 Match programme cover | |||||||
| Event | 1974–75 European Cup | ||||||
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| Date | 28 May 1975 | ||||||
| Venue | Parc des Princes,Paris | ||||||
| Referee | Michel Kitabdjian (France) | ||||||
| Attendance | 48,374 | ||||||
←1974 1976 → | |||||||
The1975 European Cup final was afootball match betweenBayern Munich ofWest Germany andLeeds United ofEngland, played on 28 May 1975 at theParc des Princes in Paris. It was the final match of the1974–75 season of Europe's premier cup competition, theEuropean Cup. Bayern Munich were appearing in their second final; they had won the previous season's competition, beating Spanish teamAtlético Madrid4–0 in areplay after the first match finished 1–1. Leeds were appearing in their first final.
As defending champions of the European Cup, Bayern Munich received a bye in the first round, while Leeds progressed through four rounds to reach the final. Bayern's matches were generally close affairs. They beat Soviet teamArarat Yerevan 2–1 on aggregate in the quarter-finals and won their semi-final tie against French teamSaint-Étienne 2–0 on aggregate. Leeds matches ranged from close affairs to comfortable victories. They beat Hungarian teamÚjpest 5–1 on aggregate in the second round, while they beatBarcelona of Spain 3–2 on aggregate in the semi-final.
Watched by a crowd of 48,374, Leeds had the best of the opening exchanges of the match and had two appeals for a penalty kick turned down by the refereeMichel Kitabdjian. Bayern suffered two injuries in the first half, to defenderBjörn Andersson and striker Uli Hoeneß, following strong tackles by Leeds players. APeter Lorimer goal for Leeds in the 62nd minute was disallowed, whenBilly Bremner was adjudged to be offside.Franz Roth scored in the 71st minute for Bayern andGerd Müller extended the lead ten minutes later, to secure a 2–0 victory for Bayern.
It was Bayern's second consecutive victory in the competition, although they failed to retain theirBundesliga title,finishing in 10th place.Riots by the Leeds fans during the match led toUEFA banning the club from European competition for four years, although this was reduced to two years on appeal.
Bayern Munich were appearing in what would be their second of three consecutive European Cup finals, all of which they would win. The Bavarian side contained many great players such asFranz Beckenbauer,Gerd Müller andUli Hoeneß, who had featured heavily in West Germany's1974 World Cup victory the previous season, and as such were heavy favourites. In the 1974–75 Bundesliga season, Bayern had a serious slump after winning the previous three German championships. This was said to be caused by motivational deficits, especially as six of the Bayern players also won the1972 European Championship and the1974 World Cup. To boot, at the start of the seasonPaul Breitner moved toReal Madrid.
Bayern became the domestically worst-performing winner of the European Champions Cup up to then, finishing only 10th in the Bundesliga with a negative goal difference. OnlyAston Villa would do domestically worse in the year of their European title win. In 1982, when they defeated Bayern 1–0 in the final, the team from Birmingham finished 11th in theFirst Division but a positive goal difference. For Bayern coachDettmar Cramer, who took over fromUdo Lattek early in the season, this was the first of three international club titles. He remained without domestic silverware.Franz Roth scored for the second time in a European final, after the Cup Winners' Cup final in 1967, putting Bayern ahead 1–0 in this final, and drew level withSandro Mazzola from Italy'sInter Milan, who achieved this in the champions' finals 1964 and 1967.
ForLeeds United – only the second English club to reach the final afterManchester United in1968, and the second team in history to reach the finals of all three European cup competitions afterFC Barcelona – the game was the climax of the "glory years" of the team built by former managerDon Revie. Among the stars of the team were the Scottish internationalsBilly Bremner andPeter Lorimer. This would be the club's last appearance in a major cup final until they reached the1996 League Cup final.
Like Bayern Munich, Leeds also had a rather poor season domestically; the experienced, but now aging side had finished only 9th in theFirst Division. Thus, only the winner of the final between Bayern and Leeds would be entitled to participate in the European Cup competition the following season.
| Bayern Munich | Round | Leeds United | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opponent | Agg. | 1st leg | 2nd leg | Opponent | Agg. | 1st leg | 2nd leg | |
| Bye | First round |  Zürich | 5–3 | 4–1 (H) | 1–2 (A) | |||
 1. FC Magdeburg | 5–3 | 3–2 (H) | 2–1 (A) | Second round |  Újpesti Dózsa | 5–1 | 2–1 (A) | 3–0 (H) |
 Ararat Yerevan | 2–1 | 2–0 (H) | 0–1 (A) | Quarter-finals |  Anderlecht | 4–0 | 3–0 (H) | 1–0 (A) |
 Saint-Étienne | 2–0 | 0–0 (A) | 2–0 (H) | Semi-finals |  Barcelona | 3–2 | 2–1 (H) | 1–1 (A) |
Leeds United dominated most of the match and had a number of near misses, while Bayern created few chances. The match became controversial for several hotly contested refereeing decisions.[1]
After three minutes, Bayern's Swedish international defenderBjörn Andersson had his leg broken byTerry Yorath while the ball was not in play, which was described by German international Uli Hoeneß as the "most brutal foul I think I have ever seen".[2] Yorath was not sent off. Andersson was replaced bySepp Weiß, and only played a handful more matches for Bayern. In the 23rd minute, Bayern captainFranz Beckenbauer was in his own penalty box on the ground and rested on his left arm which subsequently came into contact with the ball. The Leeds players appealed for a penalty, which the French refereeMichel Kitabdjian denied. More controversial, however, was when the referee denied Leeds a penalty in the 34th minute after Beckenbauer trippedAllan Clarke, who was attacking the Bayern goal from the left wing and seemed ready to round Bayern goalkeeperSepp Maier. The first half also saw Uli Hoeneß suffer a serious knee injury in the 37th minute after turning awkwardly on the pitch, which would ultimately bring his career to a premature end in 1979 at the age of 27, at which time he began his career in club management; he went on to become president of Bayern. He was replaced in this match by one-time German internationalKlaus Wunder.
In the 62nd minute,Billy Bremner was denied from five metres by a close reflex save of Sepp Maier in the Bayern goal. Less than a minute later a goal byPeter Lorimer was disallowed, due to Bremner being in a tight passive offside position in front of the goal at the six-yard box.[2] The linesman who did not flag for offside returned to the half-way line,[3] and refereeMichel Kitabdjian pointed to the centre circle (indicating a goal and the restart of play from a kick off) before Beckenbauer convinced the referee to discuss the possibility of offside with the linesman.[1][3] Thereupon, the referee indicated offside against Bremner.[3] This decision caused riots to break out with Leeds fans believing 'they were really being cheated'.[4]
After a match interruption Roth finished off a counter-attack in the 71st minute by taking the lead for Bayern after a short pass fromConny Torstensson. 10 minutes later another counter led to a second goal for Bayern throughGerd Müller after a cross from the right side byJupp Kapellmann.
Violence after match, which included "skirmishes in the city and damage to private property" according to journalist Geoffrey Green, as well as damage to a £50,000 camera and a lost eye and a broken arm to German media workers, caused UEFA to consider abandonment of European competition altogether.[4] The violence saw Leeds banned from Europe for four years, reduced to two years on appeal.[2][5][6]
          Bayern Munich |  Leeds United |
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The controversy surrounding the final is still manifested in the chant "We are the Champions, Champions of Europe" – amid a feeling that their club was cheated of victory in this match – by fans of Leeds United.[7]
Bayern remained one of Europe's top clubs and would go on to victory in the1976 final, completing a hat-trick of wins – but would have to wait until2001 for their fourth title. Leeds were eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual runners-upValencia CF in the same season, Leeds' best performance in the competition since 1974-75. As of 2025-26, they have not appeared in the competition since.
The appearance of an English club in the final for only the second time preceded a period of dominance by English clubs, with wins forLiverpool (1977,1978,1981 and1984),Nottingham Forest (1979 and1980) andAston Villa (1982) in subsequent finals.
The tell-tale sign that the officials were swayed by protest (after Lorimer's volley) is that the linesman had actually run back to halfway before he was consulted. He could have flagged but he didn't do so.
