The Latin Cup was an international football 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 to 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 club tournaments in Europe, namely 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 competi ...

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

History

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

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 foo ...

-sanctioned

. Real Madrid played in and won both the European Cup and the 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 having gone into decline after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The Latin Cup has been described one of the forerunners "of the European Cup" by UEFA. According to Jules Rimet, 3rd President of FIFA, the Latin Cup was a competition created by FIFA at 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 vs Torino at Chamartín Stadium of Madrid. One month before 18 of Torino players had died at Superga air disaster.

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern 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 ...

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

1950 FIFA World Cup The 1950 FIFA World Cup was the fourth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams and held in Brazil from 24 June to 16 July 1950. The planned 1942 and 1946 World Cups were ...

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

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, the fourth of Serie A, participated in the Latin Cup that year. In 1951, French runners-up Lille OSC 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 fifth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football tournament for senior men's national teams of the nations affiliated to FIFA. It was held in Switzerland from 16 June to 4 July. Switzer ...

in Switzerland, no Latin Cup was held that year (the participants would have been Real Madrid, Sporting CP, Lille OSC and Internazionale—the latter did not get another chance to enter). After the first four editions played, the Royal Spanish Football Federation won the first cycle with a total of twelve points, eight of them 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

Top scorers by year

References

External links

Latin Cup
on RSSSF {{Latin Cup Defunct international club association football competitions in Europe Recurring sporting events established in 1949 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 1957 1949 establishments in Europe 1957 disestablishments in Europe