BALKAN CUP WITHIN THE IDEA OF SOCIALIST SPORT (1946–1980)

The Bal­kan Cup re­pre­sen­ted the idea of in­te­gra­ti­on of the Bal­kan countri­es thro­ugh sport, mo­re spe­ci­fi­cally, fo­ot­ball. It to­ok its first form in the in­terwar pe­ri­od, whi­le its furt­her de­ve­lop­ment was in­ter­rup­ted by the out­bre­ak of the Se­cond World War. Af­ter the war, the cup was re­sto­red, which had a spe­ci­al sig­ni­fi­can­ce in the so­ci­a­list ide­o­logy. In the first post-war years, the co­un­tri­es of the Ea­stern Bloc even pa­id mo­re at­ten­ti­on to this competition than, for exam­ple, the Olympic Ga­mes or world fo­ot­ball cham­pi­ons­hips. The compe­ti­ti­on al­so spre­ad beyond the Bal­kans, as Hun­gary, Czec­ho­slo­va­kia, and Po­land al­so par­ti­cipa­ted. When the con­flict with the Co­min­form bro­ke out in 1948, the Bal­kan Cup suf­fe­red the con­sequen­ces, first of all, with the exclu­si­on of Yugo­sla­via. Af­ter Sta­lin’s de­ath, the cup spre­ad out­si­de the so­ci­a­list co­un­tri­es, with Gre­e­ce and Tur­key al­so ta­king part. Gra­du­ally, the au­di­en­ce’s in­ter­est in the cup waned, whi­le in the po­li­ti­cal sphe­re, the Bal­kan co­un­tri­es mo­ved fart­her apart. All of this led to the gra­du­al shut­down of the com­pe­ti­ti­on, which es­sen­ti­ally ceased in the 1980s, alt­ho­ugh cer­ta­in di­sci­pli­nes were ma­in­ta­i­ned un­til 1995.