1966: The World Cup in Real Time: Relive the Finals as If They Were Happening Today

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Introduction

‘It’s only once in a lifetime, you know.’

With these words, Prime Minister Harold Wilson coaxed Alf Ramsey on to the balcony at London’s Royal Garden Hotel for English football’s reluctant hero to receive the acclaim of the thousands of fans who had gathered below to celebrate.

As Wilson watched the England manager raise the Jules Rimet Trophy on the night of 30 July 1966, little did he know how prophetic his words would be.

Fifty years on and English football is still waiting to host a World Cup again, let alone win one.

To most of us, the story of the 1966 World Cup finals in England has been simplified over those 50 years to something like…

England aren’t very good.

Ramsey becomes manager. Ramsey says we will win the World Cup.

The cup is stolen.

The cup is found by a dog.

Ramsey calls Argentina ‘animals’.

Russian linesman (who’s actually from Azerbaijan) says Geoff Hurst’s shot did cross the line.

Kenneth Wolstenholme says, ‘Some people are on the pitch. They think it’s all over. It is now.’ That sums it all up pretty nicely, but there is so much more to the story. And certainly so much more than England’s victory.

Home fans welcomed 15 visiting teams and – unlike today, when many overseas stars play in the Premier League and there is widespread TV coverage of football from around the globe – these foreign players would have seemed exotic and mysterious. In the case of North Korea, they might as well have been men from Mars.

Playing (and, importantly, refereeing) styles were wildly varied around the world and the game in general bore little resemblance to what we see today. There was brutal tackling and little protection for flair players, the game was played with heavy leather footballs and teams got only two points for a win. There were no substitutes, no red and yellow cards and no back-pass rule.

In England, football did not have the mass interest it has today. The FA Cup Final was one of the only matches televised live and English football chiefs were anxious to keep it that way amid concern over falling attendances. Indeed, the level of interest in football was reflected by advance ticket sales for the World Cup, with even the England group matches not coming close to selling out.

Today, our top clubs’ stadiums are state-of-the-art allseater sporting venues after the massive rebuilding programme sparked by the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. Ahead of the World Cup, our ageing grounds were in such a state that it was feared they would be an embarrassment. After a long battle, the FA and Sports Minister Denis Howell convinced the government to pump £500,000 into stadium improvements and work carried on until the last minute at some grounds.

On the field, Ramsey’s team were not generally given much chance of success. England had once been regarded worldwide as masters of the game, but by the time Ramsey took charge in 1963, even the most deluded and arrogant among the English football Establishment had long since realised this was a myth.

While English football’s standing had been revived to some extent by increasing success in European club competitions, expectations of success for the international team had been dimmed by our dismal failure at four World Cups once the FA had finally deigned to enter, having snubbed the three pre-Second World War editions of the competition.

Opinion was divided over the England manager and his methods. Many fans and pundits predicted failure as Ramsey experimented with personnel and formations right up until the big kick-off.

As a personality, he certainly wasn’t universally popular. The bulk of England’s support came from the working classes and Ramsey was one of their own. He was very much a players’ manager and, privately, he despised the old-school FA ‘blazers’. In public, though, his aloof manner and guarded sound-bites, spoken in a carefully cultivated and sometimes almost comical wannabe upper-class accent, meant he came across as one of the Establishment rather than the Dagenham-born son of a straw and hay dealer.

Much has been made of England having home advantage in 1966, but the reality was that disillusionment with the state of the national team was such that Football League chairman Joe Richards felt moved to issue an eve-of-tournament rallying call to fans, saying that the atmosphere at Wembley ‘was as cold as any away ground for our players’.

As a major sporting event, the World Cup could not claim to rival the Olympics. It was, though, steadily growing, with the gradual expansion of TV coverage helping to fuel interest, and world governing body FIFA was just beginning to evolve into something like the all-powerful organisation we know today.

Yet this tournament would spark an explosive intercontinental row which threatened to cause a catastrophic split in world football, with 71-year-old FIFA president Sir Stanley Rous, a former international referee and an old-school English administrator, caught up at the centre of it all.

Of the many accounts written about 1966, most have centred almost exclusively on England and have drawn to some degree on recollections of the tournament which, inevitably, are coloured and sometimes distorted by hindsight.

Instead, this book sets out to bring back to life the whole tournament, as if it were being played and reported on today, with all the action, reaction, news and gossip from all 16 competing nations.

So, imagine yourself in the era of Beatlemania, mini-skirts, black and white TV, Wilson’s Labour government and the Cold War, and read on.

PRELUDE (PART ONE)

1872–1962…

From Masters To Pupils

1872

ENGLAND and Scotland contest the world’s first association football international, a goalless draw at Hamilton Crescent, Partick.

This is the first of 94 full international matches played by England between 1872 and April 1908, in which the only opponents faced are Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

1908

AUSTRIA become the first nation from outside the British Isles to play England in a full international, losing 6-1 and 11-1 in two matches in Vienna.

England are lauded as masters of the game on this first continental tour, which also features a 7-0 thrashing of Hungary in Budapest and a 4-0 victory over Bohemia in Prague.

1923

BELGIUM are the first visiting team from outside the British Isles to play in England and are crushed 6-1 at Highbury.

However, later that year the Belgians hold England 2-2 in Antwerp – becoming the first continental team to avoid defeat against the Three Lions.

1929

AMID frenzied scenes at the Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid, Spain inflict England’s first defeat by a continental nation.

England lead 3-2 with only three minutes to play but Jaime Lazcano equalises and delirious Spanish fans pour on to the pitch.

As England’s players look on in bewilderment, sword-wielding officers from the civil guard clear the pitch. When play finally resumes, the shell-shocked visitors concede a late winner.

1930–1933

HOSTS Uruguay win the first World Cup in 1930. England don’t take part, as the FA had resigned from FIFA in the 1920s in a dispute over the world body’s stance on payments to amateur players.

Other major powers also snub the World Cup. One of them, Italy, meet England for the first time in 1933 and, after a 1-1 draw in Rome, Italian captain Umberto Caligaris claims, ‘The English played a splendid game and fully deserve to be considered world champions.’

1934

ENGLAND again choose to stay away when Italy host and win the second World Cup. But the new world champions are beaten 3-2 by England at Highbury later that year and the victory is regarded at home as proof that the Three Lions are the world’s best.

1938

ITALY retain the World Cup in France as the FA, still not a FIFA member, continues to ignore the tournament.

A shock away defeat to Switzerland’s part-timers is one of a number of results which call into question England’s standing in world football. It is dismissed as an ‘off day’ by captain Eddie Hapgood, and FA tour manager Charles Wreford-Brown’s stiff-upper-lip reaction is, ‘Although beaten, we showed them how to lose.’

A 6-3 win over Germany in Berlin and a 3-0 Wembley victory over the Rest of Europe in a match to mark the FA’s 75th anniversary supposedly prove that all is well.

Italy’s World Cup-winning coach Vittorio Pozzo, though, derides the state of English football as he takes charge of the Rest of Europe team.

Pozzo claims, ‘English football is on the decline. It is no longer what it used to be – the football of artists, the football I saw played before the war.’

1939–1950

THE Second World War means England go six years without an official international.

Before England’s first match in 1946, the FA announces it is to appoint its first full-time manager, finally bringing it into line with top continental rivals.

An FA statement explains his duties will include ‘tactics, training and style, as well as supervising the players in such matters as diet, smoking, sleep and entertainment’. The team will still be picked by an FA committee, but the statement says the appointment of a manager will ‘ensure continuity of style and teamwork, which are essential if British teams are to compete successfully’.

The job goes to Walter Winterbottom, a former Manchester United player with no club management experience. The FA also rejoins FIFA. Under Winterbottom, England lose only four of their next 29 matches and beat world champions Italy 4-0 away in 1948 and 2-0 at home in 1949.

Following the 1948 victory in Turin, FA selection committee chairman Arthur Drewry says, ‘To say that the English team was a credit to the country is the sort of understatement of which we English are supposed to be so proud. England could not have sent out a better band of players, who have greatly enhanced the reputation that English football enjoys abroad.’

Winterbottom, though, expresses concern over the development of future players, saying, ‘Boys these days are more interested in cinemas, youth clubs and light entertainment than football.’

1950

ENGLAND qualify for the World Cup by winning the Home International Championship and go to Brazil as one of the favourites, despite never having faced a team from outside Europe.

A team featuring world-renowned stars including Billy Wright and Tom Finney, plus future England manager Alf Ramsey, is humiliated 1-0 by the part-timers of the USA in Belo Horizonte and England crash out at the group stage.

FA selection committee chairman Arthur Drewry says, ‘I am speechless. It’s unbelievable. There is no doubt the tour has taught us that we must reorient altogether our ideas on international football.’

1950–1954

ENGLISH pride is largely restored by a run of only two defeats in 25 matches.

The Three Lions extend their unbeaten home record against opposition from outside the British Isles, but that is shattered by a stunning 6-3 Wembley defeat by Hungary in November 1953.

The skilful and tactically-innovative Magical Magyars, unbeaten in two years, teach England a football lesson. Alf Ramsey is never picked again after being given the run-around.

Hungary captain Ferenc Puskás says, ‘England were poorer than we expected. Our team were certainly three goals better. Perhaps England, once the masters, can now learn from the pupils.’

England manager Walter Winterbottom admits, ‘We have to decide whether we are going to organise the game to make it a national success or just to get fun out of football. Until clubs demand training by their players and more practice with the ball we cannot hope to compete.’

1954

ENGLAND qualify for the World Cup, but they suffer a record 7-1 defeat by Hungary in Budapest in their final warm-up for the finals in Switzerland.

England captain Billy Wright admits, ‘The Hungarians are years ahead of us.’

The FA even faces calls for England to withdraw from the finals, but chairman of selectors Harold Shentall says, ‘England would not be so cowardly as to walk out of international football because we are doing badly. We will never improve unless we take the lessons from such games.’

England reach the quarter-finals but are beaten 4-2 by Uruguay and FA secretary Sir Stanley Rous announces a four-year plan to introduce new playing styles to the English game.

Rous says, ‘Using basic English principles of football, we will try to introduce pinpoint accuracy in passing, close marking and sharp shooting. The aim is to win the 1958 World Cup.’

1954–1958

WALTER WINTERBOTTOM again steers England to World Cup qualification and a run of only one defeat in 20 matches in the buildup to the 1958 finals in Sweden boosts confidence.

However, the death of key players, including the new young star of English football, Duncan Edwards, in the Munich air disaster in February 1958, is a major setback.

And a 5-0 drubbing by Yugoslavia in Belgrade on the eve of the finals makes a mockery of England’s status as one of the tournament favourites. Winterbottom admits, ‘It was the worst exhibition by an England team I have ever seen.’

Yugoslav goalkeeper Vladimir Beara says, ‘I never expected such an easy game against England. I thought they were one of the best teams in the world…until today.’ Another new Manchester United star, Bobby Charlton – a survivor of the Munich tragedy – is made a scapegoat for the Belgrade shambles and does not play a single minute in Sweden as the Three Lions go out at the group stage.

FA chairman of selectors Joe Mears claims, ‘I thought we played very well in all the games without a ha’penny of luck.’

Off the field, Englishman Arthur Drewry is elected FIFA president in 1955, a position he will hold until his death six years later.

1959–1960

ENGLAND’S reputation slumps further as they lose all three matches on a 1959 South American tour.

Later that year, World Cup runners-up Sweden win 3-2 at Wembley and their English coach, George Raynor, says, ‘England’s basic technique was exposed. No matter how fast a ball was played to a Swede, he killed it. It was foot on the ball, pause, play it…the rhythm all football should have, the way England used to play.’

To make matters worse, England lose away to Spain and Hungary in the spring of 1960.

1960–62

A FIFA vote on the hosting of the 1966 World Cup sees England chosen ahead of West Germany.

At a meeting in Rome in August 1960, English delegate Denis Follows argues that the FA is the oldest football organisation in the world and has the necessary experience and facilities.

Spain drop out of the running before the vote, in which England defeat West Germany by 34 to 27.

Englishman Arthur Drewry is the FIFA president at the time of the vote. After his death the following year, FA secretary and former international referee Sir Stanley Rous is elected to replace him.

England suffer only one defeat in each of the 1960/61 and 1961/62 seasons, while qualification for the 1962 World Cup in Chile is achieved in a group featuring Luxembourg and Portugal.

1962

WALTER WINTERBOTTOM’S final tilt at the World Cup ends in more disappointment.

England beat Argentina in the group stage, but eventual champions Brazil down the Three Lions 3-1 in the quarter-finals. Winterbottom admits, ‘We would have to lift our game to the highest state of our potential to beat Brazil. We have got to keep working at our football.’

It is announced that Winterbottom is to retire and will step down once his successor is appointed.

The FA is initially reluctant to approach a Football League manager, as it is worried about the potential salary and power the new man might expect. Applications are invited and two unknown university fitness lecturers are among those briefly considered.

Eventually, Alf Ramsey, the manager of Football League champions Ipswich Town, is appointed in October 1962. Although not a universally popular choice, he has all the right credentials.

Ramsey is a former full-back with Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur and England. As a player, his professionalism, dedication to self-improvement, organisational skills and ability to remain calm under pressure earn him the nickname The General.

He can boast 32 England caps, three as captain. His distinguished international career is blighted only by the 1950 World Cup defeat by the USA and the Wembley loss to Hungary in 1953 – his final appearance.

Moving into management in 1955 at unfashionable Ipswich, he moulds a team of unheralded players into a formidable unit, leading the club from the third tier of English football to a surprise League title triumph in 1962. At just 40, age is also on Dagenham-born Ramsey’s side. He is actually 42, but it doesn’t emerge until 1967 that at the end of the Second World War he knocked two years off his age because he feared clubs would think he was too old to be given a professional playing contract. Ramsey is not the FA’s first choice and is only approached after Jimmy Adamson, Bill Nicholson and Stan Cullis all say ‘no’. Ramsey is given the job on £4,500 a year and assured he will have total control over selection. He is to take over in December, but will initially work on a part-time basis as he insists on remaining with Ipswich until the club, struggling to reproduce their title-winning form, are safe from relegation.

FA chairman Graham Doggart says, ‘I was most impressed by Ramsey’s opinions and his broad outlook on the game. I’m convinced he is an excellent choice.’

Ramsey says, ‘As England manager I will expect to be judged by the standards applied to a club manager – failure is followed by replacement.

‘The World Cup? Well, we have a wonderful chance to win in 1966. We have the potential.

‘But I believe that even in the days when England had great players like Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney and Raich Carter, the team would have been better with a rigid plan. Any plan must be adapted to the strengths and weaknesses of the players.’

Winterbottom bows out, saying, ‘I’m sure that, with the right support, the World Cup will be ours in 1966.

‘The score, in my 17 years, hasn’t been a bad one, but the stumbling block has been the World Cup. This is my tragedy and England football’s tragedy. It was something I hoped for all my life… to win the World Cup. Even so, I don’t know how the myth has arisen that we can’t play football. I wouldn’t have taken the job in the first place if that had been so.’

The immediate challenges Ramsey faces are daunting. Public interest has slumped to a point where only 27,500, a record low for an England match at Wembley, watch them beat Wales in Winterbottom’s farewell match.

And Ramsey’s first match is a tough European Nations Cup clash in France.

The competition, which England have entered after snubbing the inaugural edition in 1960, ranks second only to the World Cup.

With France having held Winterbottom’s team 1-1 in the first leg of the preliminary round tie, Ramsey knows he must win in Paris or it will be England’s only competitive match in the three-year buildup to the World Cup.

PRELUDE (PART TWO)

World Cup Countdown

27 February 1963–5 July 1966

38 GAMES TO GO

27 February 1963: France 5 England 2

6 April 1963: England 1 Scotland 2

8 May 1963: England 1 Brazil 1

ALF RAMSEY’S reign gets off to the worst possible start as France inflict England’s heaviest defeat since 1958 to send them crashing out of the European Nations Cup.

Ramsey says the performance smacks of ‘desperation’ and complains, ‘One does not expect five goals such as the French team got tonight in an international match.’

This is followed by a home defeat by Scotland, in which Leicester City goalkeeper Gordon Banks makes his debut, and a scratchy 1-1 Wembley draw with world champions Brazil.

But Ramsey claims after the Brazil match, ‘We have something to base our hopes on. With four, five or six of today’s players, I hope it will be possible to find a team good enough to win the World Cup.’

35 GAMES TO GO

29 May 1963: Czechoslovakia 2 England 4

2 June 1963: East Germany 1 England 2

5 June 1963: Switzerland 1 England 8

A CLEAN sweep of wins on a three-match European tour ends the season on a high.

The FA selection committee is disbanded as Alf Ramsey, having left Ipswich Town, takes total control.

He says, ‘I dislike the word boss. I dislike the word dictator even more. I am employed by the Football Association to do a job and that is to win the World Cup.’

He makes Bobby Moore, 22, England’s youngest captain in place of injured Blackpool right-back Jimmy Armfield and 4-2-4 replaces the long-established 3-2-5 formation with West Ham United half-back Moore employed in central defence as a sweeper.

ALF: WE’LL WIN THE CUP

21 August 1963

ALF RAMSEY boldly promises World Cup victory.

Buoyed by the success of England’s end-of-season tour, the usually-reserved manager is in bullish mood at a briefing for sports writers ahead of the new season. He says, ‘I believe we will win the World Cup in 1966. We have the ability. We have the determination. We have the strength. We have the personality. We have the character. And we have the players with the temperament.

‘We are just starting to build. I shall go on building up a pool of England players, adding here, discarding there, until I find the final pool for the World Cup.’

32 GAMES TO GO

12 October 1963: Wales 0 England 4

23 October 1963: England 2 Rest of the World 1

20 November 1963: England 8 Northern Ireland 3

JIMMY GREAVES and Bobby Charlton mark themselves out as key men as England make it six wins in a row.

Manchester United left-winger Charlton’s strike in Wales makes him England’s 31-goal record scorer.

Tottenham Hotspur forward Greaves nets in all three games, including four against Northern Ireland.

The Rest of the World – playing at Wembley to celebrate the FA’s centenary – are coached by Chilean Fernando Riera and he says, ‘Win the World Cup with this team? Of course it is possible for England. And not only in English conditions. I mean anywhere.’

CUP STADIUMS SHAMBLES

7 March 1964

FA CHIEFS warn the government it risks suffering a blow to national prestige unless it helps fund improvements to England’s ageing stadiums.

With London, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Newcastle, Sunderland and Sheffield picked to host matches, FA secretary Denis Follows makes an urgent plea for cash.

He says, ‘Without government help, we can certainly stage the World Cup adequately, but we could not hope to do the sort of job for the spectators that was done in Sweden in 1958 and Chile in 1962. The World Cup is a national prestige event.

‘This was the original home of football. We want to put on a first-class show and let the world know that England can do things properly.’

Minister for Sport Denis Howell admits, ‘No World Cup ground is in a satisfactory state to house the matches.’

29 GAMES TO GO

11 April 1964: Scotland 1 England 0

6 May 1964: England 2 Uruguay 1

JIMMY GREAVES is axed against Scotland and the move backfires as England’s winning streak ends.

Greaves insists, ‘I’m not worried. I’m not brooding. I’m not crying about it. England know what I can do by now and they either want to use my capabilities or they don’t. It’s as simple as that. If I’m never picked for England again, then at least I’ve had a good run.’

He is recalled against Uruguay, when Johnny Byrne scores twice, four days after winning the FA Cup with West Ham United, but the team are booed off after an uninspiring victory. Fulham right-back George Cohen makes his debut.

27 GAMES TO GO

17 May 1964: Portugal 3 England 4

24 May 1964: Republic of Ireland 1 England 3

27 May 1964: USA 0 England 10

JOHNNY BYRNE looks a World Cup cert after a hat-trick against Portugal and another goal