The goals that were to change the mood of a nation
2020 will see the 50th anniversary of the start of a long national nightmare. In the latest in a series on milestones in the coming year, produced with Huddersfield University, David Behrens looks back to a Mexican summer of football.
IT WAS the beginning of England’s long national nightmare, and its shockwaves were felt far beyond the football pitch. Alf Ramsey’s invincibles had not only lost the World Cup but also, possibly, the General Election.
As the dust settles on the most divisive poll in recent times, historians still debate the result in 1970 – not only at the ballot box but also inside the León stadium in central Mexico.
Although it was 50 years ago, it set the tone for the decades that followed, and perhaps even for the divisions that Brexit would ultimately inflict.
“It certainly led to the Anglicising of the England national team,” said Dr Andy Mycock, of the Behavioural and Social Sciences department at Huddersfield University, who links England’s 3-2 defeat to West Germany to the growth of Englishness that followed.
England had gone into the Mexico tournament as reigning champions, and, for the first time, expectations back home were high.
It was not only the defeat that stung but the nature of it, Dr Mycock said.
“Sport is an interesting barometer for the national mood. There was this over-expectation that England were destined to repeat the glory of 1966.
“It would be the beginning of
a radical new phase of British history, of having turned the corner from the loss of Empire and of finding a new kind of progressive identity – that was the expectation,” he said.
It was in the quarter-final on the afternoon of June 14 that it all began to go wrong. With only 22 minutes remaining England led West Germany 2-0. But then Ramsey substituted Bobby Charlton and Gordon Peters to save their legs for a semi-final against Italy, and with Peter Bonetti a poor substitute in goal for the ailing Gordon Banks, the Germans found the back of the net three times.
“It was the fact that the Germans were seemingly done for, that added to the piquancy of the match,” Dr Mycock said. “The background narrative was not just 1966, but of two World Wars and one World Cup. There was a dramatic tragedy to the defeat, which made it more traumatising than if England lost to the great Brazil side in the final.”
It was to be 12 years before England reached the final stages of another World Cup. By then, the national mood had changed.
Dr Mycock said: “There was not just a footballing crisis, but a national crisis. It reflected the sense of loss of status.”
He added: “One of the things that’s interesting about both 1966 and 1970 is that when you look at the England supporters, the vast majority are holding up union flags, not the Crosses of St George. In 1970, the Scots, Welsh and Irish would have been behind the England team.
“The tragedy of English football is underlined by what happened in the 1970s. Ever since there has been a changing composition among the fans.”
Researchers have long pondered the effect of the 1970 defeat on the result of the General Election, just four days later.
“Prior to the World Cup, Labour were ahead by a good distance. There was a feeling that it should have been a Labour shoo-in,” Dr Mycock said.
“But there is a belief that because the weather wasn’t very nice and people were feeling a bit down, they went to the polls and voted against Harold Wilson.”
The result wasn’t even close. Wilson’s Labour party lost 60 seats and Edward Heath’s Conservatives gained 65, giving them an overall majority of 31.
Dr Mycock said: “Wilson may have paid the price for the lack of a national feelgood factor. It wasn’t until Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979 that we began to see any change in that.”