This "International" competition for football clubs was founded in 1897 in
Vienna. The
Challenge Cup was invented by
John Gramlick Sr., a co-founder of the
Vienna Cricket and Football-Club. In this cup competition all clubs of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire that normally would not meet could take part, though actually almost only clubs from the Empire's three major cities
Vienna,
Budapest and
Prague participated. The Challenge Cup was carried out until the year 1911 and is today seen as the predecessor to the Mitropa Cup and consequently the
European Cup and Champions League. The last winner of the cup was
Wiener Sport-Club, one of the oldest and most traditional football clubs of Austria where the cup still remains. The idea of a European cup competition was shaped after
World War I which brought the defeat and collapse of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. The centre of this idea were the
Central European countries that, at this time, were still leading in continental football. In the early 1920s they introduced professional leagues, the first continental countries to do so.
Austria started in 1924, followed by
Czechoslovakia in 1925 and
Hungary in 1926. In order to strengthen the dominance of these countries in European football and to financially support the professional clubs, the introduction of the Mitropa Cup was decided at a meeting in Venice on 17 July, following the initiative of the head of the
Austrian Football Association (ÖFB),
Hugo Meisl. Moreover, the creation of a European Cup for national teams – that unlike the Challenge Cup and the Mitropa Cup would not be annual – was also part of the agreement. The first matches were played on 14 August 1927. The competition was between the top professional teams of
Central Europe. ,
Renato Dall'Ara (left) and
Mirko Pavinato (right), with the trophy of the 1961 season. Initially two teams each from
Austria,
Hungary,
Czechoslovakia and
Yugoslavia entered, competing in a knock-out competition. The countries involved could either send their respective league winners and runners-up, or league winners and cup winners to take part. The first winners were the Czech side,
AC Sparta Prague. In 1929
Italian teams replaced the Yugoslavian ones. The competition was expanded to four teams from each of the competing countries in 1934. Other countries were invited to participate –
Switzerland in 1936, and
Romania,
Switzerland and
Yugoslavia in 1937. Austria was withdrawn from the competition following the
Anschluss in 1938. In 1939, prior to the start of
World War II, the cup involved only eight teams (two each from Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Italy and one each from Romania and Yugoslavia). The level of the competing nations is clearly shown by Italy's two
World Cup titles (
1934 &
1938), Czechoslovakia's (
1934) and Hungary's (
1938) World Cup final, and Austria's (
1934) and Yugoslavia's (
1930) semi-finals. Of the eleven different national teams that reached the semi-finals of the first three World Cups, five were nations that participated in the Mitropa Cup. A tournament was started in
1940, but abandoned before the final match due to
World War II. Again, only eight teams competed, three each from Hungary and Yugoslavia and two from Romania. Hungarian
Ferencváros and Romanian
Rapid (which had won on lots after three draws) qualified for the final, but did not meet because the northern part of
Transylvania (lost shortly after
World War I) was ceded to Hungary from Romania. == Champions ==