THE BIRTH OF THE EUROPEAN CUP

 26th September 1956: A Euro-Anniversary!!

The first European Cup match was played on English soil. Manchester United entertained the Belgians of Anderlecht at (the old) Main Road. In front of 40,000 fans United took the lead after only 9 minutes with a wonder goal from Tommy Taylor and went on to win.....by 10-0 (12-0 on aggregate). Dominating Europe was going to be easy....wasn't it!

The 1955–56 European Cup was the first season of the European Cup, UEFA's premier club football tournament. It was won by Real Madrid (who also won the next tournament +++), who defeated Reims 4–3 in the Final at Parc de Princes, Paris on 13 June 1956.

UEFA had been officially inaugurated on 15 June 1954 in Basel, Switzerland after consultation between the Italian, French, and Belgian associations. The first round pairings were fixed by the organisers and not drawn as would be the case for all future European Cup matches. The clubs participating in the first season of the European Cup were selected by French football magazine L'Equipe, on the basis that they were representative and prestigious clubs in Europe.

When the tournament started, Real Madrid, Anderlecht, AC Milan, Rot-Weiss Essen, Reims, Djurgarden, AC Milan, Djurgarden and AGF were the reigning champions of their respective national leagues. English champions Chelsea initially agreed to compete and were drawn against Swedish side Djurgården; however, under pressure from the Football League, who saw the tournament as a distraction to domestic football, they later withdrew from the competition, and were replaced by Gwardia Warsaw of Poland. In addition, Holland Sport, Honved and AB, rejected the opportunity to represent the Netherlands, Hungary and Denmark, being replaced by PSV Eindhoven, Voros Lobogo and AGF respectively.

Scottish champions Aberdeen were controversially overlooked by the SFA in favour of Hibernian who finished in fifth place. They were considered one of the best teams in Scotland, having won the Scottish title in 1950-51 and 1951-52, but the main reason they were invited was because they were the only team in the country to have floodlights installed at their ground. Dynamo Moscow the champions of the Soviet Union, did not participate due to climatic restrictions. This was also the only UEFA tournament to include a representative of Saarland, unified into West Germany in 1957.

Tournament details
Dates	4 September 1955 – 13 June 1956
Teams	16 (from 16 associations)
Final positions
Champions	Real Madrid (1st title)
Runners-up	Reims
Tournament statistics
Matches played	29
Goals scored	127 (4.38 per match)
Attendance	900,021 (31,035 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Milos  Milutinovic: Partizan 8.