Sylow-Tournament

Sylow-Tournament (Danish: Sylow-Turneringen) was a knockout association football competition contested annually between 1918 and 1926, organised by the Danish FA (DBU), which determined the championship of the representative teams, referred to as Sylow-teams, of the six Danish regional football associations.^[1] The competition was held between the selected teams (Danish: unionshold) of Copenhagen FA, Funen FA, Jutland FA, Lolland-Falster FA and Zealand FA for the first three seasons (1918–1920), before being joined by the Bornholm FA team in 1921 and eventually an additional Copenhagen FA team exclusively composed of players from the KBUs A-række competing in 1926.^[1][2] The 1926 season became the last edition of the Sylow Tournament, which was abolished and replaced by a year-long league format for clubs, known as Danmarksmesterskabsturneringen i Fodbold, the following season.^[1] The competition was created in 1918 after a proposal from the chairman of the Danish FA, Louis Østrup, modelled after the Landsfodboldturneringen, and named after a previous chairman of the national organisation, Ludvig Sylow.^[1][3]

The matches in the tournament played a major role in the development of association football outside the Danish capital city.^[4][5] The Denmark national team had been playing official matches since 1908, but the roster consisted solely of players from clubs in Copenhagen, who were leading the development of Danish association football until World War II, and a player from a provincial club only first made it on the roster in 1923.^[4] The most successful association in the history of the tournament's 9 editions was Sylow-team of the Copenhagen FA, who by default only participated in the final match, was won the only trophy, distributed during the tournament's history, for permanent ownership.^[1][6] The most capped players from the Copenhagen FA were the forwards Viggo Jørgensen (B 1903) and Einard Larsen (KFUMs BK), while the Copenhagen FA top goalscorer in the entire tournament were the forwards Pauli Jørgensen (BK Frem) and Frithjof Steen (B 1903).^[1]