Ferencvárosi TC
Ferencvárosi Torna Club (FTC), perhaps better known as Ferencváros, nicknamed as Fradi, is a popular (in the past was the most popular) Hungarian sports club, founded in 1899. Their stadium is situated in Ferencváros (hence the name), District IX of Budapest. It has colors green and white.
The biggest part of the club is the football team, the fans call them
- ZÖLD SASOK (GREEN EAGLES).
Around the 1990s, the club had problems with its unruly fans expressing nationalistic and anti-Semitic excesses.
The FTC is the only Hungarian football team, that participated in all the first division championships since the start of Hungarian Football Championships in 1901.
Meanwhile, FTC has won 28 championships [which is a national record]: 1903, 1905, 1906-07, 1908-09, 1909-10, 1910-11, 1911-12, 1912-13, 1925-26, 1926-27, 1927-28, 1931-32, 1933-34, 1937-38, 1939-40, 1940-41, 1948-49, 1962-63, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1975-76, 1980-81, 1991-92, 1994-95, 1995-96, 2000-2001, 2003-2004
The most successful years were 1931 and 1932 since FTC won the 1931-1932 championships with 100% performance, without drawns or losses.
FTC won the Hungarian National Cup 20 times [which is a national record] 1913, 1922, 1927, 1928, 1933, 1935, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1958, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2003, 2004.
In 1928 and in 1937 FTC won the Central European Cup.
In the ancestor of the UEFA Cup, FTC won the cup in 1965 and in 1968 FTC lost in the finals against Leeds.
In 1972 FTC reached the semi finals of the UEFA cup.
In 1975 the unbeaten FTC was beaten by Dinamo Kiev in the Cup Winners' Cup final.
Ferencváros is the first Hungarian team that qualified to the Champions' League's group phase in 1995 by defeating Anderlecht in the qualifying matches.
FTC also has a women's handball club, a men's ice hockey club, and a men's cycling club. In all, FTC is either the best or in the top three clubs.
According to Famousteams.com, it has been voted as the 2nd most popular football team ever, although the voting is still going on.
Ferencváros in crisis
Today Ferencváros is going through a moral crisis, and it brought financial crisis as well because the team lost its marketing value due to the continous scandals around it.
- On 25 July 2001 before Ferencváros - Hajduk Split Champions League qualifier a group of the Ferencváros fans attacked a peacefully drinking group of Hajduk supporters in pub. One Hajduk fan was stabbed.
- On 30 May 2003 Ferencváros played its last match in the season, the opponent was Debrecen. The Ferencváros supporters took the champion title granted, but after a very poor performance this hope was gone. When the match was over the fans ran on the pitch and beat the Debrecen players, one of them jump-kicked from the back the coach of Debrecen on the kidney. Some Ferencváros players were also hit.
- On 30 Sept 2004 before the Ferencváros - Millwall UEFA cup match the supporters of the two teams fought in downtown Budapest on the Vörösmarty tér. During the brutal fight one Ferencváros fan even used his knife and stabbed a Millwall fan.
- On 11 May 2005 in the final of the Hungarian Cup against Sopron, Ferencváros was so unfair that 3 of the players received red card. If there was a 4th red card to Ferencváros, the match would be over, so the Ferencváros captain Péter Lipcsei began to run amok with the consent of the coach Csaba László, who shouted "Break his leg!" from his bench. After the lost match Ferencváros players and coach felt offended by the referee and dismissed the medal ceremony.
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