The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, sometimes referred to as the European Fairs Cup, Fairs Cities' Cup, or simply as the Fairs Cup, was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. It is often considered the predecessor to the UEFA Cup (now the UEFA Europa League). The competition was the idea of FIFA vice-president and executive committee member Ernst Thommen, Italian Football Federation president and FIFA executive committee member Ottorino Barassi, and the English Football Association general secretary and president of FIFA from 1961 to 1974, Stanley Rous. As the name suggests, the competition was set up to promote international trade fairs. Friendly games were regularly held between teams from cities holding trade fairs and it was from these games that the competition evolved. The competition was initially only open to teams from cities that hosted trade fairs and where these teams finished in their national league had no relevance. Early competitions also featured a one city, one team rule. After 1964, it was sometimes referred to as the Runners-up Cup, with teams now qualifying based on league position. The winning team received the Noel Beard Trophy (Trophée Noel Beard), named for the cutler who designed it. The competition was organised by the Fairs Cup Committee which was led by some FIFA executives until 1971, when it was abolished and replaced by the UEFA Cup. While the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup is generally considered to be the predecessor to the UEFA Cup, it was not organised by UEFA. Consequently, the confederation does not consider clubs' records in the Fairs Cup to be part of their European record and regards its prestige as lesser than the UEFA Cup. There is no documentary evidence to support the claim that FIFA views the competition as a major honour, other than in articles submitted by clubs for inclusion in a series of club profiles, which was removed from the FIFA website in 2015. History Spanish era The first competition was to be held over two seasons to avoid clashes with national leagues fixtures. Because it was also intended to coincide with trade fairs, it ran over into a third year. It commenced in 1955 and finished in 1958. Cities that entered teams included Barcelona, Basel, Birmingham, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Vienna, Cologne, Lausanne, Leipzig, London, Milan, and Zagreb. The first competition included a group stage and also featured some city representative teams instead of clubs. The eventual