Gazza, THAT Hong Kong flight before Euro 96 and his tip for the big race
THE dentist’s chair in Hong Kong and the broken TV screens on the Cathay Pacific plane carrying the England team home the next day were the famous pre-Euro 96 scandals that filled the pages of the tabloids.
I was not at the China Jump club for the former but I was the only media person onboard the flight for the latter.
I was ITV’s reporter/interviewer with England in 1996 and had been sent on England’s trip to China and Hong Kong, which involved two friendly matches and a chance for the players to bond.
Paul Gascoigne, the gifted footballer and perennial joker, was, of course, at the centre of the controversial off-field activities.
It was my first experience of him on this trip in China and we arranged for Gazza to give me an interview for ITV’s Mid-Week Sports Special show.
At the end of it, he asked me: “I am told you like the horses. The hotel waiter has given me a hot tip for today’s big race here.”
With that, he presented me with a screwed-up piece of paper and sprinted off.
When I opened it, I found it was in mandarin – the Chinese text written in vertical columns from top to bottom!
Apart from the matches, the next time I saw him was at the Hong Kong airport in the executive lounge awaiting the Cathay Pacific CX 251 (747 plane) flight home.
I decided to give the players a wide berth and respect their privacy. Players, as goalkeeper David Seaman recently reminded me, have always respected and trusted me, which is so important.
Paul spotted me and came over to ask how I was. He was smoking a cigar and explained it was his 29th birthday. At the same time, a lounge hostess came over with a full tray of filled champagne glasses, whereupon Gazza stubbed out his cigar in a full glass.
Off he went while I was left to apologise to a rather shocked lady.
I was allowed on their plane because I had explained to the England manager Terry Venables that I needed to return home before the media party.
Terry, a good friend for many years, agreed and I spent most of the flight on the lower deck slowly drinking wine with Terry and his physio Dave Butler.
The England players had been put into the upper deck, which was the executive class, so they could sleep. At least, that was the plan.
What I did not know was that a group of players had been given the previous night off and had visited Hong Kong’s China Jump club where the centrepiece was the dentist’s chair. One sat in it and opened their mouth wide to have tequila and vodka poured in!
Later, a massive punch bowl was added to the heavy drinking.
On the plane, team doctor John Crane was put in charge upstairs but he soon fell asleep, as did Gazza.
However, I have learnt since that one player, believed to be Alan
Shearer, woke Gascoigne, who was angry and tried to find the culprit.
What followed was that two stateof-the-art TV sets and a table were damaged and an attempt was made to put Dennis Wise in an overhead locker!
I was blissfully unaware of all this, but when the media questioned Venables at the first England press conference Terry referred the media to me... and no-one spoke to me!
The upshot was that Gascoigne would not talk to the media.
The BBC, with reporter Ray Stubbs, and ITV, with my producer John Dickinson and I, were the only media allowed to set up studios at the England hotel because we were the host broadcasters.
It was late one day when Ray and John reported good and bad news ... Gazza had agreed to an interview but, said John, “the bad news is he will only do one and we have tossed for it.”
“Don’t tell me,” I said, “you lost.” And Ray added: “Don’t worry, I will ask any questions you want!”
My competitive but desperate reply to overturn this was: “No, you will not. I am not accepting the toss. Do you guys not realise that I am the official ITV tosser!”
I did not realise but it was just a wind-up. There was no Gazza interview. However, they collapsed with laughter and then rang their producers and it soon made the press!
Venables loved it and told the England players on the coach to Wembley for the quarter-final with Spain.
The June tournament ended in tears, of course, for England, losing the semi-final to Germany on penalties, but not before Gascoigne had scored a wonder goal in the group against Scotland – and promptly performed a planned “dentist’s chair” celebration with water bottles.