Ferencvaros: Road to Glory

[Dylan Campbell]

FERENCVAROSI TC OVERVIEW

Ferencvarosi TC, better known as Ferencvaros are an Hungarian professional football club founded in Budapest in 1899. They are the most successful team in Hungarian football history winning the Hungarian league twenty-eight times and the Hungarian Cup twenty times.

It had won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1965, finishing runners-up in the same competition three years later before finishing runners-up in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1975. From the 2000s onwards, their history has been somewhat disastrous. Despite continuing on with its European success and becoming the first Hungarian club to be put into the Hungarian stock exchange, financial difficulties and domestic form led to the club being relegated to the second division in 2006.

It spent several years in the doldrums of second-flight Hungarian football being pipped to promotion before securing promotion back to the top-flight in 2009.

Ferencvaros has rivalries with several clubs, including Budapest rivals Upjest, MTK Budapest and Budapest Honved. The Ferencvaros-Upjest rivalry has been on the news for bad reasons because of crowd trouble but is the most-watch derby in football.

Ferencvaros has been fined in the past by the Hungarian Football Association and UEFA for crowd troubles and hooligan violence with four Millwall fans stabbed during a 2004-05 UEFA Cup tie by Ferencvaros supporters. The club play their games in their traditional home green and white kits, as the colours green and white represent the colours of their emblem.

 

[Dylan Campbell]

2013-14 Season Review

Ferencvaros finished second in the league and retained the Hungarian League Cup, and was knocked out at the quarter-final stage of the Hungarian Cup by reigning champions Debrecen. Ferencvaro's early-season form was immense, unbeaten until a shocking 4-0 loss to rivals Honved led them to struggle with injuries to their first-team strikers for many months before returning to form. In the transfer window however, star striker Daniel Bode was sold to Ukranian club Dnipro for £1 million, they bought Czech international Jan Blazek for a quarter of the fee that they recieved: £250,000 to fill the gap that had been made.

Despite Blazek netting seven goals in thirteen appearances, late-season form saw them slip behind Videoton and lost a crucial match 1-0 late in the season in stoppage time due to a free-kick. Despite a brilliant 6-1 win over Upjest and winning against Videoton in the Hungarian League Cup final, they finished four points behind Videoton in the league and were knocked out 2-1 on aggregate to Debrecen in the Hungarian Cup quarter-final.

Key Players

ANDERSON POLGA

Signed on a free transfer, the former Gremio and Sporting Lisbon centre-back brought steel and experience to the back-line, and was the regular penalty taker for Ferencvaros. However, he has refused a new contract and is set to leave the club during the summer.

MUHAMMED BESIC

The tenacious centre-back turned ball-winning midfielder, signed by Everton in real-life was a key part of the Ferencvaros team. He fits perfectly in the role and attracted a £1.8 million bid from Austrian champions Red Bull Salzburg, who had chased the Bosnian international extensively through the winter transfer window.

ULYSSE DIALLO
Despite reports from the staff that Diallo was a fairly good player but lacked behind Bode and our other striker, Dutchman Jack Tuyp, he was a serious impact-maker and scored in big games. With eight goals in eighteen games in his first professional season for Ferencvaros, he is going to be a massive success in the future.

JAN BLAZEK

The 25-year old Czech international, capped six times by his country was brought in as a replacement for outgoing striker Daniel Bode, who left for Dnipro for a million pounds. He was playing for a club at the time in sixteenth place in the Ekstralaka in Poland and was not as prolific in goal, his technical ability and good physical stats made him a bargain buy. Definitely someone that can fire us to success in the future.

OVERVIEW OF THE SEASON

I must admit that I had made some tactical errors in my first year, but some successs included overturning a League Cup semi-final deficit against Debrecen, winning 6-1 against fierce rivals Upjest at home and winning the League Cup final against Videoton in front of a home crowd. I must hope that the money that we earned for qualifying for Europe can be used for better things. The stadium is in bad condition, the training facilities may need revamping and the structure of Hungarian football needs improving at a whole. I remember playing a Hungarian Cup match early on when only 250-400 people were watching, meaning the lower divisions of Hungarian football are similar to amateur leagues in countries such as England and Germany. We must hope that Hungarian football improves in the future and return to the glory days of Honved and Ferencvaros, Puskas and Total Football.