1955–58 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup

1955–58 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
	Ball used in the final (FC Barcelona Museum)
Tournament details
Dates	4 June 1955 – 1 May 1958
Teams	12
Final positions
Champions	Barcelona XI; (Later recognized as FC Barcelona) (1st title)
Runners-up	London XI
Tournament statistics
Matches played	23
Goals scored	93 (4.04 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Evaristo; Peter Murphy; (4 goals each)
	1958–60 →

The first Inter-Cities Fairs Cup took place over three seasons from 1955 to 1958. The competition began with a group stage with each team playing home and away against each other. Due to the competition rules which stated only one side from each city was allowed to compete, many cities with several football clubs picked the best players from those teams to create a city representative side. One of these, the London XI, went on to reach the final where they were beaten over two legs by the Barcelona XI (later recognized as FC Barcelona).

Group stage[]

Group A[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Barcelona XI	2	1	1	0	7	3	+4	3
2	Copenhagen XI	2	0	1	1	3	7	−4	1
3	Vienna XI (W)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Source:^{[citation needed]}
(W) Withdrew from the competition

25 December 1955

Barcelona XI	6–2	KBU Copenhagen XI
Areta 8', 10' Tejada 40', 80' Villaverde 40' Kubala 59'	Report	Lundberg 65', 75'

Camp de Les Corts, Barcelona

26 April 1956

KBU Copenhagen XI	1–1	Barcelona XI
Lundberg 61'	Report	Villaverde 85'

Københavns Idrætspark, Copenhagen

Group B[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Birmingham City	4	3	1	0	6	1	+5	7
2	Internazionale	4	2	1	1	6	2	+4	5
3	Zagreb XI	4	0	0	4	0	9	−9	0

Source:^{[citation needed]}

16 May 1956^[1]

Internazionale	0–0	Birmingham City
	Report

Arena Civica, Milan^[1]

22 May 1956

Zagreb XI	0–1	Birmingham City
	Report	Brown 8'

Zagreb

6 June 1956

Zagreb XI	0–1	Internazionale
	Report	74'

Zagreb

3 December 1956

Birmingham City	3–0	Zagreb XI
Orritt 3' Brown 60' Murphy 67'	Report

St Andrews, Birmingham

19 March 1957

Internazionale	4–0	Zagreb XI
Skoglund 8', 89' Lorenzi 43', 50'	Report

San Siro, Milan

17 April 1957

Birmingham City	2–1	Internazionale
Govan 44', 53'	Report	Lorenzi 88'

St Andrews, Birmingham

Group C[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Lausanne-Sport	2	1	1	10	9	+1	2
2	Leipzig XI	2	1	1	9	10	−1	2
3	Cologne XI (W)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Source:^{[citation needed]}
(W) Withdrew from the competition

6 March 1956

Leipzig XI	6–3	Lausanne-Sport
5' Konzack 9', 82' Krause 23', 36' 69'	Report	11' Rey 31' Eschmann 43'

Leipzig

21 October 1956

Lausanne-Sport	7–3	Leipzig XI
28' Eschmann 37', 43', 55' 38' 60', 62'	Report	13' Konzack 58' 70'

Lausanne

Group D[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	London XI	4	3	1	9	3	+6	6
2	Frankfurt XI	4	2	2	10	10	0	4
3	Basel XI	4	1	3	7	13	−6	2

Source:^{[citation needed]}

4 June 1955

Basel XI	0–5	London XI
	Report	Firmani 35', 81'^[a] Holton 37', 43', 74'

Basel

26 October 1955

London XI	3–2	Frankfurt XI
Jezzard 46', 86' Robson 60'	Report	Pfaff 25' Kaufhold 30'

Wembley Stadium, London

4 May 1956

London XI	1–0	Basel XI
Robb 87'	Report

White Hart Lane, London

20 June 1956

Frankfurt XI	5–1	Basel XI
19', 80' Pfaff 31', 73' Herrmann 52'	Report	Hugi 35'

Frankfurt

27 March 1957

Frankfurt XI	1–0	London XI
72'	Report

Frankfurt

12 June 1957

Basel XI	6–2	Frankfurt XI
Allemann 3', 47', 66' 33' Hugi 64' Burger 88'	Report	Kraus 32' Mayer 65'

Basel

Knockout stage[]

Semi-finals		Final



Lausanne-Sport	2

London XI	3
		London XI	2

		Barcelona XI	8
Birmingham City	4 (1)

Barcelona XI	4 (2)

Teams playing first leg at home shown first.
Birmingham City and Barcelona required a play-off after their semi-final finished level on aggregate. The play-off was played in Switzerland.

Semi-finals[]

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Lausanne-Sport	2–3	London XI	2–1	0–2
Birmingham City	4–4¹	Barcelona XI	4–3	0–1

¹ Barcelona beat Birmingham City 2–1 in a play-off to qualify for the Final.

First leg[]

23 October 1957

Lausanne-Sport	2–1	London XI
6', 74'	Report	Haverty 70'

Stade Olympique de la Pontaise, Lausanne

23 October 1957

Birmingham City	4–3	Barcelona XI
Eddy Brown 2' Orritt 33' Murphy 35', 60'	Report	Tejada 12' Evaristo 27' Martínez 40'

St Andrew's, Birmingham

Second leg[]

13 November 1957

London XI	2–0	Lausanne-Sport
Greaves 10' Holton 76'	Report

Stamford Bridge, London

13 November 1957

Barcelona XI	1–0	Birmingham City
Kubala 82'	Report

Camp Nou, Barcelona

Play-off

26 November 1957

Barcelona XI	2–1	Birmingham City
Evaristo 33' Kubala 83'	Report	Murphy 48'

St. Jakob Stadium, Basel

Final[]

First leg[]

5 March 1958

London XI	2–2	Barcelona XI
Greaves 10' Langley 88' (pen.)		Martínez 7' Tejada 35'

Stamford Bridge, London

Attendance: 45,466

Referee: (Switzerland)

Second leg[]

1 May 1958

Barcelona XI	6–0	London XI
Suárez 6', 8' Martínez 42' Evaristo 52', 75' Vergés 63'

Camp Nou, Barcelona

Attendance: 70,000

Referee: (Switzerland)

Notes[]

^ Some sources give the final goal to Hooper.^[2]^[3]

References[]

^ Jump up to: ^a ^b "Blues in Europe – Part One 1956–1958". Birmingham City F.C. Archived from the original on 7 April 2011.
^ EC 1 & Fairs Cup 1595-1960. International Federation of Football History & Statistics. pp. 158–171.
^ Velasco, Santiago. "Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 1955-58 (game details)". linguasport.com. Retrieved 25 May 2018.

External links[]

UEFA Inter-Cities Fair Cup results at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Seasons 1955-58 – results, protocols
website eurocups-uefa.ru Fairs' Cup Seasons 1955-58 – results, protocols
website Football Archive 1955–58 Fairs' Cup

[4] Some sources give the final goal to Hooper.^[2]^[3]

[BluesInEurope-1] Jump up to: ^a ^b "Blues in Europe – Part One 1956–1958". Birmingham City F.C. Archived from the original on 7 April 2011.

[2] EC 1 & Fairs Cup 1595-1960. International Federation of Football History & Statistics. pp. 158–171.

[3] Velasco, Santiago. "Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 1955-58 (game details)". linguasport.com. Retrieved 25 May 2018.

[1]

[a]

[2]

[3]

show v t Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
Seasons	1955–58 1958–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71
Finals	1958 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971
Trophy Play-Off	1971

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Domestic cups	Bulgaria Denmark England Finland '55 '56 East Germany '56 West Germany Greece Iceland Norway '55 '56 Romania '55 '56 Scotland Soviet Union '55 Spain Wales
League cups	Scotland
UEFA competitions	European Cup (Final)
Non-UEFA competitions	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (Group stage) Mitropa Cup

show v t 1956–57 in European football (UEFA)
« 1955–56 1957–58 »
Domestic leagues	Albania '56 '57 Austria Belgium Bulgaria '56 '57 Cyprus Czechoslovakia Denmark England Faroe Islands '56 '57 Finland '56 '57 France East Germany '56 '57 West Germany (Finals) Greece Hungary '56 '57 Iceland '56 '57 Israel Italy Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway Poland '56 '57 Portugal Republic of Ireland Romania Scotland Soviet Union '56 '57 Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Yugoslavia
Domestic cups	Albania '57 Bulgaria Denmark England Faroe Islands Finland '56 East Germany '56 West Germany Greece Norway '56 '57 Scotland Soviet Union '57 Spain Wales Yugoslavia
League cups	Scotland
UEFA competitions	European Cup (Final)
Non-UEFA competitions	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (Group stage) Mitropa Cup

show v t 1957–58 in European football (UEFA)
« 1956–57 1958–59 »
Domestic leagues	Albania '57 '58 Austria Belgium Bulgaria '57 '58 Cyprus Czechoslovakia Denmark England Faroe Islands '57 '58 Finland '57 '58 France East Germany '57 '58 West Germany (Finals) Greece Hungary Iceland '57 '58 Israel Italy Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway Poland '57 '58 Portugal Republic of Ireland Romania Scotland Soviet Union '57 '58 Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Yugoslavia
Domestic cups	Albania '57 '58 England Faroe Islands Finland France East Germany West Germany Greece Israel Italy Norway '57 '58 Romania Scotland Soviet Union '57 '58 Spain Wales Yugoslavia
League cups	Scotland
UEFA competitions	European Cup (Final)
Non-UEFA competitions	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (Final) Mitropa Cup Danube Cup

Tournament details
Ball used in the final (FC Barcelona Museum)
Dates	4 June 1955 – 1 May 1958
Teams	12
Final positions
Champions	Barcelona XI (Later recognized as FC Barcelona) (1st title)
Runners-up	London XI
Tournament statistics
Matches played	23
Goals scored	93 (4.04 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Evaristo Peter Murphy (4 goals each)
1958–60 →