London XI

The London XI was an association football representative team, specially created to take part in a Europe-wide competition, the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the precursor of today's UEFA Cup.

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The competition was created on April 18, 1955, and the first tournament took three years to complete. The entrants were the major football team of each city which held a Trade Fair. Like many cities taking part, London had several strong teams; however rules stated that there could only be a single team from each city http://football.guardian.co.uk/theknowledge/story/0,13854,1496157,00.html. It was decided to create a team especially for the tournament, using the best players from each London-based club. Membership of the team varied considerably between matches.

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The London XI, managed by Joseph Mears, reached the final of the cup, after coming top of a group that included special XI teams from Basel and Frankfurt, and then beating Lausanne Sports. London lost 8-2 on aggregate over two legs to Spanish club FC Barcelona.

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The teams for the final were:

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Association football: Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players using a spherical ball. It is widely considered to be the most popular sport in the world....

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup: FC Barcelona(3 time champions, 1 time runner-up)...

UEFA Cup: The UEFA Cup is a football competition for European club teams. It was founded on April 18, 1955 as the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. It is the second most important competition for European club teams, the first being the UEFA Champions League....

London XI related Images and Photos (experimental)

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