The European Super Cup was created in 1972 by Anton Witkamp, a reporter and later sports editor of Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. The idea came to him in a time where Dutch total soccer was Europe's finest and Dutch soccer clubs were living their golden era. Witkamp was looking for something new to definitely decide which was the best team in Europe and also to further test Ajax's legendary team, led by their star player Johan Cruyff. It was then proposed that the winner of the European Champions Cup would face the winner of the Cup Winners' Cup. All was set for a new competition to be born. However, when Witkamp tried to get an official endorsement to his competition, the UEFA president turned it down because of a one-year ban applied to Cup Winners' Cup holders Rangers, due to misbehavior of their supporters.