Intertoto Cup: WTF?!
FFT recalls the wacky curiosity that baffled English football
English clubs were among those particularly reluctant to be associated with European football’s ugly cousin in the mid- 90s, making for bizarre scenes and grim batterings on a regular basis.
But it sure was fun while it lasted – for some of its teams, anyway
Fewer than 2,000 curious souls were gathered at Brighton’s Goldstone Ground in late June 1995, to witness the moment it all began: Wimbledon Reserves 0 Bursaspor 4.
British football’s eccentric relationship with the Intertoto Cup was off to an inauspicious start, featuring a club that didn’t want to be there, and would never play in Europe again.
Only taking part so they wouldn’t face UEFA sanctions, Wimbledon ended up fielding such a weakened team that they were banned from Europe altogether.
“I’d never heard of the Intertoto Cup before that,” remembers John O’kane, part of that team. “It was a very strange experience.”
But such was life in the tournament once marketed by UEFA as having “no final, no winner and no trophy” – as if that was somehow a selling point. Instead, it brought oddities like European football in Rotherham, Spurs losing 8- 0, Dean Windass in Lithuania and the sorry lost kits of Partick Thistle.
The continent’s most maligned tournament lasted for nearly half a century... and rarely was it boring.
“IT WAS A BIT OF A TRAUMA…”
The Intertoto Cup launched 60 years ago, well before British clubs first took part.
Originally, it was largely the brainchild of FIFA vice- president Ernst Thommen, who managed a football pools company in Switzerland and wanted meaningful matches for punters to bet on during the summer months. Reluctant to endorse a tournament purely arranged for betting purposes, UEFA refused to get officially involved, but decided not to prevent keen bean Thommen from organising it himself.
The competition commenced in June 1961, featuring teams from Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, West Germany, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Sweden. The format was almost identical to the Champions League – eight groups of four, although only the group winners progressed to the quarter- finals.
Ten months later, the final was won by an Englishman – Keith Spurgeon bossed Ajax to victory over Feyenoord in front of 40,000 fans in Amsterdam, two years after he’d ended a non- league playing career with Herne Bay, Snowdown Colliery Welfare and Clapton.
The first edition of the tournament was known prosaically as the International Football Cup ( a level of imagination not seen again until Cardiff City opened the Cardiff City Stadium in 2009), but it later became the Intertoto Cup – ‘ toto’ being the German word for betting pools.
Slovnaft Bratislava triumphed at the next two editions, although things started to get complicated in 1964 when UEFA banned any clubs competing in the European Cup or Fairs Cup from taking part in the Intertoto’s first knockout round, which was held during the season. Initially, the solution was to give those teams a bye to the next round, but Dutch side DWS were still in the European Cup by then, so were forced to withdraw.
When Gornik Zabrze and Vorwarts Berlin also had to pull out for similar reasons two years later, a decision was taken to change the format from 1967 onwards – scrapping the knockout rounds and holding only the summer group stage, meaning that the competition no longer had a single winner. It continued that way for almost 30 years, with an ever- expanding number of nations represented – but no British involvement until UEFA opted to wrestle control of the tournament in 1995. The knockout rounds were restored, with two eventual winners earning spots in the UEFA Cup.
Ten countries still didn’t enter, although the FA accepted three of the Intertoto’s 60 places, having received indications earlier in the season that most Premier League clubs would be interested. When those same sides were actually offered the places, however, it soon became clear that no one was up for it; clubs were unwilling to bring their players back from holiday for a group stage that began in June. Sheffield Wednesday – 13th in the standings that season – were the only team still open to the idea, before eventually saying no as well.
The FA and Premier League were getting ready to share a fine of £ 150,000 – each withdrawal would cost £ 50,000 – until an irritated UEFA ramped up the pressure and threatened to ban all English clubs from Europe. A scramble swiftly ensued to find three teams, any teams, to somehow take part. Wednesday agreed, while Tottenham and Wimbledon – seventh and ninth in that year’s table – were dragged kicking and screaming, despite managers Gerry Francis and Joe Kinnear being dead against it.
Thus followed a farce. Wednesday fielded a strong outfit featuring Chris Waddle, Dan Petrescu and Mark Bright for the five- club group stage, narrowly missing out on progression to a Karlsruhe side who boasted Slaven Bilic among their ranks ( the match between the two sides reffed by none other than Pierluigi Collina). The Owls ended up playing their home matches in front of pitiful attendances at Rotherham’s Millmoor, since Hillsborough was undergoing renovation in preparation for Euro 96.
Spurs and Wimbledon, who both switched their games to Brighton’s Goldstone Ground because of ongoing pitch repairs at White Hart Lane and Selhurst Park respectively, approached team selection very differently – opting for a mix of youngsters and loanees, specially drafted in to fulfil the fixtures.
Tottenham fielded emerging teenagers like Stephen Carr and Jamie Clapham, but also borrowed Mark Newson from Barnet, Ian Sampson from Northampton, David Byrne from St Mirren and a 33- year- old Alan Pardew from Charlton. The north Londoners were beaten 2- 0 by Swiss side Luzern in front of 2,497 in Brighton, and although they won at Rudar Velenje in Slovenia, Spurs then went down to little- known Swedish visitors Oster before closing their campaign with an 8- 0 hammering at Köln – an all- time club record defeat. “We played their first team and had no chance,” Pardew told recalling that demoralising night against Dorinel Munteanu, Toni Polster, Bodo Illgner & Co. “It was a bit of a trauma.”
For Wimbledon, who had missed out on a place in the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1988 because of the ban, there were opportunities for young players like Lenny Piper, Iain Laidlaw and Jason Euell, while
Michael Appleton, John O’kane and Graeme Tomlinson were each loaned to them from Manchester United.
“It came out of the blue,” O’kane tells FFT. “Alex Ferguson wanted three players to go and help out at Wimbledon – we thought we were joining up with the first team, but got there and it was a youth and reserve setup. We went there for experience – or probably it was to get us out of the way!”
The trio were all in the starting line- up as Wimbledon became the first British club to begin their Intertoto campaign, at home to Turkish side Bursaspor on June 24. They were beaten 4- 0, before travelling to Slovakia for a game against Kosice.
“Either the night before or two nights before the game, we went out on the piss – I can still remember us all in this nightclub, buying bottles of champagne for about £ 2,” laughs O’kane. “It was quite laid- back.”
The Dons drew 1- 1, before a 13- day wait for their next fixture. “The Wimbledon tennis was on, and some of us were having a drink in the town centre,” recalls the ex- full- back, 20 at the time. “Somehow we met [ former decathlete] Daley Thompson at one point, and he got us into Top of the Pops randomly! The three of us went, but when we got to the studio, they said, ‘ You’ve got to dance’. We were footballers trying to be cool, thinking, ‘ F** king no chance are we dancing’. So we stood at the side and watched, then went for a night out. I don’t remember much about the games that we played, but it was a good experience.”
Only 702 people watched Wimbledon scrape a goalless draw with Beitar Jerusalem at the Goldstone, before a 3- 0 loss at Belgian side Charleroi ended their winless campaign. Neither they nor Spurs finished bottom of their groups, but their team selections had frustrated UEFA to such an extent that the governing body slapped both of them with a one- year ban from European competition. The suspensions were later lifted on appeal – neither qualified that season anyway, but England were docked one UEFA Cup place as part of the punishment, which subsequently denied a disgruntled Everton their Fair Play spot for 1996- 97.
“SOMEHOW, WE MET DALEY THOMPSON AND HE GOT US INTO TOP OF THE POPS.
I DON’T REMEMBER MUCH OF THE GAMES”
ZIZOU, ARSHAVIN AND A WKWARD RETURNS
Partick Thistle also became the first Scottish side to compete in the Intertoto Cup in 1995, despite narrowly avoiding relegation from the top flight that year. They too had come second bottom of their group, having endured a less- than- ideal start when their kit went missing en route to Austria and LASK Linz. Welsh team Ton Pentre were thrashed 7- 0 by Jon Dahl Tomasson and Heerenveen at Cardiff Arms Park.
Zinedine Zidane’s Bordeaux were one of the two winners of that season’s Intertoto Cup, eventually making it all the way to the UEFA Cup final. In the 13 years that followed, six English clubs would reach the UEFA Cup via the same route – although the next team actually prepared to play was Crystal Palace in 1998... when they had just finished bottom of the Premier League.
With the Intertoto’s group stage scrapped by then, Palace crashed out to Turkish club Samsunspor in their opening round 4- 0 on aggregate, and went on to finish 14th in the second tier that season.
West Ham fared better in 1999: Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and Joe Cole helped the Hammers beat Jokerit, Heerenveen and Metz to reach the UEFA Cup. Juventus joined them as Intertoto winners that season, just months after they’d fluffed a two- goal lead against Manchester United in the semi- finals of the Champions League.
Bradford took part in 2000, having narrowly stayed up on the final day of the Premier League season. Complete with Stuart Mccall and Dean Windass in their side, the Bantams faced Atlantas of Lithuania and Martin Jol’s Waalwijk, before losing to Zenit – who gave a first- team debut to teenage starlet Andrey Arshavin at Valley Parade.
Aston Villa were among the Intertoto Cup winners in 2001, and a year later there was similar success for Fulham, making their first ever appearance in Europe after coming 13th in the Premier League – seizing the chance when clubs above them didn’t.
“It’s still a great memory for me,” insists Zat Knight, a young defender attempting to become a first- team regular back then. “The Intertoto Cup wasn’t fashionable and some of the boys were annoyed to be in it, especially when we were going to teams they had never heard of. Every footballer wants as long an off- season as possible.
“But our manager Jean Tigana had a different mindset of ‘ why not go into it?’ If you win it, you get into the UEFA Cup, and if you don’t, you’ve had competitive pre- season matches. I was excited about it – I thought I’d probably get some games. I remember going to Finland for the first round, where they have nearly 24 hours of daylight in summer. It was 10pm or 11pm and it was bright outside – it was weird...”
The home leg against FC Haka was no less strange – a bumper crowd of Fulham fans thought they’d said farewell to the old terraced Craven Cottage at the end of the Premier League season two months earlier, ahead of a groundshare at Loftus Road. Their beloved stadium was due to be substantially redeveloped, with the possibility Mohamed Al- Fayed might instead build a new one.
When the Intertoto Cup opportunity came about, though, Loftus Road wasn’t actually ready; Fulham needed to make a brief and slightly awkward return to the Cottage, in front of fewer than 8,000 fans against Finnish opposition. Only 5,000 were there a fortnight later against Greek side Egaleo, before they eventually moved to Loftus Road for the next round against Sochaux.
In the final, Knight would go head to head with Serie A legend Beppe Signori, as Fulham took on Bologna. “Coming up against Signori, I was testing myself as a young defender, so to come out on top was great,” he recalls of a 5- 3 aggregate win where Junichi Inamoto scored four goals. “The experience helped me in my career, although it was pretty funny when we won because the trophy was about the same size as a deodorant. All those games, and that was the trophy we got!”
The competition format changed again in 2006, when Newcastle were one of 11 clubs to make it from the Intertoto Cup to the UEFA Cup – only needing to win a solitary round against Lillestrom to get there. They were crowned that season’s sole Intertoto winner months later, on the basis that they progressed further in the UEFA Cup than any of the other 10 teams, reaching the last 16. To honour the achievement, captain Scott Parker was effectively awarded a certificate on the pitch at St James’ Park ( above), much to his bemusement.
Blackburn then followed the Magpies from Intertoto to UEFA Cup in 2007, before Villa did it for a second time in 2008. Bafflingly, they made it all the way to the UEFA Cup’s last 32, only to decide at that late stage they weren’t bothered any more, fielding a weaker line- up in defeat to CSKA Moscow.
Perhaps it was a fitting end to Britain’s odd relationship with the Intertoto Cup, though – a competition which concluded that season as part of a continental rejig that also saw the UEFA Cup renamed the Europa League.
During the Intertoto’s long life, several clubs consistently opted out – even those who have still never played in Europe, like Charlton and Reading. Some took part, but made it abundantly clear they didn’t want to. Others embraced it.
“At the start, you could have just thought, ‘ I don’t want to go to Finland’,” Zat Knight reflects now. “But you look back and realise it made sense. We were the first team to get Fulham into Europe. We made history.”
Somewhere in the corner of the Craven Cottage trophy cabinet, the tiny Intertoto Cup still has pride of place.
“THE TROPHY WAS ABOUT THE SAME SIZE AS A DEODORANT. ALL OF THOSE MATCHES, AND THAT WAS WHAT WE GOT...”