football. The first unofficial world championship

Football frenzy has swept Great Britain since the end of the nineteenth century. Football meetings with glowing faces are not only watched by dirty boys and tired port workers or miners, but also by great gentlemen and businessmen who deal with increasing their fortunes on a daily basis. The last group included my master Thomas Lipton, Magnate Herbasianiwhose great passion was football. The development of his empire went hand in hand with his dreams of hosting a world championship. And although he is rarely mentioned today, his contribution to the development of this specialty cannot be overestimated.

Like almost all great British gentlemen, he had many unusual feelings. One of them loved sailing. Lipton had the chance to sail with the British monarchs, Edward VII and Jersey V, and also competed in professional regattas, while promoting his products.And Even in the United States. He participated in the America’s Cup several times, but made himself known more through perseverance rather than victories.

for him Even so, football was the true love. Due to the fact that he worked on several continents, he tried to promote football wherever he could, using his accumulated knowledge and wealth for this. Although he was Scottish of Irish descent, he organized his first tournament in his name… in South America, more specifically in La Plata Lowlands, where Argentina and Uruguay competed for the Cuba Lipton.

In both countries there was no shortage of British workers who played football and infected the natives with their passion. Cuba Lipton was targeting indigenous peoples. Only players born in Uruguay and Argentina could participate, and the same game would have been played alternately in both countries. Both considered this trophy very prestigious and it was only in the 1920s that the tournament began to lose its importance. However, it should be noted that it was the trophy sponsored by Thomas Lipton that gave rise to football fever in South America.

Sir Thomas Lipton was a man of great imagination and long before that Official World ChampionshipsHeld for the first time in 1930, he tried to organize an international tournament for teams from countries where football was at the highest level with fans like him.

This is how it was created Sir Thomas Lipton Cup, first edition of it in 1909 in Turin. In addition to the hosts, Torino XI, teams from Germany (Stuttgarter Sportfreunde), Switzerland (FC Winterthur) and, of course, England participated, although the representatives of the home football team were not interested in sending the best players. In the tournament over Italy. In the end, the English represented the West Auckland team from County Durham, which consisted mostly of miners.

As it turned out, the West Auckland players were victorious in the first edition of the tournament thanks to a last-minute invitation. First, they beat Stuttgarter Sportfreunde 2-0, and in the final they beat FC Winterthur by the same percentage, thus reaching the Sir Thomas Lipton Cup. They repeated their success two years later in the second and final edition of the tournament. It is interestingAnd They defeated another team from Turin Juventus 6:1 in the final.

According to some football statisticians, the tournament signed by Thomas Lipton can be considered the first unofficial world championship. However, it is difficult to agree with them, as there were club teams from only four countries, and the winners from West Auckland in their own country were a small team, which shows that there are certainly at least a few teams in the world that have played football much better than the participants in the tournament.

It is interestingAnd The original trophy that was in West Auckland’s possession was stolen in 1994 and has not been found to this day. Now a replica of this trophy can be found in club display cases.

Another contest signed by Thomas Lipton was about the so-called Lipton Challenge CupWhere teams from Palermo and Naples competed. The first edition took place in 1909, competed six times, and shared victories equally between Palermo FBC and Naples FBC.

Thomas Lipton is perhaps the only man in the world to have organized three football tournaments bearing his name. This football lover did everything in his power to inculcate lovable discipline wherever he could. Today he is mainly associated with the empire of tea and yellow tea bags, but it is worth noting that he did a lot for the development of football in the world. And if only for this reason, it is worth replacing a glass of beer with a cup of hot tea in front of the TV. At least in the first half.