Post by QPR Report on Nov 22, 2008 8:33:03 GMT
The Guardian/Scott Murray - The Joy of Six: great footballing injustices
From Fenwick's folly to the Matthews match, we pick half a dozen kicks in the teeth from the footballing gods
1) Arsenal gain – because they certainly didn't win – promotion (and at Tottenham's expense as well)
Arsenal fans might not enjoy the way their team is playing at the moment, but at least they can rest easy in the knowledge that the club's cash is in safe hands, Arsène Wenger having stuffed it all under the bed, refusing to waste a bronze centime of it on fripperies like proper goalkeepers or midfielders who can put a foot in and win the ball. The Gunners coffers were not always so secure.
In the early part of the 20th century, their chairman was a Conservative member of parliament called Sir Henry Norris. A self-styled "friend to everyone", he was, being a Tory, first and foremost a friend to himself, and so used precious club moolah to fund a personal chauffeur who drove him around the capital while he sat in the back swilling expensive brandies and sucking down fat cigars. He also sold the team bus, stuffing the £125 proceeds into his fat, bloated wallet.
But Norris was not all bad news for Arsenal, for his wily ways occasionally benefited the club. He was said to have offered sizeable – and illegal – financial inducements to lure Herbert Chapman from Huddersfield to manage the team, and Sunderland's top scorer Charlie Buchan to play for them. Given the two of them put their heads together to come up with the WM formation, which would eventually land Arsenal a sackful of pots in the 1930s, that wasn't bad business. It was, however, nothing compared his efforts in 1918, which saw Arsenal remarkably better placed when football resumed after the First World War. At the end of the 1914/15 season they had finished fifth in the Second Division – but four years later they were up.
Norris had taken advantage of the First Division's expansion from 20 to 22 clubs. It had been expected, following previous league expansions in 1898 and 1905, that the bottom two clubs in the First (in this case Chelsea and Tottenham) would stay up while the top two clubs in the Second (Derby and Preston) would be promoted. Derby and Preston's promotions were assured, but the other two places were up for grabs. Norris argued that Spurs deserved to be relegated on account of their league position. Chelsea, however, did not, as Manchester United would have been in the relegation zone instead had they not gained two points from a fixed 1915 match against Liverpool.
By arguing in favour Chelsea – but not calling for the demotion of United and Liverpool – Norris was winning brownie points for Arsenal with the League committee. Other committee members meanwhile were impressed with his powerful contacts; Norris was close friends with Liverpool chairman "Honest" John McKenna, president of the Football League. So when it came for the committee to decide who would get the final First Division place, Arsenal won more votes than Spurs, Wolves and Barnsley, who had all finished the 1914-15 campaign in higher positions. There were dark accusations of bribes having been offered, but nothing was ever proved. Arsenal have, of course, never since been relegated.
2) Terry Fenwick completely besmirches Diego Maradona's good name
Diego Maradona came over to Blighty the other day, and thanks in no small part to Terry Butcher's incessant bleating, all the focus was on the Hand of Bloody God. Again. Let it drop, will you, Tel, for Christ's sake? Not least because it happened 22 years ago and it was all Peter Shilton's fault anyway. (Jump, man!) In any case, had the referee Ali Bin Nasser done his job properly in the first half of that infamous 1986 World Cup quarter-final between Argentina and England, the Hand of God would have most likely remained the Little Pinkies of Diego.
After eight minutes, Terry Fenwick scissor-tackled Maradona from the side, both feet off the ground. He was booked for it, which was fair enough considering the game had barely started, although the challenge was at least as bad as Jose Batista's on Gordon Strachan for which the Uruguayan was sent off after 56 seconds earlier in the tournament. Maradona then spent the rest of the half racing past Fenwick, only stopping occasionally to rip the England defender a new one.
Just before half time, something in Fenwick's head snapped, and he thrust his forearm in Maradona's face off the ball, felling him to the floor. It was a clear second yellow, if not a straight red – and if you need any further proof, Jimmy Hill thought the challenge fair, preposterously opining that Maradona "feigned it for sympathy" while his St George's bow tie whirred round at 78rpm.
You could legitimately argue that with England down to 10 men for the entire second half, Argentina – already bossing the match against 11 – would have dominated it to such an extent that Maradona wouldn't have needed to resort to any saucy tricks. The sparkling beauty of Maradona's second goal meanwhile would remain undimmed, as Fenwick might as well not have been on the pitch then anyway.
So, then: by not getting sent off, Fenwick, through basic cause and effect, inadvertently sullied the reputation of the greatest footballer the world has ever seen. Now that's an injustice. And everyone over here is still harping on about a handball infringement?
3) Real Madrid finally get knocked out of the European Cup thanks to "Barcelona's best player" – the referee
By 1960, Real Madrid long had it coming from the karma police, after the real police had visited Barcelona's dressing room ahead of a Real-Barca match in 1943 to pass one of Franco's Special Team-talks. Barcelona didn't really put up much of a fight that day as they went down 11-1, but at least they lived to see the result in print.
Real's karmic comeuppance came when they were paired with Barcelona in the second round of the 1960-61 European Cup. In the first leg at the Bernabéu, Real were 2-1 up with three minutes to play when the referee Arthur Ellis ignored a linesman flagging Sandor Kocsis offside, waved play on, then blew for a penalty when the Hungarian was fouled. Barcelona equalised and for the first time in the tournament's history, a team left Real's stadium unbeaten.
In the second leg, the referee Reg Leafe disallowed four goals, three of them by Real. "Leafe was Barcelona's best player," said the Real president Santiago Bernabéu after the match, and there is indeed little evidence of foul play in the footage of the match. Nevertheless, Real were finally knocked out of Europe. Alfredo di Stefano muttered darkly of a Uefa conspiracy, suggesting the ruling body were fed up with Real's five-season domination of "their cup".
Much good it did Barça, though. They lost the final to Benfica, then watched in horror as Madrid rattled off five La Liga titles in a row, a run that culminated in their sixth European Cup in 1966. Barcelona meanwhile would have to wait until 1992 to win their first.
4) Robert Maxwell is allowed to take over at Derby, which pretty much kills Oxford United as a going concern
Football continues to exist despite the people who run it, not because of them. In 2002, three faceless FA bureaucrats – lawyer Raj Parker, FA councilor Alan Turvey, and Aston Villa pen-pusher Steve Stride – were asked to rule on whether the owners of Wimbledon FC were to be allowed to move the club to Milton Keynes. "The balancing exercise has not been an easy one to perform," they admitted in the report, which at least goes some way to explaining why they didn't bother with balance whatsoever, instead letting the moneymen kill a club that had been around since 1911 and footpad up the M1 with their spoils.
It was without question the most shameful decision in English footballing history – anyone connected with MK Dons should be thoroughly ashamed with themselves – but it wasn't as though football's ruling classes didn't have form when it came to bending over backwards to keep the sugar daddies happy.
Robert Maxwell had saved Oxford United from going bust in 1982, but the long-term cost to the club would be high. After trying – and thankfully failing – to push through a merger with Reading to form the Thames Valley Royals, Maxwell threatened to close Oxford in a fit of pique. He never carried out his threat – but only because the team were going through a period of unprecedented success at the time, reaching the First Division and winning the 1986 League Cup.
The Os were relegated in 1988, but they were still in reasonable shape: they had recently installed (don't laugh) Mark Lawrenson as manager, and with Dean Saunders scoring freely the team had made a fine start to their campaign to bounce straight back. But there was a problem. Maxwell had loftier ambitions than Oxford could provide – he'd already tried to buy Manchester United – and so purchased Derby County. To circumvent ownership rules, Fatso resigned as Oxford chairman in May and was given permission to take over at the Baseball Ground, putting his son Kevin in his old job. Five months later, Oxford's star man Saunders was sold by Kevin – to Daddy at Derby. Lawrenson was sacked for complaining.
It was the thin end of a bloated wedge. After Maxwell's carcass tipped off the side of his yacht in November 1991 and his pensions scam was revealed, Oxford – owned by the fat crook's estate – became insolvent. The splash would sink Oxford into nearly two decades of financial woe; in 2006 they would drop out of the League altogether. They're now one of only two non-league teams to have won a major honour – Wimbledon, who effectively live on in AFC Wimbledon, being the other.
5) The 1953 FA Cup final is named after Stanley Matthews
As claims go, the one made by the Daily Express after the 1953 FA Cup final was as prescient as they come: "This final will go into history as the Matthews match!" On the face of it, it was no wonder that it did. Stanley Matthews, the nation's favourite player, had finally won an FA Cup medal, and at the ripe age of 38 to boot. His Blackpool side had been 3-1 down against Bolton with 22 minutes to go, but turned it round to win 4-3, Matthews creating havoc time and again down the right wing, and setting up the last-minute winner for Bill Perry. The Matthews Final it is, then.
It's not really on, though, is it? Because Blackpool's real hero that day was Stan Mortensen, who scored three times – the only man to ever do so in a Wembley FA Cup final – with his hat-trick goal a thumping free-kick which leveled the scores with just over a minute to play. Matthews meanwhile only began to run riot after Eric Bell, patrolling Bolton's left flank, tore his hamstring and – in the days before substitutes – was reduced to hobbling around.
Of course it would be churlish to deny Matthews his place in history, but then we're not doing that: his legend was always secure regardless of this final's outcome. Mortensen on the other hand never really received props for his amazing feat – so much so that when he died in 1991, the popular joke was that his wake was certain to be known as the Matthews Funeral.
6) Everton, already on the beach, send Norwich down
The table doesn't lie, of course, and Norwich's relegation from the First Division in 1985 was to a great extent their own fault – soon after winning the Milk Cup in March, they embarked on a run during which they lost eight out of nine games. But having wrapped up their campaign with a win at Chelsea – which put them eight points ahead of Coventry City, who still had three games to play – they surely thought they had done enough. Especially as Coventry's final game of the season was against the newly crowned champions Everton, who had spent the best part of the season steamrollering everyone.
Coventry were, however, midway through their 32-year residency in the top flight, during which they became adept at avoiding the drop. Needing to secure all nine points on offer, they registered a 1-0 win against bottom-of-the-league Stoke, then another at mid-table Luton. The champions were surely still a step too far, but fate was to deal Coventry a winning hand: having just won the Cup Winners' Cup, lost the FA Cup final, and beaten Liverpool in the space of nine days, Everton's season was effectively over. Their minds already at the beach after a Homeric campaign, Howard Kendall's knackered and uninterested side were there for the taking, and were thrashed 4-1. Norwich were down. From Coventry's perspective it was the mother of all their great escapes, and a remarkable achievement. From Norwich's, the feeling that the Gods had conspired against them was unshakeable.
Even worse was to come for the Canaries, who would be denied the place in Europe earned by their Milk Cup win as a result of the Heysel ban. If ever a team had their season unjustly stymied at every turn, it was this one.
Scott Murray is co-author of Day of the Match: A History of Football in 365 Days
www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/nov/21/football-arsenal-tottenham-everton-barcelona-real
From Fenwick's folly to the Matthews match, we pick half a dozen kicks in the teeth from the footballing gods
1) Arsenal gain – because they certainly didn't win – promotion (and at Tottenham's expense as well)
Arsenal fans might not enjoy the way their team is playing at the moment, but at least they can rest easy in the knowledge that the club's cash is in safe hands, Arsène Wenger having stuffed it all under the bed, refusing to waste a bronze centime of it on fripperies like proper goalkeepers or midfielders who can put a foot in and win the ball. The Gunners coffers were not always so secure.
In the early part of the 20th century, their chairman was a Conservative member of parliament called Sir Henry Norris. A self-styled "friend to everyone", he was, being a Tory, first and foremost a friend to himself, and so used precious club moolah to fund a personal chauffeur who drove him around the capital while he sat in the back swilling expensive brandies and sucking down fat cigars. He also sold the team bus, stuffing the £125 proceeds into his fat, bloated wallet.
But Norris was not all bad news for Arsenal, for his wily ways occasionally benefited the club. He was said to have offered sizeable – and illegal – financial inducements to lure Herbert Chapman from Huddersfield to manage the team, and Sunderland's top scorer Charlie Buchan to play for them. Given the two of them put their heads together to come up with the WM formation, which would eventually land Arsenal a sackful of pots in the 1930s, that wasn't bad business. It was, however, nothing compared his efforts in 1918, which saw Arsenal remarkably better placed when football resumed after the First World War. At the end of the 1914/15 season they had finished fifth in the Second Division – but four years later they were up.
Norris had taken advantage of the First Division's expansion from 20 to 22 clubs. It had been expected, following previous league expansions in 1898 and 1905, that the bottom two clubs in the First (in this case Chelsea and Tottenham) would stay up while the top two clubs in the Second (Derby and Preston) would be promoted. Derby and Preston's promotions were assured, but the other two places were up for grabs. Norris argued that Spurs deserved to be relegated on account of their league position. Chelsea, however, did not, as Manchester United would have been in the relegation zone instead had they not gained two points from a fixed 1915 match against Liverpool.
By arguing in favour Chelsea – but not calling for the demotion of United and Liverpool – Norris was winning brownie points for Arsenal with the League committee. Other committee members meanwhile were impressed with his powerful contacts; Norris was close friends with Liverpool chairman "Honest" John McKenna, president of the Football League. So when it came for the committee to decide who would get the final First Division place, Arsenal won more votes than Spurs, Wolves and Barnsley, who had all finished the 1914-15 campaign in higher positions. There were dark accusations of bribes having been offered, but nothing was ever proved. Arsenal have, of course, never since been relegated.
2) Terry Fenwick completely besmirches Diego Maradona's good name
Diego Maradona came over to Blighty the other day, and thanks in no small part to Terry Butcher's incessant bleating, all the focus was on the Hand of Bloody God. Again. Let it drop, will you, Tel, for Christ's sake? Not least because it happened 22 years ago and it was all Peter Shilton's fault anyway. (Jump, man!) In any case, had the referee Ali Bin Nasser done his job properly in the first half of that infamous 1986 World Cup quarter-final between Argentina and England, the Hand of God would have most likely remained the Little Pinkies of Diego.
After eight minutes, Terry Fenwick scissor-tackled Maradona from the side, both feet off the ground. He was booked for it, which was fair enough considering the game had barely started, although the challenge was at least as bad as Jose Batista's on Gordon Strachan for which the Uruguayan was sent off after 56 seconds earlier in the tournament. Maradona then spent the rest of the half racing past Fenwick, only stopping occasionally to rip the England defender a new one.
Just before half time, something in Fenwick's head snapped, and he thrust his forearm in Maradona's face off the ball, felling him to the floor. It was a clear second yellow, if not a straight red – and if you need any further proof, Jimmy Hill thought the challenge fair, preposterously opining that Maradona "feigned it for sympathy" while his St George's bow tie whirred round at 78rpm.
You could legitimately argue that with England down to 10 men for the entire second half, Argentina – already bossing the match against 11 – would have dominated it to such an extent that Maradona wouldn't have needed to resort to any saucy tricks. The sparkling beauty of Maradona's second goal meanwhile would remain undimmed, as Fenwick might as well not have been on the pitch then anyway.
So, then: by not getting sent off, Fenwick, through basic cause and effect, inadvertently sullied the reputation of the greatest footballer the world has ever seen. Now that's an injustice. And everyone over here is still harping on about a handball infringement?
3) Real Madrid finally get knocked out of the European Cup thanks to "Barcelona's best player" – the referee
By 1960, Real Madrid long had it coming from the karma police, after the real police had visited Barcelona's dressing room ahead of a Real-Barca match in 1943 to pass one of Franco's Special Team-talks. Barcelona didn't really put up much of a fight that day as they went down 11-1, but at least they lived to see the result in print.
Real's karmic comeuppance came when they were paired with Barcelona in the second round of the 1960-61 European Cup. In the first leg at the Bernabéu, Real were 2-1 up with three minutes to play when the referee Arthur Ellis ignored a linesman flagging Sandor Kocsis offside, waved play on, then blew for a penalty when the Hungarian was fouled. Barcelona equalised and for the first time in the tournament's history, a team left Real's stadium unbeaten.
In the second leg, the referee Reg Leafe disallowed four goals, three of them by Real. "Leafe was Barcelona's best player," said the Real president Santiago Bernabéu after the match, and there is indeed little evidence of foul play in the footage of the match. Nevertheless, Real were finally knocked out of Europe. Alfredo di Stefano muttered darkly of a Uefa conspiracy, suggesting the ruling body were fed up with Real's five-season domination of "their cup".
Much good it did Barça, though. They lost the final to Benfica, then watched in horror as Madrid rattled off five La Liga titles in a row, a run that culminated in their sixth European Cup in 1966. Barcelona meanwhile would have to wait until 1992 to win their first.
4) Robert Maxwell is allowed to take over at Derby, which pretty much kills Oxford United as a going concern
Football continues to exist despite the people who run it, not because of them. In 2002, three faceless FA bureaucrats – lawyer Raj Parker, FA councilor Alan Turvey, and Aston Villa pen-pusher Steve Stride – were asked to rule on whether the owners of Wimbledon FC were to be allowed to move the club to Milton Keynes. "The balancing exercise has not been an easy one to perform," they admitted in the report, which at least goes some way to explaining why they didn't bother with balance whatsoever, instead letting the moneymen kill a club that had been around since 1911 and footpad up the M1 with their spoils.
It was without question the most shameful decision in English footballing history – anyone connected with MK Dons should be thoroughly ashamed with themselves – but it wasn't as though football's ruling classes didn't have form when it came to bending over backwards to keep the sugar daddies happy.
Robert Maxwell had saved Oxford United from going bust in 1982, but the long-term cost to the club would be high. After trying – and thankfully failing – to push through a merger with Reading to form the Thames Valley Royals, Maxwell threatened to close Oxford in a fit of pique. He never carried out his threat – but only because the team were going through a period of unprecedented success at the time, reaching the First Division and winning the 1986 League Cup.
The Os were relegated in 1988, but they were still in reasonable shape: they had recently installed (don't laugh) Mark Lawrenson as manager, and with Dean Saunders scoring freely the team had made a fine start to their campaign to bounce straight back. But there was a problem. Maxwell had loftier ambitions than Oxford could provide – he'd already tried to buy Manchester United – and so purchased Derby County. To circumvent ownership rules, Fatso resigned as Oxford chairman in May and was given permission to take over at the Baseball Ground, putting his son Kevin in his old job. Five months later, Oxford's star man Saunders was sold by Kevin – to Daddy at Derby. Lawrenson was sacked for complaining.
It was the thin end of a bloated wedge. After Maxwell's carcass tipped off the side of his yacht in November 1991 and his pensions scam was revealed, Oxford – owned by the fat crook's estate – became insolvent. The splash would sink Oxford into nearly two decades of financial woe; in 2006 they would drop out of the League altogether. They're now one of only two non-league teams to have won a major honour – Wimbledon, who effectively live on in AFC Wimbledon, being the other.
5) The 1953 FA Cup final is named after Stanley Matthews
As claims go, the one made by the Daily Express after the 1953 FA Cup final was as prescient as they come: "This final will go into history as the Matthews match!" On the face of it, it was no wonder that it did. Stanley Matthews, the nation's favourite player, had finally won an FA Cup medal, and at the ripe age of 38 to boot. His Blackpool side had been 3-1 down against Bolton with 22 minutes to go, but turned it round to win 4-3, Matthews creating havoc time and again down the right wing, and setting up the last-minute winner for Bill Perry. The Matthews Final it is, then.
It's not really on, though, is it? Because Blackpool's real hero that day was Stan Mortensen, who scored three times – the only man to ever do so in a Wembley FA Cup final – with his hat-trick goal a thumping free-kick which leveled the scores with just over a minute to play. Matthews meanwhile only began to run riot after Eric Bell, patrolling Bolton's left flank, tore his hamstring and – in the days before substitutes – was reduced to hobbling around.
Of course it would be churlish to deny Matthews his place in history, but then we're not doing that: his legend was always secure regardless of this final's outcome. Mortensen on the other hand never really received props for his amazing feat – so much so that when he died in 1991, the popular joke was that his wake was certain to be known as the Matthews Funeral.
6) Everton, already on the beach, send Norwich down
The table doesn't lie, of course, and Norwich's relegation from the First Division in 1985 was to a great extent their own fault – soon after winning the Milk Cup in March, they embarked on a run during which they lost eight out of nine games. But having wrapped up their campaign with a win at Chelsea – which put them eight points ahead of Coventry City, who still had three games to play – they surely thought they had done enough. Especially as Coventry's final game of the season was against the newly crowned champions Everton, who had spent the best part of the season steamrollering everyone.
Coventry were, however, midway through their 32-year residency in the top flight, during which they became adept at avoiding the drop. Needing to secure all nine points on offer, they registered a 1-0 win against bottom-of-the-league Stoke, then another at mid-table Luton. The champions were surely still a step too far, but fate was to deal Coventry a winning hand: having just won the Cup Winners' Cup, lost the FA Cup final, and beaten Liverpool in the space of nine days, Everton's season was effectively over. Their minds already at the beach after a Homeric campaign, Howard Kendall's knackered and uninterested side were there for the taking, and were thrashed 4-1. Norwich were down. From Coventry's perspective it was the mother of all their great escapes, and a remarkable achievement. From Norwich's, the feeling that the Gods had conspired against them was unshakeable.
Even worse was to come for the Canaries, who would be denied the place in Europe earned by their Milk Cup win as a result of the Heysel ban. If ever a team had their season unjustly stymied at every turn, it was this one.
Scott Murray is co-author of Day of the Match: A History of Football in 365 Days
www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/nov/21/football-arsenal-tottenham-everton-barcelona-real