It was contested between cup holders Arsenal, who had won the English Championship and FA Cup the previous season, and Leeds United, who had won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and finished 2nd in the league the previous season. They had never won the trophy before. Arsenal planned to make it the third decade for a club to return as Cup-holders and win again for the second successive year, as Newcastle had done in 1952 and Tottenham in 1962.