The Macedonian Clubs in the Bulgarian Football System

The purpose of this article is to outline the participation of Macedonian teams in the Bulgarian football system during the Second World War, with a special emphasis on “Macedonia” (Skopje). The inclusion of teams from the newly annexed territories as members of BNSF (Bulgarian national sports federation), the sports management organ, took place as early as June 1941. Apart from charted in Bitola and Skopje championships, these were exempt from membership fees in their first year. 

The newly founded “Macedonia” from Skopje was included in the Sofia tournament with the purpose of improving the local level of competition, since many of the players had experience in the more advanced championship of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The events of September 1944 interrupt the championship and after Skopje became part of socialist Yugoslavia, the team was competing in the Macedonian republican league before merging with “Pobeda”, ultimately to become “Vardar” in 1947. The inability of Macedonian historiography to deny the participation of local teams in matches against “the occupiers” prompts it to describe these clashes as an open form of protest on behalf of the local population, which is not based on real evidence. 

 Since its first season, the team of Ilesh Spitz reached the final of the State championship, which was lost against “Levski” with a score of 0:3, but the players from Skopje won the sympathies of the Sofia audience and the press with their overall performance. During the second season of the team on the Sofia championship, the rivals of the team manage to adjust to its style and to counteract more successfully, due to which the team from Skopje had difficulties winning its matches in the championship. After “Macedonia”’s refusal to travel to Sofia for a match against JSK from the elimination phase of the State championship, the club returned to Skopje’s championship, which it won without problems.