How would Czechs sides fare in a I and II Austro-Hungarian soccer league look if it still existed? [Description in comments] Hint – pretty well!

2 comments

1. In recent times many types of regional leagues are being discussed within UEFA to counterbalance the dominance of the big 4 leagues. I wanted to play with the concept of how a potential Central-European football championship would look like nowadays: During Austro-Hungarian times, before WW I disbanded this Mittel-European empire, Austro-Hungarian football was extremely strong and successful, and it dominated the world of football well into the ’50s. The NTs and FAs of Austria, Hungary and Czechia were among the first 10 to be established in the world.
   In terms of local championships there were the Austrian championship system and the Hungarian one (this one further divided into two parallel leagues, Budapest league and rest of the country league). The Czechs had their own strong championship. There was also a local Austrian Littoral and Dalmatia championship, because traveling times back then where a real issue and it was easier logistically to have clubs from the Adriatic area play locally, but these also occasionally played in the national leagues of Austria or in those of Hungary proper. The champions of the Czech, Austrian, Hungarian leagues would meet annually in a final tournament that was played between 1897 and 1911, and whose successor became the legendary Mitropa cup, which then run from 1927 until 1992 (and the Mitropa cup is itself nowadays considered the precursor of the Champions League).

   I imagined a classic first league of 20 clubs and a second league of 22 clubs. I took the 20+22 highest ranking ones by UEFA coefficient, and as you may see even nowadays the league would be a pretty competitive one. It would seemingly be also quite balanced between the various regions and also between the major clubs themselves (well, Red Bull money printers would still be a factor even in this league, but less so than IRL because also all other clubs would have much more disposable income thanks to much better sponsor deals and TV rights exposure).
   It would therefore be very arguably a rich league, covering a potential market of some 68 million people with plenty of potential for sponsorship revenue, well beyond what the current small leagues may dream of, and probably draw solid interest from overseas. Maybe a more realistic league map nowadays would have been one encompassing only the lands of Austria, Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia, but I really wanted to pay my homage to those awesome football pioneers from Austro-Hungary and to that romantic age in the world of foot-ball/**FOTBAL**/fußball/labdarúgó/nogomet! Hope nobody is offended by my fantasy football trip! Ahoj!

   PS: Happy to hear your suggestions for any improvements 🙂

2. Wow, that is a cool idea! I love how you really put the effort into it. 😀

   You should post it to r/Football.