Page "Estonia national football team" Paragraph 12

The clubs were renamed in the second half of 1940s and the traditions started to fade.

According to Uno Piir, the first national team manager after Estonia's re-independence, the reason for football's downfall in society was the inability to create a competitive Union-level club, hence the decrease in audience and the favouring of other sports by the governing bodies of sports.

Estonian SSR had its representative team, but because of the occupation it did not take part of international competitions.

Between 1948 and 1976, Baltic Cup was held 19 times, which Belaussian SSR won a few times and Estonian SSR five times.

From 1969 to 1982, Estonia was the only soviet state not participating in Soviet Union's football league.

In 1970s, the game lost popularity in Estonians and the sport was mainly played by Russians.