NEXT STOP FOR ENGLAND FANS: EURO 2020... AND WEMBLEY When football does come home, as it did in ’66, it will be worth all the pain! BRIANMCNALLY
Male chauvinism still ruled at FA HQ.
Interestingly, unlike recent tournaments, most England supporters waved the Union Jack at Wembley rather than the St George’s Cross.
Few overseas fans travelled here in numbers.
The city of Liverpool had 20,000 beds available, but only 800 were taken up – despite Goodison Park drawing the biggest gates outside of Wembley.
I managed on my modest £4-a-week wages to splash out slightly over a pound to buy two terracing tickets at Sunderland’s Roker Park and one at Middlesbrough’s Ayresome Park – both grounds now long gone.
Ayresome provided a classic giant-killing act, Pak Doo-ik writing himself into the history books with minnows North Korea’s winner against Italy.
Another unforgettable moment for me was meeting the great Hungarian-born legend Ferenc Puskas at the Soviet Union-hungary quarterfinal at Roker Park.
After the Final, I took a bus to the Northumbrian town of Ashington to witness brothers Bobby and Jack Charlton receive a heroes’ welcome on their return home.
The celebrations that took place throughout England resembled a jubilant fusion of VE Day and the Coronation.
There was definitely never a better time to be an England fan.
The dream of younger fans who missed out on 1966 is that Gareth Southgate’s young charges can one day provide a winning sequel and spark another orgy of national celebration.
Euro 2020, with the final at Wembley, would be fitting.
It can’t come too soon!