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Balkans Cup

Balkans Cup
Sport Football
Founded 1961
Ceased 1994
No. of teams Various
Countries South East European Teams
Last
champion(s)
Turkey Samsunspor Samsun (1 title)
Most titles Bulgaria Beroe Stara Zagora (4 titles)

The Balkans Cup was an international football competition for clubs from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. It was introduced in 1961 and was very popular in the 1960s (the 1967 final attracted 42,000 spectators), being the second most important international club competition for clubs from the region (after the European Champions' Cup in which the champions could play; the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup originally attracted few teams from the region as many did not organise domestic cups regularly and only Yugoslavia had significant representation in the Fairs Cup).

It later declined after Balkan clubs obtained more representation in the two minor UEFA competitions, in contrast to the (much older but also defunct) Balkan Cup (not Balkans) for national teams.

When sorted by year of winning or losing final(s), the table is sorted by the year of each club's first final.

Clubs from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia competed as part of SFR Yugoslavia.

Top performer by country:

In the 33 years of its existence, a total of 89 clubs from 6 countries appeared in the 28 Balkans Cup editions. Two of them, both Turkish, withdrawn their participation before playing a single match: Zonguldakspor in 1980–81 and Trabzonspor in 1986. Sides with 4 entries or more:

Bulgarian and Turkish sides were present at each one of the 28 Balkans Cup editions, while Yugoslavian were absent 9 times in total, entering just twice during its last decade of existence (ironically, reaching both finals). Generally, South Slavs (both Football Association and clubs) were never keen supporters of the competition, as they had neither been enthusiastic about the national teams' Balkan Cup, too.


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