RateTheRef

I'll put this here in my NBI thread as I doubt there is much interest outside of myself & Tünde, although JCFC might enjoy it.

In our Magyar Foci family we have a guy Gergely Marosi. He is our walking encyclopaedia on Hungarian football, National team right down to county level. I am in awe of him! If I had even a millionth of his knowledge I'd be well educated! Today we were chatting about how and why we all became NBI fans (particularly those of us who are not Hungarian by birth or descent). One of our lads, who is from Brazil asked: "Do you know any MTK fans? I would like to understand why the club has many titles and at the same time, it has a very low number of fans."

Gergely treated us to a little history on MTK Budapest. Magyar Testgyakorlók Köre Budapest Futball Club (Hungarian Practitioners Circle Budapest Football Club) based in Józsefváros (District VIII in Budapest).

MTK - as its name shows - is the traditional club of the assimilated Jewish population, identifying themselves as Hungarians. There was a Zionist club called VAC (which is not Vác). In 1922 there was a huge fight at the MTK-VAC game, dubbed "the battle of Yom Kippur". The two teams and the crowd had a free-for-all mass brawl. The last 30 mins were finished days later, behind closed doors. Epic stuff. Fans were watching from the elevated tram tracks next to the MTK stadium. MTK, under legendary president Alfréd Brüll, was a very popular club. Not as popular as Ferencváros, but they played top quality football and drew big crowds between WWI and WWII. They were big, attractive and successful. Then WWII came, obviously decimating the fanbase. MTK was forced to stop activity in 1942, re-organised after WW II. ÁVH (the state security) took over the club and changed its colours from blue & white to red & white! So MTK became Bástya. Then it was aligned to the textile industry, becoming Textiles and then Bp. Vörös Lobogó. In 1956 the club could finally revert to MTK and blue & white. From the 1960s to 1987 the club was not successful at all (even got relegated once), so probably less and less people chose them as a team because of the lack of success.  So it's a combination of a decimated fanbase in WWII and about 25 unsuccessful years, while Újpest, FTC, Honvéd, Vasas were all successful. Hard to bounce back. Pity, because MTK is still one of the teams that has a distinctive club style since Jimmy Hogan. MTK traditionally plays short-passing, rather intelligent and attractive, technical football. When they had coaches preferring "Route one" approach, the fans did not like that all, as they thought it's not aligning to club values!

A bit about MTK.

They are one of the most successful Hungarian football clubs, MTK has won the Hungarian League 23 times and the Hungarian Cup 12 times. The club has also won the Hungarian Super Cup 2 times. In 1955, as Vörös Lobogó SE, they became the first Hungarian team to play in the European Cup and in 1964 they finished as runners-up in the European Cup Winners' Cup after losing to Sporting Clube de Portugal in the final. The club founded the Sándor Károly Football Academy in 2001. The Academy also has a partnership agreement with English club Liverpool F.C.  MTK Budapest first entered the Nemzeti Bajnokság in the 1903 season. In the subsequent season, MTK won their first domestic title. Between 1913 and 1914 and 1924–25 MTK dominated Hungarian football by winning ten titles in a row.  They play at the Hidegkuti Nándor Stadion which looks like a prison yard! There is only seating down each side, none behind either goal. Named after Hidegkuti Nándor one of the great players in the 50's who was in the Mighty Magyars team along with Puskás Ferenc.

The fixture between MTK Budapest FC and Ferencvárosi TC is called the Örökrangadó or Eternal derby. The first fixture was played in the 1903 Nemzeti Bajnokság I season. It is the oldest football rivalry in Hungary. The rivalry between Ferencvárosi TC and MTK Budapest is also one of the most tense fixtures in the Hungarian League. Because the two clubs came from neighbouring districts of Budapest, the tension is even higher. The tension between the two clubs is based on racism. MTK Budapest FC is considered a Jewish club since many Jewish figures appeared in the club between the 1930s and the 1940s while Ferencvárosi TC is associated with far-right politics. Between 1903 and 1929 the two clubs won 24 Hungarian League titles (13 MTK and 11 Ferencváros) out of 24, therefore their match was considered as the final of the championship. Traditionally the Ferencváros - MTK rivalry was the most prestigious fixture but this has since been replaced by Ferencváros - Újpest. The rivalry started in the 1930s when Újpest won their first Hungarian League title. The ground is packed to the rafters, travel is a nightmare as supporters of each club are designated very specific metro & bus routes to keep them apart. Rendőrség (police) everywhere - for those old enough to remember hooliganism in the 1980's this is a flashback to that!! It is brutal. There are pyro contests within the ground with amazing co-ordinated displays!


Vörös Lobogó translates to red flag which was an indication of the ÁVH (Államvédelmi Hatóság)/ÁVO (Államvédelmi Osztálya) alignment with the USSR during the long occupation of Hungary. The ÁVH were rebranded as the ÁVO around 1949/50, they were the hated & feared State Secret police (Hungary's version of the KGB). They were loyal to Moscow not the Hungarian people. It is widely reported that the first shots fired during the Hungarian revolution of 1956 were fired by them, it turned a peaceful demonstration into a bloodbath that saw many lives lost. They were disbanded immediately after the revolution & their old headquarters is now a museum called A Terror Háza Múzeum - the House of Terror.