MORE THAN A GAME – FOOTBALL MATCHES BETWEEN YUGOSLAVIA AND BULGARIA 1937-1939

Abstract

Competitions in sport are very often marked by political, social and national relations. Interstate relations between The Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria were burdened with the past, especially after the crimes which the Bulgarian army committed against the Serbs during World War I. Therefore, the football matches between the football clubs and national teams of these two countries were burdened with not only a desire for winning in sports, but also with the aspiration to prove the power of one country over its neighboring country. In the period between 1937-1939, Yugoslav and Bulgarian football teams played around forty matches; however, the most important match in terms of politics was the match between the national teams in 1937. In this paper, which is based on the archival structure and relevant literature, we offer an overview of the process of getting the license for the enactment of the matches, reactions of the various Ministries to the results, as well as singularities that followed the team matches and the matches between the national teams.