Latin Cup

This article is about the association football tournament. For the roller hockey tournament, see Latin Cup (roller hockey).

Latin Cup

Founded	1949
Abolished	1957
Region	France Italy Portugal Spain
Number of teams	4
Last champions	Real Madrid (2nd title)
Most successful club(s)	Barcelona Milan Real Madrid (2 titles each)

The Latin Cup (French: Coupe Latine; Italian: Coppa Latinacode: it is deprecated ; Portuguese: Taça Latina or Copa Latina; Spanish: Copa Latina) was an international football tournament for club sides from the Latin European nations of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. In 1949 the football federations came together and launched their own club competition. European clubs could not afford hefty travel costs so competition was staged at the end of every season in a single host country. The competition featured two semi-finals, a third place play-off and a final.

The tournament began in 1949 and was usually played between the league champions of each of the participating countries. Every four years, a ranking would be determined for the countries based on their sides' performances in the Latin Cup. The competition was last played for in 1957, following the introduction of the European Cup. Real Madrid played and won in both the European Cup and the Latin Cup in 1957. Immediately prior to the introduction of the European Cup, the Latin Cup was considered the most important cup for clubs in Europe, the longer-established Mitropa Cup having gone into decline after World War II. Nevertheless, FIFA and UEFA do not consider clubs' records in the Latin Cup to be part of their official record.

Finals

Year	Final			Third Place			Venue
	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Third place	Score	Fourth place
1949	Barcelona	2–1	Sporting CP	Torino	5–3	Stade de Reims	Estadio Chamartín
1950	Benfica	3–3 a.e.t. 2–1 a.e.t.	Bordeaux	Atlético Madrid	2–1	Lazio	Estádio Nacional
1951	Milan	5–0	Lille	Atlético Madrid	3–1	Sporting CP	San Siro
1952	Barcelona	1–0	Nice	Juventus	3–2	Sporting CP	Parc des Princes
1953	Stade de Reims	3–0	Milan	Sporting CP	4–1	Valencia	Estádio Nacional
1954	Not Held
1955	Real Madrid	2–0	Stade de Reims	Milan	3–1	Belenenses	Parc des Princes
1956	Milan	3–1	Athletic Bilbao	Benfica	2–1	Nice	Arena Civica
1957	Real Madrid	1–0	Benfica	Milan	4–3	Saint-Étienne	Santiago Bernabéu Stadium

Photo of the Latin Cup won by Benfica in 1950

Performances by team

Team	Champion	Runner-up	Third	Fourth
Milan	2 (1951, 1956)	1 (1953)	2 (1955, 1957)
Barcelona	2 (1949, 1952)
Real Madrid	2 (1955, 1957)
Benfica	1 (1950)	1 (1957)	1 (1956)
Stade de Reims	1 (1953)	1 (1955)		1 (1949)
Sporting		1 (1949)	1 (1953)	2 (1951, 1952)
Nice		1 (1952)		1 (1956)
Bordeaux		1 (1950)
Lille		1 (1951)
Athletic Bilbao		1 (1956)
Atlético Madrid			2 (1950, 1951)
Torino			1 (1949)
Juventus			1 (1952)
Lazio				1 (1950)
Valencia				1 (1953)
Belenenses				1 (1955)
Saint-Étienne				1 (1957)

Performances by country

Team	Champion	Runner-up	Third	Fourth
Spain	4 (1949, 1952, 1955, 1957)	1 (1956)	2 (1950, 1951)	1 (1953)
Italy	2 (1951, 1956)	1 (1953)	4 (1949, 1952, 1955, 1957)	1 (1950)
France	1 (1953)	4 (1950, 1951, 1952, 1955)		3 (1949, 1956, 1957)
Portugal	1 (1950)	2 (1949, 1957)	2 (1953, 1956)	3 (1951, 1952, 1955)

See also

• Balkans Cup
• Challenge Cup
• European Railways Cup

External links

• Latin Cup stats