UEFA Super Cup

The UEFA Super Cup is staged annually and is contested by the previous season's winners of UEFA's two leading competitions.

Originally known as the European Super Cup, it was the brainchild of Anton Witkamp who was the sports editor of the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

With the Johan Cruyff inspired Ajax team at the height of their powers, Witkamp felt that there should be an enhanced process to crown Europe's best current team.

In 1971, he came up with the idea of the winners of the European Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup facing each other over a two-legged contest on a home and away basis.
The Dutch journalist explained: "It was conceived in the era of total football. Our era - four consecutive European Cups between Feyenoord and Ajax. More than money and glory, they were pursuing the right to be called the best.

"But who was the strongest team in Europe, which team ought to have been the strongest? The team that won the European Cup? In principle, yes. Yet football is often a hymn to relativity and, for this reason, can be an imprecise art."

With the financial backing of De Telegraaf, the new competition took place for the first time in 1972 when Ajax defeated Rangers 6-3 on aggregate.

However, UEFA refused to endorse this inaugural running as they had banned Rangers from European competitions due to the behaviour of their supporters during the 1972 Cup Winners' Cup Final against Dynamo Moscow.

Nonetheless, having noted the success and interest in the first staging, UEFA duly gave the competition their blessing by recognising and supporting the 1973 edition when Ajax retained their champion status with a 6-1 aggregate win against AC Milan.

The winners of the UEFA Champions League replaced the winners of the European Cup when UEFA's senior competition was reformed in 1992-93.

With the European Cup Winners' Cup staged for the last time in 1999, the opposition gap was filled by winners of the UEFA Cup which was then re-named the UEFA Europa League in 2009.

The two-legged format was retained until 1997 except in 1984 (Juventus v Liverpool), 1986 (Steaua București v Dynamo Kiev) and 1991 (Manchester United v Crvena Zvezda) when single games were played due to either scheduling problems or political issues.
The Super Cup was not played in the following three years:

- 1974 due to Bayern München and 1. FC Magdeburg being unable to agree a suitable date for their games.
- 1981 due to Liverpool being unable to find dates to play Dinamo Tbilisi due to their fixture congestion.
- 1985 due to the ban on English clubs' participation in UEFA competitions, Everton were not allowed to face Juventus.

The single-leg game was introduced in 1998 and staged at the neutral venue of Monaco's Stade Louis II until 2013 when it has since been staged at a different stadium each year across the continent.

The UEFA Super Cup trophy is retained by the governing body with a full sized replica awarded to the winning club.