ANGLO-ITALIAN CUP

Many will remember Swindon Town winning in the 1969 Football League Cup!! Do you?? The Robins beat Arsenal 3-1. Roger Smart scored 2 and legend Don Rogers added the third...the town's greatest win

The outcome helped the creation of another competition named the Anglo-Italian Cup. The competition was played intermittently between 1970 and 1996 between clubs from England and Italy. It was founded by Gigi Peronace, following the two-team Anglo-Italian (two club competition) in 1969. The initial Anglo-Italian Cup was played as an annual tournament from 1970 to 1973. The first final was abandoned early due to violence, with Swindon Town declared the winners. During its time, the tournament had a reputation for violence between fans, and also between players on the pitch, but it returned as a semi-professional tournament from 1976 before it was abolished again in 1986.

Swindon, a Third Division Football League club was denied entry into the Fairs' Cup, a competition with a "complicated" qualification format, pitting clubs from England and Italy's lower divisions against one another. On this day in 1995, Notts County beat Italian club, Ascoli, at Wembley, watched by only 12,000 fans.

The Anglo-Italian Cup also known as the Anglo-Italian Inter-League Clubs Competition and from 1976 to 1986 as the Alitalia Challenge Cup, Talbot Challenge Cup or Gigi Peronace Memorial was a European football competition.

The competition was played intermittently between 1970 and 1996 between clubs from England and Italy. It was founded by Gigi Peronace, following the two-team Anglo-Italian League Cup in 1969. The initial Anglo-Italian Cup was played as an annual tournament from 1970 to 1973. The first final was abandoned early due to violence, with Swindon Town declared the winners. During its time the tournament had a reputation for violence between fans, and also between players on the pitch. but it returned as a semi-professional tournament from 1976 before it was abolished again in 1986.

1970 Swindon Town -Napoli, 1971 Blackpool-Bolgna 1972 Roma-Blackpool 1973 Newcastle Utd- Fiorentina

In 1992, the Anglo-Italian Cup was re-established as a professional cup for second-tier clubs – it replaced the English Full Members Cup. The Italian representatives were Serie B teams. This version of the Cup ran for four seasons, until 1996, before being discontinued due to fixture congestion. The trophy was a 22-inch (56 cm) high gold loving cup. mounted on a wooden plinth. Genoa were the last champions.