Mitropa Cup

1992 was the last year that the Mitropa Cup was competed. Boruc Banja Luca of Bosnia-Herzogovnia were the last winners of this illustrious trophy. But what was it? And who competed in it?

The Mitropa Cup was the first ever international tournament competed by club sides from different countries. Over the years the teams were drawn from around southern Europe. Italy, Hungary, Austria, Romania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were all represented throughout the years.

In the 20s and 30s it was one of the most important football tournaments in Europe. Famous clubs such as Sparta Prague (the first winners of the tournament), Ferencvaros, Rapid Vienna and Bologna were amongst the winners.

There was an inevitable break during the war years before the tournament resumed in 1951 under the name of the "Zentropa Cup". In the 50s the Hungarian teams unsurprisingly dominated with Red Star Belgrade breaking up the wins by Budapest clubs in 1958.

The 1960 tournament (known as the Danube Cup) took a slight break from tradition with all countries invited to send three teams to Budapest to contest the tournament. Rather than the best club emerging victorious a country was marked as the winner. Hungary's three clubs Ferencvaros, Tatabanyai Banyasz and Ujpest Dozsa performed the best winning the trophy for the Magyars pushing the Yugoslavs into second place. Can you imagine Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal representing England in a tournament like this? Seems unlikely doesn't it?

As the European Cup, Fairs Cup and UEFA Cup began to take the focus away from tournaments such as the Mitropa Cup the competition was fought by the winners of the second flights in each country. Italian countries dominated with giants AC Milan winning the cup in 1982, Udinese, Pisa (1985 - see picture) and Bari all won the cup in the 80s.

Interest in the tournament continued to wane and the last final in 1992 was contested by Boruc Banja Luca of (the then) Yugoslavia and Budapest VSC of Hungary at Foggia's stadium in front of around 1000 people.

Boruc Banja Luca - holders of the Mitropa Cup.

I'm a real sucker for these "Unofficial World Champions" but I'd never heard of this one until today - while reading about the Venezeulan national team * no less - holders of the baton quite recently.

It's named after Uruguay's 1930 World Cup winning captain José Nasazzi. (I know it's a totally artificical construct but I like to think of it as the type of artifact that Indiana Jones would unearth)

Uruguay were the first holders in 1930 when they won the World Cup and since then the baton changes hands whenever the current holder is beaten within 90 minutes.**

I'm not sure where I'm going with this topic but the name of this 'trophy' is so fantastic that I feel FIFA needs to acknowledge this as an legitimate piece of silverwear.

http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/nasazzibaton.html

* beautifully nicknamed La Vinotinto (The Red Wine One)
** which is apparently slightly different to the less romantically named "Unofficial World Champions"

AVERAGE ATTENDANCES IN THE EURO 2008 QUALIFIERS

More pointless stats from me...


England 79098
Ireland 55808
Germany 51599
Scotland 49441
France 46278
Italy 44784
Netherlands 43000
Spain 39979
Portugal 38430
Georgia 36917
Ukraine 33850
Russia 33783
Sweden 29409
Croatia 28000
Greece 27833
Israel 27391
Denmark 26303
Serbia 25600
Finland 24747
Turkey 24673
Wales 24672
Belgium 21258
Poland 21143
Norway 20760
Belarus 20053
Bulgaria 19129
Kazakhstan 17414
Romania 16500
Azerbaijan 15583
N Ireland 15472
Macedonia 15083
Czech Republic 14196
Slovakia 12412
Hungary 12217
Bosnia 11750
Moldova 10581
Albania 10433
Armenia 10258
Malta 9667
Estonia 9550
Cyprus 7799
Latvia 7467
Iceland 6752
Lithuania 5750
Slovenia 5271
Luxembourg 3846
Faroe Islands 3560
Liechtenstein 3480
Andorra 2386
San Marino 2327

* Obviously the above doesn't include the one match that is yet to be played.
** Excludes the fixtures where 0 people were said to have attended (Serbia, Turkey & Israel matches)
*** red denotes "Home nation"
**** bold denotes "qualified nation"

Highest Attendance: 88091 - England vs Croatia
Lowest Attendance: 200 - Andorra vs Russia, Estonia & Croatia.

Interesting that England vs Croatia had 88091 there, whereas the match in Andorra that sealed England's fate was watched by a paltry 200 people.

Averages of groups:
Grp A 24919 (Poland & Portugal)
Grp B 36763 (Italy & France)
Grp C 17524 (Turkey & Greece)
Grp D 28136 (Czech Republic & Germany)
Grp E 32549 (Croatia & Russia)
Grp F 21477 (Spain & Sweden)
Grp G 19705 (Romania & Netherlands)

Which team had the easiest group in Euro 2008?

Figure denotes the average current World Ranking of the other six/seven teams in the group.

1 CROATIA 63.143
2 ENGLAND 63.000
3 RUSSIA 62.286
4 ISRAEL 59.286
5 PORTUGAL 58.125
6 GERMANY 57.429
7 CZECH REPUBLIC 56.857
8 POLAND 56.625
9 HOLLAND 56.571
10 ITALY 56.286
11 FRANCE 56.143
12 ROMANIA 55.857
13 SERBIA 55.750
14 SCOTLAND 54.857
15 MACEDONIA 53.857
16 FINLAND 53.625
17 UKRAINE 53.571
18 IRELAND 53.571
19 SPAIN 53.286
20 BULGARIA 52.714
21 BELGIUM 52.375
22 SLOVAKIA 51.000
23 SWEDEN 50.714
24 CYPRUS 50.000
25 DENMARK 50.000
26 WALES 49.857
27 BELGIUM 49.857
28 GREECE 49.000
29 N IRELAND 49.000
30 ARMENIA 48.875
31 NORWAY 48.000
32 ALBANIA 47.571
33 TURKEY 47.000
34 SLOVENIA 46.714
35 GEORGIA 46.571
36 ESTONIA 46.000
37 AZERBAIJAN 44.625
38 BOSNIA 44.143
39 HUNGARY 44.143
40 KAZAKHSTAN 43.875
41 LITHUANIA 43.857
42 ICELAND 42.857
43 MOLDOVA 42.286
44 LATVIA 41.857
45 ANDORRA 39.857
46 LIECHTENSTEIN 37.143
47 LUXEMBOURG 36.143
48 MALTA 31.429
49 SAN MARINO 30.143
50 FAROE ISLANDS 29.000

These statistics mean very little, but I do like them.

"Championship sides", Where were they in 86/87?

HOUCHEN!

Division One

Norwich City - 5th
Scotsman Kevin Drinkell finished top scorer for the Canaries with 16 goals in a season that saw Norwich beat Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool at Carrow Road. Norwich show great strength in depth in the goalkeeping department with Chris Woods and Bryan Gunn taking up the keeping spots with Ian Crook, Steve Bruce, Dale Gordon and Ruel Fox also playing major roles. Cyprus-born Jeremy Goss who would later become famous for volleying Norwich City into the history books against Bayern Munich also featured for the club later on in the season.

Watford - 9th
A very good season for Watford that saw them lose out at Villa Park to Spurs in the FA Cup semi final. Watford, managed by Dave Bassett, had the likes of John Barnes, Kenny Jackett and Luther Blisset in their side. True Watford legends.

Coventry City - 10th
Quite possibly the most famous season in the club's history. John Sillett leads the club to its first ever major trophy, a 3-2 FA Cup win over Tottenham Hotspur. Famous names such as Ogrizovic, Kilcline, Peake, Gunn, Phillips, Bennett, Houchen and Regis wear the famous sky blue kit in this season.

Southampton - 12th
A steady season for a Southampton side that featured England's World Cup goalkeeper Peter Shilton (fresh from the Maradona handball incident). Both Matt Le Tissier and Francis Benali were on Southampton's books at the time just starting out on a career that would span over 10 years of top flight football for the Saints. Glenn Cockerill and Jimmy Case were the midfield pair in the centre for the south coast team.

Sheffield Wednesday - 13th
Managed by future Division One winning boss (with Leeds) Howard Wilkinson the Owls finish a respectable 13th. Lee Chapman, Mel Sterland, Nigel Worthington and new Bolton Wanderers boss Gary Megson are all part of Sheffield Wednesday's squad. A young Kevin Pressman is part of the Wednesday setup but is yet to make his debut.

QPR - 16th
The "famous" QPR in their hooped shirts finish in 16th place. "Sir" Les Ferdinand making his debut for the London side alongside the likes of future managers Martin Allen and Leroy Rosenior. Talksport presenter and ex-Ipswich frontman Alan Brazil was an unsuccessful part of the QPR squad this season.

Charlton Athletic - 19th
Charlton narrowly avoid relegation by winning the playoffs with Peter Shirtliff scoring both goals against Leeds United in a 2-1 win (in the mid 80s the team fourth bottom of the top flight took part in the playoffs as well). Alan Curbishley and Steve Gritt (who would one day manage the club as a duo) were in the Charlton squad this season alongisde Carl Leaburn, Garth Crooks and future England international Rob Lee.

Leicester City - 20th
A disappointing season for Leicester City as they fall into Divison Two. The only bright spot to the season was the 20 goals from Alan Smith. England international and Escape to Victory star Russell Osman played most of the season in the heart of the Foxes defence with World Cup midfielder Paul Ramsey in Leicester's midfield.

Division Two

Ipswich Town - 5th
As far as 1980s footballers go Ipswich had one of the most exotic. Dutchman Romeo Zondervan scored one of Ipswich's two goals against Leeds United in the Blues' 2-0 win on New Years Day. Future top flight players Jason Dozzell. Chris Kiwomya and Dalian Atkinson are also on Ipswich Town's books alongside Ipswich legends Frank Yallop and Mick Stockwell.

Crystal Palace - 6th
The famous strike partnership of Ian Wright and Mark Bright was just taking shape. Palace narrowly miss out on the playoffs in a side that featured future England international John Salako and future West Ham and Charlton manager Alan Pardew.

Plymouth Argyle - 7th
One of the most impressive finishes in the club's history sees the Devon club still lose to Cardiff City in the League Cup. 4-1 up at halftime against the Welsh side wasn;t enough as the Bluebirds rallied to score 4 in the second half defeating the Pilgrims 5-4. Darren Rowbotham who would later become an Exeter City legend and Gary Nelson who would go on to write an excellent book on lower league football feature for the South Western club this season.

Stoke City - 8th
Stoke were guided into eight position by player manager Mick Mills (once of Ipswich Town). The first Welsh international to don an afro (George Berry) played in Stoke's defence and Tony Ford who would one day play 1000 games was a part of Stoke's squad - at the end of the 86/87 season he had a mere 400 appearances to his name.

Sheffield United - 9th
Sheffield United finish below their rivals Sheffield Wednesday (who spend the season in the top flight). Peter Withe, goalkeeper John Burridge a young Peter Beagrie and Jeff Eckhardt all play their part in the Blade's 9th place finish.

Barnsley -11th
The Tykes finish in midtable with Stuart Gray their top scorer. An FA cup run that features trips to Caernarfon and a tie against Aldershot is ended by two goals to nil at Highbury. Barnsley's Littlewood's Cup campaign is ended by Arsenal's London rivals Tottenham Hostpur.

Hull City - 14th
Lower league journeyman Andy Saville finishes top scorer for Hull with 14 goals. Future Oldham Athletic striker Frankie Bunn is on Hull's books this season and will later become the first player to score 6 goals in a League Cup tie in Oldham's 6-0 demolition of Scarborough.

West Brom - 15th
The Throstles with a very disappinting season only finishing 15th and losing to Swansea in the 3rd Round of the Cup and being knocked out of the League Cup by Leicester in the First Round.

Division Three

Bristol City - 6th
One of the high points of the season was a 5-0 win at home to Doncaster, Alan Walsh getting a hat-trick. Joe Jordan and a young Keith Curle feature for the Robins.

Blackpool - 9th
In early February Blackpool win two games in a row by 6 goals to 1. The sea-side team then go eight games without a win.

Division Four

Preston North End - 2nd
Sam Allardyce a the back and Gary Brazil and John Thomas up front with veteran Frank Worthington fired Preston into the third flight. A young Nigel Jemson who would later go on to score the winning goal in the League Cup final for Nottingham Forest was starting his career for the Invincibles this season!

Wolves - 4th
This was a season where the Mutch/Bull partnership was beginning to take shape. However it wasn't enough for Wolves who lost in the playoff final to Aldershot Town and were humiliated 3-0 in the first round of the FA Cup by non-league Chorley.

Colchester United - 5th
A good season for the Us who featured a young(ish) Alec Chamberlain and a forward that many lower league fans will know well; Tony Adcock.

Scunthorpe United - 8th
A good end to the season (four wins on the trot) sees Scunny finish in a solid 8th position. A creditable 2-3 defeat to eventual finalists Spurs in the FA Cup caps off an unspectacular season. A future Premier League winner Mark Atkins plays in his first full season as a professional for his hometown club.

Cardiff City - 13th
Cardiff City held together by veterans Alan Curtis and David Giles finish midtable in the bottom flight. Jason Perry, who would go on to play hundreds of times for the Bluebirds, makes his debut.

Burnley - 22nd
A season to forget for the Clarets, top scorer Welsh international Leighton James with 10 goals.



Overall, I feel Coventry City's achievement in 86/87 is the one that stands out. Their first (and still only) piece of major silverwear and one of the all time best cup finals.