Football in... No.10 Budapest.

Discussion in 'The Beautiful Game' started by RichardL, Jul 7, 2007.

  1. RichardL

    RichardL BigSoccer Supporter

    May 2, 2001
    Berkshire
    Club:
    Reading FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    My tip for the week would be that if you ever arrive in Budapest when temperatures are in the 90s, and you are rushing around trying to find a working telephone to get in touch with someone you were supposed to met 15 minutes ago, don’t do it wearing a coat. While it had kept out the night chills from the first class train compartment that I’d had to myself on the overnight trip from Prague, and wearing it did allow my bag not to weigh in at a level that’d stretch my arms like plasticine, it was now merely acting as a portable sauna.

    Finding a phone, let alone a working one, it not helped by the Hungarian flair for ambiguity. Hungary can be a confusing country. Its language has a syntax unlike almost any other in the western world, where the are apparently around 15 different words for yes & no, yet unlike the Knights who say “Ni”, they can go through life without having a word for “is”. It defies efforts to make even a rudimentary stab at learning a few phrases, but does, on the other hand, distinguish itself by been the only language I’ve noticed to have its own spelling of sex shop. Sz is required to get an Anglified “s” sound, with “s” being “sh” in Hungarian, meaning such an establishment (merely noticed while walking along a street I hasten to add) spelled in English would be pronounced like someone doing a very poor Sean Connery impression.

    At Budapest’s Nyugati Station (which incidentally houses surely the grandest branch of McDonalds in the world, complete with chandeliers) I faced the age old traveller’s question of “where do you go to find out where the information kiosk is?” A small noticeboard brought out that ambiguous flair with the message that “information can be found on the other side”. The other side of what? The board? The wall? The station? Perhaps the afterlife. After several wasted phone calls, and several trips to a kiosk to buy water for the change money from a vendor who probably though me insane, or at least very very thirsty, I eventually discovered that mobile phones numbers in Hungary only work if you dial the country code for Hungary first. There, naturally, it makes perfect sense.

    Budapest is also a city of contrasts. The Pest side is as flat as a pancake, while the Buda side is bumpier than the dressing rooms at a Pamela Anderson lookalike contest. The neon lights that greet you opposite as you exit Nyugati station imply a booming economy – the fact that it’s possible to find a Trabant that’s felt in need of a steering lock suggests otherwise. And for a country with such a storied national team, arguably once thought to be the best in the world, football doesn’t give the impression of ever being that healthy, and certainly not now. True, Ujpest do have a small but very smart new stadium, but it’s hardly brought the fans flocking in, in a league were post-cold-war freedom has given fans the freedom to do other things on a Saturday afternoon, with crowds down by around two-thirds since then. A shame, because the place deserves good crowds, for at least looking like they’ve made an effort, which is more than anyone else in the country appears to have done. Curious triangular floodlights, like giant lacrosse racquets, watch over their stadium, which is more than the local population seem to do.


    The giant Nep stadium has also been updated with new seats and a new main stand. Sadly the main stand is hideously ugly and designed so badly that the roof doesn’t even join properly in the middle, and it only contains about a third of the number of seats that something of its bulk should. Apparently the giant upper tier, which curved round one side and added nearly half of the capacity, has been temporarily shut for safety reasons. Other than that, the place is impressive, and provides ample proof that Hungarians can support their team in numbers now and then.

    Less convincing on that front, just down the road from the Nep, is the stadium of MTK Hungaria. Some of the great names of world football have played here - Pele, Bobby Moore, Ossie Ardiles, Sylvester Stalone – yes, this was the setting for the film “Escape to Victory”. Sadly the final scene of the players escaping with the crowds would be hard to recreate with the 1500 that bother to watch MTK these days and it had the look of the kind of place that has developers thinking that with a little imagination it’d make a really nice supermarket. If Tesco do look to expand the ever growing East European empire with a new store in Budapest’s north east then they can do a two for one offer of their own, as right next door, just the width of a narrow road away, sits the ground of lower division club BKV Elöre, whose tall main stand, completely out of character with the effectively non-existent remainder of their ground, almost offers about the best view of happenings at MTK.

    Another kilometre or so past MTK, down the rather dreary road from the Nep, brings you to the stadium of Ferencvaros. That Hungary’s biggest and best supported club now play in the second division, unable to climb back up due to their debts, seems somewhat symbolic of the shambles that appears to have befallen Hungarian football.

    When I saw them play in 2002, they were at least one of Hungary’s better sides, but there were few signs of the new affluence evident elsewhere in the capital around the stadium. Outside, tall girder-like floodlight towers leaned imposingly over the pitch like soviet-era monuments to the success of communism, with flaking paint barely covering the reality. The metro station just outside reeked of austere concrete functionality, and given the less than favourable reputation of Ferencvaros’ supporters, it also looked the ideal spot for finding out what it’s like to be ambushed by a group of hooligans.

    If I was glad to have not been wearing any red, the colours of today’s opponents Honved, at the metro station, I was even more glad when I walked round one corner at the stadium. Milling around were dozens, perhaps hundreds of individualistic youths decked out in the hooligan uniform. It was like stepping into a timewarp and going back to 1981 – a world of skinheads, green bomber jackets and Doc Marten boots. I made a mental note to perhaps find a different section of the ground and carried on walking. Seeing a young American boy of about 11 discussing where to go in with his grandmother, I kind of hoped they’d go somewhere else to.

    Ferencvaros’ stadium looked like the grandfather of the average new MLS stadium, being predominantly one tier, with a flat end behind one goal. This was not for a stage, however (and having heard modern Hungarian music in a café earlier on that day I guess more modest venues, such as a traffic island, would suffice) and was for a collection of things that would be more at home at a garden centre. At the back was a clubhouse of sorts. Two long roofs at either side gave the appearance of wings to a large aircraft that’d had its nose chopped off, then been cheaply double-glazed in the 1970s. There was about 20 yards of a flat area between here and the goal, artfully filled with some hedges and conifers, a statue, a large inflatable beer can, and a very cheap looking construction reminiscent of a plastic gazebo. You really felt that if you were to have a closer inspection, each of these items would have a price tag on them, slashed down to half price.

    This end ought to have been to my left according to my ticket, but having taken my seat and realised it had been heated in the afternoon sun to a temperature which made frying eggs upon it a possibility, I decide to dash round to the other side of the stadium, where the first ham-fisted impressions of a shadow were making an appearance. All three sides of the ground were something of a contrast. While the stand I was originally in was very talkative, mainly in my opinion with people saying the Hungarian for “help me! My skin is melting” and “I think my retinas have shrivelled and died”, this other stand opposite was much more laid back. People here were typically older, and many of whom didn’t seem to have put too much effort into choosing their day’s clothing – an old vest seeming to be the look for the in crowd here. Just as well really, as most seemed to be eating sunflower seeds, and as eating them is possibly the slowest way of consuming food known to man due to having to shell each individual seed, time spent looking for a clean vest would be time wasted.

    To my left now was were the main contingent of “bovver boys” had taken their positions, all still defiantly wearing their thick padded green bomber jackets as the sun baked them. As kick off approached they went through a repertoire of volatile songs, which didn’t exactly sound too complimentary to the opposition. To my right, just next to the giant inflatable beer can, was the away end. Despite Honved’s stomping ground of Kispest being just two stops south on the metro, only about 200 fans in red were inside. Maybe more were outside as a roar went up from behind the stand. Half of the 200 ran out the back of the end, and about half in the skinhead end did the same. Whether they could meet up somewhere round the back, perhaps for nice chat and a chance to exchange phone numbers, is unclear, but the police seemed hardly interested, just rolling their eyes before walking off in a “I suppose if we must…” kind of manner towards them.

    Whatever kind of beating Honved’s fans took outside, it can’t have been all that worse than the one their team took on the pitch. A goal down after only 10 minutes, things didn’t get any better. Only poor finishing by a Ferenvcaros side more wasteful of opportunities than a pop star with a vow of chastity prevented it being a more hopelessly one-sided game than the 4-0 final score suggested, as Honved looked about as interested as a 14 year old in a Friday afternoon algebra class.

    The skinhead end lit flares and sang away, about how great it is to have a haircut you can wash with a damp cloth and there’s no point in footwear that lets your legs bend at the ankles, with a few verses of “we’re so hot and sweaty in these jackets that some Finns will come along and beat us with birch twigs soon” thrown in for good measure no doubt.

    With the game over and the Honved fans going home to lick their wounds, perhaps literally in some cases, I set off for an evening of refreshment, preferably in venues that didn’t regard sunflower seeds as a meal that’d help me digest the sad state of Hungarian football. Later on, in the spacious apartment I’d hired, I found on the satellite channel-filled TV that although the Hungarians might not be exporting too many footballers these days, there are indeed some Magnificient Magyars in an entirely different realm of the entertainment industry. The footballers these days can only dream of being as impressive.


    Outside Ferencvaros’ stadium, and the two girls in the foreground are about as near as I can get to the trend of blatant gratuitous photos of women to boost homepage thread viewing levels.

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    Inside, and the strange collection of things behind the goal.

    [​IMG]


    The ultras behind the goal, urged on to greater heights in only the way a group being roused by a man in red tights dressed as a giant glass of beer can be.

    [​IMG]
     
  2. RichardL

    RichardL BigSoccer Supporter

    May 2, 2001
    Berkshire
    Club:
    Reading FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    Ujpest’s newly rebuilt stadium. Without doubt, the best new small purple-coloured ground in the whole of Europe.

    [​IMG]


    MTK. No “escape” for the groundsman, and precious few victories to enjoy either.

    [​IMG]


    The “Nep”. The People’s Stadium awaits some people, preferably ones who look like Hungary’s enthusiastic young stars of today, rather than 1980s skinheads.

    [​IMG]
     
  3. Yank-RUGGER

    Yank-RUGGER New Member

    Mar 30, 2007
    Baltimore
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I lived in Hungary for while , and that McDonald's is the most celebrated in all of Europe and they are very proud of that...?

    Your description of Budapest, based on your perception was nauseating. Why would you go to such descriptive lenghts (which werent that descriptive) to tell us about your time there. You waxed on a bit no? I found getting around and speaking with folks very easy and the people very helpful.

    I lived with hungarians , played Football and Rugby with them and went to church with them every week.You make the journey seem so ...nauseating..not once did you recomened a trip there.

    WELL..people.I am here to say that going to Budapest, Hungary for more than a few days as our writer here, would be the trip of a lifetime. Yes there are other places, Auckland,Sydney,Venice ,cleveland etc

    But the Charm of the people the seductive draw of Old Buda and of Pesc will keep you there..My suggestion is go in August ( yes it gets hot get over it) and or October. In August there is King St Stephens Day..way to much to explain...but it is one of the largest fireworks displays in the world..NO EXAGERATING...The Hungarian Gov. spends 1/8 of the National Budget on the fireworks...it is the Largest display in Europe...its also cheap there now..now..and the people love Yanks..Hate the Brits..

    Ice Cream on the street is better than any here in the states, so is the Pastry, oh and everyone gains weight there when you travel..they still cook with lard..there is still a national sadnees about the people but they are growing out of it , but the new generation of Huns is fast growing and loving of the west..oh and they love thier Motorcycles..etc etc etc
     
  4. RichardL

    RichardL BigSoccer Supporter

    May 2, 2001
    Berkshire
    Club:
    Reading FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    Budapest is a nice place. The bits where the football grounds are, aren't. The grounds themselves, other than Ujpest, were kind of depressing. The low crowds, dilapidated stadiums and violence made me think of what English football could have been like had the decline of the 70s and 80s continued.

    I kind of focussed on the football aspect as this is a thread about football in Budapest. Had I wanted to write a thread about the joys of Budapest, I'd have done that in the travel forum.

    The people I found to be fine, although I wasn't there long enough to really get a strong positive or negative impression either way. I guess it's a shame I didn't get to meet those Brit-hating Hungarians you know so much about, as clearly such an attitude would make me fall in love with the place.

    Other than that, I barely commented on the city at all, and my only comment on the people themselves was their flair for ambiguity, caused by having an at first baffling way of doing things. The Hungarian friends I've had (apparently remarkable exceptions considering they hate Brits) happily agreed their way of doing things was "different" to say the least. Even the very for "to explain" in Hungarian is to Hungarianize it. It all makes perfect sense, to Hungarians.
     
  5. Boloni86

    Boloni86 Member+

    Jun 7, 2000
    Baltimore
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Gibraltar
    If you want to see good football in Budapest, you need to go to the pub during a Bundesliga matchday.

    But watching live football in Budapest should be maybe the 173rd item on your to do list. Unless it's a Fradi - Ujpest match, in which case it's worth it if you don't mind getting caught up in a riot in the process.

    Anyways, Budapest is a magnificent city, full of history, sophistication and a bit of Eastern European snobbery IMO. Mind you, it's a friendly sort of snobbery, but us Hungarians (I'm ethnic Hungarian from Romania) do think that we're far more special than other Eastern Europeans.

    And lastly I second the recommendation to travel there in August. Besides the fireworks, the city holds its Sziget Festival, a week long music festival. This year it includes bands like Tool, Gogol Bordello, The Killers, Chemical Brothers, Pink, Sindead O'Connor, Nine Inch Nails and a whole bunch more. The Folk festival is also held in August in the Buda castle for a whole week. That's a quick way for someone to acquaint themselves with over 1000 years of Hungarian history. Besides that there are always great summer acts at the world famous Opera House. August also sees the great Hungarian traditions of outdoor theater, outdoor pubs and a lot of tanning in the city's central park. To cool off one needs to go to one of the several Turkish baths around the city, or perhaps take a trip to Lake Balaton. And there's plenty of great food in Budapest. Our cuisine is pretty diverse and unique, and our wine is excellent. And for the record there is nothing wrong with using a little lard in some dishes, as long as its not overdone.
     
  6. goalpdl

    goalpdl Member

    Jun 6, 2003
    Indianapolis
    Club:
    Real Madrid
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Budapest is a beautiful city.

    There is nothing like sitting up top the Gellert Hill and watching the Danube roll through the city with Buda on one side and Pest on the other. There are not too many European cities that give you such a great vantage point.

    If you like hiking and parks, go about to Janos Hill and hike the trails up there and enjoy the views. There are also really nice cafes with outside seating to enjoy a sunny day.

    As far as the Football, your observations are pretty accurate. We helped create the modern game and are credited with being the precursor to Total Football. The current system is pretty stagnant with Football's inability to transition from Communism to Free Markets.

    In addition, there are some social changes that have occurred where Football is not the number one sport in the country. Politics rules the Football Federation and there are no real plans for youth development like France or Holland.

    There are some bright spots though. MTK have made a big investment in youth development. The Puskas academy has recently opened.

    George Hemingway's purchase of Honved is setting a model of how to run a successful Football Club in modern times. They are working a well thought out plan and their team is showing success. If the other clubs start benchmarking their business practices after them, who knows, maybe real change will occur.

    The one thing that is great in Hungary is its capitol city. It is a gem in Europe. More and more people are speaking German and English, so language is not the problem it was 20 years ago. But I may be bias because I used to spend my summers there visiting my Grandparents and know every square inch of the city.

    But I have been to others in Europe too and it still one of the greats in my mind.
     
  7. Yourdaddy

    Yourdaddy New Member

    Jun 22, 2007
    Heartland
    I used to live in Hungary and visited several cities. Budapest, Kaposva, Dombovar, etc. I've had the time of my life.
     
  8. mateo319

    mateo319 Member

    Jul 19, 2004
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    When was this trip? 2002? 2004-2005 was the last time I can find a FTC-Honved scoreline of 4-0. If so, why post now?

    FWIW, the Nepstadion is now named Ferenc Puskas Stadion after the footballing legend. The national team is still crap, and the stadium is rarely filled. Lothar Mathias was not the answer as coach.

    I'll be traveling to Budapest in a few weeks. The last time I was there was 2001. I saw Ferencvaros play Vasas Danubius in the second to last game of the season, which Fradi won. It was Fradi's best year in a while, and while they didn't win the title that day, they did in their next game which was away - I can't now remember who that was against. But the atmosphere in Ferencvaros was fantastic - definitely more aggro than Western Europe - but fantastic. After the game the fans rushed the pitch, swarming the players. After that the players redressed and went up to the clubhouse area where they and the fans saluted each other. It really had to be seen to be believed.

    However, Boloni86 is absolutely right - if you're looking for good football, the Hungarian League is not the place to find it. Hungarians have a great knowledge of the game, and they know exactly what they're watching. I remember in this game a Fradi player swung and horribly missed a slow roller in the box, and a great chuckle went up from the fans in the ground.

    In 2004 FTC were drawn against Millwall in the UEFA, and things got ugly between the fans as you can imagine. There were running battles in Budapest and a couple Millwall fans were stabbed. Not a good time.

    So anyway, I'm hoping to catch a game or something while I'm there, but I doubt there will be any games in August. For me, Budapest is a fantastic city. As for the music, there is a thriving underground/jazz scene which is much more worthwhile than anything on the radio.

    And as for the language, do tell more about the 15 ways to say "no" or "yes". I thought there was only "nem" and "igen." Sure, there are more poetic ways to express affirmation, but that's hardly limited to Hungarian. As for "is," what about the word "van"? Ambiguity and strangeness comes more from the lack of 3rd person gender, the lack of a verb "to have" (compensated by a nifty little construction of "for me there is"), and the maze of definite-indefinite distinction, to name a few. For those interested, see this article.

    Anyway, it was a good post - not every day you read something about Hungary on BigSoccer.
     
  9. Shortbloke39

    Shortbloke39 New Member

    Jul 9, 2007
    Copenhagen DK

    fancy bumping into a fellow Royals supporter here.... we seem to get everywhere these days :) Where you from? I went to Stoneham and lived in tilehurst... well i was born there next to prospect park
     
  10. davidblue

    davidblue Member

    Apr 26, 2007
    Waterford
    Have to agree about the depressing nature of Budapest's football stadiums.
    Travelled there in 2000 and it really is a beautiful city , went to see Honved play and was appalled at the racist behaviour towards an opposing black player.
    I then went to see MTK , I had asked the concierge at the hotel would there be a problem getting tickets and he casually told me that nobody went to see them as they were a jewish team !
    Hopefully things have changed in the interim.
     
  11. goalpdl

    goalpdl Member

    Jun 6, 2003
    Indianapolis
    Club:
    Real Madrid
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Chances are you will not see that at a Honved match since the Hemingways have taken over the club. They are clamping down on it.
     
  12. rimindB

    rimindB New Member

    Jul 9, 2007
    Introduction

    Hello Friends,
    I am rimindB & new user in this forum.

    Thanks.
     

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