Inter-Cities Fairs Cup

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 he doesn't include it in his 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 several seasons London entered a team that consisted of mixed players from various London clubs, the team was called London XI. 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The competition was organised by the Fairs Cup Committee which was led by some FIFA executives until 1971, when it was superseded by the UEFA-organised UEFA Cup.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." Although the competition was recognized by UEFA as a historical tournament, neither FIFA nor UEFA consider the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup an official UEFA sanctioned competition .