OTP Bank Liga

Season: Late July to early December, then a 3 month winter break - the second half runs from early March to early June.

Kick off times: TV games on Friday night at 6pm, Saturday at 3pm and 6pm and Sunday at 4pm and 6pm. Most games are on Saturdays and Sundays between 3pm and 6pm and times are helpfully confirmed several weeks in advance.

Top leagues:

OTP Bank Liga (NB1) (UEFA co-efficient 29)
Average attendance 2011/12:  3,828
16 teams.

Champions go into Champions League qualifying round, second, third and cup winners in Europa League qualifiers.
Bottom two relegated to second division (currently east and west, but will be merged§ into one group from 2013/14).
League website: http://www.mlsz.hu/


NBII
Average attendance 2011/12: 456
Championships of east and west divisions promoted, no play offs. From 2013/14 there will be one single division.
League website: http://www.nb2.hu/

Grateful thanks go to Gaby (Twitter @DJGabyG) of the excellent english language http://www.hungarianfootball.com/ website for invaluable help in compiling our Hungary section.

There was a time when Hungarian football strode proudly on the world stage.

Players such as Ferenc Puskás and József Bozsik were known throughout the world as members of the Mighty Magyars team.

They played their club football in their native Hungary, Budapest side Honved providing a chunk of the team, and they helped their national side reach the 1954 FIFA World Cup final.  And then there were those thrashings of England..,

For decades the Budapest teams - Honved, Ujpest, Ferencváros and MTK - had a firm grip on the title.

They also progressed well in European competition,

Fellow Budpaest side Vasas Budapest made the European Cup semi finals in the late 1950s.

In 1965 Ferencváros won the Inter Cities Fairs Cup, beating Juventus in the final.They reached the final the folllowing year too, losing to Leeds, while Ujpest fell to Newcastle in the 1969 final.

MTK reached the final of the 1964 European Cup Winners Cup  but lost to Sporting Lisbon in a replay. Meanwhile Ujpest, who dominated club football in Hungary in the 1970s, reached the European Cup semi finals in 1974 where they were only stopped by the mighty Bayern Munich.

Videoton enjoyed the most recent decent run in Europe. They reached the 1985 UEFA Cup final where they lost to Real Madrid - although they did manage to win the leg held in the Bernabeu.

Those days seem rather distant now. It's been some time since Hungary qualified for a major tournament, and domestically the league is now ranked 29th in Europe.

However, the passion burns brightly among Hungarian football supporters and there is healthy competition for the title every season.

Since the collapse of Communism - and the resultant funding problems for many teams - clubs from elsewhere in Hungary have certainly muscled in on the action and lifted the title.

During the first decade of this century the title went outside the capital six times with Debrecen the most successful - they are the current 2011/12 champions as well - as well as giving a good account of themselves in Europe too.

So why not give Hungarian football a try?