Search: ' Euro 68'

Cris Freddi reflects on a stunning win for Norwich City in their UEFA Cup run of 1993

Bayern were at home, where they had never lost to a British team. Their last three results in the Bundesliga were 4-0 against Hamburg and Cologne and 3-1 against a “masochistic” Mönchengladbach. They were playing their 185th European match, Norwich their third. Morten Olsen, coach of Cologne, regarded them as the best team in Germany: “Their blend of youth and experience is exactly right.” Bayern’s team sheet included more than a few familiar names, including Matthäus, Jorginho, Scholl, Wouters, Helmer and Ziege. Norwich boasted Prior, Culverhouse, Butterworth and Newman. And yet Norwich were not written off beforehand, at least not in England.

Read more…

Davy Millar remembers a welcome disraction from the troubled times that haunted Belfast in the Seventies

Back in 1975 I rarely needed an excuse to leave school as quickly as possible but on April 16 there was a very good reason for making an even quicker departure than usual.

Read more…

Football admission prices continue to rise  unchecked. Matthew Foreman wonders why

“Anyone need tickets… Olympic Gallery? That’s £660.91… ” Unfortunately it’s not a tout on the make but the official price for the England v Argentina match. Of course, you could save a bit of cash by buying a Wembley season ticket, only £1,751.25 for ten games. Such extortionate prices for a ground about to be levelled leaves the government with what spin doctors euphemistically call a “credibility gap”.

Read more…

When the Ivory Coast unexpectedly tumbled out of the African Nations Cup at the first hurdle, the military junta took the extraordinary step of jailing the entire squad. Mick Slatter takes up the story

If losing is a crime, then the Ivorians were suitably punished. On arriving home after their elimination, the players and staff had probably expected to encounter nothing more serious than a few disappointed fans and an awkward press conference at the airport. Instead they found themselves imprisoned and their passports confiscated.

Read more…

With footballers receiving unprecedented levels of public attention, Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association, talked to WSC about the things that keep him busy

There has been a series of violent incidents in high-profile matches lately. Are footballers getting out of control?
It’s always been difficult. We have tried all sorts over the years. We’ve worked to make sure that players know the laws of the game, we’ve got referees to visit clubs, we’ve tried to have ex-players as referees. One thing I was disappointed about over this past weekend [February 12 – involving the games at Chelsea v Wimbledon, Newcastle v Man Utd and Leeds v Spurs] is that referees lately seemed to have grasped that we were out of touch with the rest of the world and that not every foul deserved a caution. We saw some great games as a result, then the wheels came off. Someone asked me, where do you see football today, on Valentine’s day? I said, well, we don’t want any more massacres. But football is a microcosm of society. They’re saying to me “oh this is a really sad time for football” as though there is some­thing we could do to make sure it would always be on the straight and narrow. I said we’ve had prisons since civilised society began and we’ve haven’t got less now. You can fill the prisons up but it doesn’t mean to say you’ve got law and order.

Read more…