In addition to the annually occurring events there is the FIFA World Cup on its four yearly cycle and with Brazil taking on the challenging role as hosts.
The lead-in to the festival of footie has been a long one. The Panini Collectors Album has been flogged remorselessly by the shops although to their credit it has in my reckoning been more a case of a great free giveaway of the things. There are in excess of 650 self adhesive stickers required to reach that momentous milestone of filling up the pages but anyone attaining that must have money to burn given that the individual cards are 10p each. Even with the freakish prospect of not getting any swopsies or multiple duplicates and with the likelihood of having to chase that sole elusive shiny metal national team emblem the absolute minimum investment would be £65 but in reality considerably more.
I am not in a position to belittle the pastime of card collecting as in the past I have been quite obsessive in my quest to a full album. I did one year send off to the manufacturers an order for those which had eluded my pocket money spending spree.
You can tell when we are in the final few weeks to a World Cup kick off with the release of the branded and officially endorsed products from razors to deodorant, choccy bars to limited edition beers.
However, my World Cup fever only really starts with the publishing of the Radio Times.
I have managed to keep stashed away ,in my green metal trunk, from the ravages of damp, time and children's inquisitiveness a copy of the 1978 World Cup Special.
It is in reasonable condition but carries the scars of constant handling by myself, aged 15, and the recording on the match by match fill in chart of the scores in blue ball point pen. The edition gave the BBC schedules for the period 27th May to 2nd June which only just coincided with the first two opening games, one of which being the traditional curtain raiser for the host nation, Argentina.
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So what else was happening in that week of 1978 in terms of TV broadcasting? There were the institutional stalwarts, although now known differently, of Rolf on Saturday and immediately followed by Jim'll Fix it. The conspiracy theorists will be having a field day on that fact. Peak weekend viewing included Val Doonican and Kojak.
The usual faces were ever present in Mike Yarwood, Terry Wogan, Noel Edmonds and Michael Parkinson.
Popular children's shows were Play School, Champion the Wonder Horse, Stopwatch, Roobarb (before Custard), Blue Peter and The Flashing Blade (on repeat).
Regular sitcoms, dramas and entertainments included Porridge, Angels, The Liver Birds and It's a Knockout with in that particular week the towns of Cleethorpes, Gainsborough and Lincoln doing daft things with oversized foam suits and inflatables.
Inflation in the nation was at 165%, guerilla warfare and terrorism was a constant threat and a high proportion of the population were below the poverty line. The estimated cost of putting on the tournament may never be known but a figure of 940,800,000,000 Pesos was an authoritative estimate or £700 million in equivalent sterling.
The President, a military man coming to power in 1976, saw the World Cup as an opportunity to either drag the country out of depression and potential upheaval or provide an effective smokescreen of the real situation. It was a difficult domestic era and the Junta in control were struggling to keep control. Large numbers of government opponents disappeared or were confined in concentration camps. The poster shown encouraged the citizens to lift up their spirits although the sentiment is more of a barked order than a graceful invitation. A French Premier once said that sport was far too important to be left to sportsmen and George Bernard Shaw insisted that there was no greater cause of profound international misunderstanding than sport. Both seemed to ring true in 1978.
England had not qualified and it was left to Scotland to represent the Union. The Tartan Army took up residence and were well received by the locals in Cordoba and Mendoza but as my inked in chart and the record books show the team went home early after losing 3-1 to Peru, drawing 1-1 with Iran but at least with some pride after a stirring 3-2 victory against Holland thanks to a wonder goal by Archie Gemmel.
Argentina had a difficult group, usually termed "the group of death" with France, Italy and Hungary and only lost to Italy. The Tournament was run on two league phases rather than a league and knockout which left Argentina requiring a 6 goal winning margin in their last 8 round of matches to win through to the Final. Peru, the opposition rolled over 6-0 which was a talking point although they had failed to win any of their last 8 matches and were already on the slippery slope rather than being incentivised to jump. Rumours persisted that Peru had thrown the game to help the hosts. Arch rivals Brazil had to settle for third place. I, for some reason, never put in the score for the Final with Holland and have had to just look it up in the history books to see that Argentina beat the Dutch 3-1 after extra time.
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| Luque, Argentina number 9 |
Leopoldo Luque was a swashbuckling type character in contrast to the diminuitive figure of Osvaldo Ardiles who led the first wave of foreign players along with Ricardo Villa into the English Leagues.
Argentina were awarded the Fair Play Trophy for the tournament in spite of accusations of dirty tactics and time wasting in some games and Mario Kempes was top scorer including two tremendous strikes in the Final.
I very much enjoyed the three weeks and from time to time pore over my teenage scribblings and self penned match reports in that dog-eared notebook. It was an eventful competition but on reflection football won through. That Daniel Killer though, great name for a number 13.
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