West Auckland Town: The amateur side that became world champions

Twenty-one years before Uruguay lifted the first Fifa World Cup, there was another attempt to create a global football tournament, with clubs rather than countries.

Sir Thomas Lipton, philanthropist and creator of Lipton Ice Tea, created a football competition that saw Europe’s elite face off against each other.

With the competition set to be held in Turin, Italy, invitations were sent to the football associations of England, Germany, Italy and Switzerland – the predominant powerhouses of the game – with all but the English FA accepting the offer to send one of their best teams to take part.

Germany and Switzerland sent their respective champions, Stuttgart and Winterthur, while Italy sent a combined Turin and Piemonte side.

Not wanting to see England go unrepresented at the tournament, Lipton turned his attention to the Northern League and West Auckland Town.

Why exactly the amateur outfit were chosen is a much speculated subject but, according to local historian Martin Connolly, there are a couple of possible scenarios.

“The myth was that Sir Thomas Lipton had asked for Woolwich Arsenal Football Club, WAFC, and his secretary made a mistake, but my research shows that is not correct,” he told BBC Real Time in 2014.

“The Northern League was one of the oldest leagues in England with fantastic teams and it’s thought that Bishop Auckland might have been the target – but, in fact, West Auckland got the invite.”

Mistake or not, amateur side West Auckland duly accepted the invitation and the stage was set for the first World Cup, or, by its official and very creative name, the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy.