Кубок Балкан: История регионального футбольного турнира

the defunct regional football competition contested by national teams of Balkan countries

The Balkan Cup was an international association football competition contested on and off from 1929 to 1980 by countries from the Balkans region. The most successful team was Romania with four titles.

The first edition featured Romania, Greece, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria and was played over three years from 1929 to 1931. In the following tournaments the system saw significant changes, with teams playing each other only once, and instead of taking three years to complete it was shortened to just a single week. From 1932 to 1936 the competition was played every year with the same four teams until the outbreak of World War II. After a seven year hiatus due to World War II, the competition was revived in 1946. Greece dropped out of the tournament the same year, and was replaced by Albania, who went on to win the 1946 edition by defeating Romania 1–0 in the final game. In 1947 Hungary entered the tournament and won it in its first attempt. Hungary were a world footballing power at the time and proved this with a 9–0 thrashing against Bulgaria. In 1948 the Balkan Cup was expanded to seven teams with Poland and Czechoslovakia joining the tournament. However, the 1948 edition was never completed due to unknown reasons. Hungary were topping the group at the time of its cancellation. Because of the expansions, the 1947 and 1948 tournaments were officially renamed Balkan and Central European Championship. In 1977 the second edition of the revived tournament was launched, this time consisting of five teams with Yugoslavia returning to take part. Romania went on to win the last edition in 1980 by beating Yugoslavia 4–1 at home in the final.

Since the first official tournament in 1929–31, 17 hat tricks have been scored in over 50 matches of the 12 editions of the tournament. The first hat trick was scored by Rudolf Wetzer of Romania, playing against Greece on 25 May 1930; and the last was by Anghel Iordănescu 50 years later, on 27 August 1980, when he netted a hat trick for Romania in the second leg of the 1977–80 final in a 4 1 win over Yugoslavia. The record number of hat tricks in a single Balkan Cup is four, during the inaugural edition. The only player to have scored more than one hat trick is Ljubomir Angelov, both at the 1935 Balkan Cup, in which he was the top goal scorer with those 6 goals. The record for the most goals scored in a single Balkan Cup game is 5, which has been achieved once: by Rudolf Wetzer when he scored 5 for Romania in a 8 1 win over Greece. Romania also holds the record for most hat tricks scored with 5, being closely followed by Hungary and Yugoslavia with 4 each. Bulgaria and Greece jointly hold the record for most hat tricks conceded with 6 each, which means that only 5 hat tricks have been scored against a team other than Bulgaria and Greece.

+Balkan Cup hat tricks # Player G (Number of goals (if more than 3)) Time of goals For Goals Result Against Tournament Date FIFAreport 1. Rudolf Wetzer 5 8', 34', 75', 76', 80'1–1, 2–1, 5–1, 6–1, 8–1 8–1 1929 31 Balkan Cupformat=dmyReport 2. Antonis Tsolinas 4 4', 50', 51', 60'1–0, 4–0, 5–0, 6–0 6–1format=dmyReport 3. Aleksandar Tomašević 3 38', 75', 83'2–0, 3–1, 4–1 4–1format=dmyReport 4. Iuliu Bodola 3 13', 18', 84'1–0, 2–0, 4–2 4–2format=dmyReport 5. Slavko Kodrnja 3 12', 20', 72'1–1, 2–1, 4–2 5–3 1933 Balkan Cupformat=dmyReport 6. Gheorghe Ciolac 3 57', 61', 66'3–0, 4–0, 6–0 7–0 format=dmyReport 7. Mirko Kokotović 3 10', 54', 75'1–0, 3–0, 4–0 4–0format=dmyReport 8. Ljubomir Angelov 3 26', 28', 63' 2–1, 3–1, 4–1 5–2 1935 Balkan Cupformat=dmyReport 9. Ljubomir Angelov (2) 3 25', 28', 66'1–2, 2–2, 3–2 3–3format=dmyReport 10. Iuliu Farkaș 3 29', 69', 79'1–0, 3–0, 4–0 4–0 1947 Balkan Cupformat=dmyReport 11. Ferenc Deák 4 15', 34', 52', 79' 1–0, 2–0, 7–0, 8–0 9–0 format=dmy Report 12. Nándor Hidegkuti 3 47', 50', 86'4–0, 6–0, 9–0 9–0 13. Béla Egresi 3 43', 61', 72'2–0, 5–0, 7–0 9–0 1948 Balkan Cupformat=dmyReport 14. Ferenc Puskás 3 44', 64', 83'1–0, 3–0, 5–1 5–1format=dmyReport 15. Cemil Turan 3 47', 66', 86'2–1, 4–2, 5–2 5–21973 76 Balkan Cupformat=dmyReport 16. Vahid Halilhodžić 3 33', 58', 84'(pen. )1–1, 3–1, 4–1 4–1 1977 80 Balkan Cupformat=dmyReport 17. Anghel Iordănescu 3 21', 55'(pen. ), 79'(pen. )1–0, 3–0, 4–1 4–1format=dmyReport