Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 1968


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Just to set the record straight about our neighbours' great European exploit, in an invitation tournament
From Goggle......
The cup's strange and very literal name reflects its bizarre initial format. By the letter of the law, this was a competition played between cities, not clubs, with the key qualifying criteria that they must also stage regular international trade or industrial affairs. There were about 60 of these on the continent at the time and, being as they had been playing friendlies against one another, it must have seemed sensible (and profitable) to give the games a competitive element. Each city could only send one representative, leading London to field a team drawn from clubs across the capital. Given all of this, it should come as no surprise to learn that the cup was not sanctioned by UEFA.
1968 Division 1 Final table
1 14 Manchester City 42 17 2 2 52 16 9 4 8 34 27 2.00 58
2 -1 Manchester United 42 15 2 4 49 21 9 6 6 40 34 1.618 56
3 2 Liverpool 42 17 2 2 51 17 5 9 7 20 23 1.775 55
4 0 Leeds United 42 17 3 1 49 14 5 6 10 22 27 1.732 53
5 1 Everton 42 18 1 2 43 13 5 5 11 24 27 1.675 52
6 3 Chelsea 42 11 7 3 34 25 7 5 9 28 43 0.912 48
7 -4 Tottenham Hotspur 42 11 7 3 44 20 8 2 11 26 39 1.186 47
8 5 West Bromwich Albion 42 12 4 5 45 25 5 8 8 30 37 1.21 46
9 -2 Arsenal 42 12 6 3 37 23 5 4 12 23 33 1.071 44
10 10 Newcastle United 42 12 7 2 38 20 1 8 12 16 410.806 41
11 -9 Nottingham Forest 42 11 6 4 34 22 3 5 13 18 42 0.813 39
12 4 West Ham United 42 8 5 8 43 30 6 5 10 30 39 1.058 38
13 -5 Leicester City 42 7 7 7 37 34 6 5 10 27 35 0.928 38
14 0 Burnley 42 12 7 2 38 16 2 3 16 26 55 0.901 38
15 2 Sunderland 42 8 7 6 28 28 5 4 12 23 33 0.836 37
16 3 Southampton 42 9 8 4 37 31 4 3 14 29 52 0.795 37
17 D 2 Wolverhampton Wanderers 42 10 4 7 45 36 4 4 13 21 39 0.88 36
18 -6 Stoke City 42 10 3 8 30 29 4 4 13 20 44 0.685 35
19 -8 Sheffield Wednesday 42 6 10 5 32 24 5 2 14 19 39 0.81 34
20 D 2 Coventry City 42 8 5 8 32 32 1 10 10 19 39 0.718 33
21 -11 Sheffield United 42 7 4 10 25 31 4 6 11 24 39 0.7 32
22 -4 Fulham 42 6 4 11 27 41 4 3 14 29 57 0.571 27

So they only got into the Cup because of a Trade Fair, having finished 10th, four points above the Lads.
In the semis, they beat Rangers 2-0 over two legs, and to their credit, the Mags won both legs of the final, 3-0 at home and 3-2 against Ujpest FC.
This is the history, not the myth.

 
Did this need a new thread ffs. They are arguing about it on another thread, put it there you pleb.
 
It's half a century ago. It was actually a decent competition to win 50 years ago. Not massive and not really worth crowing about. But definitely not worth spending an entire Saturday night arguing about on that Mag obsessed mess of a thread going on.
 
In all honesty nearly every Mag I know never rate winning this as an amazing achievement, so nee point in trying to down play something that even they know is pretty worthless
 
In all honesty nearly every Mag I know never rate winning this as an amazing achievement, so nee point in trying to down play something that even they know is pretty worthless
I'll bet the folk you've asked never lived through it? I've just looked it up in Wikipedia and Newcastle actually beat some strong European sides: Feyenoord, Sporting Lisbon, Real Zaragosa (who had a very strong forward line in those days), Vitoria Setubal, Glasgow Rangers, Ujpest Dosza (who had Ferenc Bene).

The competition, as I'm sure everyone knows, was a direct ancestor of the current Europa League. Call it the European equivalent of our League Cup. The trade fair qualification was removed as below ....

"The competition was initially only open to teams from cities that hosted trade fairs and where these teams finished in their national league had no relevance. Early competitions also featured a one city, one team rule. After 1968, it was sometimes referred to as the Runners-up Cup, with teams now qualifying based on league position. In 1971, it came under the auspices of UEFA and was replaced by the UEFA Cup".
 
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