1946–47 Yugoslav First League

The 1946–47 Yugoslav First League season was the first season of the First Federal League ( sh-Latn, Prva savezna liga), the top level association football competition of SFR Yugoslavia, which ended the six-year period in which national football competitions were suspended due to World War II. It was also the first season in which the Football Association of Yugoslavia (FSJ) introduced the modern league system which included promotion and relegation between tiers of the football pyramid, as pre-war national championships held between 1927 and 1940 during Kingdom of Yugoslavia employed either a play-off tournament or a mini league format contested by regional champions.

In 1946 both the First and Second Leagues began to use a season long derby to determine the league champion, and an elimination cup to feature a secondary cup champion. With Partizan dominating the league, and then winning the cup shortly after, they are the first ever "double champion" of the Yugoslav First League.

Teams

Notes

* FK Železničar Niš were runners-up in the 1946 Serbian championship. During the 1946–47 Yugoslav First League season they then merged with two other Niš-based clubs, Jedinstvo and Radnički, to form 14. Oktobar (the name means "14 October", in reference to 14 October 1944, the day when the city of Niš was liberated by the advancing Partisans). Shortly after their relegation at the end of season, the team was transformed back into its founding clubs. Železničar Niš went on to spend decades in second level.
* NK Dinamo Zagreb was officially formed in June 1945 by the municipal authorities of Zagreb. The club inherited the colours and a number of players from the defunct local powerhouse Građanski and the grounds formerly owned by HAŠK, after both clubs had been disbanded by a government decree in 1945. In subsequent decades Dinamo became one of the most prominent Croatian clubs and was never relegated from the Yugoslav First League. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s the club officially began claiming lineage to Građanski and was briefly called "HAŠK Građanski" (1992) and "Croatia Zagreb" (1992–2000). It claims honours won by Građanski before World War II.
* Originally established in 1911, NK Hajduk Split were the only pre-war Yugoslav champions who survived World War II without getting reorganised or disbanded by post-war authorities. Refusing to be renamed AC Spalato and join the Italian league at the time when their home city of Split was occupied by Italy, the entire squad joined the Partisans on the island of Vis in the spring of 1944 and spent the following 12 months playing friendly matches against assorted Allied garrisons around the Mediterranean representing the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia (NOVJ). Upon their return to Split in 1945 Josip Broz Tito reportedly urged them to move to the country's capital Belgrade to be transformed into the official team of the post-war Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), which the club refused. This directly led to the creation of FK Partizan in October 1945, which was designed to take on that role instead of Hajduk.
* NK Kvarner, based in Rijeka, was established in July 1946 and took over the grounds formerly used by the defunct local Italian club US Fiumana after the city had passed to Yugoslavia following World War II. It qualified for the Yugoslav First League after beating the short-lived Pula-based club USO (''Unione Sportiva Operaia'') in a two-legged playoff played in August 1946. USO was formed in 1945 with players from the defunct Grion Pola which had been disbanded by the Anglo-American military administration shortly after World War II. In late 1947 USO merged with another local club to form NK Pula, which survives today as NK Istra. Kvarner was renamed NK Rijeka in June 1954.
* The Belgrade-based FK Metalac was formed in March 1945. In a bid to claim lineage to the pre-war Serbian powerhouse BSK, the club was renamed BSK Belgrade in 1950, although the Football Association of Yugoslavia never officially recognized it as the former clubs' successor. In November 1957 it merged with lower-level side TSK Šumadija and was renamed OFK Beograd (short for ''Omladinski fudbalski klub Beograd'', or Youth Football Club Belgrade), the name it carries to this day. It still claims honours won by BSK before World War II.
* FK Partizan was formed in Belgrade on 4 October 1945 as part of JSD Partizan, a sports society sponsored by the Yugoslav Army modelled after CSKA Moscow, and immediately took over the grounds formerly used by the disbanded pre-war powerhouse BSK. As the official army club, Partizan was one of only two sides which entered the 1946–47 championship directly without having to go through any qualifiers. In April 1946 NK Mornar ("Sailor F.C.") based in Split and in 1947 FK Naša Krila ("Our Wings F.C.") based in Zemun were also established, intended to represent the Yugoslav Navy and the Yugoslav Air Force, with both clubs entering the 1947–48 Yugoslav Second League. While Partizan later became one of the giants of Yugoslav football, Mornar and Naša Krila were disbanded after only two seasons, in spite of Naša Krila reaching the Yugoslav Cup final in 1947 and 1949 and even contesting the 1948–49 Yugoslav First League.
* In July 1947 FK Pobeda merged with cross-city rivals FK Makedonija to form FK Vardar.

League table

Results

Winning squad

Notes

*On 8 June 1947, in a league match played in Niš between 14. Oktobar and FK Partizan (1-10), Stjepan Bobek scored 9 goals - an absolute record that has never been broken until the end of Yugoslav First League or its successor leagues.

Top scorers

See also

*Yugoslav Cup
*Yugoslav League Championship
*Football Association of Yugoslavia

References

External links

1946–47 Yugoslav First League
results and league table at RSSSF
Yugoslav First League
video documentation okemobi

{{DEFAULTSORT:1946-47 Yugoslav First League
Yugoslav First League seasons
Yugo
1946–47 in Yugoslav football