1940 Mitropa Cup

Mitropa Cup 1940 17 June – 10 July 1940 8 none 13 HUN 1920 György Sárosi (5 goals) 1939 The 1940 Mitropa Cup was the 14th edition of the Mitropa Cup and the last season played before the competition was interrupted by the Second World War. The competition would be resumed after the war under the name Zentropa Cup but by that time it was overshadowed by the newly formed European CupDunmore 2011, p. 180 which included teams from all parts of Europe. Last season's champions Újpest were eliminated at the quarter-final stage of the competition. This edition is notable for being the first edition in which a team from Romania reached the final. Rapid București of Romania beat Hungária FC MTK Budapest of Hungary in the quarterfinals and got past Građanski of Yugoslavia in the semi-finals to get to the finals in which they were to play Ferencváros. The final was cancelled due to the Second World War. Eight teams participated in the competition with Hungary and Yugoslavia each sending three teams and Romania sending two. However Czechoslovakia and Italy did not participate because of the war. Quarterfinals Hungária MTK Hungary 1–5 Rapid București Romania 1–2 0–3 1920 Beogradski SK Kingdom of Yugoslavia 4–0 Venus București Romania 1–0 3–0 Slavija Kingdom of Yugoslavia 4–11 Ferencváros Hungary 3–0 1–11 1920 Građanski Kingdom of Yugoslavia 5–0 Újpest Hungary 4–0 1–0 1920 |} Semifinals Građanski Kingdom of Yugoslavia 0–0a Rapid București Romania 0–0 0–0 Beogradski SK Kingdom of Yugoslavia 1–2 Ferencváros Hungary 1–0 0–2 1920 |} Play-off Građanski Kingdom of Yugoslavia 1–1b Rapid București Romania |} a Match decided by play off. b Match decided by coin toss. Finals The final between Rapid București and Ferencváros was scheduled to take place in July 1940. However, due to the events of World War II it was cancelled. Rapid Bucharest's officials have tried negotiating with the Hungarian counterpart in order to play the final, but the Hungarian side refused every scenario (playing the final in one leg, in Budapest, or playing on neutral field in Belgrade) as they could not accept playing against a Romanian team, given their political interest in recovering Transylvania (which was lost by the Hungarians at The Treaty of Trianon signed on 4 June 1920). Romania and Hungary were military rivals during the War, which added to the refusal of Fradi officials to play against Rapid in the final. More recently, there were rumors that Rapid București would try to win the final retroactively 0–3 by forfeit, as Ferencváros are accused of a lack of fair play by not accepting to have the final played. There are, however, no updates about this. Top goalscorers RankPlayerTeamGoals1HUN 1920 György SárosiHUN 1920 Ferencváros92HUN 1920 Károly FintaHUN 1920 Ferencváros4Kingdom of Yugoslavia Vilim ŠipošROM Rapid BucureștiKingdom of Yugoslavia Zvonimir CimermančićKingdom of Yugoslavia Građanski Notes References Dunmore, Thomas (2011). Historical Dictionary of Soccer. Scarecrow Press. External links Mitropa Cup results at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation 1939-40 Category:1939–40 in Romanian football Category:1939–40 in Yugoslav football Category:1939–40 in Hungarian football