most spectators in the home game. There were 20,000 spectators, and almost three hours before the start of the match, about 15,000 people already gathered in the stands. Maribor won the match 3–1. Two goals advantage was, however, not enough as Proleter won the second leg 3–0 at home and earned the promotion to the top flight, eliminating Maribor 4–3 on aggregate. When the score was 1–0 for Proleter, Josip Ražić scored an equalising goal in the 23rd minute, but the goal was not awarded by the main referee. Later, the television review showed that the ball had actually crossed the line and that the goal should have counted. After the dramatic play-offs against Proleter, a period of stagnation began for the club. Maribor finished the 1973–74 season in 13th place, and barely avoided relegation to the third tier. However, they were relegated the next season (1974–75), which meant that the team was not part of the top two divisions of Yugoslav football for the first time in 14 years. Maribor immediately returned to the second division after only one season and was again close to promotion to the top tier in 1978–79 when they finished as runners-up, six points behind Čelik. At the end of the 1980–81 season, Maribor defeated Čelik 4–2 in the decisive last round and finished in 10th place, and thus avoided relegation, when the bribery scandal, dubbed as the "Ball Affair" (), caused that the club was relegated by the disciplinary committee of the Football Association of Yugoslavia, from second to third division. The club allegedly had a secret fund that was used for bribing the officials and opponents. Some club officials recorded the cost of bribery in their "black book", which was later confiscated by the authorities. The club had to play in the Slovenian Republic League in the next season. During the 1980s, Maribor never fully recovered from the affair and was bouncing between second and third division up until Slovenia's independence in 1991. Between 1981 and 1989, Maribor won six Slovenian Republic Cups. From 1988 and until Slovenia's independence in 1991, Maribor played in the West Division of the newly established Inter-Republic League (third tier of Yugoslav football) with teams from Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1988, Maribor joined the Branik Sports Association and became Maribor Branik. Although the club uses the name NK Maribor in domestic and international competitions,