The Revival of a Classic Tournament: Proposal to Bring It Back

The Anglo-Italian Cup was a cross-national cup competition held in the 1970s and 1980s, with a brief revival in the 1990s. The tournament was primarily for lower-league teams from England and Italy.

The competition featured enjoyably romantic finals as Udinese v Bath City and Genoa v Port Vale - and one Italian club president would now like to see a pan-European tournament for second-tier sides, like a lower-league Champions League.

Champions League-style tournament for second-tier sides proposed

Cosenza president Eugenio Guarascio has suggested the idea to help address the financial difficulties Serie B clubs currently face, suggesting that it could help attract new sponsors and media interest for lower-league clubs across Europe.

Things seem not to have moved any further than that, with Neapolitan outlet Il Vaporetto suggesting that discussions have not yet been held between Serie B clubs, let alone their counterparts across the continent, or governing bodies FIFA and UEFA.

It's certainly a romantic notion, but the realities of actually putting it together probably make it a non-starter. We dare say that getting it off the ground is likely to be difficult, if nt impossible.

The Anglo-Italian Cup is a nostalgic novelty, but in each iteration (top-flight sides, semi-professional sides, and the 1990s revival for second-tier clubs) clubs soon lost interest in the competition.

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The fixture calendar was a particular issue in the 1990s, and with 46 games on the Championship calendar on top of cup commitments and the more pressing concerns of going for promotion, the competition would be unlikely to be a priority either for clubs or fans.

The editions held in the 1990s struggled to attract crowds, particularly in Italy: Stoke City going to Florence did not hold the same romanticism of seeing Gabriel Batistuta at the Victoria Ground, funnily enough.

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But they were also poor in England. The 1995 final between Notts County and Ascoli drew just 11,000 fans to Wembley - and there were even minor diplomatic incidents along the way.

Still, we can always dream of a day when Barcelona's B team come to Oxford United... even if it remains just that.