Die Pfarrwiese

Simply adore this panoramic postcard of Rapid Vienna's Pfarrwiese ground. Football in La Belle Époque. 

There is an air of gentility about the scene. People in their Sunday best attending the game.

An assortment of headwear and plenty of walking-canes...

... and this lady has really made an effort!

Note the high fences to prevent the ball being booted out of the ground- this was before Jimmy Hogan taught the Austrians to play it on the carpet.

Rapid moved to this ground  in the Hütteldorf area of Vienna in 1911. The initial capacity was 4,000,

This site has some pictures of the ground as it is today. 

Mitropa Cup

Hugo Meisl's visionary idea that international club competitions would be both lucrative and a means of strengthening the standard of central European football were instrumental in elevating the Austrian, Hungarian and Czech game. The Danubian clubs were at the time equal to any in the World. The Mitropa Cup also provided the template for later international club competitions.
Let's look at the first 10 tournament winners and 9 finals:

1927 Sparta Prague

30.10.27	Sparta	6	2	Rapid	Letna, Prague:  25,000
13.11.27	Rapid	2	1	Sparta	Hohe Warte, Vienna: 40,000
Sparta		7	4	Rapid

Káďa

Dual international (football and ice hockey) Karel Pešek-Káďa was the first captain to lift the trophy. He also put Sparta ahead in the first minute of their emphatic victory in the home leg of the final. 

1928 Ferencváros

28.10.28	Ferencváros	7	1	Rapid	Üllői úti ,Budapest:  25,000
11.11.28	Rapid	5	3	Ferencváros	Hohe Warte, Vienna: 20,000
Ferencvaros		10	6	Rapid

Takács

8 goals in each leg! József Takács, the tournament top scorer (10 goals) scored a hat trick in the first leg. 

1929 Újpesti FC

03.11.29	Újpest	5	1	Slavia	Hungária körút,Budapest:  18,000
17.11.29	Slavia	2	2	Újpest	Letna, Prague:  25,000
Újpest		7	3	Slavia

 Auer/Avar

Tournament top scorer was Újpest's Stefan Auer (aka Istavan Avar). He scored in both legs of the final.


1930 Rapid (Vienna)

02.11.30	Sparta	0	2	Rapid	Letna, Prague:  25,000
11.11.30	Rapid	2	3	Sparta	Hohe Warte, Vienna : 40,000
Rapid		4	3	Sparta

A 2nd leg hattrick by Josef  Košťálek was not enough for Sparta.

1931 First Vienna FC

08.11.31	WAC	2	3	First Vienna	Hardturm , Zürich: 20,000
13.11.31	First Vienna	2	1	WAC	Hohe Warte, Vienna : 25,000
First Vienna		5	3	WAC

1932 Bologna

Italian clubs had been participating since 1929 and Bologna were the first Italian winners. There was no final, however. Bologna won their semi final against First Vienna. The second leg of the other semi final, Juventus versus Slavia at Stadio di Corso Marsiglia, was abandoned. Juventus pulled back 2 goals having lost the away leg 4-0. Slavia then engaged time wasting tactics that enraged the crowd. Stones were thrown, Plánička was injured, Slavia walked off, both sides were ejected from the competition.


1933 Austria (Vienna)

03.09.33	Ambrosiana	2	1	Austria	Arena Civica , Milan : 25,000
08.09.33	Austria	3	1	Ambrosiana	Praterstadion, Vienna : 58,000
Austria		4	3	Ambrosiana

Sindelar

Matthias Sindelar scored a hat trick in the second leg to win the trophy for Austria.

Two legends: Sindelar and Meazza

1934 Bologna

05.09.34	Admira	3	2	Bologna	Praterstadion, Vienna : 50,000
09.09.34	Bologna	5	1	Admira	Littoriale, Bologna: 25,000
Bologna		7	4	Admira

Reguzzoni

Carlo Reguzzoni scored a hat trick in Bologna's emphatic home win. He was also the competition's top scorer, with 10 goals. 

1935 Sparta Prague

08.09.35	Ferencvaros	2	1	Sparta	Ulloi Ut, Budapest: 34,000
15.09.35	Sparta	3	0	Ferencvaros	Velký Strahovský Stadion: 56, 000
Sparta		4	2	Ferencvaros

Braine 

Belgium's Ray Braine scored 3 goals in the finals

1936 Austria (Vienna)

06.09.36	Austria	0	0	Sparta	Praterstadion, Vienna : 41,600
13.09.36	Sparta	0	1	Austria	Velký Strahovský Stadion: 58,000
Austria		1	0	Sparta

 Jerusalem

  Low scoring games were a rarity. 0-0 draws almost unheard of. During these 10 seasons Mitropa Cup ties produced an average of 4.2 goals per game. 
Camillo Jerusalem broke the deadlock in the 67th minute of the 2nd leg. 

 Winners by country: 
Austria - 4 

Hungary -2

Czechoslovakia -2

Italy - 2

Yugoslavia - 0

Switzerland - 0

Erster Wiener Arbeiter-Fußball-Club 1898 -SK Rapid Wien

Erster Wiener Arbeiter-Fußball-Club 1898- their colours were red and blue. 

In 1898  Erster Wiener Arbeiter-Fußball-Club (First Viennese Workers' Football Club) was founded. They drew their first ever fixture, against Meidlinger FC Vorwärts, 1-1.
Things went downhill from there. 
A game against Wiener AC was lost 20-0. They finished bottom in the Kaiser Franz Joseph Jubilee Tournament. In their first season 19 games saw them register only one victory (4-1 over Vindobona Wien) and  their goal difference that season was 13 for and 107 against. After only 8 months in existence the club held a crisis meeting on January 8th, 1899. A new name was adopted: Sport Club Rapid. A change in name didn't, however, herald a change in fortunes. Rapid were still struggling.
In 1900 the newspaper Neue Wiener Tagblatt sponsored a Viennese league , seen as the forerunner of the National League. This competition, the Tagblatt-Pokal, ran from  1900 to 1904. Rapid were in the second tier. 
In 1905 the club colours were changed to green and white.
By the time the Austrian football championship was inaugurated in 1911–12 (the interceding years had seen many attempts to formalize a league) Rapid had improved. They topped the 12 team Vienna section. They won the championship the following season and have gone on to become the most successful club in the history of  Austrian football. 

Die Grün-Weißen 1912

The Budapest Cup 1914

The Budapest Cup was won by Celtic at Burnley's Turf Moor on September 1st 1914. 
Burnley is 1600 km from Budapest, so some explanation is required.

Central Europe was a popular tour destination for English and Scottish clubs, and in the summer of 1914 both Celtic (Scottish Double winners) and Burnley ( then in the First Division of the Football league and 1914 FA Cup winners) undertook tours of Hungary, Austria and Germany. 
The Hungarian authorities arranged a match between the two. A silver trophy shaped like a lighthouse would be the prize, and the profits made from the fixture would be donated to charity. 
Apparently Celtic were unaware of the fixture until they arrived in Budapest.
However, 4 days after Celtic had begun their tour with a 2-2 draw against Ferencváros they faced Burnley (at Ferencváros' stadium). 

Celtic

May 21st was a hot day in Budapest and the two sides met on a dry and bumpy pitch before a crowd of around 10,000. The match was a hard and ill tempered contest. Jimmy McMennemy put Celtic in front through a  20th minute penalty. Burnley equalised from the penalty mark in the second half when Sunny Jim Young handled. Contemporary reports suggest that Celtic declined to play extra time. They agreed to travel to Burnley at a later date for a replay. The Hungarians would forward the trophy.

Burnley

Celtic continued on their tour with healthy wins over Wiener (6-2) and Hertha Berlin (6-0). VfB Leipzig beat the Scots 1-0 but BFC Preussen were dispatched 5-0.
The dates of Burnley's tour matches are not recorded clearly. However following the match with Celtic they lost 3-1 to Ferencváros before beating a Hungary Select XI. During the course of their travels thy also beat Viktoria Berlin and Rapid Vienna. The result of the match with DFC Prag is unknown.


The replay was held at Burnley's Turf Moor on September 1st 1914.
At half time with the score at 0-0 Celtic were reduced to 10 men by injury. However they took a 2-0 lead by the 70th minute through Jimmy McColl and Patsy Gallagher. Burnley got a late consolation from the penalty spot. 

 Of course, in between the 2 games, war had broken out. The intriguing trophy never reached Britain, but in 1988 Ferencváros presented Celtic with a vase to commemorate their victory.
Interestingly the clubs donated a share of the gate money from the repaly (the attendance was 10,000)  to the Budapest charities that the original match had been arranged to support (even though Britain and Hungary were now at war). 

La Coupe de l'Europe Centrale 1927

International club competitions had been tried before, Early examples were (theoretically at first) TheAustria/Habsburg Monarchy Challenge Cup ,The Torneo Internazionale Stampa Sportiva, The Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy and the Coupe Van der Straeten Ponthoz.
Hugo Meisl believed that football would benefit from international club competitions. By the middle of the 1920s the situation in central Europe was right for putting such a theory into practice. Austria (1924), Hungary (1925) and  Czechoslovakia (1926) had all introduced professionalism into their league football, and they remained the strongest nations in continental football. Nearby Italy was also enjoying a meteoric rise. Public interest was high, games were well attended and international competition would provide a good source of extra revenue for the professionalized clubs.
In the summer of 1927 Meisl and his Hungarian counterpart Dr.Fischer Mór ironed out the arrangements for La Coupe de l'Europe Centrale, more popularly known as the Mitropa Cup.
Meisl invisaged an international league, but this would have added to fixture congestion, so a cup format was settled on. In theory the league champions and runners up (or cup winners) from each country would qualify. Germany and Italy were approached to participate. Italy declined on account of their complex and  protracted domestic arrangements.Germany were concerned by professionalism and the fact that the play offs that they needed to decide their national championships went on into the summer. 
The initial tournament was contested by two teams each from Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia:

Austria
SK Admira Vienna (league champions)
SK Rapid Wien (cup winners-Wiener Cup)

Czechoslovakia
Sparta Prague (league champions)
Slavia Prague (cup winners-Stredoceský Pohár)

Hungary
MTK (Budapest)
 Újpesti  
(Neither of these sides won a league or cup - they finished 3rd and second respectively behind Ferencváros in Nemzeti Bajnokság I)

Yugoslavia
Hajduk Split (league champions)
BSK (Belgrade) (league runners up)

First Round
		1st Leg	2nd Leg	Aggregate
MTK	BSK	4-2	4-0	8-2
Rapid Wien	Hajduk Split	(14.8.27) 8-1	(21.8.27) 1-0	9-1
Sparta Prague	Admira Vienna	5-1	3-5	8-6
Slavia Prague	Újpesti	4-0	2-2	6-2

Semifinals
		1st Leg	2nd Leg	Aggregate
Slavia Prague	Rapid Wien	(28.09.27) 2-2	(02.10.27) 1-2	3-4
MTK	Sparta Prague	2-2	0-0	2-2*

* history tantalizes us here: Sparta were awarded the tie because 'a player of MTK had occupied an irregular position'. I can find no explanation for this ruling.

Final

30.10.27: Sparta Prague  6-2 Rapid Wien 
(Letná Stadium, Pague, attendance: 25,000)
13.11.27: Rapid Wien 2-1 Sparta Prague 
(Hohe Warte Stadium, Vienna, attendance: 40,000)
Sparta won 7-4 on aggregate.

 Rapid Wien

Sparta Prague

Many sources state that John Dick was the manager of Sparta when they won the Mitropa in 1927. However, it would appear that this is incorrect, as Dick was with the Antwerp club Beerschot from 1923 (when he first left Sparta) until his return to Prague in either 1928 or 1929. Václav Špindler was the 'trainer' in 1927.