The Latin Cup was an international official

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

tournament for club sides from the Southwest European nations of France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. In 1949, the football federations came together and requested

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

launch the competition. European clubs could not afford hefty travel costs, so competition was staged at the end of every season in a single host country. The competition featured two semi-finals, a third-place play-off, and a final.La curiosa aventura de la Copa Latina
by Alfredo Relaño on ''El País'', 25 September 2016 This competition is considered a predecessor of European club tournaments, namely the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

,Goals, not coal, for Kopa
on UEFA website, 4 February 2011 the first edition of which was held in 1955.

and

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

recently validated the official status of the Latin Cup, which explains its inclusion in Real Madrid's list of achievements.

History

The tournament began in 1949 and was usually played between the league champions of each participating country. Every four years, the countries' ranking would be determined based on their sides' performances in the Latin Cup. The competition was last played in 1957, two years after the introduction of the

-sanctioned

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

played and won the European Cup and Latin Cup in 1957. Prior to the introduction of the European Cup, the Latin Cup was considered the most important cup for clubs in Europe, the longer-established

Mitropa Cup The Mitropa Cup, officially called Coupe de l'Europe Centrale, Mitteleuropäischer Pokal or Central European Cup, was one of the first international major European association football, football cups for club sides. It was conducted among the suc ...

having gone into decline after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The Latin Cup has been described one of the forerunners "of the European Cup" by UEFA. According to

Jules Rimet Jules Rimet (; 14 October 1873 – 16 October 1956) was a French football administrator who was the 3rd President of FIFA, serving from 1921 to 1954. He is FIFA's longest-serving president, in office for 33 years. He also served as the pres ...

, 3rd President of

, the Latin Cup was a competition created by FIFA at the request of the four nations that contested it, but its regulation was made by a committee composed of members from the competing federations, and FIFA did not participate actively in its organisation. The Latin Cup was based on cycles of 4 years, being held in one country each year. The champion of each edition achieved the most points (4) to its Federation while teams placed 2nd, 3rd, and 4th received 3, 2, and 1 points, respectively. Moreover, the Federation, which totalised the most points every four years, received the trophy, while the champion club was given a smaller replica of it. The first edition was opened on 20 June 1949, with the

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

at Chamartín Stadium of Madrid. One month before 18 of Torino players had died at

Superga air disaster The Superga air disaster (, "Tragedy of Superga") occurred on 4 May 1949, when a Fiat G.212 of Avio Linee Italiane (Italian Airlines), carrying the entire Torino F.C., Torino association football, football team (popularly known as the ''Grande ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

would be the first champion of the tournament after beating Sporting 2–1 at the final. The second edition clashed with the

1950 FIFA World Cup The 1950 FIFA World Cup was the 4th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held in Brazil from 24 June to 16 July 1950. It was the first Wo ...

of Brazil, so most of the players of the league champions were called up by their respective national teams. Therefore, that year,

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

, the fourth of Serie A, participated in the Latin Cup. In 1951, French runners-up

Lille OSC Lille Olympique Sporting Club (), commonly referred to as LOSC, LOSC Lille or simply Lille, is a French professional association football, football club based in Lille, Northern France competing in Ligue 1, the top division of Football in Franc ...

replaced French champions Nice, who relinquished the 1951 Latin Cup in order to play the Copa Rio. Due to a fixture clash with the

1954 FIFA World Cup The 1954 FIFA World Cup was the 5th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football tournament for senior men's national teams of the nations affiliated to FIFA. It was held in Switzerland from 16 June ...

in Switzerland, no Latin Cup was held that year (the participants would have been Real Madrid,

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

, and Internazionale—the latter did not get another chance to enter). After the first four editions played, the

Royal Spanish Football Federation The Royal Spanish Football Federation (; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. Founded on 29 September 1913, it is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas de Madrid, Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid. RFEF organizes the natio ...

won the first cycle with twelve points, eight of which were contributed by Barcelona and four by Atlético Madrid.

Results

All teams were champions of the preceding domestic season in each nation, except where it indicates, detailing their finishing position in respective leagues.

Titles by club

Titles by country

Individual records

* Most goals: 7 – Gunnar Nordahl * Most assists: 6 –

Gunnar Gren Johan Gunnar Gren (; 31 October 1920 – 10 November 1991) was a Swedish professional association football, football player and coach. He is best remembered for playing for IFK Göteborg and AC Milan. A second striker, creative forward, known f ...

History

Results

Titles by club

Titles by country

Individual records

Top scorers by year

See also

References

External links

Further reading