Central Europe’s Historic Competition: The Mitropa Cup

I recently wrote a piece on what I called the predecessor to the European Cup – The Latin Cup.

In this competition, the league champions from France, Italy, Spain and Portugal faced off against one another from 1949-1957.

The Latin Cup went a long way in showcasing the necessity for competition between Europe’s elite footballing sides. However, it was not the only international club-competition that predated The European Cup.

There were other competitions that also came before the European Cup and pitted the best sides from various countries against one another – for instance, The Mitropa Cup.

The Foundations of the Cup – The Challenge Cup

In 1897, a new European club competition was founded between the nation states of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

The cup was founded by John Gramlick Senior, an English plumber who had moved to Vienna and was also one of the founding members of the Vienna Cricket and Football Club.

The Challenge Cup was a competition within which any club presiding within the Austro-Hungarian empire could partake, however in practice, it was typically clubs who heralded from the major cities of Vienna, Budapest and Prague who actually entered into the competition.

The Austrian sides proved truly dominant throughout The Challenge Cup, winning it nine times out of a possible ten instances where it was contested – a culmination of wins from Vienna Cricket FC, First Vienna FC, Wiener AC and Wiener Sport-Club.

The only non-Vienna based side to ever prove victorious in the competition was Hungarian Ferencváros in the 1908/09 season. An unsurprising victory due to the inclusion of Hungarian Imre Schlosser-Lakatos in their team – a player who, to this day, holds the record for the highest ever goal scorer in the Hungarian National Championship.

The final season in which the tournament was contested was the 1910/11 season, where Wiener Sport-Club took home the title, beating Ferencváros 3-0 in the final.

The Creation of The Mitropa Cup

The end of the First World War, twinned with the fact that The Challenge Cup was no longer being contested, created a void for the creation of a new, European club competition.

The thought at the time, particularly within the countries themselves, was that Central European footballing nations – such as Austria and Hungary – were the strongest of all the leading countries.

Professional football was in its infancy and in order to offer the clubs more financial support, The Mitropa Cup was created.

The creation was spearheaded by legendary football manager, Hugo Meisl – head coach of the famous Austrian wünderteam.

The Mitropa Cup’s Format

The Cup ran in a typical knockout format with each nation (Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia) entering two teams respectively. Each nation would send either their champions and runners-up in their domestic league, or, their league champions alongside their domestic cup winners.

This format remained the same until two years after the creation of the cup in 1929, where Italian teams would contest the tournament in place of the Yugoslavian ones. The tournament also underwent further change in 1934, where each nation instead was invited to send four teams to compete.

There were a few more changes to the nations involved in the cup in the lead up to World War Two. In 1936, sides from Switzerland were invited to participate. Romanian sides were invited in 1937, alongside the re-introduction of Yugoslavian sides. 

The 1940 tournament was surprisingly contested, however World War Two caused it to be abandoned before a champion could be crowned. It was not held again until 1950, as nations slowly began to recover from the war.

However, it was then contested through to 1992 – with Yugoslavian Borac Baja Luka being the competition’s last ever champions.

The Cup’s History

Having been contested 48 times, many teams can lay claim to great success in The Mitropa Cup, however the side with the strongest record is Hungarian Vasas – who won the cup six times and were runners up twice.

Vasas is a famed club in Hungarian football. Winning the top division on six separate occasions, as well as reaching a Champions League semi-final.

It was also the club of Béla Guttman – a hugely tactically innovative manager who brought the Hungarian 4-2-4 system to the Brazilian League and therefore arguably held great influence upon Brazil’s first World Cup win in 1958.

Three titles apiece were also won by Italian Bolognia and Czech Sparta Prague.

The tournament’s existence fortuitously coincided with what was Hungary’s golden age. The nation’s dominance can be seen in the history books as their club sides proved to be the strongest partaking in the competition. Hungarian teams won the competition a total of 16 times – a tally that was unmatched by any other nation.

In the same vein, the early tournament became synonymous with one name – György Sárosi.

Sárosi was a versatile player – able to play almost anywhere across the pitch. However, his strongest position was as a shadow striker.

He is already a famed name in Hungarian football history, scoring five goals and captaining his national side at the 1938 World Cup.

He was, however, even more successful for his club side than for his nation.

Sárosi plied his trade at Mitropa Cup regulars Ferencváros.

He was the cup’s top scorer from in its first installation (1927-1940), as he found the back of the net 50 times in his history – 21 goals clear of second place Giuseppe Meazza.

He also holds the record for the most goals ever scored in a single Mitropa Cup competition.

His finest campaign came in the 1940 tournament as he averaged 3 goals a game before it was ultimately called off.

The later years of the cup maintained the same dominance from Hungarian forwards, with names such as Nándor Hidegkuti, Antal Dunai and János Farkas all taking the top scorer’s trophy home.

Final Thoughts

The Mitropa Cup fulfilled what was a necessity at the time – a continental competition between the clubs from the leading footballing nations.

It allowed for the showcase of Central Europe’s best talents at the time and provided the foundations for the aforementioned Latin Cup and ultimately, The European Cup and The Champions League.

It went further than just that however, providing the top clubs with extra stability as leagues looked to turn professional. Paving the way for the modern professional game as we know it.

It’s long-term influence is simply immeasurable and football as we know it today could have a completely different outlook had it never have been created.