Bulgaria 1924

1924 was a big year in Bulgarian football. The first national championship competition was scheduled and the nation played its first international fixtures.
Regional leagues had been held since 1921, and in 1924 a unification tournament for the 6 regional champions was planned. Unfortunately this was  abandoned when Vladislav (Varna) refused to replay their semi final with Levski in Sofia, wanting a switch to Varna as the original tie had been played in Sofia. This was never resolved. 
 The following season's  championship was successfully concluded, with Vladislav beating Levski 2-0 in the final.

Bulgaria's first international came on 21.05.24 at Vienna's Simmeringer Sportplatz. 
The team featured 9 Levski players.

Petar Ivanov	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Aleksandar Hristov	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Simeon Yankov	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Gheno Mateev	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Boian Byanov	S.С. Ticha, (Varna)
Dimitr Manolov	S.C. Slavia, (Sofia)
Dimitr Mutafchiev	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Nikola Mutafchiev	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Tsvetan Genev	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Konstantin Maznikov	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Kiril Yovovich	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)

Austria (in their 87th international) were too strong for the Bulgarians, who held out until the 31st minute. The final score was Austria 6, Bulgaria 0.

Bulgaria made 2 changes for their next match, against The Irish Free State at the Olympic Games in Paris.

Petar Ivanov	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Aleksandar Hristov	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Simeon Yankov	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Ivan Radoev	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Boian Byanov	S.С. Ticha, (Varna)
Dimitr Manolov	S.C. Slavia, (Sofia)
Dimitr Mutafchiev	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Nikola Mutafchiev	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Todor Vladimirov	S.C. Slavia, (Sofia)
Konstantin Maznikov	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Kiril Yovovich	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)

They were beaten by Patrick Dunkan's 75th minute goal.
Bulgaria's first international win came in their 15th match, against Romania in 1930.

Balkan Cup 1929-31

The first edition of the Balkan Cup was played on a home and away league basis between October 1929 and November 1931.
The competing nations were Romania, Yugoslavia, Greece and Bulgaria.
Albania expressed an interest, but withdrew before the tournament got under way.
During the course of this tournament Romania and  Yugoslavia also traveled to the World cup in Uruguay (Yugoslavia finishing in notional third place.).

Romania at the 1930 World Cup

Romania
The Romanian football federation had been founded in (1909). They made their international debut in 1922
 in the King Alexander Cup (a tournament with Poland and Yugoslavia). Romania also competed  in the Paris Olympics of 1924, but lost all 3 of their games. During the first Balkan Cup the team were under the guidance of  Constantin 'Costel' Rădulescu, (he was either coach or manager for 42 games from 1923 to 1940). 

Yugoslavia at the 1930 World Cup

Yugoslavia

The Football Federation of what was then known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes  was formed in 1919, and the national team made its entry into the international football arena at the Antwerp Olympics in 1920,  losing to Czechoslovakia and Egypt. 

The country was renamed Yugoslavia 1929. Yugoslavia reached the semi-final of the 1930 World Cup, where they were beaten 6-1 by Uruguay. 

Following the World Cup  Blagoje "Moša" Marjanović and Aleksandar "Tirke" Tirnanić (both of BSK) became the country's first professional players.


Greece
Greece had been represented at 1920 Olympics, an Izmir dominated side losing their only game 9-0 to Sweden, but did not compete in a full international until 1929. In fact their opening game of the Balkan Cup, a 2-1 win over Yugoslavia, was only their third official international. The Greece team featured 4 brothers, Olympiakos' Ntinos, Georgios, Vassilis and Leonidas Andrianopolous.


Bulgaria
The Bulgarian national football team was formed in 1922. In 1923 The Bulgarian Football Union was formed and the team's first match was held in Vienna in May 1924, a 6–0 defeat by Austria.

06.10.29	Romania	2	1	Yugoslavia	Bucharest
26.01.30	Greece	2	1	Yugoslavia	Athens
25.05.30	Romania	8	1	Greece	Bucharest
12.10.30	Bulgaria	5	3	Romania	Sofia
16.11.30	Bulgaria	0	3	Yugoslavia	Sofia
07.12.30	Greece	6	1	Bulgaria	Athens
15.03.31	Yugoslavia	4	1	Greece	Belgrade
19.04.31	Yugoslavia	1	0	Bulgaria	Belgrade
10.05.31	Romania	5	2	Bulgaria	Bucharest
28.06.31	Yugoslavia	2	4	Romania	Zagreb
25.10.31	Bulgaria	2	1	Greece	Sofia
29.11.31	Greece	2	4	Romania	Athens

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Romania	6	5		1	26	13	10
Yugoslavia	6	3		3	12	9	6
Greece	6	2		4	13	20	4
Bulgaria	6	2		4	10	19	4

Iuliu Bodola

The tournament yielded an average of 5+ goals per game, and no draws. Bulgaria (twice, against Yugoslavia) were the only side to fail to score in all of their games. Despite finishing bottom Bulgaria were the only side to beat champions Romania.

Iuliu Bodola and Rudolf Wetzer of Romania were joint top scorers with 7 goals each. Bodola went on to represent Hungary.