The UEFA Plaque

The UEFA Plaque was a honorific award given by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) to those clubs that had won, at least once, the title in each of the three major international competitions organised by that confederation, namely the European Champions Cup, the Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Cup.[1][2] It was officially established in late 1987[3] and its first award was given in the second half of the following year, with Italian club Juventus being the club to be honoured. A second award was initially scheduled for the second half of 1992 in favour of Dutch side Ajax, but it was not conferred for unclarified reasons by the confederation[4] after Spanish team Barcelona —who did not comply with the requirement imposed by UEFA— at the same time unsuccessfully applied to European football's governing body for such recognition,[4] being subsequently discontinued.

The UEFA Plaque
Digital reproduction of The UEFA Plaque presented to Juventus in 1988
SportAssociation football
CompetitionUEFA competitions
Awarded forclubs' sporting merits
Local nameUEFA-Abzeichen  (German), Plaque UEFA  (French)
CountrySwitzerland
Presented byUEFA
History
First award1988 (1988)

Background

Since 1971 to 1999, three international competitions organised by UEFA were disputed in Europe each season, which would be regulated by a single committee since 1972[5] and had defined dates in the international fixture calendar,[6][nb 1] so these were named since then by that governing body as its major tournaments in terms of prestige and by the mass media as "the three European cups" due the general level of all these was even.[8] These competitions, the European Champions' Cup, the Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Cup given additionally points for the confederation coefficient since its introduction in 1979 and, at the beginning of the 1984–85 season in European football, two clubs in the continent were in the running to become the first to complete this trio of competitions, having won at least two trophies out of three: Hamburg and Juventus, which competed in the UEFA Cup and in the European Champions' Cup, respectively, and required to win the trophy in those competitions to achieve this set; being the Italian team the only to do it at the end of that season.[9]

Trophies of the European Champions' Cup (left), the Cup Winners' Cup (middle) and the UEFA Cup (right), costituent the European Treble.[10]

In December 1987, the UEFA competitions' Organising Committee proposed, at Zürich, to the confederation's executive committee to be instituted an official award for those clubs that would have won at least once all three seasonal pan-European tournaments[3] —a success called a posteriori by the confederation as "the European Treble"[10]— and, after being ratified, it was announced to be given for the first time during the first official UEFA meeting of the following season[11] which would be held five months latter.[12] By the time of the announcement, only two clubs in Europe would complete all sweep of seasonal international trophies, equalling the Juventus' record, if they had won the title in the competition which participated: Anderlecht in European Champions' Cup and Milan AC in UEFA Cup during the 1987–88 season, but both were eliminated in the quarter-finals and in the second round, respectively.[13] In a similar situation were both Ajax and Bayern Munich, who unsuccessfully participated in the 1988–89 UEFA Cup.[14]

Italian mass media dubbed that recognition since it was conferred in July 1988, "Targa UEFA" (English: UEFA Plaque) by metonymy and synecdoche[15][16][17] and with this name it was also known, by literal translation, outside the country.[18][19]

Description

The award consists of a rectangular silver plaque on which are superimposed three trophies that represent the tournaments mentioned, above a golden laurel wreath and the European football government body badge, also in gold.[20][21][11] Also, the plaque have the following inscription in French, then the confederation's official language,[22] which translated to English:

Tribute
The UEFA to Juventus F.C.
First club to have won the three international UEFA club competitions
European Champions Clubs' Cup
European Cup Winners' Cup
UEFA Cup.[23]

Recipients

On 12 July 1988, at the beginning of the 1988–89 European competitions seeding held in Geneva (Switzerland), then UEFA president Jacques Georges presented the prize[21] to then Juventus president Giampiero Boniperti.[14]

In July 1992, after winning the European Champions' Cup, then FC Barcelona president Josep Lluís Núñez requested of UEFA a similar recognition, stating that his club had equalled Juventus' record, having won formerly the Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Cup. European football's governing body, led by now president Lennart Johansson, who replaced Georges in the charge; rejected it because the Spanish club had never won the UEFA Cup proper, and UEFA does not recognize its predecessor, the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, previously won by that club, as an official competition.[4]

Since UEFA awarded Juventus with the UEFA Plaque, four other clubs have won the three seasonal European competitions: Ajax (1992, to whom the recognition was initially scheduled after their triumph in 1991–92 UEFA Cup, notwithstanding the confederation latter decided not to award them for unknown reasons),[4] Bayern Munich (1996), Chelsea (2013), and Manchester United (2017).

See also

Notes
  1. From 1955 to 1971 each competition was reguled by its own committee. The Intercontinental Cup and the UEFA Super Cup not have a defined date in the international calendar until 1980 and 1998, respectively, and so in some cases these didn't carried out.[7]

References
  1. "Stakes high for Advocaat's Rangers reunion". Union des Associations Européennes de Football. 14 May 2006. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
  2. "UEFA club competitions" (PDF). Union des Associations Européennes de Football. 25 August 2006. p. 23. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
  3. "Un premio UEFA per i bianconeri". La Stampa (in Italian). 16 December 1987. p. 23.
  4. Aguilar, Francesc (12 July 1992). "El Barça, gran atracción del sorteo" (PDF). El Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). p. 34.
  5. Vieli (2014, p. 49)
  6. Vieli (2014, p. 52)
  7. Vieli (2014, pp. 50, 68)
  8. Richelieu, André (28 March 2012), How can former successful European football teams capitalise on the Europa League in order to (re-)establish their brands? (PDF) (Final report submitted to UEFA), Nyon: Union des Associations Européennes de Football, p. 95.
  9. "Il calcio europeo già si riprende". La Stampa (in Italian). 4 July 1984. p. 20.
  10. "Chelsea join illustrious trio". Union of European Football Associations. 15 May 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  11. "Juventus: Unica squadra premiata dall'UEFA". Hurrà Juventus (in Italian). Vol. 1. January 1988. pp. 42–43. ISSN 1594-5189.
  12. Monti, Fabio (12 July 1988). "Gullit e van Basten alla roulette russa". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). p. 30.
  13. "Juventus e Inter, i pericoli vengono dall'Est". La Stampa (in Italian). 9 July 1987. p. 24.
  14. "Sorteo de las competiciones europeas de fútbol: el Fram de Reykjavic, primer adversario del F.C. Barcelona en la Recopa" (PDF). La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 13 July 1988. p. 53. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
  15. "Per me i miliardi valgono ancora, non li butto". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). 13 July 1988. p. 28. it: [...] ha ricevuto una targa dell'UEFA, destinata alla Juve, unica squadra in Europa ad aver vinto tutte le coppe. [[...] he received a UEFA plaque for Juve, the only team in Europe to have won all the cups.]
  16. "Tutto iniziò con un po' di poesia". La Gazzetta dello Sport (in Italian). 24 May 1997. it: La Targa UEFA (prima squadra a vincere le tre coppe europee). [The UEFA Plaque (first team to win the three European competitions).]
  17. "Boniperti Giampiero" (in Italian). Associazione Nazionale Atleti Olimpici e Azzurri d'Italia. 2016.
  18. "Juventus ganó en plena recesión". El Tiempo (in Spanish). 22 May 1995. es: [...] Placa UEFA por ser el primer club que ganó las tres competiciones europeas. [[...] UEFA Plaque for being the first club to win all three European competitions.]
  19. "Así es la Vecchia Signora" (in Spanish). ESPN. 17 December 2004.
  20. "Boniperti si fa audace". Tuttosport (in Italian). 13 July 1988.
  21. Viglino, Giorgio (13 July 1988). "Boniperti e Futre, è la volta buona". La Stampa (in Italian). p. 22. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
  22. Georges, Jacques (2 May 1986), "Bienvenue à Lyon" (PDF), Finale de la Coupe des Vainqueurs de Coupe Européenne (Programme officiel) (in French), Lyon: Union des Associations Européennes de Football.
  23. Original version in French:
    Hommage
    L'UEFA au Juventus F.C.
    Premier club ayant remporté les trois competitions inter-clubs de l'UEFA
    Coupe des Clubs Champions Européenns
    Coupe des Vainqueurs de Coupe Européenne
    Coupe UEFA.
    Cf. "La Juventus in cifre". Hurrà Juventus (in Italian). Vol. 7/8. July–August 1988. p. 48 sqq. ISSN 1594-5189.

Bibliography
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