In 1980, instead of Aleksei Alekseevich Beryuchevskogo, who led the "Rubin" in two previous seasons, to the post of head coach came Valeriy Salnikov. Together with him came from Taganrog: goalkeeper Ivan Kikhtenko striker – Sergey Suslin, from Makhachkala midfielder – Anatoly Vetrov. "Rubin" was first included in the second (the Volga-Urals) zone of the second league, which became his "home" for the next 10 years. To the end of the season Kazan came in 10th place, and again left without a head coach.