The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, sometimes referred to as the European Fairs Cup, Fairs Cities' Cup, or simply as the Fairs Cup, was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. It is considered the predecessor to the UEFA Cup. The competition 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 the English Football Association general secretary, Stanley Rous, who later became an executive committee member and vice-president of UEFA (1958–1961) and president of FIFA (1961–1974). 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. 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.
This page details all statistics of all seasons of the European Cup and Champions League. These statistics do not include the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Champions League, unless otherwise noted.
Ferdinand Daučík was a Slovak football player and manager. Daučík was the manager of several La Liga clubs, most notably Barcelona, Atlético Bilbao, Atlético Madrid and Real Zaragoza. During his career, he managed La Liga clubs in 488 matches, won three La Liga titles and won the Copa del Generalísimo on six occasions, including three La Liga/Copa doubles. He died in Alcalá de Henares.
Daniel 'Dani' García Lara is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a striker.
Football clubs from La Liga have won a record 73 continental and worldwide titles. Real Madrid, the most successful of them, have won the European Cup on fifteen separate occasions and claimed 32 trophies in total. Barcelona have won twenty continental and worldwide titles, while Atlético Madrid have claimed eight. Sevilla have won eight and Valencia have won seven trophies to their name. Additionally, Deportivo La Coruña have been regulars in the UEFA Champions League, while Athletic Bilbao, Espanyol, Alavés, Zaragoza and Mallorca have all contested major finals in second-tier competitions and below. Smaller La Liga clubs, like Villarreal, Celta Vigo and Málaga have also found success in Europe, reaching the latter stages of the Champions League and winning the Europa League, as is the case with Villarreal.
Liverpool Football Club is a professional association football club in Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) competitions. Since 1964, they have won fourteen European and Worldwide trophies, more than any other British club. These consist of the UEFA Champions League six times, the UEFA Europa League three times, the UEFA Super Cup four times and the FIFA Club World Cup once.
Celtic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in Glasgow, which has regularly taken part in European competitions since its first appearance in the 1962–63 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. Since then, the club has competed in every UEFA-organized competition, with the exception of the UEFA Super Cup and the defunct Intertoto Cup.
With 48 continental trophies won, English football clubs are the third-most successful in European football, behind Italy (50) and Spain (67). In the top-tier, the UEFA Champions League, a record six English clubs have won a total of 15 titles and lost a further 11 finals, behind Spanish clubs with 20 and 11, respectively. In the second-tier, the UEFA Europa League, English clubs are third, with nine victories and eight losses in the finals. In the former second-tier UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, English teams won a record eight titles and had a further five finalists. In the non-UEFA organized Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, English clubs provided four winners and four runners-up, the second-most behind Spain with six and three, respectively. In the newly created third-tier UEFA Conference League, English clubs have a joint-record one title so far. In the former fourth-tier UEFA Intertoto Cup, England won four titles and had a further final appearance, placing it fifth in the rankings, although English clubs were notorious for treating the tournament with disdain, either sending "B" squads or withdrawing from it altogether. In the one-off UEFA Super Cup, England has ten winners and ten runners-up, the second-most behind Spain with 17 and 15, respectively.
Hibernian Football Club ("Hibs") is a Scottish football club, based in the Leith area of Edinburgh. Hibernian were the first ever British club to enter an official European footballing competition, doing so in the inaugural 1955–56 season of the European Cup. They were also the first Scottish club to participate in the Fairs Cup, an unofficial forerunner of the UEFA Cup and Europa League competitions.
Futbol Club Barcelona is a Spanish professional football club based in Barcelona. The club first participated in a European competition in 1910, and from 1955 onwards spent every season in one or more European competitions. The first international cup they took part in was the Pyrenees Cup. The competition lasted from 1910 to 1914 and Barcelona won four out of five editions. From 1914 to the beginning of the Latin Cup in 1949, Barcelona did not participate in any international competitions. From the 1955–56 season onward, with the exception of 1956–57, they are the only team to have played in the European competitions every year to date.
Futebol Clube do Porto, an association football team based in Porto, is the most decorated Portuguese team in international club competitions. They have won two UEFA Champions League titles, two UEFA Europa League titles, one UEFA Super Cup, and two Intercontinental Cups, for a total of seven international trophies. In addition, they were Cup Winners' Cup runners-up in 1984 – their first European final – and lost three other UEFA Super Cup matches, in 2003, 2004, and 2011.
FK Partizan is a professional football club based in Belgrade, Serbia. Founded in 1945, they were the first Yugoslav and Serbian club ever to enter European competition, playing the European Cup in the 1955–56 season. They opened the competition in a match against Sporting CP on 4 September 1955. They also became the first club that was not from Western Europe to play in the European Cup final, losing by Real Madrid in 1966.
Chelsea Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, London. The club's involvement in international competitions dates back to the 1950s. As English champions, Chelsea were invited to participate in the inaugural European Champions' Cup in 1955; however, they were pressured into withdrawing from the tournament by the Football League. Three years later, in 1958, Chelsea made their European debut against Copenhagen XI in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.
Sport Lisboa e Benfica is a Portuguese professional football club based in Lisbon whose involvement in European competition dates back to the 1950s. As champions of Portugal, Benfica were supposed to participate in the inaugural edition of the European Cup in 1955, but they were not invited by the organizers. Two years later, Benfica made their European debut against Sevilla in the European Cup, on 19 September 1957.
Manchester City Football Club, an English professional association football club, has gained entry to Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) competitions on multiple occasions. They have represented England in the European Cup on fourteen occasions, the UEFA Cup on eight occasions, in the now-defunct Cup Winners' Cup twice, the UEFA Super Cup once, and at the FIFA Club World Cup once. Manchester City are one of thirteen English football clubs to have won European and worldwide titles, in City's case the 1969–70 Cup Winners' Cup, 2022–23 Champions League, 2023 Super Cup, and 2023 Club World Cup.
Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb, commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb, is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Croatian football, having won twenty-five Prva HNL titles, sixteen Croatian Cups, еight Croatian Super Cups, and one Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. The club has spent its entire existence in top flight, having been members of the Yugoslav First League from 1946 to 1991, and then the Prva HNL since its foundation in 1993.
Burnley Football Club is an English professional association football club founded in 1882. Burnley first played against foreign opposition—Scottish club Cowlairs—in 1885, and embarked on their first overseas tour in 1914, playing sides from the German Empire and Austria-Hungary. Further trips to foreign countries followed in the next decades. In 1955, UEFA launched the first officially sanctioned European club competition, the European Cup. Burnley won their second First Division title in 1959–60, qualifying for the 1960–61 European Cup. They eliminated French champions Stade de Reims in the first round before being sent out of the contest by West German champions Hamburger SV in the quarter-final. Burnley's next campaign in a European club competition came six years later, in the 1966–67 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, where they were again eliminated by a West German side in the quarter-final. In 2018, Burnley qualified for the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League, reaching the play-off round.
Irish League football clubs have participated in European football competitions since 1957, when in the 1957–58 season, Glenavon took part in the European Cup – the first Irish League club to do so. In total, 16 clubs have represented Northern Ireland in European competition.
Scottish football clubs have participated in European association football competitions since 1955, when Hibernian entered the inaugural European Cup.
Kilmarnock vs Eintracht Frankfurt was a football match played on 22 September 1964. The match was played at Rugby Park in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire and was the second leg of the 1964–65 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup first round tie.
