1971 Japan v St George Budapest v Boldklubben Frem

Japan v St George Budapest (Australia) v Boldklubben Frem (Denmark) - 1971

In 1971 Japan hosted a four-team tournament involving the Australian team St George Budapest captained by Johnny Warren, the Japan National Team, a Japan B-side and Danish leading first division team Frem.

St George drew 0-0 with Japan in front of 25,000 supporters in the Tokyo National Stadium, defeated Frem 3-0 and defeated Japan B 6-2 to finish top of the table and lift the trophy. Johnny Warren was voted best player.

The victory was a milestone for Australian football because it was the first time an Australian club had won an international tournament. This St George team had 10 players participating in Australia’s qualification campaign for the 1974 World Cup.

The official programme, which covers the tournament and some extra friendly games played in Japan by St George Budapest and Boldklubben Frem has 18 x B5 pages, 3 pages of which are adverts, and is all in Japanese. The programme lists details of the games to be played and has an introduction page from the President of the Japanese Football Association. The programme then gives details of the squads involved together with small pen-picture photos of each of the players. Finally the programme has two pages where the results of the three games and team line-ups etc can be entered.

The pin badge/medal for this game is really rare and interesting and I suspect might possibly have been given to one of the players or officials?

Japan A v Japan B &

St George Budapest v Boldklubben Frem

Boldklubben Frem v Japan A &

St George Budapest v Japan B