First Hungarian professional team
The First Hungarian Professional Team was a football team consisting mainly of national players, which existed for several months in 1920 and played a major role in one of the earliest attempts to introduce professional football in Germany.
The history
The Berlin entrepreneur Otto Eidinger and his brother Ernst wanted to set up a Berlin professional players team in the summer of 1920 and engaged a number of players from Berlin clubs for this project. Since at that time professionalism in German football (as generally on the European continent) was not allowed, the preparations were carried out with the greatest possible secrecy.
Since opponents were of course also required for this project and the first attempts to sign foreign club teams were unsuccessful, the idea arose to hire a group of Hungarian football players who, under the name of Budapest Ramblers , would work as a "closed society" for four weeks Should travel abroad. The Hungarian association rejected a request from the group of players, which was headed by national player Gyula Feldmann , which was not surprising since the trip should have taken place during the autumn season and trips abroad were one of the most important sources of income for the clubs competition from players who undertook such currency trips on their own account was undesirable. Feldmann's reaction to this decision was the following statement: "The members of the group go abroad individually and will act according to the circumstances (join various foreign clubs) and no longer return to Hungary, the football association may decide what it wants."
Eidinger then had a meeting of the players in Budapest organized through his manager Béla Rainer , to which he himself traveled and had the players sign the following agreement: "We players of the Hungarian top-class clubs hereby agree that we will be on August 11th, 9 pm - for the time being to Germany - to set off on a propaganda tour. We note that eight competitions have been completed so far and our tour continues in Holland, Denmark, Sweden, England, France, Spain and Italy. (...) We promise that we will keep our vows, that we will not abandon each other and that we will strive with all our might to gain fame and laurels for the Hungarian name and the Hungarian sport. ”Among the signatories of this agreement were Feldmann and others National players Mihály Pataki , Ferenc Plattkó , József Jeszmás , József Ging , József Viola , József Fogl and Károly Fogl . Some other players present at the meeting, such as Vilmos Kertész or József Braun , did not sign the agreement.
The meeting of the Budapest players leaked to the clubs and the association, but the players managed to leave for Austria because they did not leave from Budapest central station but from a smaller station and the border authorities also let them through despite a telegram from the association. The Fogl brothers, however, did not show up despite a travel advance they had received.
Simultaneously with the enticement of the Budapest players the organizers were about the time as coach of Karlsruher FC Phoenix make Franz György also approached some already active foreign-based players to win this for the project. Corresponding invitations received, for example , Alfréd Schaffer and Sándor Nemes , who play for FC Basel , as well as Péter Szabó, who works in Nuremberg . The letters to the first two players mentioned found their way into the newspapers and made the German sports public aware of the project for the first time. Of those named, only Nemes finally joined the team, while Schaffer showed no interest and Szabó did come to Berlin, but left again after he did not deposit an amount of 50,000 marks.
The players signed contracts with Eidinger, which guaranteed them a monthly salary of 4,000 marks from August to November 1920.
The games
In the meantime, Eidinger's plan to found a Berlin professional players' team had spread to the newspapers. Football wrote on August 18, 1920 that the Eidinger brothers “have been trying for weeks to bring together a team of professional players” and that the team’s opponents are “Hungarians loitering in Germany”.
The Hungarian association had imposed a ban on players who had traveled abroad on suspicion of being a professional player, which was passed on to the German association. This then prohibited its member clubs from competing against these players or making their places available.
Nevertheless, Eidinger managed to organize the Lichtenberger Stadium for his Berlin team's debut game planned for August 21, and he also began propaganda for the game, which was announced as an international match for professional players . In doing so, however, he encountered fierce resistance from the Berlin clubs, who used posters and flyers to call on their supporters to stay away from the game. The Workers' Gymnastics Association even described the Hungarian players as representatives of the Horthy regime . The newspapers also took part in the negative propaganda, so Der Kicker wrote about the Hungarians: “The sooner they shake the dust of Germany off the shackles, the better it will be for us and for them too. If these sports gypsies had joined a German club as a player, if they had taken on the effort of training, then nobody would have objected to their stay. (...) The clerks of professionalism, who are currently delighting us with an international match in Lichtenberg, may immediately give a damn. The DFB will know how to maintain its house rules against annoying foreigners who have no business with us. "
The game finally took place as planned and Eidinger's first German professional team , whose ranks included Fritz Bache , a later German national player, scored 1-1 against the Hungarians. Since Nemes had not yet joined the team, manager Béla Rainer had to take over the position of right winger. The meeting ended in a financial fiasco for the organizers, however, only 5,000 spectators had found their way to Lichtenberg. The project was threatened with failure after the first game.
The Hungarians competed a week later in Cottbus against a team called the first combined amateur soccer team of the Province of Brandenburg and defeated them 8-0 in front of 4,000 spectators. However, since the game took place on an open parade ground, no income was recorded. The Brandenburg team was banned from the association shortly afterwards because - contrary to their name - they were also a professional team.
Since the Lichtenberg stadium was now closed, a new venue had to be found for the second game against Berlin on September 12th, which was finally found in the Olympic racecourse. The Hungarians won 3-1, but there were only 2,000 spectators (1,100 of them paying) and it was evident that the experiment with the introduction of professional football in Germany had failed.
The consequences
After the Berlin team was dissolved and no further games could be organized in Germany, Eidinger wanted to settle the Hungarians with a one-off payment of 4,000 marks per player, despite the ongoing contracts. However, the players filed a lawsuit against this breach of contract and obtained a temporary confiscation of his property. That ended the relationship with the German. Possible foreign engagements were also dashed, for example the Swiss federation forbade its member clubs to compete against German or Hungarian professional players.
In the meantime, the Hungarian-born Dombovari, who works as a journalist and sports official in Berlin, had been brought in as the new manager. On the occasion of an international match between Germany and Hungary held in Berlin in October 1920, the players asked the two associations whether the team could be recognized as a professional team. The DFB stated that they had nothing against it, but made it clear that no sporting contact with German clubs would be permitted. The Hungarian association found that there were no conditions in Hungary that made professional football possible. This left the players only with the option of trying to re-amateurize. The association advised them to return to Hungary and submit an application there. In fact, most of the players returned to Budapest two weeks later to start negotiations. However, this was rejected by the association, which believed that only a pardon from the players would be considered. In addition, the association refused to negotiate with Dombovari, who then declared that he would guarantee the players material support if they stayed together as a team and accepted his leadership. However, there were disagreements between the players who finally made individual requests for mercy from the end of 1920.
The players were finally suspended by the association for professional play and were not given back their amateur status and the associated license to play for their former clubs until the spring of 1921.
credentials
- ↑ Depending on the source, he is said to have either been the owner of a machine and electric motor company ( Wiener Sport-Tagblatt of September 15, 1920) or a director of the Berlin U-Bahn company ( Der Kicker 7/1920).
- ↑ Der Kicker No. 6/1920 and 7/1920
- ↑ Der Kicker No. 6/1920
- ^ Wiener Sport-Tagblatt dated September 15, 1920
- ^ Wiener Sport-Tagblatt dated September 15, 1920
- ^ Letter to Schaffer published in Fußball 30/1920, letter to Nemes published in Fußball 31/1920, the latter reprinted in Illustrated Sportblatt 35/1920
- ↑ Der Kicker 8/1920
- ^ Wiener Sport-Tagblatt dated September 15, 1920
- ↑ football 33/1920
- ↑ Football 34/1920, Der Kicker 6/1920
- ↑ The kicker 7/1920
- ^ Wiener Sport-Tagblatt dated September 15, 1920
- ↑ football 34/1920 and 35/1920
- ↑ Der Kicker 10/1920, while the Austrian Sport-Telegraf reported a 9: 0 in a review of December 22, 1935
- ↑ Football 37/1920
- ↑ football 48/1920
- ↑ football 41/1920
- ↑ Nemes returned to Austria, where he was banned from the association.
- ↑ Der Kicker 24/1920, Fußball 52/1920