Fifty-five years on

In 1966, England won the Jules Rimet World Cup …

... and I didn’t see the complete match until 1991!

Let me explain why.

My sister was born in August 1962, and my mother organised her fourth birthday party to take place on 30th July 1966 … the day of the World Cup final! She chose the date well in advance because – at the time – no one really expected England to reach the final.

As a result, we had a very large number of four-year-old children running around the house screaming, shouting, and playing party games … which made it almost impossible to watch the match on TV. (A few years ago I discovered that my brother had managed to sneak out and watched the match with our next door neighbours!)

A colour recording of the whole match was shown on TV on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the final, and this was the first opportunity I had to see it without any interruptions … and that was probably the last time I watched a complete football match.

I fell out of love with football (association football or soccer to anyone from outside the UK … or to rugby aficionados!) when I worked part-time for what was then a First Division (and now a Premiership) football club. I worked as part of the match day security team … and was on the receiving end of several violent attacks by so-called football fans who were intent on getting into the ground without paying, or who just wanted a fight with someone who wasn’t part of their gang. After I stopped working there, I continued to watch match highlights … until Sky bought the rights to transmit live Premiership football matches, and huge amounts of money flooded into the sport and – in my opinion – pretty well broke the link between teams and their local fan base. From that point onwards, I gave up watching football.

Later today, the England football team will be playing the Italian team at Wembley, and the whole of the country appears to have assumed a pre-match festive atmosphere, with everyone seemingly assured of England’s victory. The government has even suggested that schools should allow children to arrive late for lessons on Monday if they have been watching the match, and that we might even enjoy an additional Bank Holiday in celebration.

Now I am as patriotic as the next man, and I do hope the team win. I may even break my self-imposed ban on watching live football on the TV and watch the match live. If I don’t, I just hope that I don’t have to wait until 2046 to watch it in full!