Balkan Cup

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This article is about the defunct regional football competition contested by national teams of Balkan countries. For the club version, see Balkans Cup. For the youth version, see Balkan Youth Championship.
Balkan Cup
Founded1929
Abolished1980
RegionBalkans (UEFA)
Number of teams3 to 7 teams
Last champions Romania
Most successful team(s) Romania (4 titles)

The Balkan Cup was an international association football competition contested on and off from 1929 to 1980 by countries from the Balkans region. The most successful team was Romania with four titles.[1]

Overview[edit]

The first edition featured Romania, Greece, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria and was played over three years from 1929 to 1931.[1] All teams played each other twice, home and away, and were awarded 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw, with final ranking table determining the winner. Romania won the first title with a game in hand after beating Yugoslavia 4–2.[1][2][3]

In the following tournaments the system saw significant changes, with teams playing each other only once, and instead of taking three years to complete it was shortened to just a single week. From 1932 to 1936 the competition was played every year with the same four teams until the outbreak of World War II.[1][4][5][6][7]

After a seven-year hiatus due to World War II, the competition was revived in 1946. Greece dropped out of the tournament the same year, and was replaced by Albania, who went on to win the 1946 edition by defeating Romania 1–0 in the final game.[1][8][9] In 1947 Hungary entered the tournament and won it in its first attempt.[1][10] Hungary were a world footballing power at the time and proved this with a 9–0 thrashing against Bulgaria.[1][11] In 1948 the Balkan Cup was expanded to seven teams with Poland and Czechoslovakia joining the tournament.[1][12] However, the 1948 edition was never completed due to unknown reasons.[citation needed] Hungary were topping the group at the time of its cancellation. Because of the expansions, the 1947 and 1948 tournaments were officially renamed Balkan and Central European Championship.[1][10][12]

The competition was not played again until 1973 when a round robin group system was replaced by a knockout system with semi-finals and finals, played over three years. This time only four countries took part – Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. Bulgaria won the final on away goals against Romania in 1976.[1][13] In 1977 the second edition of the revived tournament was launched, this time consisting of five teams with Yugoslavia returning to take part. Romania went on to win the last edition in 1980 by beating Yugoslavia 4–1 at home in the final.[1][14][15]

List of winners[edit]

Source[1]

Season Champions (titles) Runners-up Third place Top scorer(s)
Player(s) (Country) Goals
1929–31  Romania (1)  Yugoslavia  Greece Iuliu Bodola (Romania)
Rudolf Wetzer (Romania)
7
1931  Bulgaria (1) ‡  Turkey  Yugoslavia Asen Panchev (Bulgaria)
3
1932  Bulgaria (2)  Yugoslavia ‡  Romania Aleksandar Živković (Yugoslavia)
5
1933  Romania (2) ‡  Yugoslavia  Bulgaria Gheorghe Ciolac (Romania)
Ștefan Dobay (Romania)
4
1934–35  Yugoslavia (1)  Greece ‡  Romania Aleksandar Tirnanić (Yugoslavia)
Aleksandar Tomašević (Yugoslavia)
3
1935  Yugoslavia (2)  Bulgaria ‡  Greece Ljubomir Angelov (Bulgaria)
6
1936  Romania (3) ‡  Bulgaria  Greece Sándor Schwartz (Romania)
4
1946  Albania (1) ‡  Yugoslavia  Romania Loro Boriçi (Albania)
Qamil Teliti (Albania)
Nicolae Reuter (Romania)
Božidar Sandić (Yugoslavia)
2
1947  Hungary (1)  Yugoslavia  Romania Ferenc Deák (Hungary)
5
1948
Competition abandoned in November 1948
after 16 matches played with Hungary on top of the table.
 Ferenc Puskás (Hungary)
5
1973–76  Bulgaria (3)  Romania — Cemil Turan (Turkey)
4
1977–80  Romania (4)  Yugoslavia — Anghel Iordănescu (Romania)
6

All-time top goalscorers[edit]

Rank Name Team Goals Tournament(s)
1 Romania Iuliu Bodola Romania 15 1929-31(7), 1932(1), 1933(2), 1934-35(2), 1935(1), 1936(2)
2 Bulgaria Ljubomir Angelov Bulgaria 14 1929-31(1), 1931(1), 1932(2), 1934-35(2), 1935(6), 1936(2)
3 Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Aleksandar Živković Yugoslavia 10 1932(5), 1933(3), 1935(2)
Bulgaria Asen Panchev Bulgaria 1929-31(1), 1931(3), 1932(2), 1934-35(2), 1936(2)
5 Hungary Ferenc Deak Hungary 9 1947(5) and 1948(4)
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Blagoje Marjanović Yugoslavia 1929-31(4), 1931(1), 1934-35(1) and 1935(3)
Romania Gheorghe Ciolac Romania 1929-31(1), 1932(1), 1933(4), 1934-35(2), 1936(1)
Bulgaria Asen Peshev Bulgaria 1929-31(3), 1931(1), 1932(2), 1934-35(1), 1935(2)
8 Hungary Ferenc Puskas Hungary 8 1947(3) and 1948(5)
Romania Anghel Iordanescu Romania 1973-76(2) and 1977-80(6)
Romania Ștefan Dobay Romania 1929-31(1), 1933(4), 1934-35(1), 1936(2)
Bulgaria Mihail Lozanov Greece 1929-31(1), 1931(2), 1932(1), 1934-35(1), 1935(2), 1936(1)
13 Romania Rudolf Wetzer Romania 7 1929-31(7)
Greece Kostas Choumis Greece 1934-35(1), 1935(4), 1936(2)

Managers with most wins[edit]

Manager Wins Editions Notes
Romania Constantin Rădulescu 3 1929–1931, 1933, 1936 Rădulescu won 3 titles with Romania
Germany Otto Feist 2 1931, 1932 Otto Feist won 2 titles with Bulgaria
Romania Ştefan Kovács 1 1977–80
Bulgaria Stoyan Ormandzhiev 1 1973–76 Ormandzhiev took over from Hristo Mladenov in 1974
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Ljubiša Broćić 1 1946 Broćić won it with Albania
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Boško Simonović 1 1935 Simonović won it with Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Ivo Šuste
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Mata Miodragović
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Petar Pleše 		1 1934–35 Šuste, Miodragović, Pleše were joint managers
Hungary Tibor Gallowich 1 1947 Gallowich was also Hungary's manager in the abandoned 1948 edition

Titles by national team[edit]

Country Winners Runners-up
Romania Romania
4
1
Bulgaria Bulgaria
3
2
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Yugoslavia
2
6
Hungary Hungary
1
–
Albania Albania
1
–
Greece Greece
–
1
Turkey Turkey
–
1

Participations[edit]

Country No Editions
Romania Romania
11
 1929-1931, 1932, 1933, 1934-35, 1935, 1936, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1973-76, 1977-80
Bulgaria Bulgaria
11
 1929-1931, 1932, 1933, 1934-35, 1935, 1936, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1973-76, 1977-80
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Yugoslavia
10
 1929-1931, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934-35, 1935, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1977-80
Greece Greece
8
 1929-1931, 1932, 1933, 1934-35, 1935, 1936, 1973-76, 1977-80
Turkey Turkey
3
 1931, 1973-76, 1977-80
Albania Albania
3
 1946, 1947, 1948
Hungary Hungary
2
 1947, 1948
Poland Poland
1
 1948
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia
1
 1948

Hat-tricks[edit]

Since the first official tournament in 1929–31, 17 hat-tricks have been scored in over 50 matches of the 12 editions of the tournament. The first hat-trick was scored by Rudolf Wetzer of Romania, playing against Greece on 25 May 1930; and the last was by Anghel Iordănescu 50 years later, on 27 August 1980, when he netted a hat-trick for Romania in the second leg of the 1977–80 final in a 4-1 win over Yugoslavia. The record number of hat-tricks in a single Balkan Cup is four, during the inaugural edition. The only player to have scored more than one hat-trick is Ljubomir Angelov, both at the 1935 Balkan Cup, in which he was the top goal scorer with those 6 goals. The record for the most goals scored in a single Balkan Cup game is 5, which has been achieved once: by Rudolf Wetzer when he scored 5 for Romania in a 8-1 win over Greece. Romania also holds the record for most hat-tricks scored with 5, being closely followed by Hungary and Yugoslavia with 4 each. Bulgaria and Greece jointly hold the record for most hat-tricks conceded with 6 each, which means that only 5 hat-tricks have been scored against a team other than Bulgaria and Greece.

List[edit]

Balkan Cup hat-tricks
# Player G Time of goals For Goals Result Against Tournament Date FIFA
report
1. Rudolf Wetzer 5 8', 34', 75', 76', 80'  Romania 1–1, 2–1, 5–1, 6–1, 8–1 8–1  Greece 1929-31 Balkan Cup 25 May 1930 Report
2. Antonis Tsolinas 4 4', 50', 51', 60'  Greece 1–0, 4–0, 5–0, 6–0 6–1  Bulgaria 7 December 1930 Report
3. Aleksandar Tomašević 3 38', 75', 83'  Yugoslavia 2–0, 3–1, 4–1 4–1  Greece 15 March 1931 Report
4. Iuliu Bodola 3 13', 18', 84'  Romania 1–0, 2–0, 4–2 4–2 29 November 1931 Report
5. Slavko Kodrnja 3 12', 20', 72'  Yugoslavia 1–1, 2–1, 4–2 5–3 1933 Balkan Cup 3 June 1933 Report
6. Gheorghe Ciolac 3 57', 61', 66'  Romania 3–0, 4–0, 6–0 7–0  Bulgaria 4 June 1933 Report
7. Mirko Kokotović 3 10', 54', 75'  Yugoslavia 1–0, 3–0, 4–0 4–0 7 June 1933 Report
8. Ljubomir Angelov 3 26', 28', 63'  Bulgaria 2–1, 3–1, 4–1 5–2  Greece 1935 Balkan Cup 16 June 1935 Report
9. Ljubomir Angelov (2) 3 25', 28', 66' 1–2, 2–2, 3–2 3–3  Yugoslavia 24 June 1935 Report
10. Iuliu Farkaș 3 29', 69', 79'  Romania 1–0, 3–0, 4–0 4–0  Albania 1947 Balkan Cup 25 May 1947 Report
11. Ferenc Deák 4 15', 34', 52', 79'  Hungary 1–0, 2–0, 7–0, 8–0 9–0  Bulgaria 17 August 1947 Report
12. Nándor Hidegkuti 3 47', 50', 86' 4–0, 6–0, 9–0 9–0
13. Béla Egresi 3 43', 61', 72'  Hungary 2–0, 5–0, 7–0 9–0  Romania 1948 Balkan Cup 6 June 1948 Report
14. Ferenc Puskás 3 44', 64', 83'  Hungary 1–0, 3–0, 5–1 5–1  Romania 24 October 1948 Report
15. Cemil Turan 3 47', 66', 86'  Turkey 2–1, 4–2, 5–2 5–2  Bulgaria 1973-76 Balkan Cup 18 April 1973 Report
16. Vahid Halilhodžić 3 33', 58', 84'(pen.)  Yugoslavia 1–1, 3–1, 4–1 4–1  Greece 1977-80 Balkan Cup 15 November 1978 Report
17. Anghel Iordănescu 3 21', 55'(pen.), 79'(pen.)  Romania 1–0, 3–0, 4–1 4–1  Yugoslavia 27 August 1980 Report

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Guy De Dekker and Karel Stokkermans (23 November 2006). "Balkan Cup (for Nations)". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  2. ^ "Balkan Cup 1931". EU-football.info. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  3. ^ "Yugoslavia - Romania 2:4". EU-football.info. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  4. ^ "Balkan Cup 1932". EU-football.info. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  5. ^ "Balkan Cup 1933". EU-football.info. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  6. ^ "Balkan Cup 1934–35". EU-football.info. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  7. ^ "Balkan Cup 1935". EU-football.info. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  8. ^ "Balkan Cup 1946". EU-football.info. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  9. ^ "Albania - Romania 1:0". EU-football.info. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  10. ^ a b "Balkan Cup 1947". EU-football.info. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  11. ^ "Hungary - Bulgaria 9:0". EU-football.info. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  12. ^ a b "Balkan Cup 1948". EU-football.info. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  13. ^ "Balkan Cup 1973–76". EU-football.info. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  14. ^ "Balkan Cup 1977–80". EU-football.info. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  15. ^ "Romania - Yugoslavia 4:1". EU-football.info. Retrieved 23 April 2020.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Balkan_Cup&oldid=1197193216"