Ujpest are Budapest’s second club (in terms of popularity) and call home the Szusza Ferenc Stadion. This stadium is the arguably the first of Hungary’s ‘new stadiums’ with a complete renovation occurring in 2001 although a stadium has stood on this site since 1922. The stadium has played host to Hungary’s national teams on numerous occasions since its renovation although with the new Fradi stadium in place and the Puskas Ferenc Stadion scheduled to be refurbished, its future is likely to be confined to Ujpest games only.

Getting to the ground

Ujpest (or UTE) are (surprisingly) located in the Ujpest region of Budapest to the North of the city centre. It will probably take close to 45 minutes to travel from the centre of town out to the stadium. Take the blue Metro line to the last stop (Ujpest-Kozpont).



Go upstairs and look for the busstop for Bus 30, 30A or 147. These will all take you in the right direction for the home ticket office. Please be aware that you need to get on the bus going in the right direction – the bus stop should be next to lots of small kiosk like shops.. Bus 30 should be going towards Káposztásmegyer, Mogyoródi-patak, 30A towards Megyer, Szondi utca and 147 starts at Ujpest-Kozpont so you cannot (possibly) go wrong. Take the bus as far as Mildenberger utca (4 or 5 stops). Walk down Mildenberger utca a couple of hundred metres and you will come to the home ticket office on your right. Hopefully by this point you will see a few other fans kitted out in purple walking towards the ground.

Obtaining tickets

You will have arrived at the corner of D lelato (stand) and A terasz (terrace) if you have followed the directions above. Tickets should be relatively easy to obtain (except for the Fradi game) and will cost from HUF 900 to HUF 2,500 depending on which stand you want to watch the game from and who the opposition are.



D lelato are where the noise makers are most likely to be, but you can get a reasonable seat and decent view if you opt for the A or B terasz. I would recommend the D lelato.



The away fans will be located in C lelato, but there is unlikely to be more than a couple of hundred (Fradi will bring a few although have been known to boycott games for various reasons).



Tickets for the Fradi game will need some foreplanning. They are not likely to be on sale on the day of the game for security reasons and for bureaucratic reasons, it is not possible to use a foreign passport to buy tickets in advance. This means that you will need to obtain a Fan Card before matchday with which you can buy tickets. The best place to get this is at the ticket office located in Balna (just behind the Great Market Hall). You can then use your newly printed Ujpest together with a picture of you to buy tickets at the same ticket office. Other restrictions may apply. This game is by far and away the most highly policed, regulated and watched game in Hungarian football. Contacting the club in advance may be of some use depending or not on whether the person who receives the email a) speaks English and b) gives a sh’t about helping some foreigners to watch a game.

Pre-match drinks

Anyone who has read my other posts probably knows that I will generally recommend street drinking for want of another option. But, I hear you gasp, are there other options?

Drinking before you make your way onto the metro is an option, but may lead to desperate hunt for toilet when in vicinity of stadium.

Oazis Kisvendeglo is just along Baross Utca and offers a such delights as beer, coffee and wine. What more could you want? They even have the toilet that you might need after the tiring journey from the centre. Locals might not be too friendly if there are more than a couple of you (unless you offer a shot of palinka for all and shout Hajra Lilak, then they will love you.)

A bit further along is the beautifully named Ujpest Foci Falatozo (Ujpest Football Snack Bar), which offers such delights as beer, coffee and wine and a range of baked goods served with varying degrees of processed meat and ketchup. Delicious. Not much choice for a vegetarian (which is an odd comment). A few Ujpest pieces of memorabilia adorn the walls and as with the Oazis, the locals may eye you with suspicion.

A kiosk on the corner near Oazis (together with a few street vendors) should provide further refreshment and beer is readily available inside the stadium (plus far greater access to toilet facilities).

Facilities

Toilets, refreshment stand and guaranteed cover. This place is luxurious by Hungarian standards. Hunt around and you may even find a club shop. It may be nicknamed Barbie’s House by many, but Barbie would not be too happy with thousands of overweight, drunkish men louting around. But WTF does Barbie know about fun (or housing)?

If it rains, this is one of the few stadiums where you will not be forced to run for cover.

What to expect?

Ujpest are Budapest’s (and Hungary’s) third most successful team and, arguably, the most popular club after Ferencvaros (Debrecen and Diosgyor may argue with this). The club has found success relatively hard to come by in recent years bar a cup triumph in 2014. Financial strife has overshadowed the club and indeed prevented the club from taking its rightful place in Europe following said cup success. Indeed the club was on the brink of bankruptcy via some particularly shady dealings.

The club was purchaseded by Belgian entrepeneur, Roderick Duchatelet (whose father owns Charlton Athletic and Standard Liege) in 2011 for the princely sum of EUR1 although he also assumed all of the club’s debts thought to be in the region of EUR 1 million. Soon a series of ever more dubious demands for payment were received by Roderick from various Cypriot and Seychelles (what is the adjective? Seychellian?) companies. Roderick grew suspicious and ceased settling the ever more spurious claims (backed up by some fraud experts in his native Belgium). However, the ’creditors’ threatenend the club with the start of involuntary liquidation procedure, which would have seen the revokation of Ujpest’s top flight licence and relegation to the third tier of Hungarian football. Roderick (who despite seemingly undertaking no due diligence on the acquisition of the club) showed his business acumen by transferring the football licence to a newly-formed club (ahem Rangers), which was allowed to continue playing and competing by the MLSZ (after a few tears by Roderick): the new company of course had no debts payable to the web of offshore companies.

The locals rejoiced the saving of their club and on their day can be one of the more passionate set of supporters. Fiercely proud of their district, Ujpest fans will ‘welcome’ away teams with hostility. They expect the pride that they have for the club to be shown by the players. Any player that fails to put in the requisite effort will be slammed by the fans. Conversely, they will forgive a lack of talent for a player that gives the ubiquitous 110% (bit like West Ham fans, but with a few more trophies).

The lack of money has led the team to blood players from an early age so there is some decent talent coming through the ranks, which can inherently lead to inconsistent performances.

On their day, Ujpest’s team will give any other a match and Ujpest’s fans will do likewise.

Points of interest

• In 1952, the average attendance for Ujpest was over 20,000. Fifty years later, it was 3,500 and falling…
• Ujpest reached two European cup finals in the 1960s, losing them both. In 1962, they lost 3-0 on aggregate to Fiorentina and in 1969, they lost 6-2 over two legs to Newcastle United. Having lost the first leg in Newcastle 3-0, they promptly went 2-0 up at home after 40 minutes before conceding three soft goals to succumb (check out Youtube for highlights).
• In 2014/2015 season Ujpest has been fined for the behavior of their fans in almost every single game (typically due to unauthorized pyros and anti-MLSZ chanting). Worth double checking that the game you want to watch is not going to be behind closed doors.
• Ujpest – the town – was originally established in the 19th century by Lőwy Izsák. Poor Izsak was unable to get the required permit to open a shoe factory in downtown Pest being a Jew so decided to set up a new town to accommodate his new shoe factory.

Points of caution

• When Fradi come to town expect fireworks in both the figurative and literal sense. The stadium will be on lockdown so expect a good few security checks to get inside. Try and sort you tickets out for the derby as early as possible as they will probably i) sell out and ii) not be available to purchase on the day of the game.
• Best not to wear green.
• These fans are fiercely proud of their team and their part of town. Any sign of disrespect will not be viewed too kindly.