1960–61 European Cup

The 1960–61 European Cup was the sixth edition of the European Cup, an continental club tournament that was held across Europe. Twenty seven teams competed in the European Cup with Norway and Brittany making their first appearance at a European Cup competition.

Coming into the tournament Budpest Honvéd was the defending champions in the European Cup as they were joined by Újpesti Dózsa. This was also the first tournament where a team from Great Britain had participated after being in separate home unions in the previous tournament.

Background
The European Cup is a club competition that was form for the 1955-56 season. It was during that season where the format of a knockout competition between clubs was born with the league winners of each nation being sent to compete in the competition.

This was the first season where two Hungarian teams competed in the tournament with the champions of Hungary (Újpesti Dózsa) joined the defending champions in competing in the tournament. Two new nations competed in the tournament for the first time with the Brittany and Norway champions competing in the tournament. While for the nation for Great Britain, this was their first appearance at a major tournament since the teams were united.

Preliminary Round
The draw for the preliminary round took place at EFU headquarters in Paris, France, on Thursday, 7 July 1960. As title holders, Budapest Hove received a bye, and the remaining 26 teams were grouped geographically into three pots. The leading nation in the pot would get a bye into the next round with the remaining teams competing in the first round.


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1 Beşiktaş withdrew after the draw, AC Omonia walkover.

First Round
The fifteen winners from the preliminary round was joined by the Honved Budapest that got the automatic bye from winning the European Cup in the previous season.