July 21 – David Platt signs for Bari

Ask most football fans what the best league in the world is these days and the merits of La Liga and the English Premier League will be debated until the cows come home. However, in the early ’90s there was only one answer. As Californian songster Beck might have said, Serie A was undoubtedly where it was at. The success of Italia 90 had given the domestic game in Italy a headstart in the financial boom that was to follow football across Europe in the 1990s and the world’s best players came to Italy in their droves.

British football has never been particularly renowned for its foreign exports, with Ian Rush famously claiming that “moving from Wales to Italy is like moving to different country”, but a select few were not afraid to up sticks to pastures new at this time. One of the first of these was David Platt who moved from Aston Villa to Bari on this day in 1991 for £5.5 million.

Platt, along with Paul Gascoigne, Des Walker and Paul Ince to name a few, spearheaded British interest in Serie A, a bandwagon that Channel 4 soon jumped on, with their Gazzetta Football Italia broadcasts attracting millions of viewers. Platt was a frequent guest on the show, with host James Richardson memorably once making him dress up as the Terminator, in between sipping cappuccino and eating deserts on the various Piazza’s of Rome.

Platt was another talent that graduated from Dario Gradi’s production line at Crewe, earning a move to Aston Villa, where he would establish his reputation as hard-working goal-scoring midfielder. He really exploded onto the scene at the Italia 90, where he scored three goals, including an unforgettable volley in the last minute of extra-time against Belgium to book a place in the quarter-finals.

His first year in Italy saw Platt become a fixture in the Bari side, finishing with an impressive 11 goals, but this was not enough to stop the Galletti from being relegated. He was then signed by Juventus for £6.5 million, but did not establish himself and was again on the move the following summer, with Sampdoria being his port of call, where he became a firm favourite of the fans.

In December 1998 Platt retuned to Sampdoria to take over as manager when Luciano Spalletti was fired with Samp struggling in 14th place in Serie A. However, the rest of the league were immediately on his back, as he did not possess the relevant qualifications to coach in Italy. Doubts over his suitability for management were confirmed when he signed Lee Sharpe on loan from Leeds United. After six games and two points he stepped down and Sampdoria were later relegated, despite fielding a side with the twin attacking threats of Vincenzo Montella and Ariel Ortega.

Management didn’t go much better for Platt back home either. His spells in charge of Nottingham Forest and the England Under-21 team have seen him shun the dugout for the studio of Sky Sports these days, but never mind Platty, we’ll always have Belgium.

July 20 – The FA Cup is born

The year is 1871. It is the year that Queen Victoria officially opened the Royal Albert Hall, and the year that journalist Sir Henry Morton Stanley uttered the words: “Dr Livingstone, I presume?” having tracked down the explorer in deepest Africa.

It is also the year that a young man by the name of Charles William Alcock invented what would become the most famous football competition in the world: the FA Cup.

It was on this day, in the offices of The Sportsman newspaper, that in his capacity of FA secretary, Alcock said: “It is desirable that a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with the Association, for which all clubs belonging to the Association should be invited to compete.” The FA Cup, the world’s first national knock-out tournament was born.

Alcock was an instrumental figure in shaping the game as we know it today. Born in Sunderland, he was educated at Harrow School, where he played football regularly, as a hard working forward. As a journalist he published the first ever Football Annual in 1868.

He was also a key figure in establishing the Wanderers team, which was made up predominantly of Old Harrovians, and he even captained the side as they won the first FA Cup in 1872, beating the Royal Engineers, at the Kennington Oval.

Alcock went on to captain England in a 2-2 draw with Scotland in 1875, which was his only international match. He served as FA secretary until 1895, and refereed the FA Cup finals of 1875 and 1879.

In its first year, a mere 15 teams entered the competition, compared with more than 600 that took part last season.

2000 people attended the first final with tickets sold for one shilling, while nearly 90,000 fans watched the bore-fest that was last season’s final between Manchester United and Chelsea, with millions more watching on television around the world. Obviously there was no TV coverage of the first final, but on the plus side it meant no one had to put up with John Motson banging on about “the magic of the cup” in every second sentence of his commentary.

Some things never change though: both the first and the most recent finals were settled by a single goal. For Drogba in 2007, read Morton Betts (playing under the assumed name A.H. Chequer after his old team Harrow Chequer) in 1872 as the only scorer.

This is the Royal Engineers team that lost to Wanderers in the first final of 1872. Click the picture to see the full size image.

July 19 – Azzurri Axed By North Korea

Pop quiz: Whose 1966 World Cup anthem boasted “We can beat everyone, even the strongest team”? Nope, not the defending champions Brazil or the efficient Germans, not the Eusebio-inspired Portugal or even Sir Alf’s England. The 1,000-1 rank outsiders North Korea flew to British soil in 1966 on a wave of nationalist pride and catchy anthems (take note Ant and Dec, Embrace, et al), determined to honour their Communist system and leader Kim Il-Sung following the Korean War.

It was on this day in that fateful year that those plucky North Koreans acted out one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history by beating the pre-tournament favourites Italy 1-0.

North Korea’s participation in the ’66 World Cup was almost over before it began. Due to the Korean War, North Korea did not have any diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom and the Foreign Office only let the team in after a number of compromises were met, such as the banning of their national anthem before any games. Things did not get much better for the Koreans on their arrival to Middlesbrough, as they were to lose their opening fixture 3-0 to the USSR. A 1-1 draw to Chile followed, and meant that their hopes of qualifying rested on an unlikely victory over Italy, who just needed a draw to secure their place in the knock-out phase.

However, the Koreans had been playing an attractive attacking style, as their manager Myong Rye Hyon had moulded a team who were physically fit, fast and full of energy. This soon won over the hearts of the Ayresome Park faithful, who had seen their Boro side relegated to the third division that season. The BBC’s commentator remarked that “they haven’t cheered Middlesborough like this for years,” as the 18,727 strong crowd, in true British style, backed the massive underdogs. Another enduring feature of this team was the stature of the players: the Koreans were an average height of 5’5″, leaving one Teesside fan to observe that “it was like watching a team of jockeys playing.”

The Italians started strongly, but were rocked in the 34th minute when their inspirational captain Giacomo Bulgarelli injured himself whilst making a tackle and was stretchered off. This was before the days of substitutes, so the Azzurri were down to ten men for the remainder of the game. The Koreans soon made their numerical advantage pay, as Pak Doo-Ik fired in a rocket from the right of the box in the 41st minute. In the second half the Italians dominated possession and peppered the Korean goal, but keeper Ri Chan Myong had the game of his life as North Korea held on to stun the football world and became the first ever Asian side to progress from the group stage in the World Cup.

In the quarter-finals North Korea almost surpassed this achievement, as they found themselves 3-0 up against Portugal, but came crashing back down to earth as Eusebio scored four straight goals, and the Iberians turned the tables in a 5-3 win. Due to the shadowy nature of the North Korean state, very little is known of what happened to the heroes of the 1966 squad. Rumours circulated that upon their return the players were imprisoned for their Western-style partying. In North Korea football and international sport in general has since been on a steep decline, due to the current regime’s isolationist policies. In 2002 the Italian side felt a certain sense of déjà vu, as it was the turn of South Korea to upset their World Cup hopes with a 2-1 win the second round in Daejeon.

Ever seen Bryan Robson in a hideous shirt, being overdubbed in Korean and introducing footage from North Korea’s finest moment before? You can now….

July 18 – Ade Abadbiyi moves to Leicester

If you are a Leicester City fan, life was pretty good in October 2000. Despite legendary manager Martin O’Neill having left to take up the reigns at Celtic, Leicester were topping the Premiership table for a couple of weeks, and who better to take over from O’Neill than the former England Under 21 Manager Peter Taylor.

Taylor was then regarded as an up-and-coming coach who had enjoyed success with the England junior team and was tipped by some to be in the running to take over the senior side from Sven-Goran Eriksson.

As for Leicester, they had enjoyed a period of sustained success under O’Neill; having achieved promotion to the top flight, they had four successive top ten finishes and won the League Cup twice.

Taylor was given the brief to continue this success and build up the club. To achieve this, he was given loadsa money to spend, and spend it he did. He is reported to have shelled out £23m on players during his short reign, most of it on distinctly average players.

Striker Ade Akinbiyi became the symbol of Taylor’s misguided spending, and it was on this day in 2000 that Wolves accepted a £5m bid from Leicester for the player.

Akinbiyi had started his career at Norwich and when he arrived at Leicester, he had already notched up six clubs, despite only being 25.

He was quickly dubbed Ade Abadbiyi by Foxes fans as he struggled in the Premiership, mirroring the form of the Leicester team as a whole.

Despite being top in October 2000, the Foxes went on a horrible run later on in the season and plummeted down the table to eventually finish 13th.

Akinbiyi himself only ever managed 11 goals in 58 appearances for the team, and was eventually sold to Crystal Palace once Leicester had been relegated, and Taylor sacked.

Akinbiyi continued his poor form at his next few clubs, before landing at Burnley, where his scoring exploits earned him a move to Sheffield United and back to the Premiership. He only made five top-flight appearances for the Blades however, before being sold back to Burnley.

Check out some of his worst misses for the Foxes below.

July 17 – The Premiership is Established

Urban legend has it that when Seth Johnson was negotiating personal terms with Leeds United in 2001, Johnson’s agent was hoping to get £13,000 a week for his client.

The story goes that when then Chairman of Leeds Peter Ridsdale walked in he said, “Sorry, all I can offer you is £30,000 a week.” Johnson’s agent apparently choked on his coffee when he heard this, to which Ridsdale responded, “Oh alright, £38,000 then.”

Whether this is true or just football folklore, it serves not only as an example of the financial recklessness of the Leeds management of the time, but also of the huge amount of money that was, and still is in the game at the top end.

This amount of wealth is due to the creation of the Premiership, and the Sky TV money which came with it.

It was on this day in 1991 the Founder Members Agreement was signed by all top-flight clubs. This document established the basic principles for the establishment of the Premier League, and led to huge changes within the game in England.

The 1980s had been a low point for football in England. Hooliganism was rife, old stadiums were crumbling and there had even been loss of life with tragic events such as the Bradford City fire and the Hillsborough disaster.

The European Cup final at Heysel in 1985 also turned into tragedy when 39 fans were killed. As a result of this, all English clubs were banned from European competition for five years.

English clubs also had to find the money to re-develop their grounds into all-seater stadia – a key element of the Taylor Report, which was produced after the events at Hillsborough.

It was clear the game needed restructuring and new impetus. There also seemed to be the national will to save football after England had captivated the nation by reaching the semi-finals at the World Cup in Italy in 1990.

The idea behind forming a new Premier League was to bring more money into the top flight of the game. The Founder Members Agreement established that the new league would have commercial and financial independence to the rest of the football league. This would prove to be crucial, as the new Premier League could now negotiate its own TV rights deals.

This led to the Premiership’s close relationship with Sky Television, which has proved to be a very successful marriage.

The first Premiership Sky contract was £191 million over five seasons. That is dwarfed by the latest deal which including Sky and Setanta’s live coverage, the BBC highlights package and overseas rights, is worth £2.7 billion.

This huge amount of investment and media coverage has been something of a double-edged sword for football in England.

There can be no doubt that it has led to much investment in stadia, with many new grounds built and others redeveloped over the last 15 years. It has also meant that English clubs can compete with their European counterparts to attract the best players to these shores. Whether, as some commentators believe, the Premiership is the best league in the world, it is certainly in the top three.

However, the amount of money sloshing around the game has meant that it has priced out some fans. You would be lucky to see a Premiership match for less than £30, and many ordinary fans can no longer afford to regularly watch matches.

These high ticket prices are in part due to players high wages, with £100,000 a week not now uncommon for some of the top earners.

What cannot be denied however, is that the establishment of the Premier League changed football in this country drastically and forever. And it all started on this day back in 1991. Oh, and mainly due to injury, Seth Johnson only ever managed about 50 games for Leeds in four years at the club. That works out at about £158,000 per game. Just in case you were wondering.

July 16 – The Fateful Final

“Everywhere has its irremediable national catastrophe, something like a Hiroshima. Our catastrophe, our Hiroshima was the defeat by Uruguay in 1950.”  Nelson Rodrigues, Brazilian journalist.

As evident in the quote above, the Brazilians can never be accused of under-stating the importance of the beautiful game. Today in 1950 saw possibly the biggest upset in international football history, a match that still scars the Brazilian consciousness to this day.

One would have thought that the 50 years of spellbinding football and five World Cup wins that followed the “Fateful Final” would’ve helped the Seleção Brasileira in it’s healing process (lord knows it would have if we were talking about the England team), but that is simply not the case.

Brazil saw the 1950 World Cup as a chance to assert themselves on the world stage as a nation with a great future. National pride was swelling, as in 1946 ten years of dictatorship was ended and democracy was embraced and Brazil was given the right to host the first post-war World Cup. In 1948 work began on the Maracanã, which was to be the biggest stadium in the world, with a 183,000 capacity. 10,000 labourers ensured that the stadium was built in record time (fancy that national-stadium fans), and Brazil’s date with destiny was set.

On June 24th the 13-team tournament kicked off, using a unique format that has been seen since, that involved two group phases and no actual knockout games, where the winners of second group would be crowned world champions. Fate conspired to ensure that everything came down to the final game of the tournament, where Brazil only needed to draw to secure their first Jules Rimet trophy.

To say that the nation press, and the nation as a whole were confident of victory was a bit of an understatement: “Tomorrow we will beat Uruguay!” and “These are the World Champions” were just two of the tub-thumping headlines. With well over 200,000 present in the Maracanã there was an unfathomably intense atmosphere, with Uruguay midfielder Julio Perez even admitting to wetting himself during the national anthem. “I am not ashamed of this” he would later claim. Things didn’t get much better for Perez and his team-mates once the match started, as they would go a goal down just after half-time, with Friaça becoming the first and so far only Brazilian to score a World Cup final goal in the Maracanã, a dream of any Brazilian man or child. The stadium was in raptures, but this was tempered in the 66th minute, when Schiaffino equalized. 1-1 was still enough for the Brazilians, but then disaster struck when Ghiggia’s near post shot caught Brazilian keeper Barbosa by surprise and snuck in, handing Uruguay their second World Cup and breaking millions of hearts across Brazil. Jules Rimet remarked that the silence that fell across the Maracanã “was morbid, sometimes too difficult to bear”. Suicides were reported and many of the players were lambasted for the rest of their lives over the defeat. Goalkeeper Barbosa in particular was blamed for the winning goal. Before he died, penniless in 2000, he remarked that “Under Brazilian law the maximum sentence is thirty years. But my imprisonment has been fifty.”

See footage of what the Argentineans gloatingly refer to as the Maracanazo and an awful lot of grown men crying below.

July 15 – Jacquet Resigns as France Boss

For England fans, the 1998 World Cup will always be remembered for Michael Owen’s wonder goal against Argentina, and David Beckham’s red card in the same match.

For Brazil fans, it will be the memory of a clearly unfit Ronaldo attempting to play the final that sticks in the mind.

France were champions however that year, after beating Brazil 3-0 in the final, which was the first final to feature the defending champions and the host nation.

It was France’s first World Cup and they became the seventh nation to win the coveted trophy.

The mastermind behind the French campaign was Aimé Jacquet, who confirmed on this day in 1998 that he would step down from his position as national team manager.

Jacquet, who turned out for Saint-Étienne and Lyon during his playing days, had also been manager of Bordeaux, leading them to three league titles and two French Cups.

In 1992 he was made assistant to France manager Gerard Houllier, and took control of the national team in 1994.

As national boss, Jacquet made Cantona his captain, but dropped the playmaker after he attacked a Crystal Palace fan in 1995.

Zinedine Zidane became the focal point for Jacquet’s team, and ‘Zizou’ went on to score twice in the World Cup final win over Brazil.

Jacquet was succeeded by Roger Lemerre as national team boss, who went on to lead the team to Euro 2000 success, meaning France held both World and European Champion titles.

Watch the 1998 final goals here:

July 14 – The Football War

Football may be a game, but it is taken very seriously in some parts of the world, and sometimes the emotions of the game can carry over from the pitch or the stadium.

It was on this day in 1969 that the so called ‘football war’ began between central American countries Honduras and El Salvador as the two nations battled for a place at the 1970 world cup.

Both national teams had beaten the other at home – Honduras beat El Salvador 1-0, with the second leg a 3-0 win for El Salvador. Goal difference was not used so a play off match on June 27 in Mexico was held to decide who would progress to the world cup finals.

Honduras led the match 2-1 at half time, but El Salvador eventually won the match 3-2 after extra time to earn a place at the finals in Mexico.

It was on July 14 1969 that the Salvadorian army attacked Honduras, kicking off hostilities that went on for six days when a ceasefire was negotiated.

Land disputes, rather than football were the real cause of the war, but given the rioting that occurred at the world cup qualifying matches, the conflict became known as ‘the football war’ and the name stuck.

Despite the ceasefire, the dispute was not entirely resolved until 1992 when the International Court of Justice awarded the disputed land to Honduras.

Meanwhile El Salvador went to the world cup and went out at the group stage after losing all their matches without scoring a single goal. Worth it then.

July 13 – First Ever World Cup Begins in 1930

While we now take it for granted that England will fly off to some exotic location with a very inconvenient time-difference every four years to go out on penalties in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, it was not always so.

The first ever football world cup was held in 1930 in Uruguay, with the first two games of the tournament held on this day, with France beating Mexico 4-1, and the USA defeating Belgium 3-0. England did not participate in a world cup until 1950.

It was also on this day that Frenchman Lucien Laurent scored the first world cup goal in history, 20 minutes into the game at the Estadio Gran Parque Central stadium.

Laurent later said: “We were playing Mexico and it was snowing, since it was winter in the southern hemisphere. One of my teammates centred the ball and I followed its path carefully, taking it on the volley with my right foot. Everyone was pleased but we didn’t all roll around on the ground – nobody realised that history was being made. A quick handshake and we got on with the game. And no bonus either; we were all amateurs in those days, right to the end.”

The tournament came about partly because football was not included as one of the events at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles due to the unpopularity of the games in the USA.

In 1928 FIFA President Jules Rimet announced that FIFA would be holding a football-dedicated tournament in which all FIFA members were invited to participate.

Uruguay were chosen as hosts which resulted in only four European teams attending the tournament. Only Belgium, France, Romania, and Yugoslavia made the long and costly voyage across the Atlantic to South America. The other nine teams that took part were all from the Americas.

Historic goal scorer Laurent recounted the voyage years later: “We were 15 days on the ship “CONTE VERDE” getting out there. We embarked from Villefranche-sur-Mer in company of the Belgians and the Yugoslavians. We did our basic exercises down below and our training on deck. The coach never spoke about tactics at all…”

The Conte Verde also carried Rimet himself, the trophy (not yet named after the great man), plus the three European referees to the tournament.

The first ever world cup was won by Uruguay when they defeated Argentina 4-2 to become both world and Olympic champions.

See some very grainy footage of the 1930 final and practice your Spanish at the same time.

July 12 – Shanks Quits Liverpool

Every club has its heroes, players or managers who are revered to the point of sainthood by the club’s supporters.

Occasionally, these heroes can transcend even club loyalties, with fans of even bitter rivals able to recognise their achievements. Bill Shankly was one of these men.

It was on this day in 1974 that Shanks sent shockwaves through the football world when he resigned as manager of Liverpool FC, after 15 years at the helm.

The news was greeted with disbelief by most Liverpool fans with some local factory workers allegedly threatening to go on strike unless the great man returned to his post.

Their reaction was understandable – Shanks had transformed Liverpool from a struggling second division side with a dilapidated stadium and crumbling training ground, into a top trophy winning team.

Although Liverpool went on to become the most successful English club side ever after Shankly had retired, he is credited with laying the foundations that much of that success was based on.

Shankly is also credited with being something of a pioneer in terms of fitness training, and realising the importance of players’ diet to their fitness.

After his retirement, Shankly would often visit the club’s Melwood training ground, and join in the training sessions with his former charges. This put the club into something of a difficult position as it was clearly undermining Shanks’ successor Bob Paisley, so the board took the difficult position to ban him from Melwood.

Despite Shankly’s various dismissive remarks about Liverpool’s city rivals Everton (he once said: “There are only two teams in Liverpool; Liverpool and Liverpool Reserves,) he often visited Everton’s training ground where he said he was made to feel very welcome.

Bill Shankly had a heart attack and died in 1981, aged only 68.

Stories of Shankly’s generosity to fans are legendary and numerous (he is said to have bought many fans tickets to matches they otherwise couldn’t afford), but the best story that really shows how committed to the game he was concerns a rumour that he had taken his wife Ness to watch Rochdale play as a wedding anniversary treat. When asked about it he replied: “Of course I didn’t take my wife to see Rochdale as an anniversary present, it was her birthday. Would I have got married in the football season? Anyway, it was Rochdale reserves.”

Watch this clip to see the announcement of his retirement, and the disbelieving reaction of some scousers: