Coupe des Alliés

Coupe des Alliés

The Coupe des Alliés Trophy
Organising body	USFSA
Founded	1915
Abolished	1918 (1918)
Region	France
Number of teams	8 to 16
Last champions	CASG Paris (1917)
Most successful club(s)	CASG Paris (2 titles)

The Coupe des Alliés (English: Allied Cup) was an knockout football competition contested by French clubs. It was contested annually during the First World War between 1915 and 1918, and it was organized by USFSA (the predecessor of the French Football Federation), which opened this competition for all teams from all federations.

The Coupe des Alliés was one of the so-called French "wartime" football competitions during WWI, together with the USFSA Coupe Nationale (1915–19), the FGSPF Coupe Nationale (1915–18), the Challenge de la Renommée (1915–19), and the FCAF's Challenge de la Victoire (1915–16).

History

After having ceased in the fall of 1914 due to the outbreak of the First World War, sporting competitions and spectacles in France gradually resumed from 1915 onwards, first justified by the need to train the next generation of sports and military personnel and to celebrate the fraternity uniting the allies. Furthermore, in times of War, when so many French families are grieving the death or disappearance of a loved one at the Western Front, sports became their best source for escapism from the ongoing conflict, and the country's favorite sport was football. Therefore, from the first months of the conflict, the four federations administering football in France set up "wartime" competitions, with the USFSA creating a knockout cup which they called Coupe des Alliés to not only celebrate the fraternity uniting the allies, but to also give it an undeniable patriotic added value. This cup thus gave some activity back to football clubs whose championships had been interrupted by the War. Given the mobilization of Frenchmen to the war, these "wartime" competitions were mainly contested by players under the age of twenty.

1915 Coupe des Alliés

In the inaugural championship in 1915, the final was contested by CA Paris, which at the time had a formidable team that even had some international footballers, and by CASG Paris, who was competing in its first-ever final of any kind. The underdogs scored twice in the first-half thanks to a brace from Juste Brouzes, but in the second half, the referee Battaille awarded a penalty kick to CA Paris, which was converted by Henri Viallemonteil to cut the deficit down to 1–2. CASG then scored a third goal via Julien Devicq, but CA Paris responded with their second goal, and then pressed for the equalizer throughout the last 15 minutes, but CASG was able to resist their opponents' intense siege thanks to the efforts of their defensive trio: Jou, Lavenir and Leroy; and only failed to score a fourth because of CA Paris' goalkeeper Marcel Evrard. CASG Paris thus won the 1915 title with a score of 3–2. The French newspaper L'Auto described the final as "particularly interesting".

Results

8 March 1915

Final

CASG Paris	3 – 2	CA Paris
Brouzes 1–0', 2–0' Devicq 3–1'	Report1 Report2	Viallemonteil 2–1' (pen.) ? 3–2'

Referee: Mr. Battaille

1915–16 Coupe des Alliés

Main article: 1915–16 Coupe des Alliés

The second edition of the competition was contested by the winners of 8 regional championships, which means that the finals of those championships were therefore the round of 16 of the Coupe des Alliés. One side of the bracket was contested by the clubs of Western France and Paris, while the other half was made up of clubs from Eastern France, mostly from the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur due to the war zones near the border with Germany.

Western France and Paris

In the final of the Paris zone, Red Star Amical Club and CASG Paris drew at 1, but Red Star refused to play extra time because three of its players had to return to work in their arms factory, so CASG was declared the winner. In the final of the Normandy region, Le Havre defeated FC Rouen by an unknown score, while the Northwestern region (Brittany/Pays de la Loire) was won by Stade Rennais after beating Union Sportive Raonnaise in December 1915; Armoricaine de Brest on 8 January; and then US Le Mans 4–1 in the final. In the final of the Southwestern region (Occitania/Nouvelle-Aquitaine), VGA Médoc defeated Stade Toulousain 8–0. In the quarterfinals, VGA Médoc was set to face Stade Rennais in Nantes, but the match ended up taking place in Bordeaux, with Rennais winning 2–0. The other quarterfinal was contested by the champions of Paris and Normandy, which ended in a 4–2 win to the latter, thus setting a semifinal between Le Havre and Stade Rennais.

Eastern France

The participation of clubs from the East of France was much more limited because of the War, so only two regional committees entered the tournament, Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. The only known fact from the latter championship is the winner, a club called International FC Nice, while the semifinals of the Rhône-Alpes championship were contested by three clubs from Lyon and one from Marseille. In the first semifinal on 11 January, FC Lyon scored the opening goal in the 5th minute via Mortier, but ended up losing 2–4 to CS Terreaux. The second semifinal on 12 January was a Choc des Olympiques, in which Olympique de Marseille led Olympique Lyonnais 2–0 at half-time, but then Lyon's best player, the forward Joseph Delvecchio, had to leave because of an injury, and since there were no substitutions at the time, Lyon had to play the rest of the match with 10 men and ended up suffering a resounding 9–1 loss. In the Rhône-Alpes final, Terreaux defeated Marseille by a score of 4–2.

Top four

In the semifinals of the tournament, Stade Rennais scored three first-half goals against Le Havre to seal a 3–0 win on 14 May 1916, with the French newspaper L'Ouest-Eclair describing it as a "victory for Stade Rennais and Brittany". In the other semifinal, CS Terreaux defeated FC Nice by a score of 2–1. On 3 June, in the eve of the final, Stade Rennais defeated US Servannaise 8–0, thus finishing the season with 20 victories out of 19, and with a total of 125 goals scored and only 14 conceded, including five wins at the Coupe des Alliés, with 20 goals scored and only 1 conceded.

In the final, Stade Rennais played in red jerseys with black facings and was captained by Scoones, who led his team to a comfortable 7–1 victory over CS Terreaux, with L'Auto stating that the best player on the field was the forward "Leclerc, without a shadow of a doubt", while Terreaux's best players were the David brothers and André Bellon. The final was refereed by the Belgian Lebrun, whose work was described as "impeccable" and led "to general satisfaction". A local newspaper from Côtes-du-Nord described the success obtained by Stade Rennais as a "Breton victory", while also delivering a particularly flattering portrait of the flagship team of the capital, stating "it can currently be considered the most select and best organized provincial club".

Results

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

February 1916 – Parc des Sports, Sannois

Stade Rennais

4

March 1916 – Bordeaux

US Le Mans

1

Stade Rennais

2

11 January 1916 – Bordeaux

VGA Médoc

0

VGA Médoc

8

14 May 1916 – ?

Stade Toulousain

0

Stade Rennais

3

10 April 1916 – Paris

Le Havre

0

CASG Paris

1

30 April 1916 – Sanvic

Red Star Amical Club

1

CASG Paris

2

? 1916 –

Le Havre

4

Le Havre

?

4 June 1911 – Stade Jean-Bouin, Paris

FC Rouen

?

Stade Rennais

7

? 1916 – ?

CS Terreaux

1

International FC Nice

?

? 1916 – ?

?

?

International FC Nice

?

? 1916 – ?

?

?

?

?

? 1916 – Lyon

?

?

International FC Nice

1

12 January 1911 – Marseille

CS Terreaux

2

Olympique de Marseille

9

13 February 1916 – Lyon

Olympique de Lyon

1

Olympique de Marseille

2

11 January 1911 – Lyon

CS Terreaux

4

FC Lyon

2

CS Terreaux

4

Quarter-finals

30 April 1916

Le Havre	4 – 2 (a.e.t.)	CASG Paris
Louivert 1–0' 2–2' 3–2' 4–2'	Report	Bard 1–1' Bouillon 1–2'

Sanvic, Le Havre, Normandy

Referee: Monsieur Labat

Note: After 90 minutes, the game was tied at 1, with Paris scoring its second goal in extra time, but then Le Havre scored three goals in quick succession to seal the win.

Semi-final

? 1916

CS Terreaux	2 – 1	International FC Nice
??	Report	?

14 May 1916

Stade Rennais	3 – 0	Le Havre
Dayot - Claise, Betfert - Ruesch, Vascout, Bétrancourt - van Ramdouck, Ory, Gauvin, Leclerc, Moulin	Report	Frémont - Corlay, Herremann - Leiber, Lemaire, Steinhauser - Accard, Louivert, Verhaege, Ollivier, Mevel

Attendance: About 300

Referee: M. Slawick

Final

4 June 1916

15:00

Stade Rennais	7 – 1	CS Terreaux
? Dayot - Claise, Betfert - Scoones, Vascout, Bétrancourt - van Ramdouck, Ory, Gauvin, Leclerc, Moulin	Report1 Report2	? G. David - F. David, Déléard - Morel, Bellon, Rossier - Chapelle, Jacquelin, Chapuis, Menchetti, Béraud

Stade Jean-Bouin, Bois de Boulogne, Paris

Attendance: About 1500

Referee: M. Lebrun

1916–17 Coupe des Alliés

In 1917, two similar events took place, one organized by the USFSA, and the other by the LFA under the title of Interfederal Cup, with the latter having great success in terms of club participation. In the USFSA, the Brittany championship was contested by four clubs, with the defending champions Stade Rennais receiving CASG Saint-Malo on 5 November 1916, while US Rennaise received Stade Lavallois on 12 November, and the winners then met on 3 December. Olympique de Marseille defeated RC Marseille in the first round (6–1), then RCB Dijon (0–6) before withdrawing in the quarter-finals before facing NSC Nice. In the semifinals, NSC Nice faced FC Lyon in Marseille, in which the two teams found themselves in a stalemate because they were evenly matched, and it was only in the sixth period of extra-time that Lyon managed to break the deadlock with an "unstoppable shot" from Weber.

In the final, FC Lyon faced CASG Paris, and both sides were flawed, since Lyon was missing Chadelaud, while CASG had neither Marion nor Vandendey due to injuries. As soon as the whistle was blown by M. Gemain, an official referee who belonged to the committee of Brittany, CASG quickly entered in action with several attacks, and despite the efforts of Lyon's goalkeeper Bétemps and its defenders, André Bellon and Mortier, CASG managed to score the opening goal with a "very pretty" strike from Paul Deydier. CASG then scored three goals via Lorilleux and Robyns to lead Lyon 4–0 at half-time, so they relaxed in the second half, and this allowed A. Weber to score a consolation goal for Lyon in a 4–1 loss. CASG Paris thus won its second title in three years (1915 and 1917).

Results

7 May 1917

Final

CASG Paris	4 – 1	FC Lyon
Deydier 1–0' Lorilleux 2–0', 4–0' Robyns 3–0'	Report1	A. Weber 1–4'

Referee: M. Gemain (Brittany)

Legacy

After the Coupe des Alliés and the 1916–17 LFA Interfederal Cup, the French Interfederal Committee (CFI) decided to bring the two rival Federations into agreement by taking charge of organizing an Interfederal event, the so-called 1917–18 Charles Simon Cup, created in memory of the recently deceased president of the CFI.

The 1916 Coupe des Alliés was the first trophy in the history of Stade Rennais, but it took over a century to reach the club's museum. The trophy was initially presumed lost until it was finally found in 1980 in Rouen, at a garage sale, by Guy Morat, a retired banker and an amateur antique dealer. In 2020, a few months after the club launched its museum, the Roazhon Park legends gallery, Morat gave the Coupe des Alliés to his nephew, who then presented it to the club's president Jacques Delanöe, who had recently launched an appeal to recover the club's first two Coupe de France (1965 and 1971), which was successful since the club was able to get its hands on both trophies again. Rennes' triumphant campaign at the 2018–19 Coupe de France meant that the club went from zero trophies in the display to now having four.

See also

• Challenge International du Nord (1898–1914)
• Pyrenees Cup (1910–1914)
• 1916–17 LFA Interfederal Cup

External links

• Tournament data