | VAR | VEL | VOJ | ŽEL |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Budućnost | | 1–0 | $0–0^{(3–1)}$ | 2–1 | 2–1 | 1–0 | $0–0^{[4–2)}$ | 3–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1–2 | $1–1^{(5–6)}$ | $1–1^{(5–6)}$ | $0–0^{(6–5)}$ | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| Čelik | $0–0^{(3–1)}$ | | $0–0^{(2–4)}$ | 1–0 | 2–1 | $1–1^{(2–4)}$ | 1–4 | $1–1^{(5–4)}$ | 2–1 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 1–2 | 0–1 | $1–1^{(4–2)}$ | $1–1^{(4–2)}$ | 3–1 | 1–0 |
| Dinamo Zagreb | 2–0 | 0–2 | | 1–0 | 4–0 | 1–3 | 2–0 | $0–0^{(4–5)}$ | 2–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 3–0 | 2–0 | $0–0^{(4–3)}$ | 2–0 | 3–0 | $1–1^{(1–3)}$ | 3–1 |
| Hajduk Split | 2–1 | 2–0 | 4–1 | | 5–0 | 0–1 | $2–2^{(0–2)}$ | $2–2^{(4–5)}$ | 3–0 | $0–0^{(4–2)}$ | 4–0 | 3–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 4–1 | 4–0 | $0–0^{(2–4)}$ | 2–0 |
| Napredak Kruševac | 3–1 | 3–0 | $0–0^{(7–6)}$ | $1–1^{(1–3)}$ | | 2–0 | 4–2 | 2–0 | 4–3 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 4–0 | 0–1 | 2–1 | $1–1^{(4–5)}$ | 1–0 | 1–2 | 3–0 |
| Osijek | $2–2^{(5–4)}$ | 6–2 | 0–2 | 2–1 | 4–0 | | 2–1 | $1–1^{(3–1)}$ | $0–0^{(4–3)}$ | 1–3 | 1–3 | 0–3 | 3–1 | 3–1 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 3–1 | 4–1 |
| Partizan | 3–0 | $2–2^{(10–11)}$ | 2–0 | 1–0 | 4–2 | $1–1^{(3–5)}$ | | 3–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 6–1 | 0–1 | $1–1^{(2–3)}$ | 0–1 | 1–0 | 4–1 | 4–0 |
| Rad | 3–1 | 3–0 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 0–2 | | 1–0 | $0–0^{(4–3)}$ | 4–0 | 0–2 | $2–2^{(4–1)}$ | 4–0 | 3–0 | 3–1 | $1–1^{(3–2)}$ | 2–1 |
| Radnički Niš | 2–1 | 2–0 | $1–1^{(3–2)}$ | $0–0^{(4–5)}$ | 2–1 | 4–2 | 3–1 | $0–0^{(2–3)}$ | | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 3–1 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 4–0 |
| Red Star | 2–1 | 4–1 | 3–1 | 3–0 | 4–0 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 1–0 | $2–2^{(4–5)}$ | | 5–1 | 3–1 | 2–0 | 2–0 | $0–0^{(3–4)}$ | 4–1 | 3–1 | 1–0 |
| Rijeka | 0–1 | 2–1 | 1–0 | $0–0^{(1–3)}$ | 4–1 | 2–0 | $1–1^{(3–4)}$ | 0–1 | $0–0^{(4–5)}$ | 1–2 | | $0–0^{(2–3)}$ | 1–0 | $0–0^{(5–6)}$ | 3–0 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 3–0 |
| Sarajevo | 4–1 | 3–0 | 2–1 | 0–1 | $1–1^{(4–2)}$ | $0–0^{(4–3)}$ | $0–0^{(4–5)}$ | $0–0^{(1–4)}$ | 2–0 | $1–1^{(1–4)}$ | 1–2 | | $1–1^{(4–2)}$ | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | $0–0^{(1–2)}$ | 2–0 |
| Sloboda Tuzla | 2–1 | 2–0 | $0–0^{(4–3)}$ | 3–1 | 1–0 | $1–1^{(5–3)}$ | 1–0 | 1–2 | $2–2^{(5–3)}$ | $1–1^{(1–4)}$ | $0–0^{(5–4)}$ | $0–0^{(4–5)}$ | | $0–0^{(3–5)}$ | 2–0 | 2–4 | $1–1^{(3–0)}$ | 1–0 |
| Spartak Subotica | 2–0 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 2–0 | $2–2^{(1–3)}$ | 1–3 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 4–2 | $1–1^{(3–2)}$ | | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 2–1 |
| Vardar | 2–1 | 6–1 | 0–1 | $1–1^{(3–5)}$ | $1–1^{(4–3)}$ | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–4 | 1–0 | 3–1 | 3–2 | $2–2^{(2–4)}$ | 3–0 | 2–0 | | 3–2 | 2–1 | 5–1 |
| Velež | 2–1 | 3–0 | $1–1^{(4–3)}$ | $2–2^{(5–4)}$ | 2–0 | 4–0 | 0–1 | 3–0 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 0–3 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 5–1 | | 0–1 | 0–1 |
| Vojvodina | 2–0 | 2–0 | 4–1 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 2–1 | 3–2 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 3–1 | $0–0^{(4–3)}$ | 1–2 | 4–2 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | | 1–0 |
| Željezničar | 4–1 | 1–2 | 1–0 | $1–1^{(5–6)}$ | 4–0 | 2–0 | 1–0 | $0–0^{(2–4)}$ | 1–0 | $0–0^{(4–3)}$ | 1–0 | 2–1 | $2–2^{(1–4)}$ | 2–1 | 3–1 | 0–1 | 3–0 | |

* ↑ Match awarded 3–0 to Vardar.

## Winning squad

Champions: FK Vojvodina :

| Player | League | League |
| - | - | - |
| Player | Matches | Goals |
| Čedo Maras (goalkeeper) | 34 | 0 |
| Budimir Vujačić | 31 | 7 |
| Siniša Mihajlović | 31 | 4 |
| Miloš Šestić | 30 | 7 |
| Goran Kartalija | 28 | 1 |
| Dušan Mijić | 28 | 1 |
| Svetozar Šapurić | 28 | 1 |
| Stevan Milovac | 26 | 2 |
| Ljubomir Vorkapić | 25 | 6 |
| Dragan Punišić | 25 | 4 |
| Slaviša Jokanović | 24 | 4 |
| Dejan Joksimović | 23 | 5 |
| Milan Popović | 20 | 1 |
| Zoran Mijucić | 19 | 4 |
| Željko Dakić | 15 | 2 |
| Dragan Gaćeša | 15 | 0 |
| Miroslav Tanjga | 14 | 1 |
| Dragan Marković | 7 | 0 |
| Zoran Milosavljević | 6 | 0 |
| Enes Muhić | 4 | 0 |
| Marijan Zovko | 4 | 0 |
| Jovo Bosančić | 2 | 0 |
| Zoran Hajdić | 1 | 0 |
| Dragan Vasić (goalkeeper) | 1 | 0 |
| Head coach: Ljupko Petrović |||

## Top scorers

| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Davor Šuker | Osijek | 18 |
| 2 | Mladen Mladenović | Rijeka | 13 |
| 3 | Semir Tuce | Velež | 12 |
| 3 | Dušan Arsenijević | Rad | 12 |
| 3 | Dragan Stojković | Red Star | 12 |
| 6 | Anto Drobnjak | Budućnost | 10 |
| 6 | Dejan Lukić | Radnički Niš | 10 |
| 6 | Mirko Mihić | Sloboda Tuzla | 10 |
| 6 | Vasil Gunev | Napredak Kruševac | 10 |
| 10 | Branko Karačić | Hajduk Split | 9 |
| 10 | Vladimir Gudelj | Velež | 9 |
| 10 | Radmilo Mihajlović | Dinamo Zagreb | 9 |
| 10 | Edin Ćurić | Željezničar | 9 |
