International Soccer League

Template:Short description Template:Short descriptionTemplate:Template other The International Soccer League was a U.S.-based soccer league which was formed in 1960 and collapsed in 1965. The League, affiliated with the American Soccer League, featured guest teams primarily from Europe and some from South America, Canada and Mexico.

The creation of the League was announced in January 1960, when it was regarded as an attempt to create a Club World Cup. However, the concurrence of the UEFA/CONMEBOL-endorsed Intercontinental Cup, launched also in 1960, nullified any possibility that the League might have relevance as a club world championship.

History

In 1960, William D. Cox, a wealthy U.S. businessman and former owner of the Philadelphia Phillies, a U.S. baseball team, saw a potential market in the United States for top-level soccer. Recognizing that U.S. teams did not play at a sufficiently high level to attract the attention of most fans, he began to consider the possibility of importing European and South American teams during their league off-seasons. Traditionally, tours by European clubs in the northeast United States had drawn well and Cox decided to pursue this approach.

However, soccer in the U.S. was run by the U.S. Soccer Football Association (USSFA). As a member of the soccer's international governing organization, FIFA, the USSFA had the sole power in the U.S. to authorize the creation of a new league, and any league created without USSFA authority would be declared an "outlaw league". Any person playing in an "outlaw league" would then be banned from playing in any other league or team affiliated with FIFA, and as nearly every league and team in the world was affiliated with the world soccer body, this would effectively ban a player from playing soccer anywhere.

To get USSFA approval, Cox worked through the existing American Soccer League, a USSFA-recognized league. This went so far that in 1961, the ASL scheduled only one game during the ISL season in order to keep from drawing fan support from the league. Each year, the ISL played two halves to its season, with different sets of teams; the top team from each half played each other in a season-ending championship game. In order to give the American fans a greater stake in the league, Cox also decided to enter a team of U.S.-based players; this team, called variably New York, the New Yorkers and the New York Americans, was usually a mix of U.S.-based European professionals with some native all-stars. Cox also gained regional television coverage, and the associated revenue stream. While the games were initially played in the New York metropolitan area, as interest in the ISL increased, he expanded the league to Chicago, Detroit, Boston and Los Angeles.

The ISL lasted only through the end of the 1965 season before folding, not so much by its continuing financial losses (some $100,000 over five seasons), but due to the continuing hostility of the USSFA. The ISL's growing success, combined with Cox’ refusal to allow USSFA a part in the league management, led to the USSFA's fear losing control of soccer in the United States. In 1965 the organization forbade Cox from importing teams into the U.S. and threatened to declare the ISL an outlaw league. Cox was forced to fold the ISL, but sued USSFA in federal court for anti-trust violations, a suit he eventually won. While the ISL played its last season in 1965, the model was used again in 1967 when the United Soccer Association (USA) imported foreign teams to populate its league and again in 1969 when the North American Soccer League (NASL) used imported teams for the first half of its season.

In 1967, Cox joined with several other investors to found the National Professional Soccer League, a non-USSFA sanctioned league which, the following year, merged with the US to become the NASL.

List of champions

Teams were divided into two groups (Section I and Section II) where they played a single round-robin tournament. Teams placed first in each group, played a final match to decide a champion.

Note: all the finals were held in New York City

Ed.	Year	Champion	1st. leg	2nd. leg	Agg.	Runner-up	Venue
1	1960	Template:Flagicon Bangu	2–0	–	2–0	Template:Flagicon Kilmarnock	Polo Grounds
2	1961	Template:Flagicon Dukla Prague	7–2	2–0	9–2	Template:Flagicon Everton	Polo Grounds
3	1962	Template:Flagicon America (RJ)	2–1	1–0	3–1	Template:Flagicon Belenenses	Polo Grounds
4	1963	Template:Flagicon West Ham United	1–1	1–0	2–1	Template:Flagicon Górnik Zabrze	Polo Grounds
5	1964	Template:Flagicon Zagłębie Sosnowiec	4–0	1–0	5–0	Template:Flagicon Werder Bremen	Downing Stadium
6	1965	Template:Flagicon Polonia Bytom	3–0	2–1	5–1	Template:Flagicon New York Americans	Randall's Island Stadium

American Challenge Cup

In 1962, the ISL initiated an annual challenge cup. It would pair the winner of the previous year's Challenge Cup winner with the current season's league champion. Dukla Prague had won the 1961 title, defeating Everton F.C. 7–2 and 2–0 in the championship. Therefore, they were paired in the first Challenge Cup with the 1962 season winner, América RJ. Dukla won and returned for the next three challenge cups, winning each, except for the last in which they fell to Polonia Bytom.

List of champions

Ed.	Year	Champion	1st. leg	2nd. leg	Agg.	Runner-up
1	1960	Template:Flagicon Bangu	– Template:Refn
2	1961	Template:Flagicon Dukla Prague	– Template:Refn
3	1962	Template:Flagicon Dukla Prague	1–1	2–1	3–2	Template:Flagicon America (RJ)
4	1963	Template:Flagicon Dukla Prague	1–0	1–1	2–1	Template:Flagicon West Ham United
5	1964	Template:Flagicon Dukla Prague	3–1	1–1	4–2	Template:Flagicon Zagłębie Sosnowiec
6	1965	Template:Flagicon Polonia Bytom	2–0	1–1	3–1	Template:Flagicon Dukla Prague

Notes

League MVP

Beginning in 1961, the league champion was awarded the Dwight D. Eisenhower trophy, but from 1962 to 1965 it was given to the league MVP. However, in 1960 and 1961 the best players in the tournament were Ademir da Guia (Bangu) and Válter Santos (Bangu) respectively.

Year	Player	Team
1960	Template:Flagicon Ademir da Guia	Template:Flagicon Bangu
1961	Template:Flagicon Válter Santos	Template:Flagicon Bangu
1962	Template:Flagicon Carl Bogelein	Template:Flagicon Reutlingen
1963	Template:Flagicon Bobby Moore	Template:Flagicon West Ham United
1964	Template:Flagicon Gerhard Zebrowski	Template:Flagicon Werder Bremen
1965	Template:Flagicon Uwe Schwart	Template:Flagicon New York Americans

Teams participations

Winning years are indicated in bold

Team	Year/s contested
Template:Flagicon AEK Athens	1964
Template:Flagicon América RJ	1962
Template:Flagicon EC Bahia	1964
Template:Flagicon Bangu	1960, 1961
Template:Flagicon Bayern Munich	1960
Template:Flagicon Belenenses	1962, 1963
Template:Flagicon Beşiktaş	1961
Template:Flagicon Blackburn Rovers	1964
Template:Flagicon Burnley	1960
Template:Flagicon Club Deportivo Oro	1963
Template:Flagicon Dinamo Bucharest	1961
Template:Flagicon Dinamo Zagreb	1963
Template:Flagicon Dukla Prague	1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965
Template:Flagicon Dundee	1962
Template:Flagicon Elfsborg	1962
Template:Flagicon Espanyol	19612
Template:Flagicon Everton	1961
Template:Flagicon Ferencváros	1965
Template:Flagicon Glenavon	1960
Template:Flagicon Górnik Zabrze	1963
Template:Flagicon Guadalajara	1962
Template:Flagicon Hajduk Split	1962
Template:Flagicon Hapoel Petah Tikva	1961
Template:Flagicon Helsingborgs IF	1963
Template:Flagicon Heart of Midlothian	1964
Template:Flagicon Karlsruhe	1961
Template:Flagicon Kilmarnock	1960, 1961, 1963, 1965
Template:Flagicon Lanerossi-Vicenza	1964
Template:Flagicon Mantua	1963
Template:Flagicon Monaco	1961
Template:Flagicon Montreal Concordia	1961
Template:Flagicon MTK Budapest	1962
Template:Flagicon New York Americans	1960, 1961, 1965
Template:Flagicon Nice	1960
Template:Flagicon Norrköping	1960
Template:Flagicon Palermo	1962
Template:Flagicon Panathinaikos	1962
Template:Flagicon Polonia Bytom	1965
Template:Flagicon Portuguesa	1965
Template:Flagicon Preussen Munster	1963
Template:Flagicon Rapid Wien	1960, 1961
Template:Flagicon Real Oviedo	1962
Template:Flagicon Real Valladolid	1963
Template:Flagicon Sport Recife	1963
Template:Flagicon Reutlingen	1962
Template:Flagicon Red Star Belgrade	1960, 1961, 1964
Template:Flagicon Sampdoria	1960
Template:Flagicon Schwechat	1964
Template:Flagicon Shamrock Rovers	1961
Template:Flagicon Sporting Lisbon	1960
Template:Flagicon TSV 1860 Munich	1965
Template:Flagicon Újpest	1963
Template:Flagicon Valenciennes	1963
Template:Flagicon Varese	1965
Template:Flagicon Vitória de Guimarães	1964
Template:Flagicon Wiener AC	1962, 1963
Template:Flagicon Werder Bremen	1964
Template:Flagicon West Bromwich Albion	1965
Template:Flagicon West Ham United	1963, 1965
Template:Flagicon Zagłębie Sosnowiec	1964

External links

• Annual standings by Dave Litterer on Sover.net (archived)
• USA - International Soccer League II by David A. Litterer on the RSSSF
• U.S. Soccer History Chapter 8. The 1960s: The Birth of the American Soccer Renaissance on Ayso88.org (archived)
• Series on Pitch Invasion.net by Tom Dunmore from 2011 (archived):
  • Part 1: They Even Cheered Technique: The International Soccer League
  • Part 2: In Lieu of Giants
  • Part 3: Expanded Dreams
  • Part 4: Struggling Towards Orbit