{"id":1741,"date":"2026-04-07T05:11:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T05:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/?p=1741"},"modified":"2026-04-07T05:11:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T05:11:28","slug":"the-sporting-success-that-led-to-fairs-cup-glory-history-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/?p=1741","title":{"rendered":"The Sporting success that led to Fairs Cup glory | History | News"},"content":{"rendered":"


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By virtue of finishing fourth in the First Division, Bertie Mee\u2019s Arsenal side qualified for the 1969\/70 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, a European competition set up in the 1950s primarily to promote international trade fairs, and the precursor to today\u2019s Europa League.<\/p>\n

We benefited from the Fairs Cup\u2019s one-team-per-city rule to enjoy a second taste of European football, six years after our first-ever continental action. In 1968\/69, Everton actually finished above us in third position but missed out because Liverpool had finished one place above them, so the Reds took another English spot alongside us, holders Newcastle United and Southampton.<\/p>\n

After knocking out Glentoran 3-1 on aggregate in the first round, we would be handed a double header with Sporting Lisbon, who\u2019d just finished fifth in Portugal\u2019s Primeira Divisao. <\/p>\n

There was a sense of excitement amongst our players. \u201cClubs like Manchester United and Tottenham had been enjoying some great experiences in Europe, so we thought it was about time a club of Arsenal\u2019s stature was also on that stage,\u2019 recalled Frank McLintock, who\u2019d lift the Fairs Cup in April on a memorable night at Highbury. <\/p>\n

For many of our side, playing the first leg at the impressive Estadio Jose Alvalade was their first experience of one of Europe\u2019s glamour parks. \u201cSporting were a famous club, and everyone instantly recognised their iconic green and white striped shirts. Their ground was like a huge, noisy bowl. We rose to the challenge,” recalled goalkeeper Geoff Barnett, who made his European debut in Portugal. We dug in for a hard-fought 0-0 draw, meaning that the tie was delicately poised for the Highbury return in late November.<\/p>\n

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On a foggy and misty night, 35,232 turned up to see us turn in a mightily impressive performance. The action was captured by Sportsnight cameras. Many of the players who\u2019d go on to win the Double in 1970\/71 were present and correct, but David Court and Jimmy Robertson, who\u2019d leave during the 1970 close season, also played their part. <\/p>\n

Midway through the first half, striker John Radford neatly controlled a pass from Bob McNab on the edge of the Sporting box and half-volleyed the Gunners ahead. Minutes later, an excellent pinpoint Jimmy Robertson cross was powerfully headed home by George Graham. The Scot, who\u2019d become our manager in 1986, then stabbed home from close range in the second half to complete a comfortable 3-0 win on the night, and propel us forward in the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was always an education to play teams like Sporting, who played in a continental style, and were very good passers of the ball,\u201d recalled Radford, \u201cbut we used our strengths of close marking and aerial power very effectively.\u201d <\/p>\n

We would then defeat Rouen, Dinamo Bacau and Ajax, before beating Anderlecht 4-3 on aggregate in the final to secure our first European trophy, which was used as a springboard for the memorable 1970\/71 Double-winning season.<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By virtue of finishing fourth in the First Division, Bertie Mee\u2019s Arsenal side qualified for the 1969\/70 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, a European competition set up in the 1950s primarily to … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}