Following Aston Villa’s Europa League glory, Crystal Palace head into the Conference League final aiming to keep the dream of a clean sweep alive—a milestone reached only by Italy’s elite in 1990.
English football has long been established as the sport’s pre-eminent superpower. While its financial might is undisputed, with unparalleled economic muscle on the continent, its technical dominance is now becoming a seasonal regularity. This term, the Premier League has seen three representatives reach three major European finals: Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, and Arsenal.
The Birmingham outfit, playing with the authority of a side fully embracing their status as favourites, dispatched Freiburg 3-0 to hoist the Europa League trophy. This Wednesday, Palace hope to follow in the “Villans'” footsteps in UEFA’s youngest competition. Facing Rayo Vallecano, the “Eagles” are hunting a Conference League title that would be historic—marking the club’s maiden international trophy—and would leave the Premier League just one win away from a legendary treble.
Should Palace emerge victorious in Leipzig, English clubs will have maintained a 100% success rate in finals this season, clearing the path for Arsenal to seal a supremacy that has only one precedent in the history of the game. Throughout footballing history, only once have clubs from the same nation managed to sweep all three primary continental competitions in a single campaign.
European Cup, Cup Winners’ Cup, and UEFA Cup: The dominance of Serie A
The introduction of the Conference League in the 2021-22 season resurrected the possibility of a continental treble, a feat that had been off the table since the dissolution of the European Cup Winners’ Cup. Until 2000, the Cup Winners’ Cup—then the second-tier competition whose winner faced the Champions League victors in the Super Cup—shared the calendar for decades with the European Cup and the old UEFA Cup (now the Europa League).
For nearly 30 years (between 1971-72 and 1999-00), the three tournaments coexisted, but only once did a national league sweep the board. That distinction belongs to Serie A, which stunned the continent in the 1989-90 season. Then widely regarded as the finest league on the planet and the primary hub of talent in the 80s and 90s, Italy’s elite left their rivals with no answer during that campaign.
Capitalising on the absence of English clubs, who were still serving a suspension following the Heysel tragedy, Serie A exerted absolute dominance. In the European Cup, Arrigo Sacchi’s iconic Milan side achieved glory by beating Benfica 1-0 in the final, after navigating past heavyweights Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. In the Cup Winners’ Cup, Sampdoria were crowned champions by defeating Anderlecht 2-0. The UEFA Cup was hoisted by a Juventus team that overcame Fiorentina 3-1 on aggregate in an all-Italian final. Interestingly, the domestic league title that year went to Maradona’s Napoli, who did not feature in the European trophy haul.
This level of continental supremacy (which came close the previous season with Milan’s Champions League title, Napoli’s UEFA Cup win, and Sampdoria’s runner-up finish in the Cup Winners’ Cup) is exactly what England aspires to replicate 36 years on. The challenge arises after Serie A failed in its own treble bid in 2023, when Inter, Roma, and Fiorentina lost all three finals they contested. With the first step taken by Villa, Palace must now pass the baton to Arsenal, who contest the Champions League final this coming Saturday.