The 1970s had not been kind to the English national team. That 1970 World Cup quarter final defeat; failure to qualify for Euro 1972 and the 1974 World Cup, as Alf Ramsey vacated the managerial hotseat; the debacle of the Don Revie years, as again England missed out on qualification for the next two major championships.
Clearing up the mess of what had gone before would eventually fall on the shoulders of Ron Greenwood, despite many justifiably pointing to the fact that Brian Clough should have been the man to replace Revie, hopefully with better results than he experienced at Leeds United in 1974.
Greenwood was obviously viewed by the FA as a safe pair of hands, a calm presence after the chaotic end of the Revie regime. And his permanent reign did get off to a positive start when England qualified for their first major championship in ten years, reaching the finals of the newly expanded European Championships.
Euro 80 would be the first to contain eight nations, a move away from the previous format that saw four teams play a straight knockout tournament. Hosted by Italy, the eight nations would be placed into two groups of four, with both group winners contesting the final, and the runners-up playing in a seemingly pointless third place playoff match.
Drawn with Belgium, Italy and Spain, England’s hopes were dealt a major blow when Trevor Francis tore his Achilles tendon prior to the tournament. Star man Kevin Keegan did shake off a knee injury, but many hinted at the fact that he was exhausted after his efforts with Hamburg, and his ever-growing commercial commitments away from the game.
On paper, the biggest obstacle to English hopes appeared to be the host nation. Yet England’s opponents in the opening group match would prove to be the surprise package of the tournament. Qualifying for Euro 80 via a group containing Scotland, Austria and Portugal, and with seven consecutive wins leading up to the finals, dark horses Belgium were about to emerge into the light.
We had been warned. Speaking prior to the tournament, manager Guy Thys indicated that Belgium would be no pushover. “You would be very silly to underestimate us. People talk as if Italy and England are the only teams in our group. Of course, I am concerned with them. But they worry me far less than West Germany or Holland would.”
“Today England will begin to learn the true currency of the recovery which has been achieved under the direction of Ron Greenwood over the last three years,” David Lacey wrote in the Guardian in his preview of the Belgium match on Thursday June 12. Not quite a nation expects, more a case of a cautious optimism after the years of drought.
Kicking off at 4.45pm, the match would be shown live on BBC One; it may have been ten years since England played in a tournament, but the BBC would provide a mere ten-minute build-up on that day. Different times admittedly, but it’s interesting to note that not all matches were covered live by the BBC/ITV during the tournament.
England’s return started in encouraging fashion, although the sublime lob by Ray Wilkins in the 26th minute turned out to be the high spot of the tournament. The lead lasted for just three minutes, as Jan Ceulemans levelled matters. And then it all kicked off.
There was one aspect in which England were still seen as leading exponents. Hooliganism was a growing problem, and riots involving Tottenham fans at the 1974 UEFA Cup final, Leeds supporters during the 1975 European Cup final, and England followers in Luxembourg in 1977 were just a few examples of an issue that would become known as the English disease.
Trouble was never far away. The night before England’s opening match in Turin, 36 English fans had been arrested, and Belgium’s equalising goal lit the blue touch paper. Goaded by Italian fans celebrating the goal, England’s notorious following was about to make a mark in an unwanted manner.
A riot squad moved in, unleashing tear gas grenades into the crowd in an attempt to contain the disturbances. But this approach had a knock-on effect; when some of the canisters were thrown back towards the pitch, the players struggled to see clearly. Referee Heinz Aldinger was forced to suspend the match for five minutes.
England goalkeeper Ray Clemence had to be treated by physio Fred Street – Peter Shilton probably grateful that Greenwood was still alternating between the pair – and many journalists pondered if England’s chances had been hindered by the delay. A late Tony Woodcock strike was controversially ruled out for an offside against Kenny Sansom, but that apart, England stuttered.
Not that many were talking about the football after the 1-1 draw. Greenwood was furious. “I am proud of my profession, but when things like this happen, I am ashamed of football. They are idiots and we don't want anything to do with them. I wish they would all be put in a boat and dropped into the ocean.”
Skipper Keegan was just as scathing: “I know 95 percent of our followers are great, but the rest are just drunks.” The Mirror’s Frank McGhee continued the theme: “English soccer’s band of travelling hooligans once again dragged their game and their country into the depths of disgrace here last night.”
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in Venice for the Common Market Summit, added to the increasing volume of dissenting voices: “The behaviour of some British supporters in Turin was disgraceful. When they come here, they are ambassadors and should show the best of Britain. It was a very dark day.”
An emergency UEFA meeting was arranged to discuss the violent scenes, and concerns were raised that England would be thrown out of the tournament or suffer a points deduction. The resulting £8,000 fine was seen as lenient, with FA Chairman Harold Thompson noting “It could have been a lot more serious for us. But it is a pity we have to pay for the actions of those sewer rats.”
England left their mark on the finals, yet not in the way that those involved would have wished. A narrow defeat to Italy saw the team eliminated, and despite a 2-1 win over Spain, Greenwood’s team failed to qualify for the consolation third place playoff match.
Once this was confirmed, the BBC postponed live coverage of the match, replacing it with the Tommy Steele film Half a Sixpence; if ever one move could sum up the lack of enthusiasm for Euro 80 and football in the UK, then this was it. Yes, the match between Italy and Czechoslovakia would hardly have been a ratings winner, but this does demonstrate the apathy felt at the time.
Euro 80 was far from a rip-roaring success. Low attendances outside of Italian matches and the final indicated that the tournament had failed to grab the attention of the public, McGhee describing the whole affair as “a morass of mediocrity.” England’s tournament seemed to sum up the situation neatly; not a complete embarrassment, but hardly exciting.
Come the end of it all, a familiar outcome. West Germany’s triumph over an exciting Belgium team confirmed their status as serial tournament achievers. And although England failed to make an impact, there was a small comfort in that they had returned to the top table in Europe. Just a shame that when they got there, the behaviour of their fans left a lot to be desired.
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