Coupe des Nations 1930

Coupe des Nations 1930 (English: "Cup of Nations") was a football tournament in the summer of 1930 in Geneva, Switzerland, organized by local club Servette FC. Servette had just won the Swiss championship, and organized this event as a counterpoint to the first World Cup held at the same time in Uruguay, to which only few European countries (Belgium, France, Romania and Yugoslavia) sent a team. The tournament also marked the inauguration of the Stade des Charmilles.

Some people regard this competition as a predecessor of UEFA Champions League, since it was the first organized competition for the national champion teams in Europe. The champions of all major European football nations of pre-war years were invited, except for the British nations, who were withdrawn from FIFA at the time.

The competition was won by Hungarian Újpest FC who scored 16 goals and conceded only 1 in 4 games. After winning the Coupe des Nations trophy, Újpest declared themselves 'Champion of the Champions'.

During the later years several attempts were made to create a tournament for the Champions of Europe. North-Italian cities were planning to host the competition in 1931, but it was abandoned due to financial reasons. [Nemzeti Sport, July 9, 1930, page 3.] Finally in 1937, during the Paris Expo a tournament was held as a successor of the Geneve tournament, but only two champion teams accepted the invitation. [http://www.rsssf.com/tablesc/colonialexpo37.html RSSSF - Tournoi International de l'Expo Universelle de Paris 1937] .] After the tournament Zürich, as the host of the 1939 Expo and Rome, the 1942 host made attempts to create the tournament, but both city's attempts were failed. [Nemzeti Sport, August 1, 1937, page 1.] The next time after 1930, when the major European champions were only called together after the 1954 creation of UEFA who started of the European Cup in 1955.

Participants

* First Vienna FC (cup winners; 3rd in league 1929/30)
* Cercle Brugge (national champions 1929/30)
* SK Slavia Praha (national champions 1929/30)
* FC Sète (cup winners 1929/30)
* SpVgg Fürth (national champions 1929)
* Újpest FC (national champions 1929/30)
* AGC Bologna (national champions 1928/29)
* Go Ahead (national champions 1929/30)
* Real Unión Irún (cup winners 1927; 6th in league 1929/30)
* Servette FC (national champions 1929/30)

"Notes:"
* Apparently Real Unión Irún were announced as Spanish champions 1929, which is most certainly wrong (they were 9th in the league 1928/29 and eliminated in the 1/16 finals of the domestic cup).

* Both Bologna and Irún had been allowed to field some players not actually with the club.

* The Greek and Norwegian FAs sent protest letters because their champions had not been invited.

*Bologna comes too late to the tournament, so the match versus Go Ahead was after the first game of the quarterfinals. The loser of the match gets a bye to the next round.

First Round

emifinals

Match details

footballbox
date = 1930-07-06
team1 = Újpest flagicon|HUN
score = 3 – 0
team2 = flagicon|TCH Slavia Prague
goals1 = János Köves goal|25 goal|64 goal|77
goals2 =
stadium = Stade des Charmilles, Geneva
attendance = 22,000
referee = Stanley Rous flagicon|ENG

Final classification

* 1. Újpest
* 2. Slavia
* 3. First Vienna
* 4. Servette
* 5-8. Bologna, Fürth, Irún and Go Ahead
* 9-10. Cercle and Sète

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.rsssf.com/tablesc/coupedesnations30.html RSSSF Coupe des Nations 1930]