The 1955–56 European Cup was the first season of the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

's premier club

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

tournament. The tournament was won by

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

, who defeated Stade de Reims 4–3 in the final at

Parc des Princes Parc des Princes () is an all-seater stadium, all-seater Association football, football stadium in Paris, France, in the south-west of the French capital, inside the 16th arrondissement of Paris, 16th arrondissement, near the Stade Jean-Bouin ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, on 13 June 1956. The participating clubs in the first five seasons of the European Cup were selected by French football magazine '' L'Equipe'' on the basis that they were representative and prestigious clubs in Europe. When the tournament started,

Anderlecht Anderlecht (, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, and Saint-Gilles, as well as the ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Rot-Weiss Essen Rot-Weiss Essen is a German association football club based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club currently plays in the 3. Liga, at the Stadion an der Hafenstraße. The team won the DFB-Pokal in 1953, and the German championship in 195 ...

, Stade de Reims,

Djurgården Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, ''Kungliga Djurgården'' (), is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Djurgården is home to historical buildings and monuments, museums, galleries, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open-air museum ...

and

AGF Aarhus Aarhus Gymnastikforening (; commonly known as AGF ), is a professional sports club based in Aarhus, Jutland, Denmark. Founded in 1880, it is one of the oldest clubs in the country and gymnastics and fencing are featured as its main sports. Howev ...

were the reigning champions of their respective national leagues. English champions

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

initially agreed to compete and were drawn against Swedish side Djurgården; however, under pressure from

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

, who saw the tournament as a distraction to domestic football, they later withdrew from the competition, and were replaced by

Gwardia Warszawa Gwardia Warszawa was a Polish sports club based in Warsaw. The club was founded in 1948. It participated in the Polish 1st League from 1953–1960 (8 seasons), 1962–1966 (5 seasons), 1967–1968, 1969–1975, 1978–1979 and 1981–1983. The ...

of Poland. Scottish champions

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

withdrew under similar circumstances. In addition,

Holland Sport Scheveningse Voetbal Vereniging Scheveningen is an association football club from Scheveningen, a district of The Hague, Netherlands. The club was founded 1 July 1919. It is currently playing in the Tweede Divisie, the third tier of football in ...

, Honvéd and AB rejected the opportunity to represent the Netherlands, Hungary and Denmark respectively, being replaced by

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, w ...

, Vörös Lobogó and

(PSV and Vörös Lobogó becoming the last teams until 1997–98 to qualify for the European Cup not by either winning a domestic league or being current title holders). This was also the only UEFA tournament to include a representative of

Saarland The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...

, unified into West Germany in 1957. The first round pairings were fixed by the organisers and not drawn as would be the case for all future European Cup matches.

Teams

Bracket

First round

First leg

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Second leg

''Real Madrid won 7–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Partizan won 8–5 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Hibernian won 5–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Djurgården won 4–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Vörös Lobogó won 10–4 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Reims won 4–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Rapid Wien won 6–2 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Milan won 7–5 on aggregate.''

Quarter-finals

First leg

---- ---- ---- Note – differences in information: RSSSF website indicates that the goal scored on 26 minute was scored by Robert Körner, while UEFA website indicates that it was scored by Alfred Körner

Second leg

''Hibernian won 4–1 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Reims won 8–6 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Real Madrid won 4–3 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Milan won 8–3 on aggregate.''

Semi-finals

First leg

----

Second leg

''Reims won 3–0 on aggregate.'' ---- ''Real Madrid won 5–4 on aggregate.''

Final

Top goalscorers

Notes

External links

1955–56 season at UEFA website1955–56 All matches – season at UEFA website
* All scorers 1955–56 European Cup according t
protocols UEFA
*

– results and line-ups (archive) {{DEFAULTSORT:1955-56 European Cup 1955–56 in European football European Champion Clubs' Cup seasons