budapest footy

[steviecowden]

hi all,im in Budapest in November and am planning catching a couple of games. Ive checked out the fixtures for the dates so all that's fine but im looking for more general advice-do you still need a fan card to buy tickets,if so how easy are these to get, can tickets be bought day of the game,do I need my passport to buy tickets/get into the stadiums, are fancards required outwith top division etc.
if anyones been there and seen football recently and has some advice id be most grateful

[ad hoc]

You need a membership card to get tickets at Ferencvaros, but (at least two seasons ago) not anywhere else I think. You might need to bring ID with you (but a driving licence ought to be enough)

[jameswba]

There was a Welsh guy living in Trnava (Slovakia) a couple of years back, who produced this blog :

https://lostboyos.wordpress.com/cate...urope/hungary/

I'm sure there's an account of visiting Honved somewhere on there too. I've been to Ferencvaros and MTK, but before they reconstructed their grounds. There were only 500 at MTK, and the experience reminded me in a way of watching Queen's Park at Hampden. The new ground is a lot smaller, but I'd still be amazed if you needed to pre-book tickets/show ID there. These two grounds are the easiest to get to - both on the massive ringroad, and with adjacent tram-stops.

[Stobart]

I've been to Ujpest Dosza. We had to show ID, and it took about 10 minutes to process our 'memberships', so I'd turn up a good hour before kick-off.

[steviecowden]

I've been to Ujpest Dosza. We had to show ID, and it took about 10 minutes to process our 'memberships', so I'd turn up a good hour before kick-off.

theyre a 1930 kick off with honved at 1700 so ill get a ticket earlier in the day then hope for the best with a mad taxi ride to ujpest after the honved game.ferencvaros are on on the sunday and ill hopefully catch a 3rd tier game that day too so should be an enjoyable weekends footy

[Stobart]

Hope it all pans out well. When I was there in 2014 I watched Csepel SC (Stevie Cowden ??) in the 3rd tier, and was made very welcome. They are a club with great history in many sports, not just football.

They won the Hungarian top league four times in the 40's/50's, the last of these resulting in qualification for the European Cup of 1959/60, They drew with Fenerbahce away from home in the first round, first leg, but were beaten 3-2 at home.

A rep from the club took great pride in showing me around the trophy room etc. They've since dropped into the 4th tier. They're at home to ASR Gazgyar on Saturday 16th Nov. Kick-off's at 1 pm at the Beke Teri Stadion, District XX1.

[steviecowden]

Hope it all pans out well. When I was there in 2014 I watched Csepel SC (Stevie Cowden ??) in the 3rd tier, and was made very welcome. They are a club with great history in many sports, not just football.

They won the Hungarian top league four times in the 40's/50's, the last of these resulting in qualification for the European Cup of 1959/60, They drew with Fenerbahce away from home in the first round, first leg, but were beaten 3-2 at home.

A rep from the club took great pride in showing me around the trophy room etc. They've since dropped into the 4th tier. They're at home to ASR Gazgyar on Saturday 16th Nov. Kick-off's at 1 pm at the Beke Teri Stadion, District XX1.

great heads up,thanks for that-was going to go to soroksar,to the east of there over the wee river but that looks as easy to get to

[steviecowden]

Hope it all pans out well. When I was there in 2014 I watched Csepel SC (Stevie Cowden ??) in the 3rd tier, and was made very welcome. They are a club with great history in many sports, not just football.

They won the Hungarian top league four times in the 40's/50's, the last of these resulting in qualification for the European Cup of 1959/60, They drew with Fenerbahce away from home in the first round, first leg, but were beaten 3-2 at home.

A rep from the club took great pride in showing me around the trophy room etc. They've since dropped into the 4th tier. They're at home to ASR Gazgyar on Saturday 16th Nov. Kick-off's at 1 pm at the Beke Teri Stadion, District XX1.

I can find down to the third tier on soccerway,have you a link to the 4th tier(which I assume is Budapest specific at that level)

[ad hoc]

Done a little surfing while practising my Hungarian. Best I can do for you is their own website which here
http://csepelfc.hu/index.php/tabella/
Shows the current table and below that the next fixture (which is as Stobart says)

Gazgyar means gas factory by the way.

[Stobart]

Not giving us a trip report SC ?

[steviecowden]

Not giving us a trip report SC ?

just back late yesterday so never had a chance.
interesting trip, attempts to score tickets for honved and ujpest on the Saturday morning at the mtk and ujpest grounds were unsuccessful,neither had anywhere doing sales but it was a good recce in checking out the tram system,paricularly as the main north-south metro system was closed over the weekend for works. did manage to get my ferencvaros ticket,though-had to fill out a form(in English and provide palm scans in the office behind the ticket booths before getting a ticket,the card was about £3 and the ticket about £7.going for that a day early was a good call,there were large queues on matchday and I believe the ticket price gos up slightly too
A quick tram ride on the 37A on late Saturday afternoon got me to MTK's hidegkuti stadium,currently used by Honved as their own is refurbished, a nice compact,modern ground, all seated with all the seats along either side,nothing behind the goal.the visitors were Paksi who were worth the lead they took but Honved equalised with a nice Panenka penalty before winning it after an awful mix up in the paksi defence late on; I missed this unfortunately as I need to duck out slightly early to get across town to the 1930 ko at ujpest and id still to get a ticket.
all appeared to be going according to plan as I took the no 1 tram from right outside MTKs ground,then changed to the 14 to ujpest then jumped on a bus to near the ground,all recce'd earlier;to find the ground in darkness!i spoke to a guy in the car park who told me that the game was being played at the new ground of Vasas,2.5 miles back the way id come.you could actually see it from the tram as id passed and id wondered what was going on as it was well lit up and you could see folks standing at the top of the stands,thered been 2 or 3 ujpest supporters on the tram whod gotten off but I just assumed they were going somewhere for a prematch drink.when I got off the direct route to the now kicked off game was blocked by police and I had to take a 10min detour,im amazed I got in as early as only 25mins into the game which was a 2-0 defeat for ujpest vs DVTK.again,a very modern ground with good facilities,compact with seating on all sides.there were free programmes all over the place. why the game was played here ive no idea, as far as im aware theres nothing wrong with ujpests ground and if it was mentioned on their website I didn't see it.
the following day the lower league game I went to was Soroksar-ajke;thaat had been my original plan prior to getting advice here about Csepel but I ended up accidentally going to the suburban rail terminus with the trains going there rather than csepel,this turned out to be a lucky chance-the 40min rail journey dropped me off opposite the ground about 2 minutes to KO and there was a train back about 10 minutes after the game too,all very lucky.the end next to the station turned out to be the away end,no bother getting in for about £3 amongst 30 or so away fans who were fine.the grounds an old decrepit bowl(felt at home!) with the home seating covered by what looked like temporary awnings, there were a couple of hundred there to see a 1-0 home win.
finally,the ferencvaros-zalaegarszeg game,an 1800 KO,again the trams did me proud getting me efficiently to and from the stadium. to get in I didn't need to use the ticket id bought at all,id to insert my card in a slot then got my palm scanned.bizzarely,with all this security, there appeared to be no allocated seat numbers on the ticket so it seems once in you could behave as you want,especially with a covered face. Its a lovely stadium, I was behind the goal in the ultras area though able to be a fair distance from them,opposite about 300 travelling fans.It was the best game of the lot,Fradi coming out 3-2 winners but they were made to sweat up to the end when they really could have been out of sight.
At the Honved game I wasn't able to see the ultras that well but I thought I saw them giving nazi salutes but that could have been my mistake,maybe they were just raising hands during a chant; unfortunately, ive little doubt that that is exactly what I saw at ferencvaros as I was able to make out it was accompanied with the hand across the heart followed by what looked like the salute.