The cup was won by Tatabanya. But this was not the Hungarian Cup – it was the winter cup provided by the sports magazine Kepes Sport. A novelty of that time – winter indoor tournaments were popular around Europe, largely to provide some semi-competitive football during the pause between fall and spring halves of the season, partly to help preparations for the spring.
Here are the winners – another feature of such tournaments was that otherwise weak clubs often performed well. No wonder: reserves and new players were tried and the rules varied. It was not futsal at all. With time these tournaments faded away and practically disappeared, so this note is mostly for the sake of history.
As for the real Cup, Ferencvaros and Pecsi MSC reached the final. For the ‘peoples club’ it was a chance to salvage the disastrous season. For Pecsi MSC too… they were in decline for some time, sinking to the lower half of the table. Once upon a time the club from Pecs was stronger, but not in the 1970s – so a rare opportunity to win a trophy, to restore pride. In the championship Pecsi MSC was worse than Ferencvaros – they finished 13th – and their squad was way weaker, but such things hardly matter at finals. Stakes were high – the ‘peoples club’ had to come back somewhat in a season dominated by the arch-enemies, the Army and the Police. In the same time the ‘provincials’ really wanted the noses of the hated big boys from the capital, robbing the provinces all the time. Intriguing rivalries. Perhaps they were not just on paper, perhaps the opponents were not all tha strong, but the final ended in a tie. In the overtime Ferencvaros prevailed 4-2.
One more Cup for Ferencvaros and season saved. Or may be not? The winners look not too happy…
The finalists did their best… and lost. Unfortunately, Pecs had no real argument – apart from their goalkeeper Katzirz they had no classy players. Ferencvaros had a very weak year, but still it was a squad full of former and current national team players.
This squad, led by Tibor Nyilasi, was good for a double. So the names suggest… yet, it ended only with the Cup, and the trophy was won with difficulties. It was better squad than Honved’s and probably at par with Ujpesti Dosza’s, but… lucky just to salvage this season. For some reason Ferencvaros never really soared in the 1970s. May be they were psychologically weak. May be there was always some missing key ingredient. At least they won the Cup – for the 14th time! And a real Cup, not like Tatabanya’s.