Mitropa Cup (original) (raw)

The Mitropa Cup was one of the first major international European football cups for club sides. The idea was proposed at a meeting in Venice in 1927, and the first matches were played on August 14 of that year. The competition was between the top professional teams of Central Europe.

Initially two teams each from from Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia entered, competing in a knock-out competition, the first winners were the Czech side, AC Sparta Prague. In 1929 Italian teams replaced the Yugoslvian ones. The competition was expanded to four teams from each of the competing countries in 1934. Other countries were invited to participate - Switzerland in 1936, and Romania, Switzerland and Yugoslavia in 1937. Austria was withdraw from the competition following the Anschluss in 1938. Prior to WW II the cup was competed for in 1939 with only eight teams (two each from Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Italy and one each from Romania and Yugoslavia).

After WW II, the cup was resumed in 1952 but it had lost much of its status because of the introduction of other European club competitions. By the 1980s it was competed for between the second division champions of the participating countries. It was last played for in 1992 and won by the Yugoslav side, Borac Banja Luka in front of under a thousand spectators.