1955-1956 European Cups

European Champion Club's Cup

The Tournament

The idea of European Club Tournament belongs to Gabriel Hanot, a sport journalist from L'Equipe. He was proposing that each country should nominate a club, play the matches in midweek with both home and away games. The points awarded would be like in league games. The idea got a positive response from some nations, but most of them were in favour of a knockout style tournament.
L'Equipe approached 18 clubs to participate: SK Rapid Wien (AUT), RSC Anderlechtois Bruxelles (BEL), TJ Sparta ČKD Praha (CZE), KB København (DEN), Chelsea FC London (ENG), Real Madrid CF (ESP), Stade de Reims (FRA), SC Rot Weiss Essen (GER), Vörös Lobogó Budapest (HUN), Milan AC (ITA), Holland Sport (NED), Sporting CP Lisboa (POR), 1.FC Saarbrücken (SAA), Hibernian FC Edinburgh (SCO), Servette FC Genève (SUI), Malmö FF (SWE), FK Dinamo Moskva (URS), and FK Partizan Beograd (YUG).
When the organization was getting more and more complex, L'Equipe asked FIFA and UEFA to take over. But, both refused. L'Equipe went ahead and invited 18 teams to Paris for a meeting. Czechoslavakia and URSS chose not to participate. Malmö FF was replaced with Djurgårdens IF Stockholm. The Hungarian representative would be either Honvéd SE Budapest or Vörös Lobogó Budapest. The draw for the first round was also done at the meeting.
By now almost everybody wanted the tournament but FIFA and UEFA. Countries like Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, and Turkey wanted to join as well, But, all they got was a promise for the next year.
Then, a month later FIFA decided to sanction the tournament, if organised by UEFA and the national federations allow the clubs to participate. But, they didn't like the name European Cup, as suggested by L'Equipe.
Finally, UEFA had to give in and took the ownership with the L'Equipe rules, draw, entries. But, eventually Holland Sport was replaced by PSV Eindhoven, KB København with AGF Århus. Vörös Lobogó Budapest was confirmed as Hungarian entry. Chelsea FC London couldn't get the approval of the English FA. Poland's Gwardia Warszawa took their place.
The competition is named as European Champion Clubs' Cup, even though about half of the clubs were not the champions of their countries.

The Format

The clubs to play two games for each round - home & away. The aggregate score decides the winner. If there is a tie, two 15-minutes periods are added to the second game. If the tie is not broken, then a third game is played at a neutral venue. If the tie still exists, then a coin toss decides the winner.