(written in response to the ban in some UK schools on football stickers as being disruptive and a distraction)
The build up to a Football World Cup Tournament is, at the best of times, pretty drawn out. This can start some two years before the actual summer competition and I would be the first to admit that a qualifying game between a group of enthusiastic part timers from somewhere like Andorra and Balakischakakhanistan and broadcast in terms of its sparse highlights late on a winters night can simply pass by without notice, unless of course the score is 42-0 or 9-9.
The real business only starts in my opinion with the release of the Official Collectable Sticker Album just a few months before kick-off.
My local Tesco Store has been piling high and giving away for free the album for the 2014 World Cup and I have so far resisted bringing home more than just the one.
My first foray into the wonderful world of footy cards and stickers was at the young age of 7.
I had seen for sale in the window of the town newsagent the album for the 1970 Mexico World Cup but was reluctant to ask my parents for extra pocket money as the cover price at 1s'6d in old money was well beyond my own sparse savings.
I started the usual ploy of lingering near to the display of albums and packets of stickers looking casual but trying hard to hide obvious excitement and anticipation of a prospective purchase. My harassed mother with, at that stage, three young children in tow, would be keen to get home from the trip to the shops and so for the good of the group any individual needs, however frivolous, had to be sidelined. I would have to be extra good in terms of behaviour, helpfulness and cheerful in nature in order to earn any concessions.
After a couple of weeks of exemplary manners and attending to my chores, doing my homework and being generally pleasant rather than moping and surly I was rewarded with a bright gloss covered album along with two packets of collectable cards at 6d each.
Of course, 1970 was also the year for the British public to become educated in and get used to the impending introduction of decimalisation.
The album cover and sticker packets were priced up not just in shillings and pennies but also the equivalent in 'new money'. The sticker price when expressed as 2.5 new pence seemed very cheap to my young mind. The inside rear cover of the album was also printed with a large table showing the conversion into decimalisation. Great progress was expected, in the opinions of TV pundits and on those boring programmes that my Father always watched on a monday night, with this massive transition into a less inward looking Britain.
The 1970 World Cup Album was to be my first real introduction to the rest of the world, or at least those nations that were good at football.
I was only 3 years old when England won the previous tournament and lets face it, the country has dined out on that tremendous achievement ever since. Some of that illustrious squad were still very much alive and kicking by the time I developed my interest and awareness in proper football.
The Mexico based competition of 1970 was to be held through the month of June although the first match between the host nation and the Soviet Union was on the 31st May.
By the time of the start I was already well on the way to filling up the album pages, one per national team but more than that I became engrossed in amassing every bit of information about the participating countries. This included geographical location, physical features, population and customs and even a bit of political background.
My parents were astounded by my sudden interest given that in my fledgling academic career up to the age of 7 I was not the most attentive or conscientious in anything at all educational.
I became a source of mind boggling facts and figures which could spurt forth at any time, however appropriate or not. Family meal times provided a captive audience for me to avail everyone of my latest discoveries. In church, on the way to school, in the car, walking to the shops; no place was a refuge for my passing on of new found knowledge.
The family would be forewarned of this when my sentences would start with "Did you know that........?" or "If you were in ..............", "The capital city of ..........", or "The main export of ...........".
The range of nations participating was to my mind like the whole wide world taking part.
In fact there were only 16. There were the dour and rather jowly looking faces of the Communist Bloc staring out from the respective pages for the Soviet Union, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria. They had a reputation for being a bit rough and robotical which I put down to their doctrinal backgrounds and having to queue for everything.
The South American nations were exotic in being a mixture of very black players and quite tanned euro-types. I found out that this was down to quite a varied history of native races and Hispanic invaders, be it from Mexico through to El Salvador, Uruguay, Brazil and Peru.
I could not really understand how Israel had got to play as I had not associated them with football at all. Perhaps, I mused it was one of those situations where they were allowed to play as recompense for their political isolation.
The European nations I had seen some of in the long run in of qualifying games. I admired the efficiency of the West Germans and felt that after the 1966 defeat they deserved another go. The Belgians had qualified in their own right but I did not rate them at all. The Italians were my favourites apart from England because of their flair, flamboyance and flowing free play. The Swedes were there, as far as I could make out to represent the far north regions. The Moroccans had been the winners of the African zone but would find it difficult playing on grass rather than sand.
For the three weeks of games I was an avid follower.
I cannot actually recall watching any matches on the family black and white television as they were probably after my bedtime but even so a lot of images are firmly lodged in my mind. These must have come, mainly, from broadcasts in successive years of the classic goals and of course that magnificent Brazil squad including Pele, Jairzinho, Carlos Alberto , Rivelino, Tostao and many more in that iconic green and yellow strip.
The Gordon Banks save in the England defeat to Brazil has been played ever since as the greatest by a goalkeeper. The England defeat to West Germany and exit in the quarter finals was hugely disappointing especially after Mullery and Peters had quickly established a 2-0 lead before eventually losing 2-3 with the extra time winner from Gerd Muller.
The Final was, even looking back in my 50th year, perhaps the best ever as a display of skill and teamwork by the enigmatic Brazilians.
The 22nd June, the day after the final match, was a sad day for me after the intensity and sheer immersion into the spirit of the World Cup.
I had emerged however with a broader idea of what the planet was all about and the experience was certainly the catalyst and springboard to me getting used to the idea of an education.
No comments:
Post a Comment