The first officially sanctioned European club tournament, the European Champion Clubs' Cup, was launched in 1955. Conceived by Gabriel Hanot, the editor of "L'Équipe", as a competition for winners of the European national football leagues, it is considered the most prestigious European football competition. Hibernian had only finished fifth in the 1954–55 Scottish league, but were one of the 16 sides invited to take part in the tournament's first season. As there was no English representative in the first competition, Hibernian also became the first British club to participate in European club competition. In their first tie, Hibernian defeated Rot-Weiss Essen (West Germany) thanks to a comfortable win in the away leg. Swedish club Djurgardens were their next opponents, but they were unable to play the home match in Stockholm due to adverse winter weather. Both legs were played in Scotland, with the Djurgardens "home" venue being Firhill. Hibernian won 3–1 in Glasgow and 1–0 at Easter Road to progress to the semi-finals. At that stage they were drawn with French club Reims, who won 3–0 on aggregate to progress to the final (which Reims lost 4–3 to Real Madrid).