The Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy was an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

competition that took place twice, in

Turin 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 ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, in 1909 and 1911. It is regarded as an early European trophy.The first European Trophy - 1909
on West Auckland Web It is predated by the

Torneo Internazionale Stampa Sportiva The Torneo Internazionale ''Stampa Sportiva'' (English language, English: ''The'' Sport Press ''International Tournament'') was an early international association football, football competition. Held in 1908, it predated the more famous Sir Thomas ...

, which was hosted in 1908 in Turin, and the Football World Championship, which took place between 1887 and 1902. Also seen as an international competition, but with the noted lack of an England team, Lipton in partnership with the Italian royal family, wanted to go one further and make a more complete tournament. While the actual

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

features international teams from around the world, the Lipton Cup, an invitational, only featured a few club sides from Europe.

Overview

Italy,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

sent their most prestigious club sides to the competition, but

The Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

refused to be associated with it and declined the offer to send a team. Not wishing to have

unrepresented in the competition,

Thomas Lipton Sir Thomas Johnstone Lipton, 1st Baronet (10 May 18482 October 1931) was a Scotsman of Irish parentage who was a self-made man, as company founder of Lipton Tea, merchant, philanthropist and yachtsman who lost 5 straight America's Cup races. ...

invited West Auckland FC, an amateur side from

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

and mostly made up of

coal miner Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extrac ...

s, to take part. The reason why this team was selected is unknown, although contemporary Italian reports of the team's achievements in the Northern League suggest confusion with the more successful

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham, England, Durham. M ...

. Reports that it was intended to send Woolwich Arsenal, but that West Auckland were invited instead as they shared the same initials and due to Lipton just leaving his secretary a note that said: "contact W.A.", are unlikely to be true; Italian reporting shows they were expecting a team from the Northern League. West Auckland won the tournament and returned to Italy in 1911 to defend their title. In this second competition, West Auckland beat the then amateur team

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

6–1 in the final, and were awarded the trophy outright. The development of football on other continents: Asia, Africa and the Americas was not very advanced and Europe was where the major football was happening.The World Cup Story
on West Auckland Town site (archived, 2 Feb 2017)
on Fortune City (archived, 16 Aug 2002) In January 1994 the original trophy, which was being held in West Auckland Working Men's Club, was stolen. An exact replica of the original trophy was commissioned and is now held by West Auckland FC.

1909 tournament

Participants

;Notes

Results

Semi-finals

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Third place match

----

Final

1911 tournament

Participants

Results

Semi-finals

----

Third place match

----

Final

West Auckland: J Robinson; Tom Wilson, Charlie Cassidy; Andy "Chips" Appleby, Michael Alderson, Bob "Drol" Moore; Fred Dunn, Joe Rewcastle, Bob Jones, Bob Guthrie, Charlie "Dirty" Hogg, T Riley, John Warick Officials: M S C Barron, E Meek, W Nolli, R Hodgson, R Chamberlain

In popular culture

Moving Adverts of Dubai has worked with video maker Rob Kilburn on an account of the story, ''Our Cup of Tea''.

Tyne Tees Television ITV Tyne Tees, previously known as Tyne Tees, Channel 3 North East and Tyne Tees Television, is the ITV (TV network), ITV television franchisee for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. Tyne Tees launched on 15 January 1959 from stu ...

produced a dramatisation of the story in 1982, '' The World Cup: A Captain's Tale''.

References

External links

''Our Cup of Tea''
the story of England's first world cup win – Narrated by Tim Healy on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

{{Use dmy dates, date=April 2020 1908–09 in European football 1910–11 in European football Defunct Italian football friendly trophies Defunct international club association football competitions in Europe 1908–09 in Italian football 1908–09 in English football 1908–09 in Swiss football 1910–11 in Italian football 1910–11 in English football 1910–11 in Swiss football 1908–09 in German football

Overview

1909 tournament

Participants

Results

Semi-finals

Third place match

Final

1911 tournament

Participants

Results

Semi-finals

Third place match

Final

In popular culture

See also

Further reading

References

External links