UEFA_Cup_Winners'_Cup_1960-61
1960–61 European Cup Winners' Cup
International football competition
The 1960–61 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup club football tournament was won by Italian club Fiorentina in two-legged final victory against Rangers of Scotland.
Organised by the Mitropa Cup committee, this tournament's edition was recognised by UEFA in 1963, after lobbying by the Italian Football Federation.[1] This was the first season that the tournament took place for the winners of each European country's domestic cup, and was the only one to be decided in a two-legged final. Only ten sides entered the competition,[2] partially due to the low expectations for the new tournament among association football fans,[1] and also to the unofficial nature of this edition.
SC Dynamo Berlin was the winner of the 1959 FDGB-Pokal and should naturally have represented East Germany in the 1960–61 European Cup Winners' Cup. However, the German Football Association of the GDR (German: Deutscher Fußball-Verband der DDR) (DFV) found army-sponsored local rival and league runners-up ASK Vorwärts Berlin to be a more suitable representative of East Germany in the competition.[3]
It is a myth that the low number of entrants was due to few countries already having a domestic cup competition:[1] as happened for the first edition of the European Cup, entrance criteria could be changed by each national federation. Fiorentina entered as runners-up to Juventus in both Coppa Italia and Serie A, Czechoslovakia sent the winners of an unofficial League Cup, and both Hungary and East Germany enrolled their league runners-up.
