Tournoi international de l'Exposition Universelle de Paris

Tournoi international de l'Exposition Universelle de Paris
Founded	1937
Abolished	1937; 87 years ago
Region	Europe
Number of teams	8
Last champions	Bologna (1937)
Most successful club(s)	Bologna ; (1 title)

The Tournoi international de l'Exposition Universelle de Paris (the international tournament of the Paris exhibition) was an international club football tournament which took place from May to June 1937. It was arranged to coincide with the international exhibition being held in France that year. Eight clubs from around Europe were invited to participate. The tournament was won by Italian champions Bologna, who beat English side Chelsea 4–1 in the final.^[1]^[2]^[3] Bologna's victory marked the first time that an Italian team won an international tournament against an English team.^[4]

Tournament

Quarter-finals

Matches played were played on 30 May respectively in Le Havre, Strasbourg, Antibes and Paris

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Austria Vienna	2–0	Leipzig
Slavia Praga	2–1	Phöbus FC
Chelsea	1–1¹	Olympique de Marseille
Bologna	4–1	Sochaux

¹ Chelsea won on coin toss

Semi finals

Matches were played on 3 June respectively in Paris and Lille

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Chelsea	2–0	Austria Vienna
Bologna	2–0	Slavia Praga

Third-place play-off

Match played 5 June in Saint-Ouen

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Slavia Praga	3–0	Austria Vienna

Final

The final took place on 6 June in front of a crowd at the Saint-Ouen. Bologna imposed themselves physically and with their ferocious desire to win, but they also showed a sense of security that hindered Chelsea.^[2] The first ten minutes saw the English side produce some brilliant and inspired moves, easily dribbling past their opponents. However, the Italians managed to organize themselves and took the lead when Carlos Reguzzoni opened the scoring after an error by full-back Ned Barkas. The now more determined Bologna quickly and clearly imposed themselves on the game, and just six minutes later Giovanni Busoni doubled their lead;

Bologna managed to score a third before the break, again via Reguzzoni.^[2] In the second half, Bologna relaxed due their three-goal advantage, and the English took advantage of this to take control of the game, but they failed to find a goal because of the great Bologna defence, which included the unbeatable Carlo Ceresoli between the posts, the physical strength and class of Dino Fiorini and the positional sense of Felice Gasperi.^[3] Reguzzoni sealed his hat-trick in the 65th minute with a goal against the run of play, and thus gave Bologna a resounding 4–0 lead. Chelsea was able to salvage a small measure of honour with a fine solo move by Sam Weaver.^[2] The best Bologna players were Ceresoli, Reguzzoni, Sansone and Andreolo and Fedullo, all of whom were South Americans.^[2]

Tournoi International de Paris final

6 June 1937

Bologna	4–1	Chelsea
Reguzzoni 15', 31', 65' Busoni 20'	Report1 Report2	Weaver 72'

Saint-Ouen, Paris

Referee:

Lucien Leclercq

Team details

Bologna

Chelsea


GK		Carlo Ceresoli
DF		Dino Fiorini
DF		Felice Gasperi
MF		Mario Montesanto
MF		Michele Andreolo
MF		Giordano Corsi
FW		Giovanni Busoni
FW		Raffaele Sansone
FW		Angelo Schiavio
FW		Francisco Fedullo
FW		Carlo Reguzzoni
Manager:
Árpád Weisz



GK		John Jackson
DF		Ned Barkas
DF		George Barber
MF		Billy Mitchell
MF		Allan Craig
MF		Sam Weaver
FW		Dick Spence
FW		Jimmy Argue
FW		Joe Bambrick
FW		George Gibson
FW		Ernest Reid
Manager:
Leslie Knighton

References

^ "Tournoi International de l'Expo Universelle de Paris 1937". RSSSF. 19 June 2009. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Parigi 1937: Finale, Bologna-Chelsea 4-1" [The 1937 Paris final, Bologna-Chelsea 4-1]. www.bolognafc.it (in Italian). 13 May 2017. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
^ ^a ^b "6 giugno 1937: Bologna-Chelsea 4-1. Il trofeo dell'Esposizione di Parigi" [6 June 1937: Bologna-Chelsea 4-1. The Paris Exposition trophy]. www.1000cuorirossoblu.it (in Italian). 6 June 2016. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
^ "Il bologna fc vince il torneo internazionale dell'esposizione di parigi" [Bologna fc wins the paris exposition international tournament]. www.1000cuorirossoblu.it (in Italian). Retrieved 22 June 2023.