Chelsea won the English Football League, First (top) Division in 1955, and was invited to join in with UEFA to play in the first ever European Cup. Joe Mears, a fairly controversial Club Chairman, was also President of the Football League and therefore heavily involved with the notoriously forceful Alan Hardaker. As a result, Chelsea decided not to join in and the competition went on ahead with out them.
The week that the European Cup got under way, Chelsea lost 2-1 at Blackpool, whilst Sporting Lisbon (of Portugal) was hosting the first ever tie of the new competition. Star man, Joaa Martins scored the first goal in the new competition after 14 minutes. Martins also scored the last goal of the match to force a 3-3 draw with Partizan Belgrade of Yugoslavia.
Fourteen clubs joined in the new competition: Aaarhus of Denmark, Anderlecht (Belgium), Djurgarden (Sweden), Gwardia Warsaw (Poland), Hibs of Scotland, Milan (Italy), PSV Eindhoven (Holland), Rapid Vienna (Austria), Real Madrid (Spain), Reims (France), Rot-Weiss Essen (West Germany), Saarbrucken (East Germany), Servette (Switzerland). Voros Lobogo (Hungary).
Most, but not all, of the clubs were their country's reigning Champions. Hibs, for example, had come sixth behind Aberdeen, but their Chairman was also "running" the Scottish FA, whose shame was avoided as the Edinburgh club reached the semi-finals.
Alfredo di Stefano of Real Madrid led his team to win the classic 1956 European Cup Final, beating Reims of France 4-3 after being 0-2 down. Chelsea were left to think what might have been, having "chickened out" of something few people knew about! Mears seemed not to know enough about the prestigious competition otherwise, maybe he might have joined in with Chelsea. The next year Manchester United was bolder.
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