Anglo-Italian Cup

The Anglo-Italian Cup (or Anglo-Italian Inter-League Clubs Competition)^[1] is a defunct European football competition that was played intermittently between 1970 and 1996 between clubs from England and Italy. Founded by Gigi Peronace in 1970, following the success of the Anglo-Italian League Cup, it was played as a professional tournament until 1973. Swindon Town were the first victors in a match that was abandoned early due to violence. During its time the tournament had a reputation for violence between fans,^[2][3] but it returned as a semi-professional tournament in 1976 and was known as the Alitalia Challenge Cup, Talbot Challenge Cup and Gigi Peronace Memorial before it was abolished again in 1986. The tournament was re-established in 1992 as replacement for the Full Members Cup. The professional event for second tier clubs ran for four seasons before being abandoned due to fixture congestion. The trophy was a 22-inch (56 cm) high gold loving cup mounted on a wooden plinth.^[4][5]

History

Professional era

Year	Winner	Runner-up
1970	Swindon Town	Napoli
1971	Blackpool	Bologna
1972	AS Roma	Blackpool
1973	Newcastle United	Fiorentina

The Football League Cup was changed in 1967 so that the winner would additionally receive a place in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.^[6] However, when Queens Park Rangers won the final that year, they were in the Third Division and, at that time, UEFA did not allow third-tier teams to compete in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.^[2][7] When another Third Division club, Swindon Town, won the 1969 Football League Cup, the Anglo-Italian League Cup was organised as a way of compensating Swindon for the ruling that prevented them competing in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup,^[2] and Swindon won a two-legged match against that year's Coppa Italia champions A.S. Roma.^[8] Following the popularity of that event,^[2] and as a way to generate income to pay players' wages during the extended close season caused by the 1970 FIFA World Cup,^[1] the first Anglo-Italian Cup was inaugurated the following season. For the first competition there were six English teams: Swindon Town, Sheffield Wednesday, Middlesbrough, West Bromwich Albion, Sunderland and Wolverhampton Wanderers, and six Italian teams: Napoli, Juventus, Roma, Fiorentina, Lazio and Vicenza.^[2] These teams were split into three groups consisting of two English and two Italian teams each,^[9] with two points being awarded for a win, one point for a draw, and a point for each goal scored.^[1][10][11] The final was contested between the best team from each country, and Swindon played Napoli at the Stadio San Paolo on 28 May 1970. Swindon were 3–0 up after 63 minutes, when violence started to break out. The match to be abandoned after 79 minutes, with Swindon being declared as the first winners of the tournament.^[2][9]

The next year, after the group matches, Blackpool and Bologna were the two nations' best ranked teams and contested a final at the Stadio Renato Dall'Ara on 12 June 1971. Prior to the match, tournament organiser Gigi Peronace stressed that it was imperative for an Italian club to win back the trophy.^[12] After 90 minutes the score was 1–1 and the match went into extra-time, during which Micky Burns scored the winning goal for Blackpool.^[4] Blackpool qualified for the final again the following year, but were unsuccessful in their defense of the title, with Roma winning 3–1.^[4] In 1973, points were no longer awarded for each goal scored, and Newcastle United went on to win the final 2–1 against Fiorentina at the Stadio Artemio Franchi on 3 June 1973.^[13][14] Due to lack of interest the tournament did not continue,^[4] and it was not until 1976 that it re-emerged as a semi-professional competition.^[3]

Semi-professional era

Year	Winner	Runner-up
1976	Monza	Wimbledon
1977	Lecco	Bath City
1978	Udinese	Bath City
1979	Sutton United	Chieti
1980	Triestina	Sutton United
1981	Modena	Poole Town
1982	Modena	Sutton United
1983	Cosenza	Padova
1984	Francavilla	Teramo
1985	Pontedera	Livorno
1986	Piacenza Calcio	Pontedera

In March 1976, the Anglo-Italian Cup was re-introduced as a semi-professional tournament, with six entrants from each country. Wimbledon and Monza reached the final, with Monza winning the final 1–0, making them unbeaten for the tournament.^[15][16] For the next two years Bath City were the English finalists but they lost to Lecco in 1977,^[17] and Udinese in 1978,^[18] when the tournament was renamed the Alitalia Challenge Cup.^[19] In 1979, each country had four entrants and Sutton United defeated Italian finalists Chieti 2–1 to become the first and only English winners of the competition during its time as a semi-professional competition.^[20] Attempting to defend their title the following year, Sutton United reached the final but were defeated by Triestina.^[21] In 1981, the tournament was called the Talbot Challenge Cup and Modena were the winners.^[19][22] The following year the tournament was renamed the Gigi Peronace Memorial, after the man who organised the tournament,^[19][23] and reduced to four teams. The new format consisted of two Anglo-Italian semi-finals, which meant the final was not necessarily contested by an English and an Italian team. That year, Modena successfully defended their title in a final against Sutton United,^[24] who were the last English team to reach the final of the semi-professional tournament. For the next four years the finals were all-Italian contests, and after the 1986 instalment the tournament was abolished.

Professional tournament again

Year	Winner	Runner-up
1992–93	Cremonese	Derby County
1993–94	Brescia	Notts County
1994–95	Notts County	Ascoli
1995–96	Genoa	Port Vale

The competition was re-established in 1992–93 as a replacement for the Full Members Cup.^[5][2] It was a professional tournament for teams competing in the second tier of football—the newly-renamed First Division in England and Serie B in Italy.^[3] In the preliminary rounds, 24 English teams competed in 8 groups. Each team played the other two teams in its group once, and the winner of each group went through to the main competition. The main competition consisted of two groups each with four English, and four Italian teams. Each team played all the teams in its group from the other nation, and after all matches had been played the best English team in each group played each other in a semi-final, with the best two Italian teams competing in the other semi-final.^[25] The final was a single match played at Wembley, and Derby County lost the 1993 final 3–1 to Cremonese.^[26] Brescia won the final in 1994 against Notts County, but Notts County reached the final again in 1995 and defeated Ascoli 2–1.^[5] The last instalment of the competition was held in 1995–96, and Genoa triumphed 5–2 over Port Vale in the final on 17 March 1996.^[27] The competition was abandoned in 1996 because the two leagues could not agree on dates for fixtures,^[28] and due to increasing violence at matches.^[3]

See also

• Anglo-Italian League Cup – a two legged-fixture contested from 1969–1976 between the Italian Coppa Italia winner and the English League Cup winner (1969–71) or the FA Cup champion (1975–76).
• Coppa Ottorino Barassi – a two legged-fixture contested from 1968–1976 between the Italian Coppa Italia Dilettanti winner and the English FA Amateur Cup winner (1968–74) or the Isthmian League Second Division champion (1975–76).

References

External links

• Anglo-Italian Cup history on RSSSF