Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy

The Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy was a football (soccer) competition that took place twice, in Turin, Italy, in 1909 and 1911. It is sometimes referred to as "The First World Cup". However it is predated by the Torneo Internazionale Stampa Sportiva, which was hosted in 1908 also in Turin, as the first international competition. [cite web | url=http://www.rsssf.com/tabless/stampa1908.html
title=Torneo Internazionale Stampa Sportiva 1908 | work=RSSSF ] and football tournaments at the Olympic Games, since 1900 (officially).

Italy, Germany and Switzerland sent their most prestigious professional club sides to the competition, but The Football Association of England refused to be associated with it and declined the offer to send a team. Not wishing to have Britain unrepresented in the competition, Lipton invited West Auckland FC, an amateur side from County Durham and mostly made up of coal miners, to take part. West Auckland won the tournament and returned to Italy in 1911 to defend their title. In this second competition, West Auckland beat Juventus 6-1 in the final, and were awarded the trophy outright. However, the trophy later went missing from the local Working Men's Club in West Auckland where it had been on display for many years and remains lost to this day.

1909 tournament

Participants

*Torino XI (Italy) (formed from players of mainly Juventus and FC Torino)
*Stuttgarter Sportfreunde (Germany)
*West Auckland FC (England)
*FC Winterthur (Switzerland)

Results

;Semi-finals

footballbox
bg = #eeeeee
date = April 11 1909
team1 = Stuttgarter Sportfreunde flagicon|GER
score = 0-2
team2 = flagicon|ENG West Auckland
goals1 =
goals2 = Whittington 10, Dickinson 88 (pen)
stadium = footballbox
bg = #eeeeee
date = April 11 1909
team1 = Torino XI flagicon|ITA
score = 1-2
team2 = flagicon|SUI FC Winterthur
goals1 = F. Berardo 13
goals2 = Lang 25, 55 (pen)
stadium =

;Third Place Match

footballbox
bg = #eeeeee
date = April 12 1909
team1 = Torino XI flagicon|ITA
score = 2-1
team2 = flagicon|GER Stuttgarter Sportfreunde
goals1 = De Bernardi 35, Zuffi II 75
goals2 = Kipp 15
stadium =

;Final

footballbox
bg = #eeeeee
date = April 12 1909
team1 = West Auckland flagicon|ENG
score = 2-0
team2 = flagicon|SUI FC Winterthur
goals1 = R. Jones 6 (pen), J. Jones 8
goals2 =
stadium =

1911 tournament

Participants

*Juventus (Italy)
*FC Zürich (Switzerland)
*West Auckland FC (England)
*FC Torino (Italy)

Results

;Semi-finalsfootballbox
date = "Unknown date"
team1 = Zürich flagicon|SUI
score = 0-2
team2 = flagicon|ENG West Auckland
goals1 =
goals2 =
stadium = footballbox
date = "Unknown date"
team1 = Juventus flagicon|ITA
score = beat
team2 = flagicon|ITA Torino
goals1 =
goals2 =
stadium =

;Third Place Matchfootballbox
date = "Unknown date"
team1 = Torino flagicon|ITA
score = 2-1
team2 = flagicon|SUI Zürich
goals1 =
goals2 =
stadium =

;Finalfootballbox
date = April 17 1911
team1 = Juventus flagicon|ITA
score = 1-6
team2 = flagicon|ENG West Auckland
goals1 =
goals2 =
stadium =

References

* [http://www.rsssf.com/tablesl/lipton-trophy.html Results of the Thomas Lipton Trophy]

External links

* [http://www.westaucklandweb.com/ West Auckland Village Website which includes the famous tale of the World Cup]
* [http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/congress/9/worldcup.htm West Auckland: "World Cup" winners]
* [http://www.shrewsbury.gov.uk/Public/news/thomaslipton.htm Short article on Shrewsbury & Atcham council site]