1979–80 Yugoslav First League

Teams

A total of eighteen teams contested the league, including sixteen sides from the 1978–79 season and two sides promoted from the 1978–79 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.

NK Zagreb and OFK Belgrade were relegated from the 1978–79 Yugoslav First League after finishing the season in bottom two places of the league table. The two clubs promoted to top level were Vardar and Čelik.

Death of Marshal Tito

The season's week 25 derby match Hajduk vs. Red Star featured a mass display of public grief. Played on Sunday afternoon, 4 May 1980, the match was in the 41st minute when three men entered the Poljud Stadium's pitch, signalling the referee to stop the match. The mayor of Split Ante Skataretiko took the microphone and informed the 50,000+ crowd that Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito had died. What followed were sudden scenes of mass crying with even some players such as Zlatko Vujović collapsing down to the ground and weeping. The crowd then launched into a rendition of "Druže Tito, mi ti se kunemo", a popular personality cult song that professes loyalty and devotion to Comrade Tito. The match was halted and never resumed.

The decision was made to void the match and re-play it two and a half weeks later on Wednesday, 21 May at the same stadium. Red Star won the re-play 3-1.

League table

Source: rsssf.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

League topscorers:
Safet Sušić (FK Sarajevo) - 17
Dragoljub Kostić (Napredak Kruševac) - 17

Champions:

players (league matches/league goals):
Srebrenko Repčić (33/7)
Cvijetin Blagojević (31/2)
Milan Jovin (31/1)
Dušan Savić (28/11)
Vladimir Petrović (28/5)
Miloš Šestić (28/4)
Zlatko Krmpotić (25/0)
Zoran Filipović (24/6)
Zdravko Borovnica (24/0)
Nedeljko Milosavljević (23/3)
Živan Ljukovčan (23/0) -goalkeeper-
Ivan Jurišić (19/0)
Dragan Miletović (18/0)
Dušan Nikolić (16/1)
Slavoljub Muslin (15/0)
Đorđe Milovanović (14/3)
Boško Đurovski (14/1)
Nikola Jovanović (14/0)
Aleksandar Stojanović (11/0) -goalkeeper-
Radomir Savić (9/3)
Srboljub Stamenković (1/0)
Zoran Mitić (1/0)
Borisav Mitrović (1/0)