Founded | 1933 |
---|---|
Abolished | 1937 |
Region | Western Europe (WEFF) |
Number of teams | 8 (finals) |
Most successful team | France (2 titles) |
The WEFF Championship is a assocation football competition which is held in Western Europe. It was played between 1933-1937 with the tournament being held three times.
History
The beginnings of the tournament were first proposed by Henri Delaunay who at the time was the French Football Federation's secretary-general. When WEFF was formed in 1930, the proposal of a tournament in the region was brought up and it would later be agreed in 1931 with the first tournament to align with qualifying for the 1934 FIFA World Cup which would be held in Italy. The first tournament that was held saw five teams trying to book two spots in the eight-team draw to join the other six which automatically qualified to England. Wales and Portugal would be the teams that would qualify through to the main draw where France would take out the tournament after they defeated Wales in the final. The French than won also and win the second edition held in the Netherlands as Spain made a surprise entry into the Semi-Finals. But the lost to the Swiss teams closed their dreams of making a final.
The final competition before the Second World War would only have eight teams competing in the tournament with Spain being in a civil war and all of the British teams leaving WEFF as well as FIFA over the professional football saga, that was starting to come through. This didn't matter with Italy taking out the final trophy after they defeated Switzerland 1-0 in the final.
Results
Year | Host | Final | Third place match | Number of teams | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Winner | Score | Runner-up | Third place | Score | Fourth place | ||||||
1933 | England | France |
3–1 | Wales |
Netherlands |
1–0 (a.e.t) | Belgium |
8 | |||
1935 | Netherlands | France |
2–1 | Switzerland |
Italy |
1–0 | Spain |
8 | |||
1937 | Italy | Italy |
1–0 | Switzerland |
Netherlands |
2–1 | Portugal |
8 |