Ferencváros: Hungary’s most successful team
PAOK welcomes the team with the most titles and trophies in Hungary by far for their Matchday 6 of the League Phase of the Europa League.
Ferencváros boasts 35 championships, 24 Hungarian Cups, six Hungarian Super Cups and two Hungarian League Cups. Since 2019, they have been champions every year, while their first championship dates back to 1903.

- The club was founded in 1899 as a sports club by lawyer Ferenc Springer and residents of the ninth district of Budapest, called Ferencváros (Francis’s district). The district was named after Francis I, the first Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary.
- The club’s football department was founded in 1900.
- It was the first Hungarian club to qualify for the Champions League in the 1995–96 season. Since then, of course, they have played in the group stages of the 2004–05 UEFA Cup, the 2019–20 Europa League, the 2020–21 Champions League and the 2021–22 Europa League.
- Ferencváros has produced great footballers, such as Imre Slosser, Josef Takacs, Sándor Kocsis, László Kubala, György Sárosi, Marton Bukovy (coach of Olympiacos from 1965-1967), Zoltan Csíbor, Florian Albert, László Balínd, Lajos Detari (player of Olympiacos from 1988-1990), Zoltan Varga, Marton Esterházy (player of AEK in the period 1984-1987 and of Panathinaikos in 1987-1988) and Tibor Nílászi.
- Their achievements include, of course, the final of the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1975 (defeated 3-0 by Dynamo Kiev of Lobanovsky and Blakhin), while they have won the International Exhibitions Cup (1964-65) by beating Juventus 1-0 in the final held in Turin. They were a finalist in the same competition in 1968, losing to Leeds.
- In 2006, the Hungarian Football Association refused to allow the team to play in the top flight due to debts, so after 105 years, Ferencváros were relegated to the country’s second division, where it continued to play until May 2009.
- Ferencváros competes with several teams from Budapest, including MTK, Ujpest, Honvéd, Vasas and several provincial clubs such as Debrecen. The biggest rivalry is with Ujpest, which dates back to the 1930s when Ujpest won its first Hungarian championship title.
- The match between Ferencváros and MTK, however, is what is called the eternal derby.
- The nickname Fradi comes from Franzstadt, the German name for the Ferencváros area.
- The club’s fans maintain friendships with those of Rapid Vienna and Panathinaikos.
- The club’s first stadium began construction in 1910 and could accommodate 40,000 spectators. In 1971, the stands were demolished and construction began on a new stadium, which was inaugurated on the club’s 75th anniversary. It had a capacity of 29,505 spectators.
- In the 1990s, it was redesigned to meet UEFA requirements, so its capacity was reduced to 18,100. In 2007, the stadium’s name was changed from Üllői úti Stadion to Stadion Albert Flórián. The team’s third and current home is the Ferencváros Stadion or, Groupama Arena, in Budapest, a multi-purpose stadium, which can accommodate 20,000 spectators in UEFA matches and 23,700 in Hungarian league matches.
- The club’s colours are green and white. The nine stripes on the club’s crest, five green and four white, symbolise the Ferencváros district, the ninth district of Budapest. The three E’s in the crest stand for the initials of the words Erkölcs, Erő, Egyetérts (Ethics, Strength, Understanding). The mascot is a green eagle, hence another of the club’s nicknames, The Green Eagles.
- They have met with quite a few Greek teams in European competitions. Panathinaikos, Panionios, Olympiacos, OFI, AEK, with the most recent meeting being with Olympiacos in February 2024, who qualified for the «Round of 16» of the Conference League.