Sunday Mirror

Nazi salute shame of captain Eddie as FA appease Hitler

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EDDIE HAPGOOD was England’s captain when the team gave the Nazi salute in front of 110,000 Germans in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.

As well as trying to pacify Adolf Hitler, the Arsenal full-back also had tea with Benito Mussolini. Twice.

Almost 84 years later, the black-and-white photograph shows Hapgood and team-mates such as Stanley Matthews and Cliff Bastin paying their respects to members of the Third Reich.

They included Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Goring and Rudolph Hess and it is a shameful reminder of how England’s best footballer­s were coerced into abandoning their principles in the name of appeasemen­t by the FA and British government. It would not happen today. Stars like Marcus Rashford are now able to voice their opinions about hungry and illiterate kids.

And players from Germany, Holland and Norway, who will go to this winter’s World Cup, have already spoken about Qatar’s poor record on human rights. But back in the 1930s, all the power lay with the men who ran the game.

A book about Hapgood’s rise from poverty in the backstreet­s of Bristol to captain of the first great Arsenal team that lifted five league titles and two FA Cups, gives incredible insight into the life of a player who is a genuine legend.

Written by his daughter, Lynne, it not only captures the essence of a man, but of an era.

It was as a left-back in the teams built by Herbert Chapman and George Allison that Hapgood became one of the most famous players.

His debut for England was against Italy in Rome’s Stadio

Nazionale del Partito Nazionale Fascista in May 1933. Italian dictator Mussolini was desperatel­y trying to establish a national identity and a game against a team representi­ng a powerful empire was perfect propaganda.

Italy would both stage and win the World

Cup the following year – a tournament

England had refused to enter – but the game finished 1-1.

England’s players were later welcomed to Il Duce’s official residence at the Palazzo Venetia and posed for photos with their host.

Hapgood met Mussolini again six years later, when England drew 2-2 in Milan. War was imminent. In November 1934, his first game as England captain saw him lead the team to a 3-2 win over Italy in a game that became known as the Battle of Highbury.

Mussolini was not in London to witness that defeat. He was meeting with Hitler (both above) in Berne.

The Fuhrer was another dictator who saw sport as a powerful propaganda tool.

Hapgood captained England to a 3-0 victory over

Germany in December 1935 in a game played at White Hart Lane, despite Tottenham having a huge contingent of Jewish supporters.

It was when England travelled to Berlin for a rematch in May 1938 that problems arose. The friendly was sanctioned by the FA after government pressure.

Sir Stanley Rous, the FA secretary who was to become FIFA president, summoned Hapgood to his hotel room 24 hours before the game to tell the skipper that the players would have to make a Nazi salute prior to kick-off.

Hapgood’s protests fell on deaf ears, but England won the game 6-3.

However, the irony was that Hapgood and many of his team-mates then had their finest years in the game stripped away from them by the war that later followed. ‘Eddie Hapgood

Footballer:

From Beyond the Touchline’ by Lynne

Hapgood is published by

Pitch

Publishing.

 ?? ?? A DIFFERENT WORLD Arsenal’s England men (from the left) Cliff Bastin, Ted Drake and Eddie Hapgood ahead of their Three Lions tour, and (right) captain Eddie against Germany in Berlin
BERLIN, 1938 British diplomats forced captain Eddie Hapgood and his England team to do the Nazi salute before their
6-3 win over Germany
A DIFFERENT WORLD Arsenal’s England men (from the left) Cliff Bastin, Ted Drake and Eddie Hapgood ahead of their Three Lions tour, and (right) captain Eddie against Germany in Berlin BERLIN, 1938 British diplomats forced captain Eddie Hapgood and his England team to do the Nazi salute before their 6-3 win over Germany

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