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Football tournament / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The February Tournament (Serbo-Croatian: Februarski turnir/Фебруарски турнир) was a preseason invitational tournament organized by the city of Mostar and the Velež Mostar football club held every year between 1965 and 1992. Although its official name was the Football Tournament in Mostar (Fudbalski turnir u Mostaru/Фудбалски турнир у Мостару), it quickly became known as the February Tournament and less frequently Velež's Tournament[1] due to the fact that it was organized by Velež and always held in February for symbolic reasons.
Founded | 1965 |
---|---|
Abolished | 1992 |
Number of teams | 4 |
Last champions | Velež Mostar (15th time) |
Most successful club(s) | Velež Mostar (15 times) |
Yugoslavia's football league system at the time, like most other Eastern European nations allowed for a longer break between the first half of the season (held in the fall) and the second (held in the spring), with the February Tournament being held roughly before the start of the second half of the season. It was also the oldest invitational tournament in Yugoslavia, with other notable tornaments such as the Trofej Marjana in Split (first held in 1974) and a tournament in Titograd (first held in 1971) coming later. These factors turned it into of the most prestigious pre-season tournaments in Yugoslavia, with the most successful clubs from the country regularly making appearances, as well as various foreign teams on occasion.[2]
28 editions of the tournaments were held, but only 26 with a definite winner at the end. In 1966, instead of a tournament 5 exhibition matches were played between various teams, and in 1979 the tournament was cancelled midway through because Edvard Kardelj, one of Yugoslavia's leading politicians at the time passed away due to colon cancer.[3] Velež Mostar were the most victorious side in the tournament, going on to win it 15 times. The second most successful teams were FK Partizan Belgrade and FK Željezničar Sarajevo, winning three times each. Five other teams won once each. Dušan Bajević holds the record of both making the most appearances, as well as the most goals scored in the tournament's history.
The tournament was last held in 1992, after which the Bosnian War started, and as a result Velež was no longer able to play on the Bijeli Brijeg stadium which had hosted every edition up until that point. There have been multiple attempts to revive the tournament, however due to financial and technical aspects, they have been rendered impossible so far.