European Cup Winners' Cup | The Lost Competition


The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was my favourite European competition for a long time, and even now I will find myself perusing through winners and finalists, famous games and moments. There was just something special about that European competition, something that I’ve feel the UEFA Cup/Europa League has always lacked. It retained a certain aura, similar (within reason) to that special sense of majesty the Champions League will always have.




A short bio might be in order. After all the Cup Winners' Cup ended in 1999, so it’s now 25 years without such a wonderful competition with many modern football fans not alive while to see it played. This competition was contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions (FA Cup, Copa del Rey, etc), so it opened the door for clubs that wouldn’t usually play European competitions. It truly was a magnificent experience for any fan of lesser known clubs and players. Although some of biggest clubs in Europe found themselves as winners of this competition like Barcelona, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Ajax, AC Milan and others, it did provide that sweet European success to clubs that still haven’t won other competitions; just look at this wonderful list of winners – Dynamo Kyiv (74/75 and 85/86), Rangers (71/72), Arsenal (93/94), Fiorentina (60/61), Sampdoria (89/90), PSG (95/96), Magdeburg (73/74), Slovan Bratislava (68/69), Dinamo Tbilisi (80/81), Aberdeen (82/83), Everton (84/85), KV Mechelen (87/88), Werder Bremen (91/92), Zaragoza (94/95), Lazio (98/99). This is like a dream list in terms of different football styles and attitudes. Eastern, British, Central and Southern European football are represented.

Perhaps the greatest quality of the Cup Winners' Cup was in its unpredictability. Truly a unique tournament, its list of winners highlights the variety of the competition. The Champions League/European Cup on the other hand could only dream of matching such variation despite being around since 1955. It has seen 23 clubs, from 10 different nations lift the trophy with The Europa League/UEFA Cup seeing 30 winners from 11 different nations since 1971. The Cup Winners Cup was around from 1960 to 1999 and saw 32 clubs from 12 different nations lift the trophy. This demonstrates how almost anything was possible in this wonderful competition. Another amazing stat; both the Champions League and Europa League saw clubs winning it back to back, that never happened in the Cup Winners' Cup, so it was guaranteed we were going to see a different winner every season.

We are now going to take a trip down memory lane, with a few interesting finals. The 1982/83 final, saw Aberdeen beat Real Madrid (just reading these words, makes you smile, because how unthinkable it sounds), and coaching these teams, we had Sir Alex Ferguson (building up his truly legendary career as a manager) and Alfredo Di Stefano (one of the biggest names ever in our game). The 1995/96 final saw PSG beat Rapid Wien, with legends of the game like Rai, Djorkaeff, Dely Valdes, Bernard Lama, Michael Konsel, Jancker amongst others in the starting line ups. The 1989/90 final saw Sampdoria beat Anderlecht, with players like Pagliuca, Vierchowod, Carboni, Katanec, Vialli, Mancini, Lombardo, Degryse, Luc Nilis, Milan Jankovic on the pitch. 

The 1993/94 final pitted Arsenal against Parma, with football greats like Seaman, Tony Adams, Kevin Campbell, Paul Merson, Benarrivo, Roberto Sensini, Thomas Brolin, Zola, Faustino Asprilla fighting for the trophy. The 1985/86 final saw Dynamo Kyiv beat Atletico Madrid, with players like Ubaldo Fillol, Roberto Marina, Demyanenko, Zavarov, Igor Belanov, Oleg Blokhin facing each other.

I could go on and on with examples like these, to show the variety but also the quality of the teams and players that played throughout the years to lift this trophy. The last example I will give, is the last ever final, in 1999, with Lazio beating Mallorca 2-1, with players like Carlos Roa, Marcelino, Lauren, Jovan Stankovic, Ibagaza, Biagini, Paunovic representing the Spanish side, and Nesta, Mihajlovic, Dejan Stankovic, Matias Almeyda, Nedved, Marcelo Salas, Vieri, Fernando Couto playing of the Italian team. These are some of the last players to ever play in this competition and that in itself is a badge of honor.

The Cup Winners' Cup was destined to end, once the Champions League opened up to even more teams from the biggest leagues, which led to a decrease in the quality of teams playing, and with that a sharp decrease in terms of public interest, and once you lose the public, the money goes as well and that is the death of any modern football competition. Understandable of course, but this fan right here never lost his interest in this wonderful European competition. A competition where it felt like a surprise was always possible (and most of the times, it did happen). I confess, I have strong hope for the Conference League to be the metaphysical heir to this competition, because we all need to feel like it’s possible for smaller clubs to reach European glory (unfortunately that is now impossible in the Champions League) and even in the Europa League it’s becoming harder and harder for surprises to happen (the last time a team outside the Big 5 leagues won it, was back in 2010/11, with FC Porto…). So I’m hoping the Conference League can keep that door open for teams outside the big leagues. After all, these competitions are called EUROPEAN competitions, and not BIG 5 competitions.

I wanted to pay homage to my favourite competition, and although that would take more than an article like this, it makes me feel happy inside, that I’ve written this about the glorious Cup Winners Cup. Some of us still miss you!

This piece was kindly written for @TFHBs by Jonee Joao. You can follow him on Twitter @Jonee13
©The Football History Boys, 2023

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