This tournament, officially known as Coupe Internationale européenne (International European Cup) was originally conceived by the legendary Austrian Hugo Meisl and was played between five central european nations: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Italy and Switzerland (in the last edition Yugoslavia also entered). At the time of its introduction, the first four of these had introduced professional football and were the leading football nations on the European continent by a wide margin, their best club teams entering the Mitropa Cup.
It was contested six times but the fourth edition was abandoned due to the Anschluß of Austria to Nazi Germany. The trophy on offer was donated by Antonín Švehla, the then prime minister of Czechoslovakia, and named after him (Švehla Cup). Before the sixth and final edition, it was renamed Dr. Gerö Cup, after the former president of the Austria FA Dr. Josef Gerö, who had died suddenly in 1954.
Played as a league on a home and away basis, it usually took more than two years to complete; the last two, post-war editions took more than five years to finish. It was discontinued in 1960, when the European Championship started.
Parallel to the first three editions, an amateur competition (Coupe de l'Europe Centrale pour Amateurs) was held on two occasions, in which the amateur teams of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary played together with the full national teams of Poland (in the first edition) and Romania (in the second edition).
Year Winner Runners-up 1927-30 ITALY Austria and Czechoslovakia (tied) 1931-32 AUSTRIA Italy 1933-35 ITALY Austria 1936-37 abandoned 1948-53 HUNGARY Czechoslovakia 1954-60 CZECHOSLOVAKIA Hungary
Country Wins 2nd 3rd Italy 2 1 Austria 1 2 2 Czechoslovakia 1 2 Hungary 1 1 2 NB: two 2nd places (and no 3rd) in the first edition
Year Winner Runners-up 1929-30 POLAND Hungary Amateur 1931-34 ROMANIA Hungary Amateur
Prepared and maintained by Macario Reyes for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
Author: Macario Reyes
(copasmundiales@yahoo.com)
Last updated: 21 Apr 2011
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