Review of 2019/20 Hungary OTP Bank Liga Season

July 23, 2020

History

The Hungarian National Championship ( Nemzeti Bajnokság ) was first played for in 1901. Ferencvaros have won the most titles ( 31 ), followed by MTK ( 23 ), Ujpest ( 20 ) and Honved ( 14 ).  Debrecen have been the most successful club from outside of the capital Budapest with 7 titles, and in the 120 times it has been contested the championship has been won only 27 times by non-Budapest sides.

The league is currently known as the OTP Bank Liga for sponsorship reasons, and is currently ranked 33^rd in Europe by UEFA, below countries such as Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan.

The National Side

The national side are currently 52^nd  in FIFA world rankings, sitting between Egypt and Cameroon. This makes them 29^th best in Europe, just below Scotland but ahead of Greece, Finland and Bulgaria.

In their Euro 2020 qualification group, a 0-2 defeat in Wales after two goals by Aaron Ramsey meant that the Welsh qualified ahead of Hungary, who would have qualified instead had they won the match. Hungary were the only side to beat Croatia in the group ( 2-1 ) but a home defeat to Slovakia and three away defeats to the their main rivals without scoring a goal proved costly and they eventually finished 4^th in the group. However, due to success in the Nations League tournament they qualified for the play-offs and are due to play a one-off match against Bulgaria in Sofia in October, with the winner playing the winner of Iceland and Romania for a place in the Euro 2020 finals.

Since 1986, the only tournament Hungary have qualified for has been the 2016 Euros in France, where they headed a group including Portugal, Iceland and Austria before losing to Belgium in the round of 16. They qualified for these finals by beating Norway home and away in the play-offs, and this helped them achieve their highest ranking of 16^th since the rankings were in introduced.

Hungarian football was at its strongest in the 1950s, going unbeaten in 31 matches from 1950 to 1954 until losing the 1954 World Cup final to West Germany ( 3-2 ). The run included the famous 6-3 over England at Wembley, the first time England had lost at home to a country from outside the British Isles, and followed that up with a 7-1 win in Budapest seven months later, a result which remains England’s worst ever defeat. The Magnificent Magyars side contained such famous names as Ferenc Puskas, Sander Kocsis, Jozsef Boszik and Nandor Hidegkuti.

None of the current international players are anywhere near as famous as those legends, and from the squad selected for the last match against Wales, three are plying their trade in the Bundesliga with the most notable being keeper Peter Gulasci at RB Leipzig. Adam Szalai is at Mainz and Rolland Sallai is at Freiburg. Twelve of the squad play in Hungary, with the others at clubs in Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia, Switzerland, UAE and the French second division. Defender Adam Nagy plays for Bristol City.

League Structure

Twelve teams compete in the league, playing each other three times, once at home and once away in the first 22 games. At the end of the season, the Champions enter the first qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League, while the runner-up and the third place, together with the winner of the Hungarian Cup enter the UEFA Europa League first qualifying round. The bottom two clubs are relegated to the second division ( Nemzeti Bajnokság II ) and replaced by the winner and the runner up of the NB2.

The Second Division of football in Hungary consists of 20 sides.

Last Season

Ferencvaros were the 2018/19 Champions, finishing 13 points clear of MOL Fehervar, who in turn were 10 point clear of third placed Debrecen. Honved and Ujpest were fourth and fifth respectively.

In their 2019/20 Champions League campaign Ferencvaros eliminated Ludogerets from Bulgaria and Maltese side Valletta before a 0-4 home defeat to Dinamo Zagreb saw them knocked out. Their subsequent Europa League run saw them eliminate FK Suduva from Lithuania before again coming up against Ludogerets as well as Espanyol and CSKA Moscow in the Group stage. However, a record of 1-4-1 saw them finish third in the group.

In the Europa League, Fehervar eliminated Zeta from Montenegro before losing in extra time to Vaduz of Liechtenstein. Debrecen got past Kukesi of Albania before Torino were too strong ( 1-7 on aggregate ).  Honved progressed past Zalgiris of Lithuania before losing a penalty shoot-out to Romanians Universitatea Craiova after two goalless draws.

Attendances

Hungary was one of the first countries in Europe to allow spectators to attend matches after the resumption following the COVID-19 suspension, allowing 25% of the stadium capacity after a week of matches behind closed doors. The wearing of face masks was encouraged but not made mandatory. By mid June this restriction had been lifted, and 15,727 attended the Ferencvaros vs Ujpest match where Ferencvaros were confirmed as champions, and 9,400 saw the Debrecen vs Paksi relegation decider. It is reported that the reopening of stadiums has not led to any increased transmission of the coronavirus in Hungary.

The highest attendance of the season was 18,759 for the Ferencvaros vs Ujpest derby, and Ferencvaros attracted over 18,000 for their three home Champions League qualifiers, with 19,356 watching the game against Dinamo Zagreb.

The average attendances for the season are skewed slightly by the COVID-19 restrictions and a small number of matches played behind closed doors, but Ferencvaros were the best supported team with an average of 8,991. Diosgyor were the next best supported with an average of 4,746.

Fehervar attracted 12,192 for their home match against Ferencvaros whilst 10,566 saw the Zalaegerszegi TE vs Ferencvaros game. For what it is worth, the average attendance for the season was calculated as 3,691.

How To Watch

The official Hungarian Football League YouTube channel Magyar Labdarúgó Szövetség is normally quick to upload highlights of all matches. Highlights can also be found on the league’s website https://www.mlsz.hu/

Goal clips are also posted on the M4Sport Facebook page – M4 Sport have the domestic TV rights to show matches in Hungary.

Review of The Season

The season began on August 3, 2019 but play was suspended after the 25^th round of matches on March 14^th due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The season resumed on May 23^rd.

Ferencvaros comfortably retained their title, securing their 31st Championship with three games to spare. Fehervar were again runners-up, again finishing 13 points behind. Puskas Academy were a surprise in third place, their best ever placing in their relatively short history, with a strong finish to the season taking them 4 points clear of Mezokovesd. Despite finishing 5^th, Honved took the final Europa league place by virtue of winning the Hungarian cup.

In addition to being the most successful club domestically, Ferencvaros have had the most success in European competitions, winning the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1965 after beating Juventus, and losing in the final in 1968 to Leeds United. They also lost in the final of the European Cup Winners Cup to Dynamo Kiev in 1975 and have also won the Hungarian Cup on 23 occasions.

Ferencvaros are commonly referred to as Fradi, and their colours are green and white, giving rise to their nickname of the Green Eagles. The change kit is all white, and their home ground is the 22,000 capacity Groupama Stadium which was opened in 2014 on the site of their old Florian Albert Stadium.

The coach of Ferencvaros is ex-Dyamo Kiev, Tottenham and West Ham striker Sergei Rebrov, who has been in charge since August 2018.

As their first two matches of the season were postponed to allow them to concentrate on the Champions League qualifiers, Ferencvaros were playing catch-up in the league table, not helped by a 1-4 defeat at Puskas Academy in their second match. In fact the postponed match against Debrecen from the first round of the season in August was actually the first match played after the COVID-19 restart in May ! However, in Round 10 at the end of October they won they key match at Fehervar 2-1, and after Fehervar lost at home to Puskas Academy in Round 13 Ferencvaros led the table and stayed there for the rest of the season.

One factor in Fradi’s success was their home form. They were unbeaten in 17 home matches, drawing only three times and only conceding 6 goals. Their form away from home wasn’t too shabby either, with only three losses; the early season defeat to Puskas, at Mezokovesd in February ( 0-3 ) following a 17 match unbeaten  run, and a dead rubber at Fehervar ( 0-1 ) after the title had been secured and several fringe players were given an opportunity.

Ferencvaros had a very settled squad, with 10 players appearing in over 25 of the 33 league matches. The squad also had a cosmopolitan look to it with players from Belarus, Bosnia, Brazil, Germany, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Ukraine regularly featuring plus the occasional glimpse of an Argentinian, Georgian and Syrian ! Five current Hungarian internationals were also part of the title winning squad ( keeper Denes Dibusz, defenders Endre Botka and Gergo Lovrencsics, midfielder David Siger, and forward Roland Varga – although Varga only played one minute after the resumption ).

Together with Bosnian Eldar Civic and Slovene Miha Blazic, Dibusz, Botka and Lovrecsics were the regular defensive line-up that conceded just 24 goals in 33 goals. Fradi were also the league’s top scorers, with lively Ivorian Franck Boli on target 10 times, Norwegian Tokmac Nguen scored 8 ( although to be fair missed quite a few ! ), and Ukrainian Ihor Kharatin contributed 9 from midfield. Siger only scored 5 league goals, but two of these were against Debrecen in the 2-1 win in the behind closed doors resumption match, with the winner being an impressive strike from over 25 yards. 

Siger also scored the only goal against Kisvarda in June from close to the corner flag, but that owed more to a goal-keeping error, with his only other 2 goals coming in the key win at Fehervar. Brazilian Somalia returned to the club in the winter break, and caught the eye in the handful of matches he played at the tail-end of the season and the left footed Ukrainian Alexsander Zubkov was a threat on the right side of midfield.

Runners-up Fehervar have also achieved success in European Club football losing the 1985 UEFA Cup Final to Real Madrid, when they were known as Videoton. They have won the Hungarian League three times, the last being in 2018, and they have won the Hungarian Cup twice ( 2006 and 2019 ). For sponsorship reasons they are also known as MOL Fehervar FC ( MOL being a Hungarian headquartered Oil and Gas company )

They are located in Székesfehérvár, 65 km south-west of Budapest and play in the MOL Arena Sosto which has a capacity of 14,201 following the completion of its renovation in November 2018. Fehervar play in red and blue, with the change strip being predominately white. Their nickname in Vidi, coming from the old name of the club. Hungarian President Viktor Orban, who was a professional footballer, was born in Székesfehérvár and is apparently a fan of the club.

Runners-up the previous season, Fehervar started this season strongly, winning their first six matches. However, a dodgy spell followed, losing 4 home matches out of 5, to Ujpest ( 0-2 ), Ferencvaros ( 1-2 ), Puskas ( 1-3 ) and Paksi ( 0-2 ) which saw them drop to third place and the sacking of Serbian coach Marko Nikolic, and the appointment of Spaniard Joan Carillo. Form did improve, with Fehervar remaining unbeaten at home for the rest of the season, with just two away losses, at Ferencvaros ( 0-1 ), and at Mezokovesd ( 1-2 ) after second place was assured. However, 5 draws in the last 9 games prevented any serious challenge to Ferencvaros being mounted.

Three Fehervar players were in the most recent Hungary squad, keeper Adam Kovacsik ( who only missed one league game in the season ) and midfielders Istvan Kovacs and Mate Patkai. Club captain was 37 year old centre back Roland Juhasz ( ex-Anderlecht and 95 international caps ) who was given an emotional farewell in the last home match of the season after having scored the match winning penalty against Ferencvaros, having announced his retirement at the end of the season.

The top goal scorers in the league for Fehervar were Bosnian International midfielder/striker Armin Hodzic ( 10 goals ) and former Hungarian International Marko Futacs ( 9 goals ). Energetic Ukrainian midfielder Ivan Petryak ( 5 caps ) made 32 appearances and scored 6 times. Ex-Charlton French wing back Loic Nego made 26 appearances and Serbian Under 21 International Danilo Pantic played 8 matches on loan from Chelsea in the early part of the season before returning to his parent club. Other internationals who played more than 10 times during the season included Georgi Milanov ( 43 caps for Bulgaria ), Macedonians Visario Musli ( 20 caps ) and Boban Nikolov ( 22 caps ), Adrian Rus ( 5 caps for Romania ) and Stopira ( 33 caps for Cape Verde ). Frenchman midfielder Lyes Houri signed in the winter break looked influential in the last few games of the season.

After the season ended Fehervar announced the departure of coach Joan Carillo, replacing him with Gabor Marton, which had successfully kept Zalaegerszeg in the top division.

Puskas Academy were a surprise package in finishing in third place, in only their 5^th ever season in the top flight and they were 7^th the year before. It is fair to say the club are not universally popular as there is little connection to Puskas, and the club are hardly an academy and produce very few players of their own.

Puskas are based in the village of Felcsut, a village of less than 2,000 people 45 km west of Budapest. The origin of the club was to produce an academy to honour legendary former international Ferenc Puskas, with Hungarian President Orban, who grew up in the village,  being involved in the financing of the project. There have been allegations that the club has been the beneficiary of Governmental funding.

The Pancho Arena holds 3,816 spectators, which is larger than the village, and looks like a smaller version of the Monaco stadium. The  average attendance in 2019/20 was 1,450. Puskas play in dark blue and their coach is Slovak Zsolt Hornyak

They started the season slowly but by week 7 had moved into fourth place, where they stayed for more or less the rest of the season, and 14 points from their last 6 games enabled them to grab third place, clinched with a 2-1 home win over Honved on the final day at the end of which the players bizarrely wore medals and lifted a trophy !

Puskas were unbeaten in three matches against Ferencvaros and also provided their worth with a win at Fehervar, and they lost only twice away from Felcsut, at Mezokovesd and Zalaegerszeg.

In David Vanacek they had the league’s joint second top scorer, the ex-Hearts and Teplice forward struck 11 times. Croat midfielder Josip Knezevic chipped in with 8 goals but the spine of the team was made up of journeymen with experience of the Dutch league -  Yoell Van Nieff ( ex Groningen ), Luciano Slagveer ( ex Heerenveen), German Thomas Meissner ( ex Den Haag & Willem II ) and Bulgarian Kamran Hadzhiev ( ex Fortuna Sittard ). Throw in experienced Hungarians Roland Szolnoki, Zsolt Nagy and Adam Gyurcso ( all ex Fehervar ) and keeper Lajos Hegedus ( ex-MTK ) to give the Academy a battle hardened line-up. Such was full-back Nagy’s form he earnt a call-up to the squad for the Wales match. Hegedus was replaced in the latter part of the season by an actual academy product, with Balazs Toth making several fine saves in the late unbeaten run.

Mezokovesd are contenders for the hard luck story of the season. The third Europa League place goes the winners of the Hungarian Cup ( Magyar Kupa ) but in most years this is a team who finished in the top 3. The last time the side finishing in fourth place didn’t qualify for the Europa League was back in 2014, However, this season the Cup was won by Honved, who came 5^th in the league table, and they won the Cup Final by beating……….Mezokovesd !

Mezokovesd is 130 miles north-east of Budapest and the side play at the Mezokovesd Varosi Stadium, which was renovated in 2016 and holds 4,183 spectators. This was their fourth season in the top division since their promotion in 2016 and their colours are yellow and blue.

There was no obvious star player in their squad. Ethnic Hungarian Serbian winger Daniel Farkas showed a lot of flair and trickery, Georgian forward Budu Zivzivadze scored 8 times and captain Tamas Czeri netted 7 times from midfield. Keeper Peter Szappanos missed only one game and Belarus midfielder Alexsandr Karnitskiy made 30 appearances.

Mezokovesd were comfortably in the top three all season, and when the season resumed after COVID they were 6 points clear of Puskas. A combination of 5 matches without a win and the good run by Puskas saw the sides level with three games to play. Mezokovesd pulled themselves together with a spirited home win over Fehervar after going down to 10 men in the first half and twice being denied by brave saves in injury time, before finally scrambling home the winner in the 93^rd minute to spark wild celebrations. The win for Puskas over Paksi though kept the sides level on points. However, Mezokovesd had the advantage in the event of being level through virtue of having more wins and a better goal difference. Unfortunately for them, a disastrous 0-1 loss at home to relegation haunted Debrecen, with the goal conceded in the 89^th minute, meant Puskas were in pole position going into the final round after drawing at Kisvarda, and Mezokovesd having to visit championships Ferencvaros in their last match. 

With Ferencvaros having nothing to play for, apart from perhaps pride and to keep their unbeaten home record, Mezokovesd started brightly but Slovak midfielder Laszlo Pekar missed two early chances. When Puskas fell behind at home to Honved, Meszokovesd were back in the promotion place, until Tokmac got his direction right for once to give Fradi a halftime lead. With Puskas drawing level before the break in their match, Mezokovesd then needed to win, but they rarely threatened, and a second half winner from Slagveer secured the European place for Puskas.

Despite having won the Magyar Kupa, Honved still had a mathematical chance of being relegated with two matches to go, but a 4-2 win over Kaposvari ensured safety and was enough to take 5^th place despite losing on the final day.

Honved were formerly the club of the Hungarian Army and were arguably the strongest club side in Europe in the mid 1950s with Puskas, Bozsik and Kocsis members of the team. With the fall of communism in 1991 the club adopted the name Kispest Honved, and many supporters still refer to the club as Kispest. Honved used to play at the Joszef Bozsik Stadium which was demolished in 2019, and until their new stadium has been completed are playing at MTK Budapest’s Nandor Hidegkuti stadium. Their main kit is red and black stripes with black shorts.

In Italian Davide Lanzafame Honved had the league’s joint second top scorer with 11 goals. The ex-Juventus winger/striker was on loan from Ferencvaros for his third spell at Honved. Niger International Amadou Moutari was pacy upfront but often wayward with his finishing, and midfielder Daniel Gadzag was rewarded with his first international call-up. David N’Gog started the season at Honved but was released in the winter break to join FK Zalgiris in Lithuania. His replacement on loan was Costa Rican Maylon George from Danish side FC Midtjylland, but he only scored once, in the last game of the season at Puskas.

Zalaegerszeg is 225 km south-west of Budapest and the team play in the 11,200 capacity ZTE arena. The home kit is all light blue. At the resumption Zalaegerszeg were in 10^th  place and danger of relegation. However an unbeaten run of 6 matches saw them to safety with 2 matches to play, and they eventually finished 7^th. Ferencvaros and Puskas reject Andreas Rado finished as the league’s top scorer with 13 goals and Gergely Bobal scored 10 goals. Captain Benjamin Babati scored from the halfway line in the 1-1 draw with Fehervar.

At the bottom, newly promoted Kaposvari, nearly 190 km south west of Budapest, finished well adrift, gathering only 14 points all season and made a swift return to the second division after being in a relegation position all season. They took 7 points from 3 games against Debrecen, 6 points from Diosgyor, 1 from Puskas and nothing from anyone else ! They scored just 27 goals and conceded 80……

Ujpest play at the 13,501 capacity Szuzsa Ferenc Stadion, which was renovated in 2002 and play in purple and white stripes. They are owned by Roland Duchatalet, formerly the controversial owner of Charlton Athletic. In 1968 they were the runners-up to Newcastle in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and derby matches against Ferencvaros are considered to be the biggest games of the season.

Ujpest were still in danger of relegation if they lost on the last day of the season. A 0-1 defeat at Kisvarda in their first match after the resumption saw them slip to 10^th and the sacking of long standing coach Nebojša Vignjević. A run of one defeat in 6 matches then took them to the brink of safety, and an easy last day 5-0 win over doomed Kaposvari saw them rise to a final position of 6^th. Nigerian midfielder Obinna Nwododo had scored with a fabulous strike against Fehervar and Belgian defender Jonathan Heris was a rock at the back.

Three other sides were also in danger on the last day of the season of joining Kaposvari in the second division. Debrecen were in 11^th place but they went into their final game knowing that a home win over Paksi would see them safe. Paksi could lose and still stay up if either Kisvarda lost, or Ujpest lost by 2 goals more than Paksi lost by.

Diosgyor play in the city of Miskolc, which is 180 km north-east of Budapest. Their stadium was renovated in 2018 and holds just over 15,000. The side play in red and white hoops, with red shirts. Despite being on only 41 points Diosgyor were safe as no combination of last day results could enable all 4 sides to leap above them. In their final match they meekly lost at home to two first half goals to Kisvarda, which saw the visitors reach the safety of 8^th place.

Kisvarda is 280km north-east of Budapest, located near the Slovakia and Ukraine borders. Thei Varkerti stadium holds just over 2,000 spectators and their colours are all white with red trim.

Debrecen, 230km east of Budapest and who play in a 20,000 capacity stadium, were struggling due to inconsistency, they had the third best home record of the season but the second worst away from home. The club had finished third in the previous season and had two players in the last Hungarian squad, defenders Bence Pavkovics and Janos Ferencsi. They also had two of the league’s leading goalscorers, with Nigerian Tunde Adeniji and Mark Szecsi both scoring 9 goals. In the opening match after the resumption Adam Bodi scored with a stunning curving shot before Ferencvaros came back to win 2-1. In their last 5 games they drew with Puskas, lost to a late goal at Fehervar before thrashing Diosgyor 4-0 and then unexpectedly winning at Mezokovesd 1-0.

In the must win home match against Paksi, Debrecen trailed for most of the game, but having got back on level terms 15 minutes from the end, a frantic finale was set-up. In injury time, first centre back Szatmari hit the post and a minute later Erik Kusnyir’s shot crashed against the underside of the bar. Similar to Geoff Hurst in the 1966 World Cup final the ball bounced down and out but unlike Geoff Hurst, the referee ruled the ball had bounced on the line not over it. VAR is not being used in Hungary………

With a 1-1 draw not enough to save them from an unexpected relegation, there were some minor crowd disturbances as disgruntled supporters streamed onto the pitch to abuse the distraught Debrecen players and police had to restore order. Fortunately it didn’t look like anyone was hurt. Had the goal been awarded, it would have been Paksi instead who had been relegated instead of Debrecen. Ultimately, taking just one point from their 3 games against Kaposvari proved to be critical.

Paksi, from the small town of Paks 100km south of Budapest had been in 11^th place on the resumption but one defeat for the all greens in their last 8 games was good enough for them to finish two points clear of Debrecen in 10^th.  Their fighting spirit was demonstrated in the match against Ferencvaros, when despite losing 0-2 going into injury time, they were able to force a 2-2 draw. Norbert Konyves scored 11 times to be joint second top scorer in the league.

The 2020/21 OTP Bank Liga season will start on 15th August 2020 with two Budapest sides, MTK and Budafok, having earnt promotion from the suspended second division. This brings the number of Budapest sides at the top level to 5 out of 12.