The 1960–61 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup club football tournament was won by Italian club Fiorentina in two-legged final victory against Rangers of Scotland.
Organised by the Mitropa Cup committee, this tournament's edition was recognised by UEFA in 1963, after lobbying by the Italian Football Federation. This was the first season that the tournament took place for the winners of each European country's domestic cup, and was the only one to be decided in a two-legged final. Only ten sides entered the competition, The two German nations and the two major British nations were the sole non-Mitropa members to join the competition. partially due to the low expectations for the new tournament among association football fans and also to the unofficial nature of this edition.
SC Dynamo Berlin was the winner of the 1959 FDGB-Pokal and should naturally have represented East Germany in the 1960–61 European Cup Winners' Cup. However, the German Football Association of the GDR () (DFV) found army-sponsored local rival and league runners-up ASK Vorwärts Berlin to be a more suitable representative of East Germany in the competition.
It is a myth that the low number of entrants was due to few countries already having a domestic cup competition: as happened for the first edition of the European Cup, entrance criteria could be changed by each national federation. Fiorentina entered as runners-up to Juventus in both Coppa Italia and Serie A, Czechoslovakia sent the winners of an unofficial League Cup, and both Hungary and East Germany enrolled their league runners-up.
Teams
Austria Wien Rudá Hvězda Brno Wolverhampton Wanderers ASK Vorwärts Berlin Borussia Mönchengladbach Ferencváros Fiorentina Rangers FC Lucerne Dinamo Zagreb
Bracket
Qualifying phase Preliminary round Summary
Matches
Rudá Hvězda Brno won 3–2 on aggregate.
Rangers won 5–4 on aggregate.
Tournament phase Quarter-finals Summary
Matches
Dinamo Zagreb won 2–0 on aggregate.
Wolverhampton Wanderers won 5–2 on aggregate.
Rangers won 11–0 on aggregate.
Fiorentina won 9–2 on aggregate.
Semi-finals Summary
Matches
Fiorentina won 4–2 on aggregate.
Rangers won 3–1 on aggregate.
Final
Summary
Matches
Fiorentina won 4–1 on aggregate.
Top scorers The top scorers from the 1960–61 European Cup Winners' Cup (including preliminary round) are as follows:
RankNameTeamGoals1 Kurt Hamrin Fiorentina52 Antoninho Fiorentina4 Ralph Brand Rangers4 Luigi Milan Fiorentina4 Alex Scott Rangers46 Peter Broadbent Wolverhampton Wanderers3 Jimmy Millar Rangers3
See also 1960–61 European Cup 1960–61 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
References
External links 1960-61 season at UEFA website Cup Winners' Cup results at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation Cup Winners Cup Seasons 1960-61 – results, protocols website History Eurocup (Russian) Cup Winners' Cup 1960/61 - protocols games website RS Football Archive 1960–61 Cup Winners Cup