FA snubs left Alf Ramsey a broken man says his wife
SIR Alf Ramsey was left a ‘broken man’ when he was sacked and shunned eight years after winning the 1966 World Cup, his widow has revealed.
The England manager’s ‘disgraceful’ treatment by the Football Association started the long physical decline that led to his death in 1999, said Victoria Ramsey.
As the nation prepares to commemorate the famous victory over West Germany 50 years ago today, 95-year-old Lady Ramsey said she could never forgive English football’s ruling body.
‘I really do think it broke him. he was never the same man afterwards,’ she said. ‘Alf tried to get on with his life. he would go out with friends and watch matches, and he pottered around the house.
‘But he lived for football and he just felt lost. There was nothing left for him, really. The FA treated him very shabbily. It was quite disgraceful, and I do feel it contributed to the ill health he suffered afterwards.’ Sir Alf remains the only England manager to have won the World Cup.
But the way he later became a pariah in the game’s corridors of power became a shameful sub-plot to the glorious triumph in 1966. Though he earned the equivalent of £122,000 a year – a pittance compared to the £3million paid to new England boss Sam Allardyce – experts agree that his innovative tactics revolutionised how his side played after he became the national team manager in 1963.
he also instilled an indomitable spirit and fierce loyalty into his players.
With his aloof manner and refusal to toe the establishment line, however, he was never popular with the FA hierarchy, and when England failed to qualify for the 1974 World Cup finals they sacked him without ceremony. Sir Alf was only 54.
he worked occasionally as a media pundit, but was never employed in football again.
he retired to his modest home in Ipswich, where he fell ill with prostate cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Then, in 1998, after suffering a stroke, he was admitted to a nursing home, where he died the following year. he was 79.
Lady Ramsey is convinced things could have turned out differently. ‘They just fired him, and that was that. Job over. Goodbye,’ she said.
‘But Alf really knew football, and how to build a team. he brought players along, he didn’t chop and change all the time like they do today, and I can’t understand why they didn’t make use of his experience and knowledge.
‘he would have loved to help bring the younger players along, for example. he would have done anything to help England, but they just discarded him. We shall be lucky if we ever find another manager like Alf.’
Lady Ramsey still lives in the house the couple shared in 1966. She walks with a frame and rarely goes out, and is unable to visit the crematorium where a simple plaque bearing no mention of Sir Alf’s triumph marks his resting place. She still has dozens of pictures and souvenirs, but as her husband left just £200,000 in his will – including the value of the house – she had to auction some of her most prized mementoes.
Lady Ramsey describes July 30, 1966 as ‘a marvellous day – the
‘They just discarded him’
greatest of our lives’. To help her remember the occasion, the Mail presented her with a set of photographs from our archives, showing her celebrating with Sir Alf after the famous win.
The victory will be marked today with an event at Wembley Arena followed by a glittering dinner. Guests paying up to £250 a ticket will rub shoulders with World Cup heroes such as Bobby Charlton and Geoff hurst and their wives. Yet extraordinarily, Lady Ramsey has not been invited to the event, which is being supported by the FA. Indeed, until yesterday, she hadn’t even received a congratulatory letter.
Last night, Bobby Moore’s first wife, Tina, who is attending the reception with her daughter, Roberta, called on the FA to apologise for this ‘dreadful and inexcusable’ oversight.
And after the Mail asked the FA to explain, Lady Ramsey was belatedly sent a bouquet of flowers. The FA said there were also plans to invite her to St George’s Park, England’s national football centre, this autumn, when a road in the grounds will be named Sir Alf Ramsey Way.
Lady Ramsey intends to spend today listening to the BBC’s 12-hour special broadcast, and thinking of the man who delivered England’s finest sporting hour. ‘My Alf really was a great man, you know,’ she said.