SWEDE DREAMS WERE MADE OF THIS
WHILE SCOTLAND VIED WITH THE WORLD’S BEST ON THE FIELD AT EURO ’92, TARTAN ARMY WERE BUSY WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS OFF IT
ON a summer’s morning 30 years ago, a bus stopped at a Swedish campsite and a roaring beauty was born. The coach contained the Scotland football team en route to training for the Euro 92 tournament. The campsite was made up exclusively of fans of the national team.
Craig Brown, assistant to the then manager Andy Roxburgh, recalls: ‘With the demand for, and the cost of, hotel rooms many of the supporters had the initiative to make their temporary living accommodation in tents.
‘On the way to training, our coach drove past a large field of tents about twice the size of two football pitches. On seeing this marvellous sight, with flags and banners draped over tents, Andy asked the driver to drive into the field. To see hundreds of fans, awakening from their sleep and crawling out of their tents and making for the coach was like looking at an enlarged anthill.’
The Scottish team had arrived. But so had the Tartan Army. Some of the fans had been on previous campaigns but Sweden 92 was where the image of the Tartan Army as a benign force was made. A UEFA award later acknowledged this.
It was also the tournament that saw Scotland give its most impressive performance in a major tournament. Yet it remains strangely neglected.
This state of affairs has been addressed by John Bleasdale, a Scotland fan of some pedigree, and now an author. His book, Scotland’s Swedish Adventure, tells the story of 1992 from the viewpoint of player and fan.
‘This was the birth of the template for how the Tartan Army would behave when on the road,’ he says. ‘This was the precedent they were setting: we have a good time, we respect the locals. Let’s be the opposite of how the England fans had behaved.’
In Malmo, English fans rioted around the beer tents for two days after drawing with France. They fought with police, broke shop windows and stole goods. Police made about 100 arrests and employed mounted officers and dog patrols to deal with the rioters.
The scenes at the Scotland games in Gothenburg and Norrkoping were boisterous but harmless. The stop by the players’ bus was unprecedented.
‘You couldn’t imagine it now, could you?’ asks Bleasdale. ‘It was wonderful. It showed the camaraderie between team and fans.’
He adds: ‘I spoke to so many fans and their stories make the book as much as the interviews with the players. One group of fans went through seven out of the competing eight countries to get to Sweden. It took them a couple of days. It was the era before the cheap air flights.’ It was also the era — and still is — of a pricey Sweden. ‘Some fans spent a night in Germany before one game because Sweden was so expensive.’ But if the Tartan Army was reformed and galvanised, the tournament exhibited great performances from the Scotland team and has been neglected when battle honours are handed out.
As Bleasdale points out: ‘We qualified from a group that included Romania, Switzerland and Bulgaria. In the subsequent World Cup of 1994, Switzerland made the last 18, Romania made the last eight and Bulgaria famously made the semi-finals.’
The fans’ mood in Sweden was distinctly defiant. ‘There was an expectation of defeat but a determination to go out and enjoy it while we could,’ says Bleasdale.
Only eight teams were in the Euro finals of 1992.
Scotland was placed in group two with World Cup winners Germany, European champions The Netherlands and the CIS, a group of former Russian states. It was an extraordinarily difficult group but many consider Scotland unlucky not to emerge from it.’
A lot of teams would have gone in with a bit of trepidation but Scotland just went for it,’ adds Bleasdale.
They came up short but they gave Germany and Netherlands a fright and administered a bloody nose to a cocky CIS team who lost the game to Scotland and their chance to qualify for the semis, sending Germany through. Berti Vogts, then the German manager who would lead his side to the Euros triumph of ’96, had offered Roxburgh some champagne to do his side a favour but the Scotland coach said the team would win the match for themselves.
They did by an emphatic 3-0 scoreline. It was their last action on-pitch in the tournament. But they basked in the adulation of the support at the end of the game. Something had been salvaged.
THE 1992 tournament marked a revolution in football, particularly in Europe. It was the last tournament that was played under the rules that banned pass-backs being picked up by the keeper. It was played under the shadow of
the looming Champions League that was feared would consume international football. And it was won by a country who had not qualified for the event.
The disintegration of Yugoslavia allowed Denmark to enter the tournament and join Scotland, CIS, Germany, Netherlands, France, England and Sweden in the finals. Half of Europe now qualifies for the finals — but then, only seven teams joined the hosts.
Germany defeated Sweden in the semis, while Netherlands lost to the Danes on penalties. Famously, Denmark, the team who should have been on the beach, were instead on the winners’ podium on June 26.
So how close were Scotland? A look at files and archive footage suggest a draw against The Netherlands would have been possible. This was a side of Ronald Koeman, Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Dennis Bergkamp. It took a superb goal by Bergkamp 15 minutes from time to squeeze out the Scots.
The match against Germany was closer, with the Scots feeling that a smidgen of luck might have seen a defeat transformed into victory. Again, Germany, with stars such as Karl-Heinz Riedle, Jurgen Klinsmann, Andreas Möller and Stefan Effenberg, made chances but many felt that goalkeeper Bodo Illgner was their man of the match.
Germany won through a deft Riedle strike and a garishly deflected goal. Roxburgh opined later it was what the Germans do: win tight matches.
But Scotland had shown genuine attacking intent that was to be rewarded with that marvellous victory against the CIS. It left a whiff of that distinctly Caledonian aroma of what might have been.
‘Pat Nevin said that if we had got through, they had a chance against Denmark,’ says Bleasdale but the detail is lost in the history of Scotland failing to move out of final groups.
Bleasdale, who was an 11-yearold at the time of the tournament, has gone on to be a member of the Tartan Army and is juggling writing with his job as a claims manager for an insurance firm.
His book resonates with remarkable stories but it also has the detail that surprises.
‘I find people don’t generally know that Duncan Ferguson played at Euro 92,’ he says. There is also the observation that Scotland went to the tournament without Hearts stalwart John Robertson, who was injured but had been the talisman in the qualifying campaign.
Bleasdale also points out that the role of Roxburgh and Brown in that era has not been fully appreciated.
Both were ahead of their time in strategy and man-management.
‘To some of the public it was a matter of “Andy Who?” when Roxburgh was appointed but he and Craig are the top of the pile when you consider Scotland’s coaches,’ continues Bleasdale (below). The author looks to take a break before considering an examination of Euro 96 as his next project. The bug of qualification for major finals has largely deserted Scotland, with Euro 20 breaking a long-standing drought. The 2024 tournament is now the nation’s target. A look back at the performances and spirit of ’92 may prove an inspiration to make Euro 24 a subject for any future Scottish football historian.
■ Scotland’s Swedish Adventure, written by John Bleasdale, is published by Pitch.