Spanish era The first competition was to be held over two seasons to avoid clashes with national leagues fixtures. Because it was also intended to coincide with trade fairs, it ran over into a third year. It commenced in 1955 and finished in 1958. Cities that entered teams included
Barcelona,
Basel,
Birmingham,
Copenhagen,
Frankfurt,
Vienna,
Cologne,
Lausanne,
Leipzig,
London,
Milan, and
Zagreb. The first competition included a group stage and also featured some city representative teams instead of clubs. The eventual finalists were the city of
Barcelona, dubbed Barcelona XI, and a
London XI. While the latter side consisted of players from 11 clubs, the former was effectively
FC Barcelona. After a 2–2 draw at
Stamford Bridge, Barcelona emerged triumphant after winning the return 6–0. A second tournament took place between 1958 and 1960. This time, the group stage format was abandoned in favour of a knockout tournament. Barcelona retained the cup, beating
Birmingham City 4–1 in the final. The third tournament was held over the course of the 1960–61 season and all subsequent tournaments were completed over one season. The season also saw the holders, Barcelona, compete in both the Fairs Cup and
European Cup. During the early days of European competition, these tournaments were effectively rivals and there was little or no co-ordination between the administrators running them. The
European Cup quickly established itself as the premier club competition, largely because it had the advantage of featuring national league champions and was completed in a single season from the very start. The efforts of Barcelona ended in failure in both competitions. In the Fairs Cup quarter-finals, they lost 7–6 on aggregate to
Hibernian, while in the European Cup, they were beaten in the final by
Benfica.
Roma took three games to beat Hibernian in the semi-finals before they progressed to the final. Birmingham City reached their second final in two years but once again they were defeated. After a 2–2 draw at home, they lost 2–0 to Roma in the return. The 1961–62 season saw the rules amended to allow three teams from each country to enter. The "one city, one team" rule was abandoned and two teams represented each of
Edinburgh, Milan, and Barcelona (respectively Hibernian and
Heart of Midlothian,
Internazionale and
A.C. Milan, and FC Barcelona and RCD Espanyol). This increase in teams resulted in Spanish teams continuing to dominate the competition. FC Barcelona were now regularly joined by
Valencia CF and
Zaragoza. These three clubs won the competition six times between them from 1958 to 1966. The Fairs Cup saw three all-Spanish finals in 1962, 1964, and 1966. The 1962 final saw Valencia CF beat FC Barcelona 7–3 on aggregate and in 1963 they retained the title after beating
Dinamo Zagreb with a 4–1 aggregate score. They reached their third final in 1964 but lost 2–1 to Zaragoza in a single game at the
Camp Nou. The 1965 tournament saw a record entry of 48 teams, testimony to the growing status of the Fairs Cup. It also produced only the second final not to feature a Spanish team.
Ferencvárosi TC of Hungary beat
Juventus in another single-game final. The 1966 competition attracted attention for all the wrong reasons.
Chelsea were pelted with rubbish at Roma and
Leeds United fought a bruising encounter with Valencia CF which ended with three dismissals. Leeds also had
Johnny Giles sent off in the semi-final against Zaragoza. The final saw FC Barcelona beat Zaragoza 4–3 on aggregate.
English era The 1967 tournament saw the emergence of English clubs with Leeds United reaching the final. Although they lost to Dinamo Zagreb, they returned the following season and defeated Ferencvárosi TC to become the first English club to win the competition. The subsequent victories of
Newcastle United and
Arsenal and a second win for Leeds United saw English clubs winning the last four Fairs Cup tournaments. The last final saw Leeds United declared winners on away goals after drawing with Juventus 3–3 on aggregate.
UEFA Cup In the 1971–72 season the competition was abolished and replaced by the
UEFA Cup after UEFA revised the entry regulations and concluded that the "one city, one team" rule related with the Fairs Cup must be abolished, which had had a particularly bad effect on English entrants for 1969–70, when Liverpool (2nd), Arsenal (4th),
Southampton (7th), and Newcastle United (9th-also holders) got the places, at the expense of
Everton (3rd),
Chelsea (5th),
Tottenham Hotspur (6th), and
West Ham United (8th).
The Football League upheld the geographic rule until 1975, when UEFA pressured the League to drop it or face sanctions. Everton that year, having come 4th, would have been excluded from the competition due to Liverpool's 2nd-place finish. ==Finals==