Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. The competition was the idea of Swiss pools supremo, Ernst Thommen, Ottorino Barrasi from Italy and the English FA general secretary, Stanley Rous, all of whom later became senior officials at FIFA. As the name suggests, the competition was set up to promote international trade fairs. Friendly games were regularly held between teams from cities holding trade fairs and it was from these games that the competition evolved. The competition was initially only open to teams from cities that hosted trade fairs and where these teams finished in their national league had no relevance. Early competitions also featured a one city, one team rule. After 1968 it was sometimes referred to as the Runners Up Cup, with teams now qualifying based on league position. In 1971 it was replaced by the UEFA Cup.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Spanish era
The first competition was to be held over two seasons to avoid clashes with national leagues fixtures. However because it was also intended to coincide with trade fairs it ran over into a third year. It began in 1955 and eventually finished in 1958. Cities that entered teams included Basle, Birmingham, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Vienna, Cologne, Lausanne, Leipzig, London, Milan and Zagreb. The first competition included a group stage and also featured some city representative teams instead of clubs. The eventual finalists were Barcelona and a London XI . While the latter side consisted of players from eleven different clubs, the former was effectively CF Barcelona with one player from RCD Espanyol. After a 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge, Barcelona emerged triumphant after winning the return 6-0. A second tournament took place between 1958 and 1960. This time the group stage format was abandoned in favour of a knockout tournament. CF Barcelona retained the cup, beating Birmingham City F.C. 4-1 in the final.
The third tournament was held over the course of the 1960-61 season, and all subsequent tournaments were completed over one season. The season also saw the holders, CF Barcelona, compete in both the Fairs Cup and European Cup. During the early days of European competition, these tournaments were effectively rivals and there was little or no co-ordination between the administers running them. However, the European Cup quickly established itself as the premier club competition, largely because it had the advantage of featuring national league champions and was completed in a single season from the very start. The efforts of CF Barcelona ended in failure in both competitions. In the Fairs Cup quarter-finals they lost 7-6 on aggregate to Hibernian F.C. while in the European Cup they were beaten in the final by SL Benfica. A.S. Roma took three games to beat Hibernian in the semi-finals before they progressed to the final. Birmingham City reached their second final in two years but once again they were defeated. After a 2-2 draw at home, they lost the 2-0 to Roma in the return.
The 1961-62 season saw the rules amended to allow three teams from each country to enter. The one city, one team was also abandoned and the cities of Edinburgh and Barcelona were represented by two teams each. The former entered both Hibernians and Hearts of Midlothian while the later was represented by both CF Barcelona and RCD Espanyol. This increase in teams resulted in Spanish teams continuing to dominate the competition. CF Barcelona were now regularly joined by Valencia CF and Real Zaragoza. These three clubs won the competition six times between them between 1958 and 1966. The Fairs Cup also saw three all-La Liga finals in 1962, 1964 and 1966. The 1962 final saw Valencia CF beat CF Barcelona 7-3 on aggregate and in 1963 they retained the title after beating Dinamo Zagreb with a 4-1 aggregate score. They reached their third final in 1964 but lost 2-1 to Real Zaragoza in a one-off game at the Camp Nou.
The 1965 edition saw a record entry of 48 teams, testimony to the growing status of the Fairs Cup. It also produced only the second final not to feature a Spanish team. Ferencvaros of Hungary beat Juventus F.C. in another one-off game. The 1966 competition attracted attention for all the wrong reasons. Chelsea F.C. were pelted with rubbish at AS Roma and Leeds United F.C. fought a bruising encounter with Valencia CF, which ended with three dismissals. Leeds United also had Johnny Giles sent off in the semi-final against Real Zaragoza. The final saw CF Barcelona beat Real Zaragoza 4-3 on aggregate.
[edit] English era
The 1967 tournament saw the emergence of English clubs with Leeds United reaching the final. Although they lost 2-0 to Dinamo Zagreb, they returned the following season and beat Ferencvaros 1-0. The subsequent victories of Newcastle United F.C. and Arsenal F.C. and a second win for Leeds United saw English clubs winning the last four Fairs Cup. The last final saw Leeds United declared winners on away goals after drawing with Juventus 3-3 on aggregate.
[edit] UEFA Cup
The 1971-72 season saw the competition taken over by UEFA and relaunched, with a new trophy, as the UEFA Cup. By replacing the trophy, renaming the competition and revising the entry regulations, UEFA effectively ended the Fairs Cup. On September 22 1971, a one off match was played between CF Barcelona and Leeds United, the first and last winners of the competition, to decide who would keep the original trophy permanently. These two clubs also had the two best records in the competition. CF Barcelona won this play-off 2-1.
[edit] Finals
aet - after extra time
[edit] External links
|
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Seasons
|
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||
