How an English amateur football team won the first two World Cups
For the amateur English football club of West Auckland, ‘World Cup’ glory became a surprising reality in 1909 and 1911. Here’s how the team defied the odds.
Image: West Auckland FC with the 1909 Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy | Public Domain
Which football team won the first-ever World Cup? Many pub-quiz devotees will tell you it was Uruguay in 1930. It’s an easy statistic to remember if you know your sporting history. That year, Uruguay celebrated its first constitution’s centenary in fine style – by hosting and winning the inaugural FIFA World Cup.
However, whether this particular event should really be seen as the first-ever international football competition is a matter of debate. Others have claimed that title – like the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy held on Italian soil in 1909. Even more amazingly, an English side won the whole thing.
What? Yes, almost six decades before England’s 1966 World Cup triumph, Englishmen were champions on the global stage. What’s more, they repeated the feat just two years later. As we at Sky HISTORY eagerly anticipate watching England play in North America in 2026, here’s the story of West Auckland at the ‘World Cup’…
The first truly global football tournament?
One of the driving forces behind the World Cup was the French football administrator Jules Rimet. The original World Cup trophy was even named after him. (Yes, who could forget the ‘Jules Rimet still gleaming’ line in the iconic football anthem Three Lions?)
However, about two decades earlier, the Scottish-born tea magnate Sir Thomas Lipton had the same idea of starting a world football contest. It was even named after him, and the football associations of Italy, Germany and Switzerland all sent teams to compete in it.
Unlike today’s national football teams, these didn’t have players carefully selected from all over their respective countries. Instead, they were local clubs like Stuttgarter Sportfreunde and Winterthur, making the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy more reminiscent of today’s Champions League.
How did we get West Auckland at the World Cup?
Unlike their Italian, German and Swiss counterparts, English football association executives declined to get involved with the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy. So, the man himself decided to reach out to an English club directly.
His choice was the North East England side West Auckland FC, though exactly why remains a mystery. According to legend, Lipton had actually wanted Woolwich Arsenal, but his secretary accidentally invited West Auckland (both sides had the initials ‘W.A.’).
Whatever the actual reason, West Auckland had an opportunity far too good to pass up. The players were hardly awash with cash, as they earned their wages from coal mining rather than football. Still, they were willing to sell personal possessions to fund their trips to the Italian city of Turin, where the matches were set to take place.
West Auckland’s stunning run at the World Cup
Going into the tournament, West Auckland must have looked like minnows. In the event, they pulled off unlikely victories, beating first Stuttgarter and then Winterthur – both 2-0 – to walk away with the big prize. When the second Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy tournament was scheduled for 1911, West were invited back to defend their title.
It turned out that their 1909 triumph was no fluke. West Auckland defeated Zürich by two goals before pummeling Juventus (yes, really) 6-1 in the final. Not only did West Auckland lift the trophy yet again, they were now permitted to permanently bring it home with them as per the competition’s rules.
West Auckland's trophy goes AWOL
Unfortunately, the West Auckland international victory didn’t solve the club’s financial woes. The trophy must have been still gleaming like Jules Rimet when West Auckland were forced to sell it to a local landlady to settle a £40 debt.
After a fundraising effort, the club managed to buy the cup back again in 1960. It subsequently took pride of place at the West Auckland Working Men’s Club before being nabbed from there in 1994. As it was never found again, a replica is now kept at the same spot.
Remembering the West Auckland World Cup story
Today, the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy is often seen as an unofficial World Cup. Hence, calling West Auckland World Cup winners is far from the wild inaccuracy it might initially seem.
Even when you visit the Durham village of West Auckland today, you’ll see signage proudly hailing it as the ‘home of the first World Cup’. This jaw-dropping ‘David vs Goliath’ story was even made into a film, The World Cup: A Captain’s Tale, in the early 1980s.
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