December 10 – Cup Winners’ Cup Abolished
WE RECKON that December isn’t a bad month for the suits at Uefa. When they’re not scoffing on the buffets at cushy award ceremonies or Champions League draws they’re probably just pen-pushing and waiting around for Christmas.
Today in 1998 though they were uncharacteristically busy though, as they set about changing the face of the various European club competitions by milking it like the cash cow it is and extending the Champions League and abolishing the European Cup Winners’ Cup.
This new bloated version of the Champions League saw an increase to 32 teams and a second group stage added, as Uefa bosses saw the $$$ signs flashing before their eyes.
In order to make up for this expansion something had to give, and it was the poor old Cup Winners’ Cup that bit the bullet. Since 1960 the competition had given some of the sides from outside Europe’s elite the chance for a bit of European glory, as the likes of Aberdeen, West Ham, Dinamo Tbilisi and even Spurs all picked up the trophy during it’s 39-year existence.
The tournament was originally conceived by a group of prominent European football journalists who jumped on the bandwagon of the European Cup and Fairs Cup, both of which had been pulling in the punters.
Ten clubs competed for the trophy in it’s first season, with Fiorentina outwitting Rangers in the two-legged final. Until it’s demise the competition was a proper, old-school straight knock-out affair with no seeded teams and no overblown group stages.
A cursory glance at the winners’ list sees some great names jump out at you: Danny Blanchflower’s Spurs side that became the first British team to win a European trophy, Joe Mercer’s attacking Manchester City team, the 1965 West Ham side that contained three of the players that would pick up the Jules Rimet a year later, Platini’s Juve team and Crujff’s vintage at Ajax that featured the likes of Van Basten and Dennis Bergkamp.
When the 1998/99 season drew to a close Sven’s Lazio took on Real Mallorca at Villa Park for the honour of being the final ever winners of the trophy and thanks to a late strike from Pavel Nedved took the cup back to Rome.
The Cup Winners’ Cup is also responsible for one half of north London’s favourite goals, when Nayim spotted David Seaman off the Arsenal goal-line in the last minute of extra time and stuck a speculative 40-yarder in the back of the net to win the game for Real Zaragoza in 1995.
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