WhyYorath’s piece of European history is tinged with regret
TERRY Yorath played more than 400 matches in his career. He managed almost the same number of matches.
And yet there is only one game he watches back.
“Why that one? I don’t know, perhaps it’s because I played great,” laughs Yorath of the match in question. “It’s obvious, though, isn’t it. It’s the European Cup final. Not many people can say they’ve played in the European Cup final.”
Not many at all. When Gareth Bale won his first modern-day version of the same competition in 2014, he was only the fifth Welshman to play on the biggest club stage there is. There was Ryan Giggs, Ian Rush and Joey Jones before him. But Yorath was the first.
It’s why the game is dusted off and watched again at his Yorkshire home, bringing back the images of 1975 in Paris when Leeds United faced Bayern Munich, two iconic sides of an iconic era.
Yet as has so sadly been the case with Yorath over the years, there has been no glory without pain, one that goes beyond Leeds’ failure to stop Bayern’s German juggernaut.
“We were cheated,” is Yorath’s blunt take, a view shared by Leeds supporters who, to this day, still chant of being champions of Europe in defiance of the events in Paris 42 years ago.
But the tinge of regret that has lingered with the 67-year-old native of Cardiff ’s Grangetown is of a more personal kind than the collective felt by the Leeds team of the 70s – sock tags and all – that could not add the European crown to their domestic dominance.
“You actually can’t see it when you watch the video of that game, it’s right in the corner of the screen and you can’t see it. A lot of people talk about it and criticise me without seeing it, but I can’t deny it. It was bad. It was a really bad tackle.”
Or, to use Bayern icon’s Uli Hoeness’ quote on the fourth-minute challenge committed by Yorath, “the most brutal foul I think I have ever seen”.
Yorath is right, though. You can’t really make out the severity of the challenge on Bayern’s Sweden international Bjorn Andersson. Tucked away as the cameraman in Paris