1959–60 European Cup

The 1959–60 European Cup was the fifth edition of the European Cup, an continental club tournament that was held across Europe. This was the last edition of the European Cup to feature teams from the three British Isle nations before only one spot became available due to the British Football League.

27 teams competed in the knockout competition with Stade de Reims and the leagues that made the semifinalists in the previous edition automatically going through to the first round. The remaining 22 teams competed in a preliminary round to fill the remaining spots in the draw.

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 season saw the first time that two French teams that was competing in the competition with Stade de Reims being the defending champions while OGC Nice was the French representative. This was also the last edition that the English, Scottish and Northern Irish teams was separate as starting from 1960–61, they would be united into one team as Great Britain.

Preliminary Round
The preliminary round draw of the 1959–60 edition took place on the 6 July 1959 at Cernobbio, Italy. As holders of the trophy, Stade de Reims received a bye from the preliminary round with the remaining 26 teams being separated into two groups with the next best nations on the lists all receiving byes into the first round of competition.

The calendar was decided by the involved teams, with all matches to be played by 30 September.


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First round
The eleven winners from the preliminary round was joined by the five teams that got the automatic bye from making the semi-finals in the previous season.