Challenge Cup
The Challenge Cup was launched in 1897 by John Gramlick , a co-founder of the Vienna Cricket and Football Club , who also donated the trophy. The special thing about this competition was that it was basically open to all clubs of the then Austro-Hungarian monarchy . It thus had a character that went beyond three national football associations, but was politically not international. The game was played according to the British model in the knockout system without a second leg. The competition contributed a lot to the spread of football in Austria-Hungary, although it was not played out a few times. Only with the beginning of a league championship in Austria (that of Hungary had existed since 1900) this cup competition no longer took place. In the first three seasons only Viennese teams took part in this competition. From the 1900/01 season, the Austrians and Hungarians, and a year later the Czechs, initially played separate zone finals, the winners of which then contested the semifinals. There, one of the three teams had a bye. If an association did not participate, the two zone finals were also considered to be the semi-finals of the competition. With a few exceptions, the major clubs from the three major metropolises and football centers of Vienna , Prague and Budapest took part in the competition.
The trophy was originally intended to remain in the possession of a club if it managed to win the cup three times in a row. However, after the Vienna AC had won the Wiener Tagblatt Cup three times and no one had found a new trophy, this regulation was suspended in 1903 and the Challenge Cup was named a challenge cup. In the statutes it was precisely stated that no club was allowed to keep the trophy for itself. Today the cup is in the possession of the Wiener Sport-Club , the last winner of the Challenge Cup in 1911.
The Challenge Cup is seen both as a pioneer of the Austrian Cup competition and the international Mitropa Cup introduced in 1927 .
Finals 1897–1911
| year | date | Cup winner | finalist | result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1897/98 | November 21, 1897 | Vienna Cricket and Football Club | German-Austrian Gymnastics Association Vienna | 7-0 |
| 1898/99 | March 5, 1899 | First Vienna FC 1894 | AC Victoria Vienna | 2: 1 |
| 1899/00 | March 11, 1900 | First Vienna FC 1894 | Vienna Cricket and Football Club | 2-0 |
| 1900/01 | April 21, 1901 | Vienna AC | SK Slavia Praha | 1: 0 (1: 0) |
| 1901/02 | May 19, 1902 | Vienna Cricket and Football Club | Budapesti Torna Club | 2: 1 (1: 1) |
| 1902/03 | May 24, 1903 | Vienna AC | Opponents from Prague, the Český Athletic & Football Club Praha , did not attend | WAC without a fight |
| 1903/04 | April 10, 1904 | Vienna AC | Vienna Cricket and Football Club (opponents from Hungary & Bohemia did not arrive) | 7: 0 (2: 0) |
| 1904/05 | April 24, 1905 | Vienna Sports Association | Magyar AC Budapest | 2: 1 |
| 1908/09 | June 13, 1909 | Ferencvárosi TC | Viennese sports club | 2: 1 (1: 0) |
| 1910/11 | September 23, 1911 | Viennese sports club | Ferencvárosi TC | 3-0 |
It is considered unlikely that the Challenge Cup would take place in the 1909/10 season, as there are no official records and no findable newspaper reports about it. However, individual sources speak of the final game Budapesti Torna Club against the Wiener Sport-Club (2: 1).
Challenge Cup winner
- 3 × Vienna AC : 1901, 1903, 1904
- 2 × Vienna Cricket and Football Club : 1898, 1902
- 2 × First Vienna FC 1894 : 1899, 1900
- 1 × Vienna Sports Association : 1905
- 1 × Ferencvárosi TC : 1909
- 1 × Wiener Sport-Club : 1911