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West Auckland 1st World Cup Winners 1909.
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West Auckland 1st World Cup Winners 1909.
West Auckland Town F.C. are a football club from West Auckland, County Durham, England, competing in the Northern League.
The club are most famous for being the winners of the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, the world's first international footballing competition, twice, in 1909 and 1911.
The Trophy was initiated by businessman and sporting enthusiast Sir Thomas Lipton, who wished to see a competition between the leading football clubs of Europe.
The football associations of Italy, Germany and Switzerland duly complied, but the Football Association of England refused to nominate a club.
West Auckland, a lowly amateur side of coalminers from the Northern League were entered into the competition, although it has never been entirely clear why.
West Auckland duly made the journey to Turin, where the first tournament was being held, many of the players paying out of their own pocket to do so.
They beat Stuttgarter Sportfreunde in the semi-finals 2-0; in the final, on April 12, 1909, West Auckland faced Swiss side FC Winterthur and beat them 2-0 as well to take the trophy.
Two years later, West Auckland returned, and after beating FC Zürich 2-0, they ran out 6-1 winners in the final over future Italian giants Juventus. By the rules of competition, they were awarded the trophy to keep in perpetutity.
