Sylow-Tournament ( da, Sylow-Turneringen) was a
knockout
A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
competition contested annually between 1918 and 1926, organised by the
Danish FA
The Danish Football Union ( da, Dansk Boldspil-Union; DBU) is the governing body of football in Denmark. It is the organization of the Danish football clubs and runs the professional Danish football leagues and the men's and women's national ...
(DBU), which determined the championship of the representative teams, referred to as ''Sylow-teams'', of the six Danish regional football associations.
The competition was held between the selected teams ( da, unionshold) of
Copenhagen FA,
Funen FA,
Jutland FA,
Lolland-Falster FA and
Zealand FA for the first three seasons (1918–1920), before being joined by the
Bornholm FA
DBU Bornholm (Bornholm Football Association da, Bornholms Boldspil-Union until 1 February 2011) is a district branch of the Danish Football Association, DBU Bornholm representing the Danish FA's football clubs on the island of Bornholm. The Danish ...
team in 1921 and eventually an additional Copenhagen FA team exclusively composed of players from the
KBUs A-række competing in 1926.
The 1926 season became the last edition of the Sylow Tournament, which was abolished and replaced by a year-long league format for clubs, known as Danmarksmesterskabsturneringen i Fodbold, the
following season.
The competition was created in 1918 after a proposal from the chairman of the
Danish FA
The Danish Football Union ( da, Dansk Boldspil-Union; DBU) is the governing body of football in Denmark. It is the organization of the Danish football clubs and runs the professional Danish football leagues and the men's and women's national ...
, Louis Østrup, modelled after the
Landsfodboldturneringen, and named after a previous chairman of the national organisation, Ludvig Sylow.
The matches in the tournament played a major role in the development of
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
outside the Danish
capital city
A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, Department (country subdivision), department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city ...
.
The
Danish national football team
The Denmark men's national football team ( da, Danmarks herre-fodboldlandshold or ''herrelandsholdet'') represents Denmark in men's international football competitions. It is controlled by the Danish Football Association (DBU), the governing bo ...
had been playing official matches since 1908, but the roster consisted solely of players from clubs in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, who were leading the development of
Danish association football until
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, and a player from a provincial club only first made it on the roster in 1923.
The most successful association in the history of the tournament's 9 editions was Sylow-team of the
Copenhagen FA, who by default only participated in the final match, was won the only trophy, distributed during the tournament's history, for permanent ownership.
The most capped players from the Copenhagen FA were the forwards
Viggo Jørgensen (
B 1903
Boldklubben 1903 or B 1903 is a football club founded on 2 June 1903, located in Copenhagen, Denmark. Seven times winner of the Danish championship (introduced 1913) in 1920, 1924, 1926, 1938, 1969, 1970 and 1976 and twice winner of the Dan ...
) and
Einard Larsen (
KFUMs BK), while the Copenhagen FA top goalscorer in the entire tournament were the forwards
Pauli Jørgensen
Etvin Carl Pauli Jørgensen (4 December 1905 – 30 October 1993), known simply as Pauli Jørgensen, was a Danish amateur football player and manager. In his position of centre forward, Jørgensen played 297 matches and scored 288 goals for Bol ...
(
BK Frem
Boldklubben Frem (also known as Frem, BK Frem or BK Frem Copenhagen) is a Danish sports club based in the Valby- Sydhavnen area of Copenhagen. It is best known for its semi-professional football team. Since its foundation in 1886, Frem has wo ...
) and
Frithjof Steen (
B 1903
Boldklubben 1903 or B 1903 is a football club founded on 2 June 1903, located in Copenhagen, Denmark. Seven times winner of the Danish championship (introduced 1913) in 1920, 1924, 1926, 1938, 1969, 1970 and 1976 and twice winner of the Dan ...
).
History
The creation of the tournament was proposed at an executive Committee meeting on 26 July 1918 by the newly appointed chairman of the
Danish FA
The Danish Football Union ( da, Dansk Boldspil-Union; DBU) is the governing body of football in Denmark. It is the organization of the Danish football clubs and runs the professional Danish football leagues and the men's and women's national ...
, Louis Østrup (1918–1935), and named in honour of the departing chairman of the national organisation, Ludvig Sylow (1911–1918).
The tournament would be organised and financed by the Danish FA, would be modelled after the club's
Landsfodboldturneringen, that had been created five years earlier, and was to be played by the representative teams ( da, unionshold; referred to as ''Sylow-teams'') of all 6 regional football associations.
On 27 August 1918, the board finally approved of the tournament, which happened after the acceptance of the previous chairman.
Initially, the board of the
Copenhagen FA had their concerns regarding the new competition, but decided to have a representative team participate.
Following the conclusion of the tournament in 1927, the ''
Fredericia Social-Demokrat'' argued that the major drawbacks surrounding ''Sylow''-matches were to gather the selected teams with players from so many scattered clubs, and making them work as a unit.
In the
1925 final of the tournament, the selection committee decided that the Copenhagen FA team would consist entirely of players from the second highest Copenhagen Football League, the
KBUs A-række.
The following 1926 tournament, two representative teams for the Copenhagen FA participated in the tournament, each teams composed of players of either the
KBUs Mesterskabsrække (almost identical with the national football squad) or the KBUs A-række. The ninth and last edition of the tournament was won by the Copenhagen FA for the fifth time, which meant that the organization obtained five ''lots'' and now had the honour of keeping the trophy permanently. The competition was abolished the following season and replaced by the year-long league format for clubs, known as Danmarksmesterskabsturneringen i Fodbold.
Finals
Performance
References
{{Danish football
Defunct football cup competitions in Denmark