The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, most commonly referred to as the Fairs Cup and sometimes as the European Fairs Cup or Fairs Cities' Cup, was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. The Fairs Cup was the idea of FIFA vice-president and executive committee member Ernst Thommen, Italian Football Federation president and FIFA executive committee member Ottorino Barassi and English Football Association general secretary, Stanley Rous. As the name suggests, the competition was set up to promote international trade fairs.

UEFA refers to the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup as the forerunner to the UEFA Cup, although they don't include it in their official resume. FIFA also considers the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup as a predecessor tournament to the UEFA Cup, even counting it together with the tournament that succeeded it; La Liga, in turn, simply calls it the Europa League.

Games were regularly held between teams from cities holding trade fairs and it was from these games that the competition evolved. Initially, the competition was only open to cities that hosted trade fairs, and where the cities' clubs finished in their national league had no relevance. Early competitions also featured a "one city, one team" rule, with some teams selected from multiple clubs. Due to the one city one club rule, in the first running of the competition, London entered a team that consisted of mixed players from various London clubs.

After 1964, teams qualified based on league position. The winning team received the Noel Beard Trophy (Trophée Noel Beard), named for the cutler who designed it.

The competition was organised by the Fairs Cup Committee which was led by some FIFA executives until 1971, when it was superseded by the UEFA-organised UEFA Cup. According to UEFA general secretary Hans Bangerter, "The competition was very successful but the time came when the UEFA Executive Committee thought that such a major competition should be governed and organised by UEFA itself, which could ensure that standard rules were followed and could deal with refereeing and disciplinary matters."

History

Spanish era

The first competition was to be held over two seasons to avoid clashes with national leagues fixtures. Because it was also intended to coincide with trade fairs, it ran over into a third year. It commenced in 1955 and finished in 1958. Cities that entered teams included Barcelona, Basel, 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 the city of Barcelona, dubbed Barcelona XI, and a London XI. While the latter side consisted of players from 11 clubs, the former was effectively FC Barcelona. After a 22 draw at Stamford Bridge, Barcelona emerged triumphant after winning the return 60. A second tournament took place between 1958 and 1960. This time, the group stage format was abandoned in favour of a knockout tournament. Barcelona retained the cup, beating Birmingham City 41 in the final.

The third tournament was held over the course of the 196061 season and all subsequent tournaments were completed over one season. The season also saw the holders, 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 administrators running them. 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 Barcelona ended in failure in both competitions. In the Fairs Cup quarter-finals, they lost 76 on aggregate to Hibernian, while in the European Cup, they were beaten in the final by Benfica. 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 22 draw at home, they lost 2–0 to Roma in the return.

The 196162 season saw the rules amended to allow three teams from each country to enter. The "one city, one team" rule was abandoned and two teams represented each of Edinburgh, Milan, and Barcelona (respectively Hibernian and Heart of Midlothian, Internazionale and A.C. Milan, and FC Barcelona and RCD Espanyol). This increase in teams resulted in Spanish teams continuing to dominate the competition. FC Barcelona were now regularly joined by Valencia CF and Zaragoza. These three clubs won the competition six times between them from 1958 to 1966. The Fairs Cup saw three all-Spanish finals in 1962, 1964, and 1966. The 1962 final saw Valencia CF beat FC Barcelona 73 on aggregate and in 1963 they retained the title after beating Dinamo Zagreb with a 41 aggregate score. They reached their third final in 1964 but lost 21 to Zaragoza in a single game at the Camp Nou.

The 1965 tournament 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. Ferencvárosi TC of Hungary beat Juventus in another single-game final. The 1966 competition attracted attention for all the wrong reasons. Chelsea were pelted with rubbish at Roma and Leeds United fought a bruising encounter with Valencia CF which ended with three dismissals. Leeds also had Johnny Giles sent off in the semi-final against Zaragoza. The final saw FC Barcelona beat Zaragoza 43 on aggregate.

English era

The 1967 tournament saw the emergence of English clubs with Leeds United reaching the final. Although they lost to Dinamo Zagreb, they returned the following season and defeated Ferencvárosi TC to become the first English club to win the competition. The subsequent victories of Newcastle United and Arsenal and a second win for Leeds United saw English clubs winning the last four Fairs Cup tournaments. The last final saw Leeds United declared winners on away goals after drawing with Juventus 33 on aggregate.

UEFA Cup

In the 197172 season the competition was abolished and replaced by the UEFA Cup after UEFA revised the entry regulations and concluded that the "one city, one team" rule related with the Fairs Cup must be abolished, which had had a particularly bad effect on English entrants for 196970, when Liverpool (2nd), Arsenal (4th), Southampton (7th), and Newcastle United (9th-also holders) got the places, at the expense of Everton (3rd), Chelsea (5th), Tottenham Hotspur (6th), and West Ham United (8th). The Football League upheld the geographic rule until 1975, when UEFA pressured the League to drop it or face sanctions. Everton that year, having come 4th, would have been excluded from the competition due to Liverpool's 2nd-place finish.

Finals

1. Notes

Trophy play-off match

After the 1970–71 tournament, the last of the Fairs Cup, the competition was abolished and replaced with the UEFA Cup.

The Fairs Cup trophy had not been won by any club permanently, so a play-off match was organised to decide who would gain permanent possession of the original competition trophy. Before the match, then FIFA President Sir Stanley Rous presented silver insignia to the members of the 1958 title-winning side, FC Barcelona.

The one-off match was played on 22 September 1971, between the first ever Fairs Cup winners, Barcelona, and the last winners, Leeds United. Barcelona won this play-off 2–1.

Performances

By club

By nation

All-time top scorers

Top scorers by season

1. Source: rsssf.com

References

Bibliography

External links

• Inter-Cities Fairs Cup at the RSSSF