The Dubrovnik conspiracy.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

UEFA has declared war on the Villa boys!

The European Cup started in 1955 but not the European Cup Winners Cup. Why ? They bloody knew what was going to happen in 1957 !

[Pete]

Didn't the UEFA Cup (now Europa League) replace the Cup Winners Cup? A far better competition. One argument for losing it was that the domestic knockout cup means less in other countries; abandoning the cup winners cup format probably escalated that.

[wozwebs]

Loved our trips to Prague and Hamburg in recent years. Would love some more trips away.

[The Man With A Stick]

Didn't the UEFA Cup (now Europa League) replace the Cup Winners Cup? A far better competition. One argument for losing it was that the domestic knockout cup means less in other countries; abandoning the cup winners cup format probably escalated that.

No, the UEFA and ECWC ran alongside each other for years.  I think the last ECWC was about 1999, possibly the same year the final was at Villa Park.  I always remember (late '80s, early '90s) how everyone used to say that the UEFA was the harder to win, as all the teams who finished 2nd/3rd strengthened their squads where the champions were less likely to do so.

Having the three European cups was bloody great.  The whole format now is a bloated mess.  Wouldn't mind the Europa League if there were fewer games, but no chance of that happening.

[PeterWithesShin]

CWC was always the easier to win, shame we never qualified for the bugger. I remember us playing Inter in round 2 of the UEFA while Manure were playing Wrexham in round 2 of the CWC, and Wrexham were hampered with the old 3 foreigners rule as they had a load of English players.

[Lastfootstamper]

Didn't the UEFA Cup (now Europa League) replace the Cup Winners Cup? A far better competition. One argument for losing it was that the domestic knockout cup means less in other countries; abandoning the cup winners cup format probably escalated that.

No, the UEFA and ECWC ran alongside each other for years.  I think the last ECWC was about 1999, possibly the same year the final was at Villa Park.  I always remember (late '80s, early '90s) how everyone used to say that the UEFA was the harder to win, as all the teams who finished 2nd/3rd strengthened their squads where the champions were less likely to do so.

Having the three European cups was bloody great.  The whole format now is a bloated mess.  Wouldn't mind the Europa League if there were fewer games, but no chance of that happening.

The last ever ECWCF was at ours.

Posted for no other reason than 5 initials on the bounce. Get in!!

[cdbearsfan]

UEFA has declared war on the Villa boys!

UEFA are quite correct on this occasion.

They should've let us into the European Cup in 1990-91 though, the tossbags.

Especially as they let an Italian(?) team in who finished second around the same time because whoever won their league was banned.

French. Marseille were banned (but bizarrely not stripped of their title) after bunging the opposition on the way to winning the European Cup.

UEFA offered their place to the runners-up Paris St Germain (having refused to do likewise to use when we finished second behind the equally-banned Liverpool). In turn, PSG turned it down as they were owned by the owner of Canal Plus TV who didn't want to alienate Marseille-supporting subscribers, so Monaco (who finished third) ended up taking the spot.

It's now common practice for the next-highest placed team to take a banned/ineligible team's place. I think Villa were the only ever exception to this rule.

[hipkiss92]

I really want us to get into Europe, as last time we had a decent run I a) had no money, and b) was still in school