Andy Greeves tells a story from our vast history that has a link to our matchday opponents. This afternoon, he looks at our UEFA Intertoto Cup campaign during the summer of 1995, that saw our home matches staged at Brighton & Hove Albion’s former Goldstone Ground.
In 1995, UEFA took control of the ‘International Football Cup’ – an annual summer tournament formed in 1961 that provided clubs from around Europe with the chance to compete on a continental stage. Early winners of the competition included Dutch giants Ajax, Inter Bratislava of the former Czechoslovakia and German side Eintracht Frankfurt.
UEFA rebranded it the ‘UEFA Intertoto Cup’ in the mid-1990s. At the end of each season, a number of clubs who had missed out on qualification for UEFA’s two main competitions – then the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Cup – were given the chance to enter. Despite the competition’s name, there was no trophy up for grabs and the Intertoto Cup had more than one ‘winner’ every year.
Those teams who excelled in the tournament, were given entry into the season’s UEFA Cup and later, the UEFA Europa League, until the cup was abolished in 2008. In 1995, the winners of the two semi-finals were entered for the UEFA Cup, with no final played while three clubs progressed from the Intertoto Cup to the UEFA Cup between 1996 and 2005. From 2006 up to and including its last season in 2008, no less than 11 teams made it into the UEFA Cup each season based on their Intertoto Cup performances.
Prior to the Intertoto Cup coming under official UEFA sanctioning in 1995, no English clubs had ever entered the competition. From the 1995-96 season onwards though, the Football Association was obliged to provide three entrants – ideally the best placed teams in the Premier League that hadn’t already secured a place in Europe that campaign.
Having narrowly missed out on in a place in the UEFA Cup in 1994-95, by finishing seventh in the league, we were entered into the Intertoto Cup in the summer of 1995 along with ninth-place Wimbledon and Sheffield Wednesday, who had come 13th.
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OBITUARY – JOHNNIE HILLS
We were saddened to hear of the passing of John ‘Johnnie’ Hills, a defender who spent 11 years at the Club as an amateur and professional between 1950-61. He passed away at home in Brussels, Belgium, on Friday, 26 November, aged 87.
PAPER CHASE
Club historian John Fennelly looks back at what supporters were reading on their way, at half-time and heading home afterwards when NORWICH CITY visited in March 1938.
RIDE FOR UGO
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DEVELOPMENT SQUAD
BIG WIN OVER EVERTON
SPURS WOMEN
INTERNATIONAL ROUND
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Sky this week published a case study revealing that Game Zero, our Premier League match against Chelsea here in September, achieved net zero carbon emissions.
LIVING IN THE MOMENT
Exclusive interview with our young midfielder OLIVER SKIPP, now an established member of our first team and also a familiar face to today’s opponents, who is enjoying every moment in the Premier League spotlight.
MEET OUR FIRST-YEAR UNDER-18S PLAYERS
TOUGH DAY AGAINST COTTAGERS
TREBLE TOP
Looking back at Spurs hat-tricks scored against tonight’s opposition.
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A creative midfielder who was full of heart and desire, LEWIS HOLTBY made his Spurs debut against this afternoon’s opposition back in January 2013 and went on to make 42 appearances in our colours, scoring three goals. We caught up with the Germany international to discuss his time at the Club and find out what he is up to now…
