Northern Ireland's British and World Club Champions

As the FIFA Club World Cup is currently being played out in the United Arab Emirates, it seems appropriate to look back on the (Northern) Ireland players that have claimed world titles in the past, at club level at least.

From Wicklow to Harrow. Two time FA Cup winner, Edward Bowen

The first World Cup, won by Renton in 1888

For the decade-or-so that followed 1871/72, it could realistically be claimed that the winners of the FA Cup were the best team in the world. There was an Irish-born player in the first two finals, though Wicklow-born Edward Bowen played for England against Scotland in the first (unofficial) fixture between the two countries. 

 

Year	Winners	Res	Runners-Up	Venue
1872	Wanderers	1-0	Royal Engineers	Kennington Oval, London
	Edward E. Bowen
1872	Wanderers	2-0	Oxford University	Lillie Bridge, London
	Edward E. Bowen

 

Although referred to outwith England as the "English" Cup, teams from Scotland (until 1886/87), Ireland (until 1890/91) and Wales (to this very day) also entered. In the early days, Scottish clubs regularly challenged for the FA Cup, the trophy may never actually have travelled across the northern border, but Queen's Park were twice beaten finalists. The trophy finally left England when won by Cardiff in 1927.

 

Scotland introduced its own cup competition in 1873/74, Wales in 1877/78 and Ireland in 1880/81 which led to the opportunity for winners of each of these tournaments to play-off against each other for the title of British, and consequently World Champions. Realistically, it was only the English and Scottish clubs that could lay claim to the Champions claim, with wins for Irish and Welsh teams against the leading clubs from their bigger neighbours being incredibly rare. 

 

Perhaps the first time the title of Champion of the United Kingdom was bestowed, in the press at least, was in 1884 when Scottish Cup winners, Dumbarton defeated FA Cup winners, Blackburn Olympic. The first time any sort of prize was presented was when Renton defeated West Brom to claim the title of Champions of the World and took ownership of a small pewter trophy.

 

Similar matches continued to occur on an ad-hoc basis through to the early 20th Century, with the title of World Champion or British Champion bestowed more by the press than by any sort of governing body. In this window, three Irish players have been found to have played in these notional "World Championship" matches. Jack Reynolds featuring for Football League Champions Aston Villa as they defeated Scottish Champions Celtic in 1894 and again two years later when Ching Morrison's Celtic ran out winners. Jack Kirwan played for 1901 English Cup winners Spurs when they lost to Scottish Cup holders, Hearts over two legs.

 

Year	Winners	Res	Runners-Up	Venue
1894	Aston Villa	3-2	Celtic	Perry Barr, Birmingham
	Jack Reynolds
1896	Celtic	3-2	Aston Villa	Parkhead, Glasgow
		Tom Morrison - Jack Reynolds
1901/2	Heart of Midlothian	0-0	Tottenham Hotspur	White Hart Lane, London
		3-1		Tynecastle, Edinburgh
			Jack Kirwan

 

The first significant organised tournament for the leading English and Scottish clubs arose out of the 1902 Ibrox disaster. The top two teams from each league competed in a knock-out tournament called the British League Cup (also known as the Coronation Cup due to it coinciding with the accession of Edward VII). England's representatives Sunderland and Everton bowed out in the semi-finals, leaving Celtic to beat Rangers to the British title. No Irish players were involved in this competition at any stage.

 

The next tournament that makes claims to be a "Club World Cup" was the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy held in Turin in 1910 and again in 1911. While this tournament was much more international than anything to that date, featuring as it did leading teams from Italy, Switzerland and Germany, the strength of the overall tournament could be questioned. If anything, it cemented England's claim to pre-eminence among world football with West Auckland claiming back-to-back titles. That West Auckland were an amateur team of coal miners rather than reigning champions or FA Cup holders leaves the Lipton Trophy merely as an interesting footnote.

 

In 1914 Irish Football was on an all-time high, Ireland having been crowned British Champions for the first time. Great Britain's amateurs had claimed the 1912 Olympic football title, so there can be little doubt that the titles of "British Football Champions" and "World Football Champions" were synonymous

1914 was also the eve of the First World War and the English, Scottish and Irish Cup winners embarked on tours of what would shortly thereafter be known as the enemy Central Powers. Among the matches played by the touring Brits were the Vienna Cup, where Glentoran defeated a Vienna Select (claimed as essentially an Austrian best XI) 5-0 and the Budapest Cup where Celtic and Burnley drew 1-1 before the Scots claimed the title following a replay at Turf Moor.

Year	Winners	Res	Runners-Up	Venue
1914	Glentoran	5-0	Vienna XI	Vienna
Vienna Cup	Davy Lyner  Paddy McCann Johnny Scraggs Billy Emerson
1914	Celtic	1-1	Burnley	Budapest
		2-1		Turf Moor, Burnley
Budapest Cup	Patsy Gallagher

From the 1920s to the 1950s Rangers, while defending Scottish champions, often held matches against their English counterparts under the title of British Championship. The 1933 edition against Arsenal was recorded as the British Championship Challenge by Glasgow Herald, but outside of Ibrox these games appear to be simply regarded as regular inter-club friendlies.

Year	Winners	Res	Runners-Up	Venue
1923/4	Rangers	2-0	Liverpool	Anfield, Liverpool
	Billy McCandless		Elisha Scott (tbc)
1933/4	Rangers	2-0	Arsenal	Ibrox Park, Glasgow
		3-1		Highbury, London
	Whitey McDonald Alex Stevenson
1934/5	Manchester City	0-1	Rangers	Ibrox Park, Glasgow
		4-2		Maine Road, Manchester
			Whitey McDonald
1953/4	Arsenal	2-1	Rangers	Ibrox Park, Glasgow
			Billy Simpson

Exhibition
Trophy

In 1938 Glasgow hosted the Empire Exhibition and in conjunction a football competition was held which included the four leading clubs from Scotland (league winners and runners up from the previous two seasons) and four English First Division teams, including 1937 FA Cup winners, Sunderland. The tournament was a straight knock-out competition and the final between Celtic and Everton drew a crowd of 82,000 to Ibrox. While it could be argued that the English clubs included weren't among the elite of the time, Celtic's victory was regarded as a significant achievement.

Year	Winners	Res	Runners-Up	Venue
1937/8	Celtic	1-0	Everton	Ibrox Park, Glasgow
			Billy Cook Alex Stevenson

When Belfast Celtic defeated Scotland 2-0 during their 1949 US tour it was a big result. The Scots had convincingly claimed that year's British Championship, winning every match, and in the days before the Home Nations first entered the World Cup they were regarded by many as the best international team in the world. Indeed, the match programme for another of Scotland's tour matches, against Philadelphia All-Stars, proclaimed them as "World's Champions", so what did that make Belfast Celtic?

Year	Winners	Res	Runners-Up	Venue
1949	Belfast Celtic	2-0	Scotland	Triborough Stadium, New York
	Kevin McAlinden Billy McMillan Bud Aherne Johnny Campbell Paddy Bonnar

Coronation Cup

Fifteen years after the Empire Exhibition Trophy, Glasgow hosted another "Club British Championship" - the Coronation Cup - to celebrate the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II. The field included recent winners and runners-up from English and Scottish football's biggest tournaments along with Celtic who were included as "holders", and no doubt due to the crowds they could draw. Celtic retained their title as unofficial "British Champions".

Year	Winners	Res	Runners-Up	Venue
1952/3	Celtic	1-0	Hibernian	Hampden Park, Glasgow
	Bertie Peacock

While the game continued to spread across the globe, the USA had remained largely immune to its charms. The International Soccer League was regarded by some as an attempt to create a "Club World Cup". Twelve leading clubs from across the globe were invited to play in a two-conference series with a final to decide the International Champions. The first edition saw the champions of the Irish League (Glenavon) and Football League (Burnley) take part, but the most successful British team was Kilmarnock (13th place finishers in the previous Scottish League campaign) who reached the final only to lose 2-0 to Bangu of Brazil. Everton were runners-up in 1962 and West Ham winners in 1963 before the league folded after the 1965 season. Any hoped for status as a true route to the title of best club in the world was dented by the foundation of the Intercontinental Cup and there was a steady decline in the quality of entrants.

The 1967 United Soccer Association [USA] worked on a similar principal to the International Soccer League. A slight difference between the USA and ISL is that the invited teams were franchised to North American cities, notably with Glentoran playing as Detroit Cougars and Wolverhampton Wanderers as Los Angeles Wolves. It was Derek Dougan's Wolves that were eventually crowned as champions, defeating Washington Whips (Aberdeen) 6-5 in an exciting championship game. While the USA merged with the NPSL after just a single season ended that initial format, the replacement NASL held a similar tournament in 1969, the NASL Intercontinental Cup, where Dougan's Wolves were again champions, this time playing as Kansas City Spurs. This was on a much smaller scale, and much less prestigious than its predecessors, with all teams hailing from England and Scotland.

 

Year	Winners	Res	Runners-Up	Venue
1967 USA	Los Angeles Wolves	6-5 (aet)	Washington Whips	LA Coliseum, Los Angeles
	Derek Dougan
1969 NASL Cup	Kansas City Spurs	round robin	Baltimore Bays	-
	Derek Dougan

While the Americans were trying to stamp their authority on the global game, the real power and status remained with Europe and South America. Venezuela began hosting an annual Pequeña Copa del Mundo [Small World Cup] in the 1950s which, in pre-European Cup times, attracted giants of the game such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Benfica and Roma together with the best clubs the Americas had to offer. In 1957 the Tournoi de Paris was held for the first time, again attracting leading clubs from around the world, including European champions Real Madrid in 1957 and FA Cup winners Bolton Wanderers in 1958. Off the back of these successful friendly tournaments, UEFA and CONMEBOL got together to create a tournament to find the best club in the world.

The first Intercontinental Cup was held in 1960 with European Cup winners Real Madrid defeating Copa Libertadores holders, Peñarol 5-1 over two legs. The tournament developed a reputation for violence and many European Cup winners refused to take part with either the runners-up taking their place or the matches being cancelled altogether. In 1980 the event was changed from a two-legged home and away affair to a one-off match in neutral Tokyo under the sponsored title of the Toyota Cup. Ultimately no Northern Ireland player would ever win the trophy, with George Best and Martin O'Neill both finishing as runners-up. O'Neill also missed out on another chance to claim the trophy when Nottingham Forest declined their place in the 1979 edition and had their place taken by Malmo.

 

Year	Winners	Res	Runners-Up	Venue
1968	Estudiantes	1-0	Manchester United	La Bombonera, Buenos Aires
		1-1		Old Trafford, Manchester
			George Best
1980	Nacional	1-0	Nottingham Forest	National Stadium, Tokyo
			Martin O’Neill

Although dominant in Europe through the late-1970s and early-1980s, English clubs drew a blank in the Intercontinental Cup until 1999. In the meantime, they served a ban from Europe following the Heysel disaster. Without European football a number of competitions were introduced to fill the void. One of these was the Dubai Super Cup / Champions Cup which re-introduced the idea of crowning British Champions by pitting together the English and Scottish champions in a one-off match in the United Arab Emirates.

Year	Winners	Res	Runners-Up	Venue
1987/8	Rangers	3-2 (8-7 p)	Everton	Dubai
	Jimmy Nicholl (u/sub)
1988/9	Celtic	1-1 (4-2 p)	Liverpool	Al-Nasar Stadium, Dubai
	Anton Rogan

While the Intercontinental Cup winners were regarded as the best football team in the world, in reality, clubs from outside Europe and South America had no route to such a title. In 2000 FIFA stepped in to organise the Club World Championship which finally included teams from the other continental confederations. After a difficult start, it fully replaced the Intercontinental Cup in 2005 and was renamed as the Club World Cup in 2006. The first player from Northern Ireland to appear in the World Championship was Terry McFlynn who finished in fifth place with Sydney in 2005. In 2008 Jonny Evans came off the subs bench for Manchester United as they defeated Ecuadorian side, LDU Quito, thus becoming Northern Ireland’s first World Champion player of the modern era.

 

Year	Winners	Res	Runners-Up	Venue
2008	Manchester United	1-0	LDU Quito	International Stadium, Yokohama
	Jonny Evans (sub)

Derek Dougan (9) with the Wolves team that claimed the 1967 USA title

Jonny Evans in action at the 2008 World Club Cup