International Cup


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).


Palmares

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

Medal Table

 
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

Central European Cup for Amateurs

Year     Winner            Runners-up
1929-30  POLAND            Hungary Amateur
1931-34  ROMANIA           Hungary Amateur

About this document

Prepared and maintained by Macario Reyes for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation

Author: Macario Reyes (copasmundiales@yahoo.com)
Last updated: 21 Apr 2011

(C) Copyright Macario Reyes and RSSSF 1995/2011
You are free to copy this document in whole or part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the author. All rights reserved.