i was just reading UEFA Cup past winners and stuff and i noticed in the first one London Football Association XI Vs Barcelona can someone gimmie some insight as to who they are now or were they some sort of rep team? They played at Stamford Bridge but i dont think that was Chelsea. Maybe someone old can help 1955/58 01.05.58: Barcelona CF 6-0 London Football Association XI Barcelona CF stadium (Camp Nou), Barcelona, Spain (70,000) Albert DUSCH (FRG) 05.03.58: London Football Association XI 2-2 Barcelona CF Stamford Bridge, London, England (45,466) Albert DUSCH (FRG) Intesting to see Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Arsenal, Tottenham, Wolves, Liverpool and Ipswich dominating making it to the finals throughout that whole 10-20 year period and Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, Liverpool, Man U in Champions League funny thing i found 1982/83 25.05.83 Hamburger SV 1-0 Juventus FC OAKA Spiros Louis stadium, Athens, Greece (73,500) Nicolae RAINEA (ROM) isnt the city called Hamburg?
OK, I'm not old enough to remember the 1955/56 season, but this is a guess. Before it weas called the UEFA Cup, that competition was known as the Inter-City Fairs Cup. The teams represented the city their teams came from, so it may well have been Chelsea, but they would have represented London, hence the name. Just a guess, but it could have happened. There was also a rule back then whereby two teams from the same city couldn't compete in the competition in the same year. In the early seventies this led to Spurs playing in the competition at our expense as they won the League Cup and we finished second in the league the previous year. This rule has obviously now been scrapped.
As micaec pointed out the original incarnation of the UEFA Cup was the fairs Cup which was a competition with the main aim of promoting European trade. As such it was cities rather than clubs who participated, although in the case you mentioned Barca represented their city. London however, used a team made up of players from numerous teams. These were the line ups in the two legged final Kelsey (Arsenal), P.Sillett (Chelsea), Langley (Fulham), Blanchflower,Norman (both Tottenham Hotspur), Coote (Brentford), Groves (Arsenal), Greaves (Chelsea), Smith (Tottenham Hotspur), Haynes (Fulham), Robb (Brentford) Kelsey (Arsenal), Wright (Leyton Orient), Cantwell (West Ham United), Blanchflower(Tottenham Hotspur), Brown (West Ham United), Bowen (Arsenal), Medwin (TottenhamHotspur), Groves (Arseanl), Smith (Tottenham Hotspur), Bloomfield (Arsenal),Lewis (Chelsea) I hope that is of help to you.