Remembering City's Involvement In The Anglo Italian Cup

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Remembering City's Involvement In The Anglo Italian Cup

Club Historian John Hutchinson looks back to Leicester City’s summer foray, over half a century ago, into the Anglo-Italian Cup.

2026-06-26T15:00+01:00

by John Hutchinson

Published

26 Jun, 2026

Remembering City's Involvement In The Anglo Italian Cup

Club Historian John Hutchinson looks back to Leicester City’s summer foray, over half a century ago, into the Anglo-Italian Cup.

John Hutchinson

2026-06-26T15:00+01:00

Remembering City's Involvement In The Anglo Italian Cup

Club Historian John Hutchinson looks back to Leicester City’s summer foray, over half a century ago, into the Anglo-Italian Cup.

John Hutchinson

2026-06-26T15:00+01:00

Remembering City's Involvement In The Anglo Italian Cup

Club Historian John Hutchinson looks back to Leicester City’s summer foray, over half a century ago, into the Anglo-Italian Cup.

John Hutchinson

2026-06-26T15:00+01:00

Remembering City's Involvement In The Anglo Italian Cup

Club Historian John Hutchinson looks back to Leicester City’s summer foray, over half a century ago, into the Anglo-Italian Cup.

John Hutchinson

2026-06-26T15:00+01:00

In 1972, Jimmy Bloomfield’s Leicester City took part in a European Competition which in many ways was very innovative and experimental. This was the Anglo-Italian Cup.

The competition ran intermittently, and in various guises, between 1970 and 1996. In its initial form it was played as an annual tournament from 1970 until 1973. Its participants included some of the biggest names in Italian football, such as Napoli, Juventus, Roma, Lazio, Fiorentina, Inter Milan, Sampdoria, and Cagliari. Participating English clubs included Middlesbrough, Wolverhampton Wanderers, West Bromwich Albion, Sunderland, Sheffield Wednesday, Blackpool, Stoke City, Crystal Palace, Huddersfield Town, Swindon Town and Leicester City.

Leicester City entered the competition in the close-season of 1972. One of the reasons for this was that Leicester’s Chairman Len Shipman, who was also President of the Football League, was on the organising Committee of the Anglo-Italian Cup. The driving force behind the competition was Gigi Peronace, who had negotiated the very high profile transfers of the top English stars John Charles, Denis Law and Jimmy Greaves to Italy in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The competition format saw six Italian Clubs and six English Clubs arranged into three groups, each containing two clubs from each country. The teams from each country which accumulated the most points met in the Final.

Two points were awarded for a win and one for a draw. However in an attempt to encourage open and attacking football, the competition rules contained some interesting innovations. A point was awarded for each goal scored. Offside was restricted to the penalty areas. Also, in an attempt to encourage tactical innovation and at a time when only one substitute was the norm, five substitutes were allowed on the bench, any two of whom could be used. Another innovation was to allocate pre- designated squad numbers to the players, abandoning the usual system of players wearing position-related numbers on shirts (1-11).

Jimmy Bloomfield’s Leicester, who had just finished a respectable twelfth in the old First Division, registered 15 players for the 1972 Anglo Italian Cup. They were Shilton, Whitworth, Nish, Cross, Sjoberg, Manley, Weller, Sammels, Birchenall, Tomlin, Glover, Fern, Partridge, Wallington and Farrington.

The star team in Leicester City’s group was undoubtedly the Sardinian side Cagliari. They had recently emerged as an explosive force in Italian football, with a side studded with Italian internationals, such as Riva, Domenghini and Albertosi, who had all played in the 1970 World Cup Final against Brazil. Cagliari won the Italian Championship in 1970, and had come desperately close to repeating this feat in a three-way fight with Juventus and Torino in the season which had just finished.

Also in Leicester’s group were Atalanta. Like Leicester they had been relegated from the top division in 1968-69 and like Leicester they had bounced back two years later. Also like Leicester they had strengthened their side with established first division players. In Leicester’s case these had included Weller, Sammels and Birchenall. Atalanta’s equivalent signings were Leoncini and Sacco from Juventus and Bianchi from Napoli.

The other English team in Leicester’s group was Bob Stokoe’s Sunderland, who famously won the FA Cup the following season.

On 1 June, Leicester lost their first group game 1-0 to Cagliari in the luxurious Santa Elia stadium. The inspired goalkeeping of Albertosi kept Leicester at bay after a Jon Sammels own-goal had given the Italians the lead.

This set the scene for Leicester’s final three games in the competition.

On 4 Juneh, in a thrilling goal feast in Atalanta, Leicester were defeated 5-3. Weller had given Leicester a half time lead. The hero of the night though was Atalanta centre forward Magistrelli who scored four goals in the second half. He equalised on the hour. Sammels put Leicester ahead a minute later. Three minutes after that Magistrelli scored again. Then Bianchi put the Italians ahead for the first time , but Sammels scored his second to make the score 3-3. Magistrelli then scored another two in the closing minutes.

On 7 June , Leicester beat Cagliari at Filbert Street. The Italian giants did not play their World Cup stars. Leicester were two up after twelve minutes. In the third minute Glover finished off a good run with a perfectly judged cross which Weller headed in like a bullet. Nish got the second. He hit a low shot from 35 yards out which deceived the Cagliari’s reserve goalkeeper. Leicester badly needed to increase their goal tally to qualify for the final, but it wasn’t to be. Cagliari scored in the 58th minute, Leicester lost their earlier sparkle, and the final score of 2-1 meant that Leicester would need to win their last group game by a big margin.

They nearly pulled it off. On 10 June, Leicester annihilated Atalanta 6-0 at Filbert Street. Weller scored twice, adding to goals from Glover, Nish, Sammels and Farrington. The game had been in some doubt following torrential rain which left parts of the freshly reseeded Filbert Steet pitch waterlogged. The ball threw up clouds of spray when it hit the ground.

In the end it was all to no avail. Despite accumulating eight points in this match, word reached the ground that Blackpool had qualified for the final against Roma because they had scored ten goals against Italian First Division side Lanerossi Vicenza. Blackpool went on to lose the final 3-1 in Rome in front of a crowd of 40,000.

Leicester’s only foray into the short lived Anglo-Italian Cup was over.

Nevertheless it had provided the Filbert Street crowds with a glimpse of some top Italian competition and the chance to witness an experimental off-side rule which was never adopted.

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