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 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

competition that took place twice, in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) 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 ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, 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: ''The'' Sport Press ''International Tournament'') was an early international football competition. Held in 1908, it predated the more famous Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy by a year. Organised by ...

, which was hosted in 1908 in Turin, and the

Football World Championship The Football World Championship, also known as the United Kingdom Championship or the International Club Championship, was a exhibition association football match played between the English and Scottish club champions on a regular, but not annual ...

, 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 simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

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 is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

sent their most prestigious club sides to the competition, but

The Football Association The Football Association (also known as 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 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

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 Ulster-Scots parentage who was a self-made man, as company founder of Lipton Tea, merchant, philanthropist and yachtsman who lost 5 straight America's Cup ...

invited West Auckland FC, an amateur side from

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

and mostly made up of

coal miner Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use c ...

s, to take part. The reason why this team was selected is unknown. Some verbal tradition in West Auckland was that the FA intended to send Woolwich Arsenal but West Auckland were invited instead as they shared the same initials. 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 la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

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

----

Third place match

----

Final

1911 tournament

Participants

Results

Semi-finals

----

Third place match

----

Final

West Auckland Town: J Robinson; Tom Wilson, Charlie Cassidy; Andy "Chips" Appleby, Michael Alderson, Bob "Drol" Moore; Fred Dunn, Joes Recastle, 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 franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. Tyne Tees launched on 15 January 1959 from stud ...

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 a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

{{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