Juventus v West Auckland Town

[Row Z Royal]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8127787.stm

Durham non-League club West Auckland Town are to play Italian side Juventus in a friendly in Turin on 1 August.

The trip marks the 100-year anniversary of the club's 6-1 defeat of Juve to win the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, which was later dubbed 'the first World Cup.'

A £10,000 donation from the Football Association has enabled the Northern League outfit to make the journey.

"We are delighted to support West Auckland FC's return to Turin," said FA chairman Lord Triesman.

"It's so important they are able to celebrate the 100th anniversary of their famous match with Juventus.

"This is a wonderful story and it's only right that they will be in Italy to commemorate the remarkable achievement of winning the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy."

The trophy is widely seen as the forerunner to the Jules Rimet Trophy, which was won by England in 1966.

West Auckland, then a team mainly made up of coal miners, defeated German side Stuttgart in the inaugural competition in 1907 before beating Winterthur of Switzerland 2-0 in the final.

Two years later, they retained the trophy - which became theirs to keep - by beating Zurich in the opening match and then trouncing Juventus.

Following recent conversations I've had regarding the death of football - the ridiculous expectations at Scunthorpe, for example - a story like this makes you realise that it's not all bad.



*Link sent by Y21_Royal by e-mail.

[Ark Royal]

IIRC, wasn't this made into a TV drama starring Dennis Waterman?

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

The trophy is widely seen as the forerunner to the Jules Rimet Trophy, which was won by England in 1966.
.

I've never understood this bit. It was a friendly competition between some clubs who weren't any good. How does that make it a forerunner to the world cup?

And people are a bit too impressed with Juventus being beaten. Don't forget that 6 years later, Reading (while still a non-league club) went to Italy and beat the full Italian national team, as well as a host of top Italian club sides.

[SLAMMED]

The trophy is widely seen as the forerunner to the Jules Rimet Trophy, which was won by England in 1966.
.

I've never understood this bit. It was a friendly competition between some clubs who weren't any good. How does that make it a forerunner to the world cup?

And people are a bit too impressed with Juventus being beaten. Don't forget that 6 years later, Reading (while still a non-league club) went to Italy and beat the full Italian national team, as well as a host of top Italian club sides.

And announced that we were the greatest foreign team to ever visit Italy

[bobbybottler]

Around 1908 millionaire philanthropist Sir Thomas Lipton decided to fund the first pan-European football competition. Because he had extensive business interests in Italy, Turin was chosen as the venue. Invitations were sent out to the various national football associations. Germany, Switzerland and the host nation all agreed to send a leading club side to compete. The English FA, reluctant as ever to countenance anything new-fangled, demurred....

....Underterred by this rebuff, the organisers in Turin decided to approach a top English club directly. Someone suggested a famous First Division club he had heard of. Unfortunately he couldn't remember the full nae, only the initials W.A. Taking a look down a list of registered English sides, a colleague quickly identified the mystery team, West Auckland of the prestigious Northern League. An invitation was despatched and promptly accepted. Woolwich Arsenal's first appearance in Continental competition would just have to wait.

Apocryphal, but still