Burnley F.C. in European football

The Parc des Princes (1932 photograph) was the stage for the first round return leg against Stade de Reims.

Burnley's first appearance in European football came in the 1960–61 season. The club had won its second First Division title under the management of Harry Potts and as such qualified for the 1960–61 European Cup.[1] Burnley was the third club to represent England in the competition, preceded by Manchester United and Wolverhampton Wanderers.[2] The club's squad consisted of mostly players who came through the Burnley youth academy; a transfer fee was paid for only two players — for Jimmy McIlroy in 1950 and for Alex Elder in 1959.[3] Potts often employed the at the time unfashionable 4–4–2 formation and he implemented a Total Football playing style,[4][5] as his team mainly revolved around the duo of captain Jimmy Adamson and playmaker McIlroy.[6]

Burnley received a bye in the preliminary round of the competition and were drawn against French club Stade de Reims in the first round.[7] Reims were the 1959–60 French Division 1 champions,[8] and were runners-up in the European Cup in 1956 and 1959.[9] The Reims team mainly revolved around striker Just Fontaine and playmaker Raymond Kopa; Fontaine had scored a record 13 goals during the 1958 FIFA World Cup and Kopa had been awarded the 1958 Ballon d'Or, an annual award given to the best European footballer.[8][10][11] The first leg was played at Turf Moor and was won 2–0: Jimmy Robson scored in the first minute and McIlroy netted a second in the 22nd minute.[12] The return leg, two weeks later at Parc des Princes, Paris, ended in a 3–2 loss.[12] Robson put Burnley ahead in the 33rd minute but Reims scored two in the second half via Roger Piantoni and Bruno Rodzik. John Connelly equalised after he dribbled past several Reims players to score, only for Rodzik to net his second a minute later.[13] During the game, Potts ran on the pitch to put the ball back to its correct place during a Reims free-kick, having become exasperated by their constant attempts to steal a few yards, after which he was taken off the field by the police.[8][13] Despite the loss and crowd disturbances during the match, Burnley won 4–3 on aggregate and qualified for the quarter-final.[7][8]

The draw saw the club face West German champions Hamburger SV, the first leg to be played at Turf Moor.[14] Brian Pilkington scored twice to put Burnley 2–0 up and Robson added a third, before Hamburg pulled one back in the last minutes of the game.[12] The second leg was played two months later at the Volksparkstadion and was broadcast live on the BBC.[14][15] Klaus Stürmer and star striker Uwe Seeler scored for Hamburg, only for Gordon Harris to put Burnley back ahead on aggregate in the 55th minute.[15] Hamburg were in front again inside six minutes as both Gert Dörfel and Seeler scored. McIlroy hit the post in the last minute and Burnley were eliminated.[14]

José Altafini's penalty for Napoli was saved by Harry Thomson, who was later hailed by the Italian press as a "God in a Green Jersey".

It was six years before Burnley ventured back into European football competition. They qualified for the 1966–67 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup due to a third-place finish in the 1965–66 First Division.[16] Their fortunes had declined, however, as McIlroy was sold to Stoke City in 1963 and Adamson retired a year later.[17][18] Even more damaging was the impact of the abolition of the maximum wage in 1961, which meant clubs from small towns, like Burnley, could no longer compete financially with sides from bigger towns and cities.[4][19]

The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was a European competition contested between 1955 and 1971.[20] The tournament was set up to promote international trade fairs and was initially only open to clubs or selected squads from cities that hosted those; where teams finished in their national league had no relevance. This later changed, with teams qualifying based on league position in their domestic leagues.[20] The competition was organised by the Fairs Cup committee,[21] who were backed by FIFA executive committee members Ottorino Barassi, Stanley Rous and Ernst Thommen.[22] In 1971, the tournament came under the auspices of UEFA and was replaced by the UEFA Cup.[23] UEFA does not consider teams' records in the Fairs Cup to be part of their European record.[24] However, FIFA does view the competition as a major honour.[25]

The club entered the competition along with fellow English clubs West Bromwich Albion and eventual beaten finalists Leeds United.[26] The first round draw saw Burnley face another West German team: VfB Stuttgart, who replaced Hannover 96, whose entry was later disallowed by the competition committee as Stuttgart finished in a higher league position.[21] The first leg was played at their Neckarstadion and ended in a 1–1 draw, after Willie Irvine scored the first goal.[27] Burnley ended the match with 10 players as Brian O'Neil was sent off in the 85th minute.[28] The team won the return leg a week later with a score of 2–0, Ralph Coates and Andy Lochhead both on the scoresheet.[26] Swiss side Lausanne-Sport were the opponents in the second round; Burnley won the first leg 3–1 at Lausanne's ground with goals from Coates, Harris and Lochhead.[27] The second leg was a rather one-sided contest as the team ran out 5–0 winners, after Lochhead scored a hat-trick and O'Neil and Irvine added further goals.[26]

Burnley were drawn against Italian club Napoli in the following round. The first leg at Turf Moor ended in a 3–0 victory with goals from Coates, Les Latcham and Lochhead, who scored his sixth goal in the competition.[27] Napoli ended the match with 10 men after defender Dino Panzanato was sent off for kicking Lochhead in the head.[21] The return leg three weeks later proved to be much more difficult for Burnley. The Italian press previewed the match in a belligerent manner: "From Lancashire where studs are made out of rose petals ... to Naples where visiting players are put through a mincing machine at the end of the game and their remains are roasted on a spit".[21] A crowd of 60,000 saw Burnley goalkeeper Harry Thomson making 13 saves, including a penalty kick from José Altafini, as the match ended in a 0–0 draw. The game was again not without controversy: Dave Merrington was elbowed in the stomach by a frustrated Omar Sivori in the closing stages of the match and after the match ended, Thomson was spat in his face by Alberto Orlando, who also refused his handshake. The team, the Burnley fans and the English press were escorted to the airport by a convoy to escape the Napoli fans, who hurled missiles during the match.[21] After the game, Thomson was hailed by the Italian press as a "God in a Green Jersey".[29]

The quarter-final draw paired Burnley with Eintracht Frankfurt, the first leg being held at the Waldstadion. Jürgen Friedrich scored for Eintracht, before Brian Miller netted the away goal.[26] The second leg was played two weeks later at Turf Moor in front of more than 25,000 supporters.[30] Eintracht took a 2–0 lead, only for Miller to score again; the team could not find two more goals and were again eliminated by a West German side.[27]

Manager Sean Dyche (2013 photograph) accused Olympiacos' staff of intimidating the officials during the first leg of the play-off round.

Burnley had to wait 51 years for their third appearance in a European football competition. During that period, the club played in all four professional divisions and only escaped relegation to the non-league fifth-tier Football Conference on the last matchday in 1987.[16][31] Burnley climbed back up the divisions and were promoted to the first tier in 2009 after a 33-year absence. After yo-yoing between the first and second tiers, Burnley were promoted to the Premier League again in 2016.[16] The team finished in seventh position in the 2017–18 Premier League, which ensured qualification for the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League second qualifying round.[32]

Burnley were drawn against Scottish side Aberdeen to set up an all-British tie.[33] The first leg at Aberdeen's Pittodrie Stadium ended in a 1–1 draw: Sam Vokes cancelled out Aberdeen's Gary Mackay-Steven's converted penalty kick.[34] The second leg saw the club's striker Chris Wood open the score, before Lewis Ferguson equalised with a bicycle kick. The game went into extra time, with Jack Cork and an Ashley Barnes penalty sealing the tie for Burnley.[35] They were drawn against Turkish club İstanbul Başakşehir in the third qualifying round, with the first match being held in Istanbul, which resulted in a 0–0 draw. Başakşehir decided to not sell tickets to their fans for the return leg at Turf Moor and left the away end empty.[36] After another goalless 90 minutes, the second leg went again into extra time. Jack Cork scored the only goal in the 97th minute to set up a tie with Greek club Olympiacos in the play-off round, the last round before the group stage.[36][37]

Five Burnley supporters were injured in incidents of football hooliganism several hours before the first leg started in Piraeus.[38][39] The team wore black armbands in memory of Jimmy McIlroy, who had died three days earlier.[39] Kostas Fortounis put the home side in front, before Wood scored a penalty kick to level the score, although Andreas Bouchalakis restored their lead in the 48th minute. Ten minutes later, Burnley defender Ben Gibson was sent off after he collected his second yellow card for handball and Fortounis scored his second from the resulting penalty.[40] Olympiacos owner Evangelos Marinakis had reportedly entered the referee's room at half-time to vent his frustration at his performance; Burnley manager Sean Dyche later accused their staff of intimidating the officials.[41] In the return leg, Burnley missed multiple chances to score, before Daniel Podence put the away side ahead in the 83rd minute, although substitute Matěj Vydra equalised on his debut three minutes later. The team lost 4–2 on aggregate and went out of the competition.[42]

Key

• 2QR = Second qualifying round
• 3QR = Third qualifying round
• POR = Play-off round
• PR = Preliminary round
• 1R = First round
• 2R = Second round
• 3R = Third round
• QF = Quarter-final

• Most appearances in UEFA-sanctioned European competitions and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup: Brian Miller, 12[44]
• Most goals in UEFA-sanctioned European competitions and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup: Andy Lochhead, 6[27]
• Most goals in a season: Andy Lochhead, 6, 1966–67[27]
• First European match: Burnley 2–0 Stade de Reims, European Cup, first round, 16 November 1960[12]
• First goal scored in Europe: Jimmy Robson (in the first minute), against Stade de Reims, 16 November 1960[12]
• Biggest win: Burnley 5–0 Lausanne-Sport, in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, 25 October 1966[27]
• Biggest defeat: Hamburger SV 4–1 Burnley, in the European Cup, 15 March 1961[44]
• Highest home attendance: 47,000 against Hamburger SV, European Cup, 18 January 1961[45]
• Lowest home attendance: 15,234 against Olympiacos, UEFA Europa League, 30 August 2018[46]
• Highest away attendance: 74,000 against Hamburger SV, European Cup, 15 March 1961[47]
• Lowest away attendance: 4,000 against Lausanne-Sport, Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, 19 October 1966[45]

• Most appearances in non-UEFA sanctioned European football: Alan Stevenson, 26[56]
• Most goals in non-UEFA sanctioned European football: Steve Kindon and Peter Noble, 8[56]
• Most goals in a season: 6, Paul Fletcher (1973–74) and Steve Kindon (1978–79)[56]
• First match in non-UEFA sanctioned European football: Burnley 3–1 Hearts, Texaco Cup, first round, 15 September 1970[57]
• First goal scored in non-UEFA sanctioned European football: Mick Docherty (in the second minute), against Hearts, 15 September 1970[53]
• Biggest win: Burnley 7–0 East Fife, in the Texaco Cup, 18 September 1973[52]
• Biggest defeat: Burnley 0–4 Blackpool, in the Anglo-Scottish Cup, 9 August 1977[52]
• Highest home attendance: 30,000 against Celtic, Anglo-Scottish Cup, 12 September 1978[56]
• Lowest home attendance: 3,354 against Shrewsbury Town, Anglo-Scottish Cup, 5 August 1980[56]
• Highest away attendance: 34,540 against Newcastle United, Texaco Cup final, 24 April 1974[56]
• Lowest away attendance: 2,000 against East Fife, Texaco Cup, 3 October 1973[56]