1982–83 Football League

The 1982–1983 season was the 84th completed season of The Football League.

Contents

• First Division
• First Division results
• Second Division
• Second Division results
• Third Division
• Fourth Division
• ElectionRe election to the Football League
• References

Bob Paisley’s last season as Liverpool manager ended on a high as they topped the First Division with a comfortable lead. Bob Paisley retired as Liverpool manager with a record 21 prizes in nine years. His successor was long-serving coach Joe Fagan. Newly promoted Watford were the shock of the season, finishing in second place in their first ever season in the top flight.

Manchester City were relegated despite a four-year spending spree totalling around £5million. Swansea City were also relegated after only their second season as a First Division club. They had finished sixth a year earlier and at several stages had topped the league table. Brighton & Hove Albion joined them on the way down.

Queens Park Rangers, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leicester City won promotion to the First Division. Rotherham United, Burnley and Bolton Wanderers were relegated to the Third Division. It was another blow for Bolton, who had been relegated from the First Division three years earlier.

Charlton Athletic and Wolverhampton Wanderers both came within hours of going bankrupt but were both saved by respective new owners.

Portsmouth’s revival continued as they ran away with the Third Division championship, followed closely behind by runners-up Cardiff City and third-placed Huddersfield Town. Newport County finished 4th, their highest post-World War II position in the Football League. Occupying the four relegation places were Reading, Wrexham, Doncaster Rovers and Chesterfield.

Wimbledon were crowned Fourth Division champions and the efforts of manager Dave Bassett were bound to ensure that this would not be their last promotion. Hull City, Port Vale and Scunthorpe United occupied the other three promotion places. The re-election system once again went in favour of the bottom four sides in the Fourth Division, but had things gone differently then Blackpool could have gone out of the Football League little over a decade after they had been a First Division side.

At the end of the season, Fourth Division strugglers Crewe Alexandra appointed Milan-born ex-Wimbledon manager Dario Gradi as their new manager.