Ilirija 1911

Nogometno drustvo Ilirija 1911 is a Slovenian football club from Ljubljana which competes in the Slovenian Second League. The club was founded in June 1911 and is the oldest still active football club in the country.

History

SK Ilirija (1911–1941)

At the beginning of the 20th century, football came to Ljubljana from Vienna and was played mostly by the students. Football club Ilirija was founded on 9 June 1911 in a pub called Roza on Zidovska cesta in Ljubljana. Albin Kandare was elected as the first president of Ilirija, and their first ground was at Tivoli Park. Ilirija's first match was played on 30 July 1911, and ended in an 18–0 defeat against Hermes, the local students' club which had been founded in 1910. Soon after their first match Ilirija merged with Hermes in 1913. In the first few years Ilirija had no competition in Slovenia and they mainly played friendly matches against Zagreb-based Croatian clubs such as HASK, Gradanski and Concordia. An important turning point was a friendly with the Czech side Slavia Prague in Ljubljana played on 5 August 1913, which Ilirija lost 10–0. However, Ilirija's players and staff were impressed by Slavia's display of professionally trained football so much that they convinced Slavia's player Jirkovsky to stay in Ljubljana and work as Ilirija's first manager after the match. The best and most popular players of Ilirija of that time were Stanko Tavcar, Ernest Turk, Stanko Pelan and Oto Oman.

At the onset of World War I, Ilirija and Slovan (founded in 1913 and still active today) were the only two football clubs in Slovenia, and during the war all football activities were suspended. In 1919 Ilirija was re-activated, and was soon followed by Slovan. Football rapidly gained popularity and a number of other Slovenian clubs came into life around the same time such as Olimp in Celje, I. SSK Maribor in Maribor and ASK Primorje in Ljubljana, with the latter becoming Ilirija's biggest rivals in the following decade.

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