The Story of Ferencvaros

Ferencvaros is a Football Club from the Hungarian capital, Budapest, a club that not many people will have heard of but one that is back at the peak of its power.

Ferencvaros, locally known as Fradi, are Hungarian Champions and qualified for this year’s Champions League after beating Norway’s Molde F.K., the first time in over a quarter of a century the team had made to this stage, which as you’ll learn to know, was rather disastrous for a club with this much history and prestige.

Fradi, had started life as football royalty, being formed in 1899 in Budapest’s ninth district, initially becoming the dominant power in Budapest, that didn’t last but they had an integral role in the rise of Hungarian football and before the Second World War, had significant dominance in Europe.

Following the War, the club was taken over by a far-right Pro-Nazi regime, called the Arrow Cross Party and at the same time the club’s former captain Istvan Toth was executed for having links with an anti-fascist group and “helping hundreds of Jews escape Nazi custody and death”.

Despite this, in the continued years after the War, Hungarian football would flourish, with the likes of Ferenc Puskas emerging and the country playing in the 1954 World Cup Final. Ferencvaros on the other hand, were pushed down as they were viewed as far-right hot bed by the countries Communist rulers, the club had its name changed twice, but after an uprising by several of the countries footballing stars, the club got its name back, but those players were exiled from the national team.

With this, Fradi began the flourish once more, winning the title four times in the 1960’s, reaching what is now the equivalent of the Europa League final twice, winning it once and in 1975 would reach, what is now the Champions League final, taking out Red Star Belgrade and Liverpool along the way. This success would continue until 1995 when, like most eastern-European clubs, would struggle in the post-communist era.

In 2006 the club found itself relegated and under crippling debts, it got to the point where they could not meet costs for the upcoming season and couldn’t even afford a bus for a preseason friendly.

In 2008 the club was bought by then Sheffield United owner, Kevin McCabe and brought in coach Bobby Davidson who in turn took the club back to the top division. Davidson was always battling with club’s fearsome ultras though and in an interview stated “There was one game where we won either 3-0 or 3-1 away after being down to 10 men form very early on. Yet when we got back to our Stadium the bus was attacked. We had beaten that same team 7-1 earlier in the season so it wasn’t good enough that we’d only scored ‘three’ times in the return.”

Davinson quit following the teams promotion and was replaced with Craig Short who was treated with exactly the same animosity, with his first game in charge ending in a pitch invasion and soon after, Short would receive death threats with the message ‘Go home Englishman, or die’.

McCabe left the club in 2011 after being bough out by the Hungarian State, in truth, the majority of Hungarian football became a state-run thing. Under football mad President Victor Orban, nearly 100 million Euros was invested into a football infrastructure programme. Orban, had played football all his life and even had a Stadium built for his village football team that he once played for, with the capacity of twice the population of the village. Orban’s philosophy is that through football, he can reinvigorate Hungary and put the country on the map as a footballing destination.

As Hungary’s most popular team, Ferencvaros benefitted from this, they were given a new Stadium, a new club president and after years of looming debt and mediocre results, things began to look up. In 2016 they won the league for the first time in twelve years and now under coach Serhiy Rebrov, won back to back titles, finally returned to Europe’s elite competition and even managed to tame their notorious ultras, for now at least.

Under Orban, the money earned in the Champions League will be pushed back into the team to ensure sustained success and Fradi will continue to be used as Orban’s darling as he and the club look to return to Hungary’s former footballing glory days.