HOW THE EUROPEAN CUP WAS BORN

    The creation of the European Cup was due to the Italian Bruno Zauli (Ancona, ITA – 18.12.1902/7.12.1963). A deep lover of sport, specially athletics, showed always a great conditions for athletics. His life was directly joined to the searching of sports activities and the creation of athletics schools. Like executive he started his career in the FIDAL (Italian Athletics Federation) office and then promoted to Secretary of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) and finally to occupy the chair of the IAAF European Committee.

    Bruno Zauli had the idea of creating a teams European competition inspired by another one celebrated since 1957 called “Six Nations”, in which each year Federal Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Holland and Belgium, were confronted. The great similarity in its organisation and participation - one athlete per event -, made him think that the same thing could be done with all European countries.
    The IAAF European Committee, under his presidency met on April of 1963 in Rome, with views of establishing the principles for the future European Cup of countries. The mentioned Committee was comprised of, as well as its maximum representative, Dr. Zauli, by Bosak (Czechoslovakia), Crump (Great Britain), Danz (Germany), Foys (Poland), Hermens (Belgium), Khomenkov (Soviet Union), Lindhal (Sweden), Most (Norway), Paulen (Holland), Piirto (Finland), Sir (Hungary) and Tonelli (France), the Secretary being the Yugoslav Takac. On that occasion a commission was constituted, composed of Zauli, Takac, Crump, Paulen and Lindhal, to study the project more in depth and present it in successive meetings.
    The final plenary session where the competition would be constituted happened in Sofia, during the 16th and 17th November in the Hotel Balkan, in the Bulgarian capital. Previously, a special sub-committee which met in June in Amsterdam, had studied the technical formula for which the competition would be governed. Each of the 31 national federations which formed the European Committee, were sent a questionnaire which was answered affirmatively by 20 federations, with only two being contrary and the rest proved to be unsure or didn´t answer. The two who in the beginning were opposed to the ideas of the organisation of this competition were two of the main European and world powers: the Soviet Union and Germany.
    The certainty that this new athletic event would contribute in a decisive manner in the European athletic expansion and improvement of athletic and competitive quality, meant that in May of 1964, in Paris, the competition was officiated. On that occasion and under the presidency of the then Vice President, the soviet Khomenko, the rules and technical and organisational regulations were approved and, it was decided that the competition would be named European Athletic Cup-”Bruno Zauli”. In the mentioned meeting, both independent Germanys were accepted, East and West. Such a decision was quite curious since the very IAAF was still accepting Germany as one nation, just as it occurred during the celebration of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, that same year. There were 24 men´s nations and 18 female ones, who inaugurated the European Cup “Bruno Zauli”. The dream of Dr. Zauli, the creator and instigator of this competition was made reality but, was never able to witness it.
    For its first two decades, the Cup was organised so that the smaller nations contested preliminary rounds before meeting more powerful countries which would enter at the semi-final stage. The top two from each of three semi-finals would then go forward to the final.
    By 1983, the increase in the number of international meetings filled the athletics calendar and this meant the format of the Cup needed to change so that all the teams competed on one weekend. The top level of the new Cup was called the Super League and included eight men's and eight women's teams. Below that were a 1st League and a 2nd League, each with A and B groups. This format continues today.
    Though the structure of the Cup has modernised its original ethos endures: each athlete, whether at the top, middle or the bottom of the field in their event, must dig deep on the day for every possible point - as their effort could make the difference between glory for their team, or relegation.