The long-awaited sports news from the Adriatic was sent to Podgorica on August 10, 1929. Buducnost was accepted as a permanent member of the Split Football Sub-Association - which also meant inclusion in the championship - and at the same time 19 players were registered for it: Ahmet Mujadzevic, Djordje Vuceljic, Milan Djurovic, Luka Bulatovic, Cazim Maljevic, Bozo Milacic, Rizo Seratlic, Blazo Sutulovic, Branko Rajkovic, Becir Abdomerovic, Gojko Mitrovic, Milan Mitrovic, Arsen Markovic, Stevan Pejovic, Sefket Sabanadzovic, Ivan Pregl, Bajo Boljevic, Dragutin (Karlo) Vugrinec i Gojko Maksimović.
And that list confirms the continuity with Zoran. By the end of the year, the team was strengthened with three Balšić players: Mustafa Caf Hodžić, at the time perhaps the best center-half in Montenegro, Ahmet Jakupović and striker Dimitrij Petričević.
It is not difficult to assume that it was a coincidence, but just a day later, on August 11, 1929, Budućnost “celebrated” its membership with another friendly match against Lovćen. Its outcome is unknown to us, just like the exact results of the first competitive matches of the new/old club.
Buducnost started the autumn championship of the Split Football Association, in which teams from Podgorica (along with them, there was also Balšić), Cetinje (Lovćen and Crnogorac) and Bar (Crnojević) made up the Fifth District. As before, the game was played according to the cup system.
The Podgorica derby was renewed on 10 November 1929. In the first round of the sub-federation league, Budućnost defeated Balšić and secured a match with the champion Cetinje. Fourteen days later, they were defeated by Crnogorac, who had previously beaten Lovćen.
A friendly match with a “peer”, Obilić from Nikšić, on the second day of Christmas in Podgorica (0:1), announced the lively activity of the Podgorica club in 1930. In the following 12 months, 15 more matches of Buducnost were documented, of which 11 were control matches (four with Hercegovina from Nikšić, three each with Crnogorac and Obilić, and one with Balšić). The results were varied: from convincing victories over Hercegovina (6:1 in July) and Obilić (3:0, September 21), through a goalless draw (5:3) in the match with Crnogorac on July 27, to a goalless defeat in the duels with the same rival on August 2 and 3 (3:0, 4:0). These last two meetings are interesting, because for the first time a Montenegrin newspaper, in this case Cetinje's Epoha, published the complete composition of Budućnost: Ćazim Maljević, Šefket Šabanadžović, Milan Mitrović, Blažo Šutulović, Mustafa Hodžić, Đorđije Vučelić, Milan Đurović, Dimitrije Petričević, Arsen Marković, Gojko Mitrović, Gojko Maksimović and Branko Rajković.
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The author of the text probably counted: 12 players were mentioned, the same number as on the winning team.
In terms of competition, that year Budućnost was no better than Podgorica and its traditional rival, Balšić. As with Zoran, there was no shortage of drama. The Podgorica teams opened the championship season on March 16, 1930.
Buducnost won (1:0) with a goal from Gojko Mitrović, and the match, reports Slobodna misao, was marked by "several incidents between fans of one side and the other", as well as one (in)disputable detail.
“The right winger of Balšić shot at goal, but the ball went wide of the post. Someone from the audience returned the ball to the field of play and the same player put it into the empty goal without any problems. It all happened so quickly that the whistle blew just as the ball was in the net. The Balšić players celebrated the goal. The fans joined them. A crowd broke out and the police had to intervene.”
Whether it was because of this is unknown, but the Split Football Association annulled the match upon Balšić's appeal and ordered a new one to be played. The bureaucracy, as is usually the case everywhere, was slow - a new duel was only organised two months later, on 18 May 1930. There was no winner (1:1), even after extra time (2 x 15 minutes).
Seven days later, the trilogy was unraveled: Balšić triumphed 1:0, and then over Lovćen (5:1) and Orjen from Tivat (1:0) became the champion of Montenegro and Boka.
In the autumn season of the SNP in 1930, there was a territorial rearrangement of teams, so that the Podgorica team was included in the IV župa, together with the Tivat team (Orjen and Zrinjski). There was no change in the primacy of Podgorica in the championship compared to the spring: Balšić defeated Budućnost 3:1 on 23 November 1930. Zeta reported that the winning team, which received a “beautifully decorated painting” made by “Ismail Šefa, the artist”, played with six reserves, while the defeated team was complete.
Balšić's triumph was immortalized in a shorter ten-line poem, written by "a sports fan," which confirms the degree of mutual rivalry.
Buducnost ended 1930 with a refreshing change in the management team: in mid-December, a regular club meeting was held, at which a new board was elected. The presidential role was entrusted to the merchant Miloš Lučić, previously involved in the management of Zora, who provided "great moral and material support" to the club.
"Since I was a supporter of the struggle of workers, progressive high school students and students, especially the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, I accepted the duty," said Lučić.
He was elected vice president. Mitar Mrčarica, the secretary was Sergije Stanić, and the treasurer is Gojko Mitrović.
(From the monograph “Proud Past, One Future”, which will be on sale soon)
Bonus video:
