After the First World War, due to the constant disputes between the main forces in Central Europe, there was a requirement for a certain competition to be held. Such competition would only be possible with the finally peace treaty between Hungary and Czechoslovakia and the then reconciliation between Czech and Yugoslav football. Consequently, the first edition of the Central European Cup was put into practice for the first time in 1927. At first, four nations were added to the tournament, by different classification methods. Other nations, in addition, had been called to participate, but they did not have a unified championship or they abdicated from participating in the first tournament organized on an international scale.

Featuring the top three Central European nations — Czechoslovakia, Austria & Hungary —, to complement the brackets, two teams from Yugoslavia were invited to participate in the tournament. Although the tournament committee was also made up of Italians, Italy did not send any teams due to the format of its national tournament then played at the time - the first unified league edition was in 1929/30.

THE TEAMS

Defending the glory of the Czech football class, were considered by experts as the favorites to win the first tournament: A.C. Sparta & S.K. Slavia. First, the A.C. Sparta had so far won every tournament played in 1927. Champions of the Středočeské Ligy 1927 and Kvalifikace pro Středoevropský Pohár, A.C. Sparta were considered the strongest team which would dispute the title. Sparta's had an invincible league run. The main rival, the S.K. Slavia was considered as another excellent opponent to be beaten, even though his last performances were not as solid as in previous seasons. As much as it did not have a squad as excellent as the one on the other side of Letná, they were seen as the main team to take the title from rivals.



On the side of Yugoslavia, both teams were considered the weakest in the tournament, as Yugoslav football was considered low-level and even with the term "primitive" being constantly used to describe such teams. B.S.K. Beograd and N.K. Hajduk Split were the teams that qualified for the tournament.

Due to the last performances of Hungary and its clubs, Hungarian territory was ranked lower than Czech and Austrian. Furthermore, the winner of Nemzeti Bajnokság I, Ferencváros F.C., did not play in the tournament, as they were in the qualifying tournament for the Mitropa Cup. Ferencváros was the only champion of his country that did not play in the tournament. Hungária F.C., which had several players who were already eroded by injuries, the runner-up in the Hungarian championship and winner of the qualifying tournament, was considered the main Hungarian team to participate in the tournament. Following the line, Újpest F.C. — second place in the qualifying tournament — was a heavy name to play in the tournament.

Austrian football was starting to take a more promising turn within Central Europe and across the continent to some extent. Many things had changed in recent years, mainly the power between the main teams that represented the Austrian flag. For example, in 1925/26 the Wiener Amateur S.V. it was the most outstanding team in Austria. In the following season, in 1926/27, S.K. Admira had won its first league title, thus establishing itself as the new great power of Austrian football.

Austrian territory had different classification methods than Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Both the Wiener Liga I. and the Wiener Cup were the only two qualifying methods for the Mitropa Cup. As already mentioned above, there was a specific tournament in Hungary and Czechoslovakia to qualify.

SUMMARY

   
QUARTER-FINALS:
   
14/08/1927
S.K. Rapid Wien
8:1
N.K. Hajduk Split
   
14/08/1927
A.C. Sparta Praha
5:1
S.K. Admira Wien
   
14/08/1927
B.S.K. Beograd
2:4
Hungária F.C.
   
21/08/1927
S.K. Slavia Praha
4:0
Újpest F.C.
   
 
   
21/08/1927
N.K. Hajduk Split
0:1
S.K. Rapid Wien
   
21/08/1927
S.K. Admira Wien
5:3
A.C. Sparta Praha
   
28/08/1927
Hungária F.C.
4:0
B.S.K. Beograd
   
28/08/1927
Újpest F.C.
2:2
S.K. Slavia Praha
   
SEMI-FINALS:
   
04/09/1927
Hungária F.C.
2:2
A.C. Sparta Praha
   
28/09/1927
S.K. Slavia Praha
2:2
S.K. Rapid Wien
   
 
   
02/10/1927
A.C. Sparta Praha
0:0
Hungária F.C.
   
02/10/1927
S.K. Rapid Wien
2:1
S.K. Slavia Praha
   
FINALS:
   
30/10/1927
A.C. Sparta Praha
6:2
S.K.Rapid Wien
   
13/11/1927
S.K. Rapid Wien
2:1
A.C. Sparta Praha


Between 14/08/1927 and 13/11/1927 the tournament matches were played.

In the first round of the tournament, only Hungária F.C. and S.K. Rapid had received easy disputes, as football in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was far inferior to Austrian, Hungarian and, mainly, Czech football. The two main clashes in the first round would be Slavia-Újpest — a match that favored Újpest F.C. because of their last results and Slavia's weak form — and Sparta-Admira, which promised to be a very high-level match. After all, both teams were the champions of their respective leagues.

Moving on to the semi-finals of the tournament, only the final result between Slavia-Újpest was considered as a surprise, as Slavia had regained their lost excellent performance, and Újpest turned out to be a completely different team than was expected, mainly because of their weak inside trio. Slavia-Rapid would be a splendid confrontation, but Hungária-Sparta, both the main powers of Central Europe in the period of the First World War, would be two extraordinary and historic matches.

Through aspects of the tournament regulations, Hungária was eliminated from the competition. On the other hand, S.K. Slavia failed to reflect their dominance in goals against S.K. Rapid. Consequently, S.K. Rapid and A.C. Sparta would hold the first final of the tournament.

In the very first game of the final, 6:2 was the very favorable score for the Prague red team. Already because of this large result in Letná, there were few optimistic Austrians for the final that would be played at Hohe Warte. 2:1 for S.K. Rapid was the result of the second match. Therefore, A.C. Sparta was crowned as the champions of the first edition of the Mitropa Cup. The Czechs had confirmed the favoritism they had at the beginning of the tournament, even having failed directly in matches held on Hungarian soil against the main Hungarian clubs shortly before the edition began.

In the end, the tournament was marked by different interpretations of the first rules established by the committee, more precisely the contract rules, with the case of Kalmán Konrád being the main highlight of this problem. Other issues were put on the scene, as well, as was the case of dissatisfied teams with arbitration, threats to abandon subsequent editions of the tournament and a certain amount of violence on the pitch.


CHAMPIONS: A.C. Sparta Praha.
RUNNERS-UP: S.K. Rapid Wien.

TOP SCORERS: Josef Silný - 5 goals.
BEST PLAYER: František Kolenatý. #Isaque Argolo
BEST XI #Isaque Argolo

DETAILS: MITROPA CUP 1927