FOOTBALL BETWEEN POLITICS, ROYAL FAMILIES AND SPORT: YUGOSLAV-ROMANIAN FOOTBALL RELATIONS 1922–1941

Yugoslavia and Romania, the two border monarchies, started their football era almost simultaneously.Immediately after the First World War, two states with close political interests and two monarchies with close family ties began mutual football cooperation.Through several competitions under the auspices of the monarchs themselves, the Trophy of King Alexander I and King Carol II Cup, through others such as the Balkan Games or the Danube Cup, the national teams of Yugoslavia and Romania played in 21 matches.Each of those matches was accompanied by political background.Many of those competitions did not survive the political test of time: when the balance of power in Europe changed, so did the competitions and their participants.When World War II finally broke out, football fell silent and ended decades of football relations between the two countries.The politics behind the football relations between Yugoslavia and Romania is the subject of this paper, where through press and relevant literature, the dynamic of the influence of football on politics and politics on football is perceived.