The 1929 National Championship ( Serbo-Croato-Slovenian: Državno prvenstvo 1929. / Државно првенство 1929.) was won by

Hajduk Split Hrvatski Nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, the club's home ...

. The season was marked by a major controversy at the end.

BSK Belgrade OFK Beograd ( sr-Cyrl, ОФК Београд – Омладински фудбалски клуб Београд, English: ''Belgrade Youth Football Club''), also known in English as OFK Belgrade and currently referred to as OFK Beograd Mozzart ...

finished the season at top, however because they fielded an unregistered player, they had to replay their two last matches. Having refused to play the first one against their Belgrade rivals Jugoslavija, a 3-0 defeat was registered, and later their 2-1 victory over Hajduk was not enough to grant them the title. Bosnian club SAŠK dissolved before the season began and the clubs participating was reduced to five, all Serbian or Croatian. 1929 was the first year in which the championship used a double round-robin style league, and so the stats for each team began having higher numbers.

Controversial end of the championship

The season featured a good deal of controversy as the team that finished the season in top spot was BSK, not Hajduk Split. However, because they were judged to have had an improperly registered player on their roster (Dušan Marković), BSK got ordered by the FA to replay their last two matches of the season: home match against

SK Jugoslavija Sportski klub Jugoslavija ( sr-Cyrl, Cпортски клуб Југославија), commonly known as Jugoslavija, was a Serbian football club based in Belgrade. It was originally formed as SK Velika Srbija in 1913 and changed its name to SK Ju ...

and the away match at

(both of which BSK originally won: 5-1 and 3-1, respectively). Furious with what they considered to be an unfair decision, BSK refused to re-play the matches. They didn't show up to replay their arch cross-town rivals SK Jugoslavija and the match was eventually registered 3-0 in Jugoslavija's favour. As for re-playing the second match at Hajduk, BSK originally also refused, but were eventually forced to travel to Split by the FA under a threat of heavy sanctions. Though re-gathered and put together in hasty fashion, BSK players still managed to beat Hajduk 2-1. However, it still wasn't enough for the title as Hajduk had more points due to BSK refusal to play Jugoslavija. BSK appealed, launching a formal complaint with the FA (Jugoslovenski nogometni savez). Their appeal was scheduled to be heard during the next scheduled FA assembly that took place on March 24, 1929, at the FA headquarters in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

. The initiative for the relocation of FA headquarters from Zagreb to Belgrade was also discussed at the same assembly, causing high tensions and incidents that even police had to intervene. The assembly was interrupted and stopped following the incident, which meant that BSK's appeal was not even discussed.

Qualifiers

This season introduced a change in which there was no longer directly qualified teams, and this meant that all teams had to go through one round of qualifiers. As in previous seasons, the subassociations of Belgrade and Zagreb provided the first two teams, while the access to the rest of the subassociations was only provided to the correspondent subassociation champion. The representatives were: *Subassociation of Belgrade:

and

*Subassociation of Zagreb:

HAŠK HAŠK (full name Hrvatski akademski športski klub, ) was a Croatian football club established in Zagreb in 1903. The club was one of the most successful sides in Zagreb and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the period between the two World Wars. The ...

and Građanski Zagreb *Subassociation of Ljubljana: Primorje *Subassociation of Osijek: Hajduk Osijek *Subassociation of Sarajevo: Slavija *Subassociation of Skoplje: Pobeda Skoplje *Subassociation of Split:

*Subassociation of Subotica: SAND Subotica Qualifying round: *BSK – Pobeda Skoplje 7:2, 0:1 *SAND – Jugoslavija 0:1, 1:3 *HAŠK – Hajduk Osijek 1:1, 3:0 *Primorje – Građanski Zagreb 1:3, 0:4 *Hajduk Split – Slavija Sarajevo 2:1, 2:1 The first leg was played on June 2, and the second on June 9.

League

Results

Winning squad

Champions: HAJDUK SPLIT (coach:

Luka Kaliterna Luka Kaliterna (13 October 1893 – 25 February 1984) was a Croatian football player and manager who played as a goalkeeper. Born in Split, he spent vast majority of his career with Split clubs Hajduk Split and RNK Split. See also * Fabj ...

) *Bartul Čulić *Janko Rodin *Ivan Montana *Veljko Poduje *Miroslav Dešković *Marko Mikačić *Šime Poduje *Veljko Radić *

Ljubo Benčić Ljubomir "Ljubo" Benčić (2 January 1905 – 24 February 1992) was a Croatian and Yugoslav football player and coach. Playing career Club Spending his entire career at Hajduk Split, Benčić was a right winger and centre forward. He started p ...

*Branko Bakotić *Antun Bonačić * Leo Lemešić

Top scorers

Final goalscoring position, number of goals, player/players and club.Gola istina: kraljevi strelaca
by Živko Bojanić, pag. 29 *1 - 10 goals - Đorđe Vujadinović (BSK Belgrade) *2 - 7 goals -

(Hajduk Split) *3 - 6 goals - Blagoje Marjanović (BSK Belgrade), Ivan Hitrec (HAŠK)

References

External links

Yugoslavia Domestic Football Full Tables
{{1929–30 in European football (UEFA) 1 Yugoslav Football Championship