Background
- For more details on this topic see UEFA competitions
The first continental competition organised by UEFA was the European Cup in 1955. Conceived by Gabriel Hanot, the editor of L'Équipe, as a competition for winners of the European national football leagues, it is considered the most prestigious European football competition. When the European Cup was first played, Liverpool were in the Second Division, following relegation from the First Division after the 1953–54 season, and thus were ineligible for the competition. During their time in the Second Division, two further competitions were created: the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. Established in 1955, the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was later re-branded as the UEFA Cup when it came under the auspices of UEFA in 1971. Since the 2009–10 season, the competition has been known as the UEFA Europa League. The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was inaugurated in 1960 for the winners of domestic cup competitions.
In 1962 Liverpool were promoted to the First Division. Two years later, they won the Football League championship, thus making their European debut in the 1964–65 European Cup. In the following years, further European competitions were inaugurated. The first, the UEFA Super Cup, was originally a match played between the winners of the European Cup and the Cup Winners' Cup. First established in 1973, it changed formats in 2000; since then, it has been contested between the winners of the Champions League (formerly the European Cup) and the Europa League (formerly the UEFA Cup), following the Cup Winners' Cup amalgamation into the latter. The Intercontinental Cup was a competition for the winners of the European Cup (later, the UEFA Champions League) and the South American equivalent, the Copa Libertadores. Established in 1960, the Intercontinental Cup was jointly organised by UEFA and the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL). It ran until 2004, when the FIFA Club World Cup, which includes the winners of all six confederations' regional championships replaced it.
Read more about this topic: Liverpool F.C. In European Football
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