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MIDDLESBROUGH v AS ROMA - THE HISTORY OF THE UEFA CUP
The idea for the UEFA Cup was first conceived by Switzerland’s Ernst Thommen who along with Italy’s Ottorino Barrasi - both future FIFA vice-presidents - and England’s Sir Stanley Rous, the future president of FIFA, created a tournament for representative sides from European cities that regularly held trade fairs, hence the name the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.
The competition was founded on 18th April 1955, two weeks after the founding of the European Champion Clubs’ Cup which was later to become the Champion's League. The first Fairs Cup involved teams from Barcelona, Basle, Birmingham, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Lausanne, Leipzig, London, Milan and Zagreb. Middlesbrough would enter the competition a few years later.
The original tournament lasted three years with matches timed to coincide with trade fairs. Barcelona, using players purely from FC Barcelona and none from Espanyol beat a London representative side 8-2 on aggregate in the final.
For the second tournament the organisers reverted to club participation but the teams still had to come from cities staging trade fairs. Sixteen clubs took part in the 1958-60 tournament, the last time the competition was staged over multiple seasons. By 1962 the number of entrants had risen to 32, including Newcastle United. These days there are now over 100 but Newcastle do not qualify any more as they prefer to stay at home and watch The Bill.
Newcastle lift the Fairs Cup
In its early years, teams from southern Europe dominated, notably Barcelona who won it three times and Valencia CF who won it twice. In 1968 Leeds United became the first northern European club to win the trophy, heralding a run of six successive wins by English clubs including Newcastle's triumph in 1969, something that they have not stopped going on about since.
In 1971/72 the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup changed it's name to the UEFA Cup as recognition that the competition was now a full-scale UEFA tournament and was no longer restricted to cities holding trade fairs. The very first winners of the UEFA Cup were Tottenham Hotspur.
During the 1970's German, Dutch, Belgian and Swedish sides began to successfully compete with the English and between 1968 and 1984 only one team from the south – Juventus FC in 1977 – managed to disrupt the dominance of the northern Europeans.
The Bill is a popular British TV drama enjoyed on European Thursday match nights by the entire population of Newcastle, winners of the competition in the days of black and white television and shillings and farthings.
Italian clubs started to dominate the competition in the 1990's after Real Madrid had enjoyed sucessive competition victories. Diego Maradona's Napoli won the trophy in 1989 with Italian sides then winning the UEFA Cup eight times in eleven seasons, Inter Milan winning it three times. Galatasaray SK broke that run claiming the cup as Turkey’s first European club prize in 2000.
With the exception of 1964 and 1965, all rounds including the final were always two-legged ties. The format changed permanently to a one-tie final in 1998 when Inter beat S.S. Lazio 3-0 at the Parc des Princes in Paris. Inter, Juventus and Liverpool share the record of three UEFA Cup final successes apiece. Newcastle have won it just once, in case you had forgotten.
In 1999/2000, the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup was disbanded and domestic cup winners then qualified for the UEFA Cup. In addition, clubs eliminated from the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League and the eight third-placed finishers at the end of the group stage of the same competition entered the competition. The UEFA Cup also includes three Fair Play representatives, three UEFA Intertoto Cup winners and winners of some selected domestic league cup competitions. A group stage was introduced for the first time in 2004/05.
The trophy itself, which weighs 15kg and is silver on a yellow marble plinth, was designed and crafted by the Bertoni workshops in Milan for the 1972 final at a cost of €23,000. The UEFA Cup has no handles, its beauty lying in its simplicity. Just above the plinth, a group of players seem to be jostling for the ball. In fact they are supporting the octagonal cup which is emblazoned with the UEFA emblem and not an aged magpie as some of our Geordie friends have recently claimed.
THE BILL IS ON ITV TONIGHT AT 8:00pm
PAST UEFA CUP WINNERS
* 2004 - 2005 CSKA Moskva
* 2003 - 2004 Valencia
* 2002 - 2003 Porto
* 2001 - 2002 Feyenoord
* 2000 - 2001 Liverpool
* 1999 - 2000 Galatasaray
* 1998 - 1999 Parma
* 1997 - 1998 Internazionale
* 1996 - 1997 Schalke
* 1995 - 1996 Bayern
* 1994 - 1995 Parma
* 1993 - 1994 Internazionale
* 1992 - 1993 Juventus
* 1991 - 1992 Ajax
* 1990 - 1991 Internazionale
* 1989 - 1990 Juventus
* 1988 - 1989 Napoli
* 1987 - 1988 Leverkusen
* 1986 - 1987 Göteborg
* 1985 - 1986 Real Madrid
* 1984 - 1985 Real Madrid
* 1983 - 1984 Tottenham
* 1982 - 1983 Anderlecht
* 1981 - 1982 Göteborg
* 1980 - 1981 Ipswich
* 1979 - 1980 Eintracht
* 1978 - 1979 Mönchengladbach
* 1977 - 1978 PSV
* 1976 - 1977 Juventus
* 1975 - 1976 Liverpool
* 1974 - 1975 Mönchengladbach
* 1973 - 1974 Feyenoord
* 1972 - 1973 Liverpool
* 1971 - 1972 Tottenham
* 1970 - 1971 Leeds United
* 1969 - 1970 Arsenal
* 1968 - 1969 Newcastle United
* 1967 - 1968 Leeds United
* 1966 - 1967 Dynamo Zagreb
* 1965 - 1966 Barcelona
* 1964 - 1965 Ferencvaros
* 1963 - 1964 Real Zaragoza
* 1962 - 1963 Valencia
* 1961 - 1962 Valencia
* 1960 - 1961 Roma
* 1959 - 1960 Barcelona
* 1955 - 1958 Barcelona
DOUBLE TONIGHT'S MATCH ODDS WITH BETFRED
BACK TO ROMA MATCH PROGRAMME INDEX
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