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.

Yugoslavia 1923

 Gradanski Zagreb

A Yugoslavian national championship was first contested in 1923, when the country was known as The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Up until the end of the war in 1918 the lands of Yugoslavia (what we now know as Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Slovenia , Montenegro and FYR Macedonia) were a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the clubs listed below were all formed during this period of Austo- Hungarian rule.
Six clubs participated in a knockout tournament to decide the inaugural national championship.

HSK Gradanski Zagreb
Founded in 1911, a multi sports club with an emphasis on Croatian identity. Gradanski won the Zagreb Regional Championship 6 times between 1919 and 1928.

 JSD Bačka
The oldest club in Yugoslavia, founded by members of the Croat/Bunjevac community in the city of  Subotica in 1901. They used to compete in the southern section of the Austro-Hungarian league. 

SASK  
 Sarajevo amaterski športski klub- Sarajevo is in modern day Bosnia Herzegovina.

Hajduk Split 
Founded in Prague by a group of students from Split in 1911. The clubs Croatian nationalist tendencies were reflected in the name- a Hajduk being a partisan fighter against firstly the Ottoman Turks and latterly the Austrian Empire.

SK Ilirija
Slovenian club from Ljubljana founded in 1911. Initially they played Zagreb based clubs because there were only 2 established clubs in Slovenia - Ilirija and Slovan. After 1918 football developed in Slovenia, and Ilirija won 12 Slovenian titles between 1920 and 1935.

SK Jugoslavija
 Serbian multi-sports club from Belgrade, originally founded as  SK Velika Srbija (Great Serbia) in 1913, 
changing its name to Jugoslavija in 1919.

First round: 
Jugoslavija 2-1 Backa
SASK 4-3 Hajduk
Gradanski 2-1 Ilirija

Semi finals: 
Jugoslavija 3-4 SASK
Gradanski bye

Final: Gradanski 1-1 SASK  
replay: Gradanski 4-2 SASK 

 Gradanski were coached by former Bolton Wanderers player Arthur Gaskell.
Dragan Jovanović of Jugoslavija was the competition's top scorer with 4 goals. In an 8 year career with the club he scored 331 goals in  252 matches.