CHELSEA NEARLY ENGLAND'S FIRST EUROPEAN CLUB

Who thought of the European Cup? It's now called something different of course and there are several other European trophies for teams to make money from, but the European Cup, as we "over 50s" call it, was designed to celebrate the League Champions of each European country.

Typically in 1955, the FA, who as you know, are the "Fathers of the Association game", showed little interest in the original competition.

Chelsea, as Division One champions (the top tier in those days), were invited to join the competition and would have played Djurgardens from Sweden in the 1st Round, but the Football League, no doubt advised by the FA, intervened and refused the Pensioners permission to indulge. Alan Hardaker stated that the FA could veto any club matches against clubs from other countries. Chelsea chairman, Joe Mears, sat on the committee and heard that the competition was regarded as "a joke" and a "nine day wonder".

Gwardian Warszawa of Poland took their place and lost to Djurgarden, which would have brought an England v Scotland tie in Round 2, (all being well). Chelsea v Hibernian...see below.

The Committee stated that extra fixtures would make the cub's commitment to the Football League and FA Cup (the only two competitions available) "might prove difficult to fulfill".

The Daily Mirror on July 27th 1955, managed a minute news' space and any foreseeable campaign  to support the European initiative, was not launched as a result. There seemed little enthusiasm for European comeptition.

The Daily Herald felt much the same but pointed out in their Sports' pages, the lack of support from the Football League.

The Scottish FA had no "qualms" and their Champions, Hibernian became the first British club to participate in European competition. Hibs defeated Rot Weiss Essen 4-0 in Germany (5-1 on agg) in their first round. Barely any English paper reported the match or even published the result. Tough luck on the British press for not spotting an historic moment.
Hibs got through to the semi-final beating Djurgarden of Sweden 4-1 and then lost to Reims.
Real Madrid (13 times winners), who beat Milan in the semi, started their European record reign with a victory over Reims in the final, 4-3 in Paris.
16 teams took part in the First Round.
http://www.europeancuphistory.com/euro56.html

The first goal scored in the European Cup was by Joao Baptista Martins for Sporting Lisbon in a 3-3 draw with Partizan Belgrade.