The rise and fall and rise again of Inter Bratislava

 It would be easy to look at Slovak football at the surface level and think that Slovan Bratislava are the only club from the country's capital city, given that they are the only top-flight side from the capital at present. Moreover, the club are perennial title-winners. Even when not having a good season, they somehow manage to pull it out of the bag every time without fail.

Those who don't follow current Slovak football, however, may not know about some of the other clubs based in Bratislava that currently occupy the second tier - Petržalka (formerly Artmedia Bratislava), and Inter Bratislava. There are of course many more that play in the lower reaches of the Slovak pyramid, but how did Bratislava go from a three top flight clubs in 1996-97 to just the one today?

Well as well as the fall of Petržalka (which warrants a blog of its own - I even wrote one a few years back), there is also the story of Inter Bratislava, who I'm visiting for a first Slovak trip of the calendar year at the iconic Pasienky Stadium, as they host Lokomotiva Zvolen in the 2nd tier. 

The game itself still has something riding on it with a couple of months still to run of the season. Inter Bratislava currently sit sixth, six points behind Zlate Moravce in the promotion play-off spot, where Zvolen sit directly above in fifth, though only four points off ZM. Given the history of the Slovak 2. Liga promotion play-off, promotion via it seems unlikely for either side, even if they do get there, but trends are there to be bucked.

With Dukla Banska Bystrica running away with the league, it does, however, offer the only real chance for anyone else to gain promotion to the top flight. They'll likely replace Skalica who are rapidly drifting, while Tatran Presov look most likely to contest that play-off. Perhaps there is a chance for the 2nd tier side, whover that may be, and perhaps the gulf isn't as sizeable at the one between the Czech top two tiers. In any case, history suggests a mammoth task.

So, Inter Bratislava - what's the story?

The club were founded in 1940 under the name Apollo Bratislava, and have played in the Nove Mesto district of Bratislava for the entirety of their existence. Apollo, an Austro-Hungarian oil company, then became Slovnaft, who run the largest oil refinery in Slovakia. They changed names a few times, as is customary for teams in this part of the world - names ranged from Sokol Apollo Bratislava to Červená Hviezda Bratislava (Red Star Bratislava), right the way through to International Slovnaft Bratislava. 

The current name, without Slovnaft in, has been in place more or less since 2004, with any differences generally minor. If we start in 1962, we see a consistent top-flight club for 24 years, bar one relegation in 1972. They only occasionally threatened the top end of the Czechoslovak top flight, finishing 2nd on a couple of occasions, and 4th on seven occasions. 

It could be argued the first real controversy followed relegation in 1986, when the club merged with Petržalka in the second-tier to form Internacional Slovnaft Petržalka - two of the most successful clubs in the Slovak capital. The club managed to get to the top flight at the first time of asking, winning the league despite finishing level on points with city rivals Slovan Bratislava. in 1987. 

The club wouldn't last long, however, with a 3rd-placed finish in 1990 marking the end of a four year merger, with both clubs then going their separate ways. When the separation of Czechoslovakia came in 1993, however, Inter Bratislava were a consistent top-flight club once more, though this time in Slovakia rather than Czechoslovakia. A combination of 2nd and 3rd placed finishes throughout the nineties eventually culminated in the club's finest era, and two successive titles from 1999 to 2001.

During this period of their history, the club welcomed all manner of teams for various European preliminary round games - Lyon, Lokomotiv Moscow, Rosenborg, and even Slavia Prague who they'd last played in the Czechoslovak league almost a decade prior to their 1999 tie, and on this occasion blew a 2-0 first leg lead to lose the tie 4-2 in Prague. Even Rapid Vienna made the arduous hour journey over the border in 2000 - a game that Inter won 3-1 on aggregate.

The likes of Vladimir Weiss Sr., and Szilard Nemeth have also called Inter Bratislava home at one point  - make no mistake, this is a massive club. But whatever goes up must come down, and 2007 saw Inter drop back into the second tier. It only took them two seasons to win the league, but a return was not forthcoming - instead, their licence was sold to Senica, and the club effectively ceased to exist.

The club had to start at the bottom once more, and two successive promotions began their re-emergence in 2010-11, and 2011-12. Ascent to the third tier would follow in 2014, followed by winning the third-tier in 2017. Since then, the club dropped all the way down to the fourth tier in 2023, but two successive promotions followed, and that's where we find Inter Bratislava today.

They're a club that show in its full glory the insanity of Slovak football - but how is the actual experience of a game there? Can a stadium like Pasienky carry any form of atmopshere? Moreover, will there even be any fans at the game?

Getting Inter the spirit of things

It was a relatively early start, as I caught the 10.15 train scheduled to arrive for around midday. The heavy downpour in Brno meant I was carrying an unnecessary umbrella throughout the day in Bratislava, where it was much calmer and milder. I also suffered the agony of uncharged headphones, but a quick visit to the Relay salvaged the journey. I was able to check out the new Ulrika Spacek and Crack Cloud albums, which you can read my verdict of on my music blog!

When I got to Bratislava, I opted to walk toward Pasienky in the expectation of finding somewhere to eat for lunch along the way. Decent looking pubs may have been lacking, but I did find a food court with a half-decent Tikka Masala in the shopping mall - something Bratislava definitely has no shortage of it would be fair to say. 

Stomach full, I carried on walking toward Pasienky, which was in the same part of town as Telehne Pole - home of Slovan Bratislava. They were in fact a stonesthrow from one another, yet you couldn't imagine such a disparity between stadia as the one between those two. Before getting to the ground, however, I took in some lovely surroundings, including a lake another stonesthrow away.

I got to the ground with plenty of time to spare before kick-off, just to explore the iconic and dilapidated Pasienky. My first port of call was a terrifying bathroom that lacked functioning electricity - frankly though, it was a pleasant surprise to find urinals in there, as I pissed by candlelight (the torch on my phone). Oddly enough, there were plenty of anglophone voices around - most of whom seemed to be on some kind of weekend away from the north of England.

There was also a godawful EDM cover of Dido's 'White Flag' playing before the game - so bass-heavy it was at times that it felt as if it could destroy what was left of this dilapidated icon. As I sat and endured the pounding dance music, I met with Alex - my groundhopping American friend based in Trnava - and we made our way to the front row, which was still a significant distance from the pitch given the failed running track around the outside. 

The game itself was okay, if not an instant classic - it threatened to finish goalless until Matej Starší's decisive late winner meant the away side went back to Zvolen with a crucial three points that kept them in the hunt for the promotion play-off. In truth, both teams had enough chances for it to be a higher scoring affair, but 0-1 it remained. After the rest of the weekend's results, it also put Zvolen just two points away from that 2nd position.

Above all, however, it was great to try and re-visit Bratislava and alter my overall perception of the place. It's still not among my favourite places, but the craft beer bar outside Slovan's stadium is brilliant. Not to mention the complete stranger who was kind enough to strike up a conversation at Hlava Stanica apropos of nothing. I managed to get by with some basic Czech, explaining where I was from and where I was going. But it was an apt end to an enjoyable Saturday day trip which I'll hopefully be taking again soon.