La Coupe de l'Europe Centrale 1927

International club competitions had been tried before, Early examples were (theoretically at first) TheAustria/Habsburg Monarchy Challenge Cup ,The Torneo Internazionale Stampa Sportiva, The Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy and the Coupe Van der Straeten Ponthoz.
Hugo Meisl believed that football would benefit from international club competitions. By the middle of the 1920s the situation in central Europe was right for putting such a theory into practice. Austria (1924), Hungary (1925) and  Czechoslovakia (1926) had all introduced professionalism into their league football, and they remained the strongest nations in continental football. Nearby Italy was also enjoying a meteoric rise. Public interest was high, games were well attended and international competition would provide a good source of extra revenue for the professionalized clubs.
In the summer of 1927 Meisl and his Hungarian counterpart Dr.Fischer Mór ironed out the arrangements for La Coupe de l'Europe Centrale, more popularly known as the Mitropa Cup.
Meisl invisaged an international league, but this would have added to fixture congestion, so a cup format was settled on. In theory the league champions and runners up (or cup winners) from each country would qualify. Germany and Italy were approached to participate. Italy declined on account of their complex and  protracted domestic arrangements.Germany were concerned by professionalism and the fact that the play offs that they needed to decide their national championships went on into the summer. 
The initial tournament was contested by two teams each from Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia:

Austria
SK Admira Vienna (league champions)
SK Rapid Wien (cup winners-Wiener Cup)

Czechoslovakia
Sparta Prague (league champions)
Slavia Prague (cup winners-Stredoceský Pohár)

Hungary
MTK (Budapest)
 Újpesti  
(Neither of these sides won a league or cup - they finished 3rd and second respectively behind Ferencváros in Nemzeti Bajnokság I)

Yugoslavia
Hajduk Split (league champions)
BSK (Belgrade) (league runners up)

First Round
		1st Leg	2nd Leg	Aggregate
MTK	BSK	4-2	4-0	8-2
Rapid Wien	Hajduk Split	(14.8.27) 8-1	(21.8.27) 1-0	9-1
Sparta Prague	Admira Vienna	5-1	3-5	8-6
Slavia Prague	Újpesti	4-0	2-2	6-2

Semifinals
		1st Leg	2nd Leg	Aggregate
Slavia Prague	Rapid Wien	(28.09.27) 2-2	(02.10.27) 1-2	3-4
MTK	Sparta Prague	2-2	0-0	2-2*

* history tantalizes us here: Sparta were awarded the tie because 'a player of MTK had occupied an irregular position'. I can find no explanation for this ruling.

Final

30.10.27: Sparta Prague  6-2 Rapid Wien 
(Letná Stadium, Pague, attendance: 25,000)
13.11.27: Rapid Wien 2-1 Sparta Prague 
(Hohe Warte Stadium, Vienna, attendance: 40,000)
Sparta won 7-4 on aggregate.

 Rapid Wien

Sparta Prague

Many sources state that John Dick was the manager of Sparta when they won the Mitropa in 1927. However, it would appear that this is incorrect, as Dick was with the Antwerp club Beerschot from 1923 (when he first left Sparta) until his return to Prague in either 1928 or 1929. Václav Špindler was the 'trainer' in 1927.

China in Europe 1936

China v Great Britain 1936

The China squad for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin consisted of ethnic Chinese players from Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, and Java. Following a couple of trial matches the squad was named in April, and then, following 7 warm -up games in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Nanking, undertook an arduous 27 match tour of Indo China, the Dutch East Indies, Singapore, Burma and India before travelling to Europe.
Their record in these preparation games, played between May 8th and July 8th was:
Played: 34
Won: 28
Drawn: 4
Lost: 2
For: 141
Against: 41

The 1936 Olympic football tournament was a straight knock-out.  China were drawn against Great Britain in the first round. Great Britain won 2-0 through second half goals by John Dodds (Queen's Park) and Lester Finch (Barnet).
So after months of preparation and thousands of kilometers of travelling China's Olympics lasted 90 minutes.

The following week China played the first match of a three week tour of Europe.
The details of the first match on August 13th are unclear- they played a South-West Germany representative team in Frankfurt and lost (some sources give the score as 8-1 and others 8-3)*.
The Chinese then travelled to Vienna where they lost 4-2 to Rapid on August 15th and were thrashed 11-0 by Admira the following day.
On August 20th they defeated Servette 3-2 in Geneva.
Next stop was France and a 2-2 draw with Red Star Olympique in Paris on August 22nd followed by a 6-0 beating at the hands of Le Havre on the 23rd.
Ajax were the next team to entertain the China team, the Dutch winning 5-3 on August 27th.
The tourists then crossed the channel and met two English amateur sides. Their detour to England ended winless- On August 31st Islington Corinthians FC beat them 3-2 and Casuals 5-2 on September 1st.

The record of the European part of the tour (excluding the Olympic match) was:
Played: 9
Won: 1
Drawn: 1
Lost: 7
For: 15 or 17*
Against: 46

The star of the China squad was Lee Wai Tong. He received offers of contracts whilst in Europe, but, approaching his 31st birthday, he had resolved to retire from the game after the tour.