CITY BREAKS

 

 The plaque above is displayed at the Freemasons' Tavern, Long Acre, Covent Garden, London, to commemorate the founding of the Football Association in 1863. Below is the programme centre fold for a celebratory match between England and the "Rest of Europe" in 1938 (do the maths), at a time when the England FA deemed their association far too important to share "their game" with the rest of the world, in the competition known as The World Cup. The FA didn't join the FIFA World Cup tournament until 1950, so beating this select team including, four Italians, who were World Cup winners, was regarded as a big victory and sort of justified the FA's arrogance.

On 26th October 1955, the London clubs selected a representative team to play Frankfurt in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. The Inter-Cities Cup was arranged for European cities that held international "Trade Fairs". One city per country was invited to play. This was not a UEFA or FIFA event and London "City" was England's first representative....losing to Barcelona City 8-2 on agg. This competition (eventually known as the Inter Cities Fairs Cup) was held between1955-1971, when it was "rebranded". 

Previously on June 4th 1955 Basel v London 0-5 win

London v Frankfurt on 26th October 1955 London won 3-2 at Wembley

London v Basel 4th May 1956 at White Hart Lane win 1-0

Frankfurt v London 27th March 1957 lost 0-1

SEMI-FINAL On 16th September 1957 Lausanne Sports beat London 2-1 and on October 23rd London won 2-0, winning through to the final on aggregate.

FINAL 1st Leg London 2-2 FC Barcelona at Stamford Bridge on March 5th 1958.

2nd Leg Barcelona win 6-0 on May 1st 1958.

1958-60 Birmingham City v Barca 1-4

1960-61 Birmingham City v Rome 2-4

1966-67 Leeds Utd v Dinamo Zagreb 0-2

1967-68 Leeds Utd v Ferencvaros 1-0

1968-69 Newcastle Utd v Ujpest Dozsa 6-2

1969-70 Arsenal v Anderlecht 4-3

1970-71 Leeds Utd v Juventus 3-3 win on away goals

When this competition "died a death", UEFA arranged a "first winners of the trophy v the last winners" final tie.

Barcelona v Leeds on September 22nd 1971 ended 2-1 to the Spaniards at the Camp Nou.

September 22nd 1971, the start of the 1971-2 season. brought together the "top clubs in Europe"  when the UEFA Cup replaced the tried and tested Inter Cities Fairs Cup. 

A London XI played Sheffield on 31st March 1866 to help establish the new "laws" of the game, in Battersea Park.

There were meetings of the London FA v Glasgow FA in the 1880s and a match against the Corinthians in 1904 losing 2-4 to the "amateurs".

Then there was also a match against Birmingham FA on October 3rd 1910 and one in Paris on December 18th 1910.