spain: real wins it big time
real madrid made it three championships in three season, and this time they completely dominated, a long way in front of atlético madrid. ferenc puskás scored 26 goals in 30 matches to become top scorer at age 36. on a side note, luis aragones, future euro winning manager, placed 4th on that list, plying for real betis. fc barcelona had a horrible season, finishing in 6th. they did focus on the cup, winning it by beating real zaragoza in the final. this was barca's third cup win in the ec era.
italy: milano, the capital of italian football
while ac milan sought international glory, internazionale took care of business at home. managed by the legendary helenio herrera, who arrived from barcelona in 1960, they clinched their first title in the european cup era. at the end, the advantage over juventus was pretty good, with milan following in third, cementing the northern italian dominance. fc bologna had their second consecutive good season.
in the coppa italia final, atalanta bergamo clinched their one and only trophy in the european cup era, beating torino in the final. atalanta is the most northern club in italy, geographically.
in the coppa italia final, atalanta bergamo clinched their one and only trophy in the european cup era, beating torino in the final. atalanta is the most northern club in italy, geographically.
portugal: benfica back on top
taca de portugal winning sporting side
benfica got it back! although they made the european cup final once again, they were able to focus at home and clinch their third championship in the last four seasons. and they did it in style, winning 23 out of 26 matches, leaving fc porto far away in second. sporting (lisbon) and belenenses (lisbon) had good seasons, too.
sporting, last year's champions, did win the cup for the first time, dominating vitória guimaraes in the final.
sporting, last year's champions, did win the cup for the first time, dominating vitória guimaraes in the final.
england: fifth champion in five years
the blues won it.
before liverpool starting winning english championships in the european cup era, their local rivals everton achieved that goal and dream. the fifth different champion in five seasons, everton ended up leaving the favorites, cup winners cup champions tottenham, behind. burnely once again had a decent season, and so did leicester city. since everton had done well the past two years, there was some consistency in the first division - including the absence of today's top teams up front, with arsenal placing 7th, liverpool 8th and manchester united just surviving in 19th; man city was relegated! the top scorer was jimmy greaves, a living legend still at age 23 and playing for the spurs.
leicester city made the fa cup final for the second time in three years, but lost it again - this time to the busby boys from manchester, who did reclaim some glory despite the horrible season.
leicester city made the fa cup final for the second time in three years, but lost it again - this time to the busby boys from manchester, who did reclaim some glory despite the horrible season.
yugoslavia: partizan looking sharp there...
3 in a row...
quite a feat indeed: partizan defended their league title once again to make it three in a row in yugoslavian football. after another decent season for the country on european fields, the fifth best league on the continent had a dominating club to show for it. dinamo zagreb, who were responsible for that good continental season, were worthy runners-up.
the croatian club did win the all-croatian final in the cup competition, with a 4-1 over hajduk split.
the croatian club did win the all-croatian final in the cup competition, with a 4-1 over hajduk split.
the others: galatasaray, as monaco and rangers fc celebrate historical doubles, austria does even better!
albania: dominators partizani managed their fifth national league title in six seasons, confirming their superiority. kf tirana, on the other hand, managed their first title in the european cup season by winning the cup.
austria: austria wien managed to win their third league title in a row, a first in the european cup era; rapid and wiener sc had also defended their title, but had failed to make it three in a row. austria actually managed another first ever feat, that of defending the national double of cup and league – they beat lask linz in the cup final. the runners-up also enjoyed a decent season, finish fifth behind the ex-champs rapid, wiener sc and league runners-up admira.
belgium: six consecutive seasons, and no one had managed to defend their league title in belgium. and it happened again: standard took the title back from anderlecht, managing their third win in the european cup era. royal antwerp finished in front of anderlecht in the final standings.
bulgaria: historical season! cdna sofia failed to win the league title for the first time since the european cup era, as spartak plovdiv finished ahead of botev plovdiv. botev also reached the cup final, but failed to defend their 1962 title by losing to slavia sofia.
cyprus: fifth league title in seven seasons: this shows the extent of the anorthosis famagusta in those days. they weren’t immune to defeats, though, since they did lose the cup final to apoel.
czechoslovakia: three league titles in a row – dukla were impressing in europe and dominating at home! slovak club jednota trencin came in second, ahead of banik ostrava and slovnaft (today inter) bratislava. slovan from the same city only came in 7th, but won the cup in a final against dynamo praha, now knowns as slavia praha.
denmark: this is remarkable! surprise 1961 champions esbjerg did it again and defended their title with class – 18 wins in 22 matches is indeed a splendid performance. no chance for boldklubben 1913 in second place, who did win the cup, beating koge bk in the final and thus clinching their first ec cup era title. super champions agf aarhus finished third in the league season.
faroe islands: time for b36 torshavn again. after 1959, they managed their second national league title. the other club in town, hb torshavn, won the cup against tb tvoroyri – these two had now won 4 cups each in history, letting no other club touch the trophy.
finland: fc haka won their second league title in three years, confirming their number one status in the country. this time they won it easily, with no real competition. with five titles in the european cup era, they were three ahead of the best of the rest, including cup winner hps helsiniki, who made it two after their 1957 league title.
france: although once again, the holders weren’t able to retain their title in a french league season, stade de reims and as monaco were showings signs of domination. since 1960, either one or the other had been champion, and this time it was monaco’s turn, slightly ahead of reims. ua sedan-torcy, now known as sedan-ardennes, finished a strong third in the league. for the first time in the ec cup era, lyon showed its face by reaching the coupe de france final – losing to monaco, who repeated stade de reims feat of a national double from 1958.
east germany: vorwärts berlin’s era came to an end as motor jena won their first title in the european cup era, while the two-time defending champions finished a relatively weak third. empor rostock in second had no chance against the new champions, now known as carl zeiss. in a final of underdogs, motor zwickau beat chemie zeitz for their first title in the european cup era. motor jena had won the cup two years earlier.
germany: in the last season with a final round and a final match to decide the german champion, borussia dortmund was crowned at the eve of a new era, the bundesliga era. they had one in 1956 and 1957, but since then had not really made any more waves nationally. dortmund had already been the only team to be two-time champions in the european cup era, so this third title put them well ahead. köln lost the final, although they had entered it as somewhat clear favorites, and they would enter the first ever national league season in the same manner. good performances by 1860 munich and 1.fc nürnberg would see to it that bayern münchen would not be part of the first bundesliga season. borussia neunkirchen also had a decent season. bvb failed to make the double (it would have been a first in european cup history) by losing to hamburg in the dfb-pokal final. one can say that hamburg from the north, nürnberg from the south and western clubs dortmund and köln had been germany’s most successful in these eight season before the bundesliga era.
greece: 4 seasons of olympiacos followed by 3 seasons of panathinaikos – the question before the season was if olympiacos could avoid panathinaikos reproducing their sequence. at the end, aek athens surprised both of them and won the title, very narrowly ahead of panathinaikos. olympiacos had to content with 3rd place, but they did win the cup for the sixth time in seven seasons!
hungary: it took a while, but there it was: ferencvaros budapest won their first league title in the european cup era in 1963, after some good seasons and a cup win in 1959. they left the other contenders behind comfortably in a pretty balanced season. two-time defending champions vasas disappointed in 9th place.
iceland: while kr reykjavik managed their 3rd cup win in a historical total of 3 cup seasons, the ia akranes and kr league title swapping was broken by fram reykjavik, who won their first league title.
israel: hapoel petah tikva continued their incredible run, making it five league titles in a row. hapoel haifa won their first trophy, with the israeli state cup final win over local rivals maccabi.
liechtenstein: fourth time is a charm: fc schaan finally won the cup after losing the previous three finals. maybe it helped that fc vaduz didn’t make the final this time around.
luxembourg: back on the block: jeunesse esch claimed their fourth league win in six seasons, after failing to win any of the last two. union luxembourg, red boys differdange and aris bonnevoie had some decent seasons, too. in the cup final, spora lost to union, who won the cup for the second time in the ec era.
malta: after going 100% in 1962, floriana now only managed 4th place in the league, which was won by last season’s runners-up, valletta. hibernians and sliema did pretty well, too. the wanderers actually won the cup, between hibernians 2-0 in the final. with these results, floriana and sliema now were at 5 titles in the ec era, with valletta at 4 and hibernians at 3.
netherlands: the “feyenoord era” with two titles and a subsequent semifinal appearance in the european cup came to a halt with psv eindhoven’s first league title in the ec era. feyenoord actually finished fourth after putting a lot of effort into their continental performance. ajax were runners-up, while sparta rotterdam placed third. the cup final saw outsiders willem ii and ado den hague battle it out. willem, just like psv, took their first ever title in the ec era.
northern ireland: distillery won their first silverware since 1956, but this time it was the big one: irish champions! linfield, portadown and glentoran did well, but not well enough. linfield did win their third cup in four years, defeating distillery in the final.
norway: in a reform of the league, norway had no winner by the summer of 1963. there was cup success by gjovik-lyn, who defeated vaud haugesund in the final.
poland: gornik zabrze managed their first title defense in the ec era, and with their fourth league title in six seasons, they were now putting their stamp on polish football. ruch chorzow, 1961 champions, placed 2nd. zaglebie sosnowiec and polonia bytom had good runs, too. zaglebie, by the way, defended their cup win, beating ruch chorzow.
republic of ireland: every year a new champion. this time it’s dundalk’s turn. waterford and drumcondra had good seasons, but the ex-champions missed out this time. the cup final was an exact repeat of 1960, with shelbourne beating cork hibernians 2-0.
romania: dinamo bucharest defended their title, staying ahead of steaua. european success by petrolul gave the league a boost, and the team won the romenian cup, their first national title in the 60s.
scotland: rangers fc back on top! in the booming scottish league, the blues managed their 5th champions title in the 8 seasons of the european cup era. kilmarnock in second had no real chance. quite a few teams had very good seasons, mostly third place patrick thistle. celtic, hearts and aberdeen did well, too. the cup final was an old firm in front of 130,000 fans, and rangers took it for the first double in scot football in the european cup era.
sweden: best swedish club in the first decade of european football? ifk norrköpping, only club to win more than one championship; 1962 made it four out of eight. djurgardens did well to finish second.
switzerland: double champions servette only managed 5th place; instead, fc zürich managed their first title in the european cup era, that of swiss champions. lausanne sports came relatively close, chaux-de-fonds and young boys had pretty good seasons, too. two teams with not so good seasons played the cup final, with fc basel coming out on top of the grasshoppers. this was basel’s first silverware in the european cup era.
turkey: galatasaray became the first club to defend their title of turkish champions. there good performance in europe also gave the whole league a boost. besiktas and fenerbahce placed behind them. another first for galatasaray: they won the first edition of the turkish cup and thus became the first ever double winners, beating fener in both finals.
soviet union: spartak moscow clinched their 3rd league title in the european cup era, leaving dinamo moscow in second. shakhtyor stalino, today known as donetsk, defended their cup title. soviet clubs were still not participating in european competitions at this time.
wales: borough united became the fifth different welsh cup winner in the ec era. wrexham’s three titles were the reference at the time.
yugoslavia: partizan belgrade won the title with a huge advantage over the others. ofk belgrade won the cup, beating spartak zlatibor vador.
austria: austria wien managed to win their third league title in a row, a first in the european cup era; rapid and wiener sc had also defended their title, but had failed to make it three in a row. austria actually managed another first ever feat, that of defending the national double of cup and league – they beat lask linz in the cup final. the runners-up also enjoyed a decent season, finish fifth behind the ex-champs rapid, wiener sc and league runners-up admira.
belgium: six consecutive seasons, and no one had managed to defend their league title in belgium. and it happened again: standard took the title back from anderlecht, managing their third win in the european cup era. royal antwerp finished in front of anderlecht in the final standings.
bulgaria: historical season! cdna sofia failed to win the league title for the first time since the european cup era, as spartak plovdiv finished ahead of botev plovdiv. botev also reached the cup final, but failed to defend their 1962 title by losing to slavia sofia.
cyprus: fifth league title in seven seasons: this shows the extent of the anorthosis famagusta in those days. they weren’t immune to defeats, though, since they did lose the cup final to apoel.
czechoslovakia: three league titles in a row – dukla were impressing in europe and dominating at home! slovak club jednota trencin came in second, ahead of banik ostrava and slovnaft (today inter) bratislava. slovan from the same city only came in 7th, but won the cup in a final against dynamo praha, now knowns as slavia praha.
denmark: this is remarkable! surprise 1961 champions esbjerg did it again and defended their title with class – 18 wins in 22 matches is indeed a splendid performance. no chance for boldklubben 1913 in second place, who did win the cup, beating koge bk in the final and thus clinching their first ec cup era title. super champions agf aarhus finished third in the league season.
faroe islands: time for b36 torshavn again. after 1959, they managed their second national league title. the other club in town, hb torshavn, won the cup against tb tvoroyri – these two had now won 4 cups each in history, letting no other club touch the trophy.
finland: fc haka won their second league title in three years, confirming their number one status in the country. this time they won it easily, with no real competition. with five titles in the european cup era, they were three ahead of the best of the rest, including cup winner hps helsiniki, who made it two after their 1957 league title.
france: although once again, the holders weren’t able to retain their title in a french league season, stade de reims and as monaco were showings signs of domination. since 1960, either one or the other had been champion, and this time it was monaco’s turn, slightly ahead of reims. ua sedan-torcy, now known as sedan-ardennes, finished a strong third in the league. for the first time in the ec cup era, lyon showed its face by reaching the coupe de france final – losing to monaco, who repeated stade de reims feat of a national double from 1958.
east germany: vorwärts berlin’s era came to an end as motor jena won their first title in the european cup era, while the two-time defending champions finished a relatively weak third. empor rostock in second had no chance against the new champions, now known as carl zeiss. in a final of underdogs, motor zwickau beat chemie zeitz for their first title in the european cup era. motor jena had won the cup two years earlier.
germany: in the last season with a final round and a final match to decide the german champion, borussia dortmund was crowned at the eve of a new era, the bundesliga era. they had one in 1956 and 1957, but since then had not really made any more waves nationally. dortmund had already been the only team to be two-time champions in the european cup era, so this third title put them well ahead. köln lost the final, although they had entered it as somewhat clear favorites, and they would enter the first ever national league season in the same manner. good performances by 1860 munich and 1.fc nürnberg would see to it that bayern münchen would not be part of the first bundesliga season. borussia neunkirchen also had a decent season. bvb failed to make the double (it would have been a first in european cup history) by losing to hamburg in the dfb-pokal final. one can say that hamburg from the north, nürnberg from the south and western clubs dortmund and köln had been germany’s most successful in these eight season before the bundesliga era.
greece: 4 seasons of olympiacos followed by 3 seasons of panathinaikos – the question before the season was if olympiacos could avoid panathinaikos reproducing their sequence. at the end, aek athens surprised both of them and won the title, very narrowly ahead of panathinaikos. olympiacos had to content with 3rd place, but they did win the cup for the sixth time in seven seasons!
hungary: it took a while, but there it was: ferencvaros budapest won their first league title in the european cup era in 1963, after some good seasons and a cup win in 1959. they left the other contenders behind comfortably in a pretty balanced season. two-time defending champions vasas disappointed in 9th place.
iceland: while kr reykjavik managed their 3rd cup win in a historical total of 3 cup seasons, the ia akranes and kr league title swapping was broken by fram reykjavik, who won their first league title.
israel: hapoel petah tikva continued their incredible run, making it five league titles in a row. hapoel haifa won their first trophy, with the israeli state cup final win over local rivals maccabi.
liechtenstein: fourth time is a charm: fc schaan finally won the cup after losing the previous three finals. maybe it helped that fc vaduz didn’t make the final this time around.
luxembourg: back on the block: jeunesse esch claimed their fourth league win in six seasons, after failing to win any of the last two. union luxembourg, red boys differdange and aris bonnevoie had some decent seasons, too. in the cup final, spora lost to union, who won the cup for the second time in the ec era.
malta: after going 100% in 1962, floriana now only managed 4th place in the league, which was won by last season’s runners-up, valletta. hibernians and sliema did pretty well, too. the wanderers actually won the cup, between hibernians 2-0 in the final. with these results, floriana and sliema now were at 5 titles in the ec era, with valletta at 4 and hibernians at 3.
netherlands: the “feyenoord era” with two titles and a subsequent semifinal appearance in the european cup came to a halt with psv eindhoven’s first league title in the ec era. feyenoord actually finished fourth after putting a lot of effort into their continental performance. ajax were runners-up, while sparta rotterdam placed third. the cup final saw outsiders willem ii and ado den hague battle it out. willem, just like psv, took their first ever title in the ec era.
northern ireland: distillery won their first silverware since 1956, but this time it was the big one: irish champions! linfield, portadown and glentoran did well, but not well enough. linfield did win their third cup in four years, defeating distillery in the final.
norway: in a reform of the league, norway had no winner by the summer of 1963. there was cup success by gjovik-lyn, who defeated vaud haugesund in the final.
poland: gornik zabrze managed their first title defense in the ec era, and with their fourth league title in six seasons, they were now putting their stamp on polish football. ruch chorzow, 1961 champions, placed 2nd. zaglebie sosnowiec and polonia bytom had good runs, too. zaglebie, by the way, defended their cup win, beating ruch chorzow.
republic of ireland: every year a new champion. this time it’s dundalk’s turn. waterford and drumcondra had good seasons, but the ex-champions missed out this time. the cup final was an exact repeat of 1960, with shelbourne beating cork hibernians 2-0.
romania: dinamo bucharest defended their title, staying ahead of steaua. european success by petrolul gave the league a boost, and the team won the romenian cup, their first national title in the 60s.
scotland: rangers fc back on top! in the booming scottish league, the blues managed their 5th champions title in the 8 seasons of the european cup era. kilmarnock in second had no real chance. quite a few teams had very good seasons, mostly third place patrick thistle. celtic, hearts and aberdeen did well, too. the cup final was an old firm in front of 130,000 fans, and rangers took it for the first double in scot football in the european cup era.
sweden: best swedish club in the first decade of european football? ifk norrköpping, only club to win more than one championship; 1962 made it four out of eight. djurgardens did well to finish second.
switzerland: double champions servette only managed 5th place; instead, fc zürich managed their first title in the european cup era, that of swiss champions. lausanne sports came relatively close, chaux-de-fonds and young boys had pretty good seasons, too. two teams with not so good seasons played the cup final, with fc basel coming out on top of the grasshoppers. this was basel’s first silverware in the european cup era.
turkey: galatasaray became the first club to defend their title of turkish champions. there good performance in europe also gave the whole league a boost. besiktas and fenerbahce placed behind them. another first for galatasaray: they won the first edition of the turkish cup and thus became the first ever double winners, beating fener in both finals.
soviet union: spartak moscow clinched their 3rd league title in the european cup era, leaving dinamo moscow in second. shakhtyor stalino, today known as donetsk, defended their cup title. soviet clubs were still not participating in european competitions at this time.
wales: borough united became the fifth different welsh cup winner in the ec era. wrexham’s three titles were the reference at the time.
yugoslavia: partizan belgrade won the title with a huge advantage over the others. ofk belgrade won the cup, beating spartak zlatibor vador.