Anglo-Franco-Scottish Friendship Cup


The Anglo-Franco-Scottish Friendship Cup was a short-lived Inter-League football competition organised by the French Football Federation that would see teams from the Football League and the Scottish League compete against teams from the French League.

Format

The original idea was to have four teams from Scotland and four teams from England competing together as one nation competing against eight teams from France. Due to the objection by the Scottish League this ruling was cancelled.
Two separate trophies were cast - one for Scottish clubs competing against French clubs and one for English clubs competing against French clubs. Individual clubs could not win the competition, so each country was awarded 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw.
Entry to the competition was based on a club's final league position at the end of the season. However, with some club's guaranteed entry to European football competitions such the European Cup and Inter Cities Fairs Cup it would open up the chance for other club's to participate who finished lower down their domestic league.

History

In the inaugural Franco-Scottish competition, Sedan, Toulouse, Lens and Valenciennes were all given entry from the French League to participate in the Franco-Scottish competition. Clyde, Motherwell, Celtic and Dundee were all given entry from the Scottish League. Originally, Ayr United were to have competed, but they had to withdraw because of a lack of adequate floodlighting at their stadium. Their place was taken by Hibernian, who also withdrew because a friendly between an Edinburgh select and Chelsea was scheduled for the same date as their tie with Sedan. Hibernian were therefore replaced by Celtic.
In the inaugural Anglo-French competition, the participating teams were Racing Club de Paris, Nantes, Le Havre and Lille from the French League, and Newcastle United, Liverpool, Bolton Wanderers and Middlesbrough from the Football League.
For the second season of the competition, Le Havre, Rouen, Nimes and Reims were elected to compete on behalf of France in the Franco-Scottish competition, while Bordeaux, Nancy, Lens and Béziers took part in the Anglo-French competition. Three English clubs took part in the 1961-62 competition - Southampton, Blackburn Rovers and Derby County - alongside one Welsh club, Cardiff City. With Celtic and Motherwell set to compete again, Aberdeen and Third Lanark replaced Clyde and Dundee in the Franco-Scottish competition.
Due to disagreements as to when matches should be played, neither of the matches between Celtic and Reims took place.

1960-61

The Valenciennes-Dundee tie played on 7 August 1960 took place at Mers-les-Bains in the Somme department.
Scotland won the inaugural edition of the Franco-Scottish trophy by winning the series, 3 aggregate victories to 1.
1st Leg2nd LegAggregate
10 August 1960 Racing Club de Paris 2-3 Newcastle United28 September 1960 Newcastle United 2-1 Racing Club de Paris to Newcastle United
11 August 1960 Nantes 0-2 Liverpool30 November 1960 Liverpool 5-1 Nantes to Liverpool
14 August 1960 Le Havre 1-1 Bolton Wanderers15 March 1961 Bolton Wanderers 4-0 Le Havre to Bolton Wanderers
14 August 1960 Lille 1-2 Middlesbrough12 October 1960 Middlesbrough 4-1 Lille to Middlesbrough

England won the inaugural edition of the Anglo-French trophy by winning the series, 4 aggregate victories to 0.

1961-62

France won the last edition of the Franco-Scottish trophy by winning the series, 2 aggregate victories to 1.
1st Leg2nd LegAggregate
13 November 1961 Southampton 2-1 Bordeaux1 May 1962 Bordeaux 2-0 Southampton to Bordeaux
4 December 1961 Blackburn Rovers 3-1 Nancy1 May 1962 Nancy 1-0 Blackburn Rovers to Blackburn Rovers
13 December 1961 Lens 2-4 Cardiff City7 March 1962 Cardiff City 2-0 Lens to Cardiff City
11 April 1962 Derby County 1-0 Béziers12 May 1962 Béziers 2-1 Derby CountyMatch tied at 2-2

The Football League clubs won the second edition of the Anglo-French trophy by winning the series, 2 aggregate victories to 1.