We have a combined book review/Mary’s Meals promotion today. Celtic fan and politician, Jim Murphy, has written an excellent book, The 10 Football Matches That Changed The World. It’s in my top three books on the game (as opposed to a player), and gives insight into the deadly intimidation which sparked the Barcelona-Real Madrid rivalry, how the game was rescued from oblivion, and England’s public schools, by a handful of communities in the 19th Century, Hillsborough, standpoints against racism in the UK and a whole lot more.
Romantics forever mourn that the great Hungarian team lost the 1954 World Cup Final, but that game changed for post-war West Germany. Then there’s Robben Island, apartheid’s most feared opponents were locked up for decades, denied all but a football. With that ball, teams were built, men were built.
Profits from sales of the book through the link at the bottom of the page go to our Mary’s Meals appeal. Here’s the interview:
Q. OK, Jim, you’ve written a fine book, but I have to open with a question as charged as anything in the world football could be. On meeting then-Rangers chairman, Craig Whyte, you opened with “When do you think Rangers first decided on a ‘No Catholics’ policy?” Did you appreciate the enormity, and rarity, of that question? Would Scotland benefit from being open about what happened inside the game here?
“Looking back it’s hard to believe that the country tolerated that old style sectarianism. Growing up in Glasgow it was treated by far too many as the norm when it was anything but normal. My one and only encounter with the ill-fated Craig Whyte, the calamitous and short-lived Rangers chairman took place in the most unlikely of places. It was in the board room at Celtic Park, at half-time in the infamous 2011 Scottish Cup match.
“As part of my research for the book I decided to ask him about the history of the Club that he would go on to cause so much harm to. I asked Mr Whyte, ‘When do you think Rangers first decided on a “No Catholics” policy?’ He took such a direct question surprisingly well. Perhaps because I was asking him about a Rangers from what now seems like another age. Pretty fairly, he couldn’t place a date on it.
“For decades, his club was probably the only team in the world where the question of which foot you kicked with was more important than how well you could kick. Only a few yards along the corridor, in the Rangers changing room, no one knew how many Catholics were sitting listening to the Rangers manager Ally McCoist’s half-time team-talk. More importantly, no one really cared.
“Thinking back its inexplicable why so many in the media, football, UEFA, politics and others had accepted such a policy for so long. It was from an era when there was little protection against discrimination against ethnic or religious minorities, the disabled or on the grounds of sexuality and even against women. None of those things were right and nor was any sectarianism wherever it came from or who it was aimed at.
“I spoke to some of the best Celtic and Rangers historians there are. Celtic’s origins are rightly and universally celebrated but for decades much less was spoken of Rangers earliest days. But the passions of the Club’s founders the canoeing McNeil brothers had nothing to do with other people’s subsequent prejudices. For years when Rangers had a free Saturday their players sometimes turned up to watch Celtic and were welcomed by the sound of Celtic fans’ applause rather than any boos.
“In 1909 both sets of supporters invaded and rioted on the Hampden pitch after a drawn final. Parts of Hampden were set alight, fans fought with the police and some fireman were set upon when they turned up to save the stadium. Astonishingly there’s no reports in any of the media of rival fans throwing even a single punch at one another.
“But by 1924 events including post First World War anti-Catholic sentiment and the opening of Harland and Wolff shipyard in Govan helped contort Rangers. It was revealing to interview Graeme Souness, the manager who broke Celtic hearts by signing Mo Johnston and in so doing helped break a sixty year taboo. Talking to Billy McNeil about all of this was pretty enlightening.”
Q. Racism was rife in British football in the 70s and 80s and you give some inside into the tide turning after Chelsea fans booing their own black player on a day they won promotion in 1984, but if you look around Britain today, or even some football grounds, do you feel as though we have slid back after recent years or recession and shortage?
“Football has come a long way to challenge the racism that had been tolerated on the pitch and celebrated on the terraces; accepted in the boardroom and in far too many changing rooms. No Club was exempt from the racism, not even Celtic. I remember being at Celtic Park and how angry I felt about the treatment of Mark Walters. We’ve all come a long way since then.
“But there’s still racist and other attitudes to be challenged. Anti-gay sentiment is still considered acceptable by a lot of football people. And football isn’t immune from the anti-Muslim attitudes that survive in wider society.”
Q. The Real Madrid-Barcelona rivalry is the most intense still alive in the game but its roots, and the roots of both clubs, as you explain, are difficult to pin to a single game. Do you think this is more about the struggle for Spain across the 20th century? Barcelona, as much as any club in the world, have a duty to live up to historical expectations. Do you think this is possible in the modern world?
“No other sporting rivals have been so trapped by the multiple and often tragic identities of their country. As a consequence of the brutality inflicted on Barca and Catalonia by Franco, Barcelona set themselves standards that they are finding it hard to live up to. The allegations on transfer kick-backs, tax problems and ties to Qatar 2022 are out of kilter with the often utopian ideals that Barca sometimes encourage. And now we have the signing of Suarez. I’m not sure the signing of this brilliant but troubled star is in keeping with the spirit of Gamper and Sunyol.
“For the unthinking many of course, there is a sense that Madrid the football club was founded by the forefathers of fascist neanderthals. In truth Real were formed by left-wingers. But at a time when Franco was a pariah, Real were world beaters. He simply sided with Spain’s greatest export. The Real Madrid of the late Di Stefano were transformed into his unofficial global ambassadors.
“In writing about Barca and Madrid I was spoilt for choice about which game cemented the political and cultural conflict that became the story of the two Clubs. The contenders are: 1925, when a British Royal Marine band came to play; 1943, with Madrid’s biggest ever victory; and, lastly, a sending-off in 1970 that never should have been. I opted for the cup semi-final of 1943. Barca were 3-0 up after the home leg and favourites to go through. But after a threatening pre-match visit to their changing room by the Director of State Security Barca managed to lose the return leg 11-1.
“To fathom what happened in 1943, you need to understand something about the one event in Spain’s history that has influenced politics, the nation’s football and culture for decades. For those who lost family it’s the heartbreak of modern Spain. For many football fans it’s the emotional backdrop to the Barca v Madrid rivalry. In his brilliant book ‘The Spanish Civil War’ Antony Beevor wrote of the conflict that, ‘It is perhaps the best example of a subject which becomes more confusing when it is simplified.’ Read his book to see what he means.
“In early 1936 Spain had a democratically elected left wing Popular Front government. It was rocked by an attempted military coup that summer by its right wing opponents. For three years Spain fought and with Hitler’s support Franco triumphed. Barca President Josep Sunyol was assassinated by fascists.
“Franco was vengeful against a defeated Catalonia and often defiant Barca. Its the memories of those horrors that live today for many in Spanish football.”
Q. Football and feelings of national image have had a mostly unfortunate relationship but you tell a different story for the 1954 World Cup Final, between the great Hungarian team and West Germany. Hungary were robbed of a deserved national highlight but you think Germany won more than just a football match?
“We’ve all just enjoyed a great World Cup with Germany winning for a fourth time. The one big surprise was that the hosts conceded more goals than any other nation. Its hard to say what the impact on Brazilian psyche is going to be. But there’s little doubt about the effect on the West Germany psyche of 1954 – the most important World Cup final ever played.
“That Bern final was played against the Puskas inspired unbeatable Hungarians. Franz Beckenbauer, the man who would go on to win the World Cup for West Germany, both as a player and manager, believes that, after their success, ‘suddenly Germany was somebody again’. And reflecting the experiences of his own childhood he knew how an eighty-fourth minute winner by Helmut Rahn changed Germany’s view of itself. ‘For anybody who grew up in the misery of the post-war years, Bern was an extraordinary inspiration. The entire country regained its self-esteem.’”
Q. Football is the sport of the people in South Africa, your childhood home, but the story of the role the game played in the lives of inmates – and future statesmen – on Robben Island in 1967, unfortunately, goes largely untold. How did this game reach into the hearts of Mandela, Zuma and their contemporaries, through such hardship?
“My family emigrated to South Africa in the early 1980’s and I lived there until the South African army came knocking on the door looking for me to serve two years national service. I’m neither a coward nor a pacifist but there was no way I was going to serve in an apartheid army.
“When I lived there Nelson Mandela and so many others were jailed on the former leper colony of Robben Island. Every morning I could see across to the Atlantic Island. There was very little news from the island. Like most people I had no idea about the Makana league that the prisoners had forced the regime to allow them to set up. It was inspired by British football. Aston Villa fan Tony Suze got it going.
“Many of the prisoners idolised Billy Bremner. A lot of the teams were named after British clubs. Current South African President Jacob Zuma was a tough tackling centre-back for a team called Rangers!
“One of the ANC’s former island political prisoners I interviewed Dikgang Moseneke was clear about how football helped keep hope alive. ‘It was the great escape from imprisonment. I don’t think the governor and wardens understood the full meaning of the football that they allowed us to play. Very few people came out of Robben Island broken, very few, And some went on to become leaders.’
Q. It is clear that you enjoyed writing the book but the final chapter, Liverpool v Nottingham Forest, 1989; the Hillsborough Disaster is haunting. More than the sectarianism which through football was institutionalised in Scotland in 1924, or the Soccer War game, between El Salvador and Honduras, it reaches inside the reader to touch regret and sorrow, in particular with Trevor Hicks account. What was the Justice for the 96 campaign up against, as they set about trying to change the world?
“Put bluntly the ‘Justice for the ’96’ campaign was up against large section of the British establishment. With the official inquests going on at the moment I have to be careful about what I say. Back then a media that was willing to repeat lies, too many police complicit in a cover up, a government too quick to blame the innocent and a country where many were initially willing to believe the worst of Liverpool fans. But over time the lies unravelled. Celtic’s solidarity with the campaigners is well known. What is less well known is that it wasn’t until a UK Cabinet meeting in Glasgow in 2008 that the campaign got its much yearned for political breakthrough.
“When I wrote the book I decided I wasn’t going to stitch anyone up; and I didn’t. But there’s one person who it’s impossible not to be angry with – the odious then Sun editor, Kelvin Mackenzie. Even today he gives mediocre middle aged men the world over a bad reputation. His malevolence is matched only by his unjustified arrogance.
“But the fact that the campaigners have now got to the truth means that they might just be on the cusp of getting justice as well. Theirs is a story of working class solidarity and of a city that refused to give in. As one campaigner put it to me. ‘We always believed that the law and the establishment would always win. As The Clash would say, ” I fought the law and the law won”.’ But on this occasion, mercifully, it appears they haven’t.
Q. There is so much in the book I didn’t know about the game, specifically, including that in the early 19th century it had all-but disappeared, apart from outposts in Orkney, Shetland, Workington, Cornwall and Jedburgh, before it was colonised by Britain’s public schools and Army messes. 200 years ago, it was a game, but not a game of the people. Your story starts with how people reclaimed football and lived their lives through it. Is this the real story of football over the last two centuries?
“Football almost died. How it survived is a little known truth and is the secret that the sport rarely recognises. A single match helped rescue the sport, and, with one unexpected victory, it finally broke free from its ghettos in the nation’s public schools and British Army officers’ messes. The ailing game had been violent, with very few agreed rules. It was run by and for the elite and, in a nation with very few sports fields, had been banned from public streets. In England, the FA Cup (partly funded by Scotland’s Queens Park) was colonised by university, public school, and regimental teams.
“In the 1883 FA Cup final, the former pupils of Eton College lined up against Blackburn Olympic at the Oval cricket ground. The Lancashire team won in extra time and the trophy went home with them which was further north then ever before. It coincided with Britain’s second Industrial Revolution and meant that when people left these shores they took with them a newly proletarian sport with them.
“A new breed of football innovator was born. They were more in the image of Blackburn Olympic than Old Etonian. In South America, British railway workers helped introduce the sport to Colombia, Uruguay and Argentina. A school-teaching Scot, Alexander Watson Hutton, set up the Argentine FA. In Chile, British sailors, and in Venezuela, British miners were amongst the first to play. In Spain, Brazil and Italy, Britons also planted their working class footballing roots.
“This change in football came in time for the First World War. It meant that football was one of the few things that the working class soldiers and their public school educated officers fighting in the Western Front trenches had in common. It’s an integral part of the story of how the 1914 football Christmas Truce came about. But that’s a different story and is the one match in the book which didn’t change the world.”
If you order the book through this link, with the promotion code: CELTIC, all profits will go to Mary’s Meals.
551 Comments- Pages:
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AIK
https://twitter.com/aarongk/status/489844809914671104
Istanbul Celt
Can I suggest that your facebook friends look into what treatment is available in Germany.
Neuroblastoma is treated primarily in the UK but should it recur then the current protocol is that there is no funding for remission treatment and so kids have to go to Germany or the USA.
Accordingly, I would look at Germany first.
Dallas Dallas
Ta. Chest out another 2 inches now!! lol
Icelandic teams no whipping boys.
2all draw at Murderwell.
Other team 1-1 away to Belarus in Europa qualifier.
Puts our performance in perspective.
HHS
Good night all
Thoughts with the innocents in Gazza tonight.
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo
21.43
Fair comment.
At least you’ve set the bar for BRTH to meet CQN expectations.
Tee My Guest @TeeMyGuest 3m
I cannot think that the victims of nazism would wish to see their memory desecrated by an Israeli state which invokes their memory
Growing up I had a lot of time for Motherwell, Ancell Babes, that and other Scottish sides that liked to play the game the Scottish way, Dundee and St Mirren come to mind…..but right now all I have is a GIRUY to the mullet and company…the influence that nosurname had on the game is still there and stinks.
fritzsong
20:37 on
17 July, 2014,
Given that Israel was the ancient homeland of the Jew, dont you think they had a right of return?Immigration had been underway since the late 19th-early 20th century.
I dont understand your point “the UK helped” Britain did everything in its powers to avoid the setting up of a Jewish state.Immigration was cut to a minimum, and even then under pressure,refugee ships were returned to Europe, holding camps not much better than they had left were set up, in Cyprus, and Madagascar among others, all on the orders of Nye Beven I might add.
lilys
Will go to bed with a heavy heart knowing the evil that will be unleashed on innocent men women and children in Gaza tonight.
I won’t wait for condemnation from our spineless politicians. They know about keeping schtum.
IGuyFawkesaforeverhero
21:49 on
17 July, 2014
it’s all free and happens every year in my home town except for the booze but I managed to get 4 VIP cards which means free booze but no smokies the best cover bands don’t last long its the crap that survives
But there is a great Ska band that comes every year they are stonking but no youtube footage unfortunatley.
Problem is we will now have to go with two of my wifes friends
I have been told that BRTH is like Johnny Depp in Blow
HH
Jude, haha, brilliant.
Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan supports Oscar Knox, MacKenzie Furniss and anyone else who fights Neuroblastoma
21:42 on
17 July, 2014
Good evening folks.
Can I just reiterate what Winning Captains said earlier.
We were hoping to have a function on Tuesday night before the game at Murrayfield but the premises in question advised that they would have to erect a marquee, and by law provide two licensed door stewards, two portaloos and various other things to make the event work.
That would have resulted in what was effectively a £10 cover charge.
Whilst I accept that the premises concerned would have costs, I did not think it was reasonable to ask CQN’ers to pay such a cost as simply the price of admission and so with regret we said no thanks.
We may come up with a more suitable venue for the second match at Murrayfield.
Cheers
BRTH
—————————————
Ah! Tuesday you say? I thought it was one of your Roadshows! :-)
Re: Tuesday – why don’t we all just meet up in The Roseburn or Murrayfield Bar?
a great article
alot of really interesting stuff
well done jim murphy
Awe_Naw, but I don’t have to face a divorce:-)
The semi final was special, but Sunday in Frankfurts stadium must have been fab.
Hope The Bhoy enjoyed it.
BRTH, I read the latest Strandsky article, stunning.
Are there more robust checks and balances in place both in Scotland and in England now?
Jude, the only time any of my family had a chance of playing for our team was a great uncle who had a trial around eighty years ago and was asked to come back the following day for a further trial.
He went out to celebrate being asked back, had about six too many, slept in and missed the second trial.
My dad told me his uncle never forgave himself for passing up the opportunity off possibly playing for us.
R.I.P Johnny Winter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GU04myyK90
HH
Modou Barrow watched by Hull, QPR, Swansea and Everton… but Celtic lead the race for pacy Gambian striker tipped for top
How does that old Cockney song go.
All me life I wanted to be a Barrow Bhoy.
Wheres my coat?.
Doc
I have not see him since Saturday afternoon. He is having the life of Reilly at the moment ..just landed a good job too
Me and three Thai girls … I will try and not get a divorce either ;-)
We will open a bottle in your honour
HH
Doc
got into work on Monday at 4
HH
Brogan, thanks for that excellent article earlier.
The connections between those involved in cover ups of miscarriages of justice are shocking but unsurprising.
This DRIP legislation is scary and your article increases my doubts of why it has been brought in.
Thanks again..
People of Gaza,God be with you..
Awe_Naw, you enjoy yersel, the lhad obviously is, and tell him congrats on the new job.
4am or pm?:-)
HangoverCSC!
Doc
Pm and I got away with it as I was still in my German garb. They love me even more
LOL
HH
fanadpatriot
People of Gaza And Israel, God be with you
lilys
Dallas Dallas
I think Josh knows he is living the dream. Im sure we all dream of living the dream even just for 10 mins. And we all know bhoys who could have but blew it!!
Man U came up to take my brother in law down for a trial. They went to his house but his dad told them he was up in the pub. End of!!!
Summa of Sammi….
21:11 on
17 July, 2014
27 Aussies on board,according to reports.
Awe_Naw, but the deadline hasn’t been moved has it?
Watching the news from Gaza, desperate.
A friend of mine is over there, he went over to teach surgeons, brave man.
He will be helping the injured now.
Keep him in you thoughts fholks.
If they swapped weapons just how long do you think Israel would last? Answer not very long.
The point here is the intent of both sides. Hamas wants the total destruction of a people and if they had the means to destroy Israel then without warning they would do so in a heartbeat. On the other side you have thousands of leaflets, phone calls and warning shots fired before a targeted strike. It is the responsibility of any nation on this earth to protect it’s people and be in no doubt what we are seeing tonight is being carried out with a heavy heart. As if it wasn’t, then there would be far more dead than the 240 poor souls who have so far lost their lives. Thanks to Hamas refusing a cease fire more will now suffer. Clearly they have little or no regard for life on either side of this conflict or they would stop firing their rockets and wouldn’t hide them in Schools, as has been verified today.
Tonight’s escalation is indeed a disaster and I can only pray that the loss of innocent lives are spared. Unfortunately I fear this won’t be the case but there is only one entity who doesn’t want peace here and it’s not Isreal.
Stop firing the bloody rockets and start recognising a peoples right to exist and one day, you may just get peace and prosperity for your own peoples. Sadly this is not what Hamas controlled Gaza wants and is why there will never be peace!
I pray that innocent lives on both sides are kept safe tonight!
Wee Q
Emdae remember the Scottish horse trainer who always had a winner lined up for the fluters on the 12th?
154 Dutch and 6 British on Malaysian plane
Doc
I delivered 3 hours into a raging hangover … it all just clicked. Boss called from holiday to say thanks. I have not touched a drop since. Not sure if I can face it tomorrow so will probably go on Saturday. That´s what the lassies want as they dont work on Sunday.
Guys like your mate should be splashed all over the meda instead of laufende gehirnloss fick stückchen
They are all killing one another in the name of God. The world is not a good place just now but
“Now I’m towing my car
there’s a hole in the roof
my possessions are causing me suspicion but there’s no proof
in the paper today
tales of war and of waste
but you turn right over to the T.V. page”
HH
lilys grandpa
21:54 on 17 July, 2014
‘Given that Israel was the ancient homeland of the Jew, dont you think they had a right of return?’
####
From what I understand the science suggests that most Jewish people do not originate from Israel/Palestine.
Ellboy – I am Neil Lennon, YNWA.
22:20 on
17 July, 2014
are you John Craven ?
HH
Ellboy – I am Neil Lennon, YNWA.
22:20 on 17 July, 2014
How many Israelis have been killed by the rockets fired by Hamas?
Ellboy – I am Neil Lennon, YNWA.,
!00% correct.
lilys
And if you know your history…..
Not many on here eh ?
HH