October 23 – The Stars Come Out For The FA’s Centenary
HOW are your birthday plans coming on for this year? Night out on the town? Dinner party? Bet it won’t be as grand as when the FA celebrated reaching the grand old age of 100, as Sir Alf Ramsey’s England team took on the best of the rest at Wembley Stadium, today in 1963.
When the FA’s founding fathers such as Ebenezer Cobb Morley and F. M. Campbell sat in smoky rooms back in 1863, bringing together the nations leading clubs and devising a universal set of rules, they surely couldn’t have imagined where the game would be a hundred years down the line. This was the end of regional leagues, where the likes of Barnes (not John), Wanderers, Forest of Leytonstone and the cryptically named No Names Club did battle, and the start of football becomming the world’s favourite past-time.
So what better excuse for a party? Sir Alf sent out a strong England line-up, the spine of which included Bobby Moore, Gordon Banks and Bobby Charlton, who were only three years away from that defining moment of English football in 1966. And Ramsey needed all the talent he could call upon, as the Three Lions were measuring up against a venerable who’s who of international talent. Home nation stars such as Denis Law and Jim Baxter were mixing it with the likes of legends Alfredo Di Stefano, Eusebio, Ferenc Puskas and and Uwe Seeler. It was the kind of line-up that these days would only be seen on Nike advert (other sportswear is available, legal fans).
Making sure that the 100,000 at Wembley went home happy, England managed a 2-1 win with Jimmy Greaves grabbing a late winner after Denis Law had cancelled out Terry Paine’s opener. Most of the plaudits however, went to the Russian goalkeeper Lev Yashin who had one of the games of his life, pulling off a string of world-class saves to stop England form running away with the match.
Their telegramme from the Queen appeared and lots of backslapping ensued, as the top dogs of English football congratulated themselves on a sucessful hundred years, that soon got better when Jules Rimet was gleaming in the England trophy cabinet shortly after. As for the FA itself, plenty has changed since. Nowadays it’s a buearocratic behemoth, money-driven and not even in charge of the top flight of Englsish football. What would old Ebenezer make of that?
As he scored the winner, we’ll show you one of Greavsies finest moments on the football pitch and make sure you get back in the Delorean that is OTFD tomorrow to be taken even further back in time.
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October 23 - Kanu Believe It! | On This Football Day on October 23rd, 2008
[...] Kanu bagging his hat-trick below and see what else happened in the world of football today here. We’ll be back tomorrow for one of our favourite bust-ups in recent years, so join us [...]