Doing the El Loco-Motion

14 FOOTBALL A Matter of Life and Death 15 Eccentrics Doing the El Loco-motion Even on his own goal line he caused some anxiety when he took to juggling the ball between his feet as opposing forwards pressed Ramon Quiroga, Peru’s unforgettable goalkeeper in the 1978 World home an attack on all sides. The same nonchalance characterised the Cup finals, rightly earned his nickname ‘El Loco’ (‘the crazy one’) with penalty-saving stance Quiroga adopted on occasions: standing stock his madcap enthusiasm and total involvement in the game even when still with his hands on his hips, psyching out the penalty-taker, then the centre of play was inside the opposing half of the field. suddenly dashing towards him at the last minute before throwing Far from feeling insulted by his moniker, Quiroga delighted in the himself to one side to stop or cheery greetings he received from the crowd. An inspired goalkeeper, deflect the shot. he pulled off a series of breathtaking saves that would have satisfied At moments of high tension, most other players picked to represent their country. However, El Loco did live up to his Quiroga threw himself into the national cause and was a regular name, as happened in the visitor to the halfway line, either urging on his team-mates or joining dying minutes of Peru’s 1978 in the melee as an auxiliary outfield player. World Cup clash with Poland. One-nil down with only two minutes to go, Quiroga quit his goal line once more and sped to the halfway line, where he deprived a Polish player of the ball with the aim of initiating another attack on the opposing goal. Unfortunately the English referee detected something closer to rugby football than association football in Quiroga’s tackle and booked El Loco for his efforts. Peru never got that important equaliser and went out of the competition. 58 FOOTBALL The Men at the Top 59 Eccentrics Boardroom cheers For over thirty years Ipswich Town flourished under the benign guidance of two unlikely boardroom chiefs: Old Etonian brothers John and Patrick Cobbold. Sons of the famous East Anglian brewing family and nephews of the former Conservative prime minister Harold Macmillan, they matched shrewd business brains with the all-too-rare enjoyment of the men football for football’s sake. It was under the Cobbolds that Bobby Robson was given a ten-year contract at Ipswich that enabled him steadily to build a team that would eventually bring the UEFA Cup to Suffolk. Part of their success lay in their seemingly relaxed approach to running a football club, or a business. When the Cobbold brewery was hit by a strike for the only time in its history, the main gate was picketed, with nothing moving through it until John Cobbold at the top drove up and the union official in charge of the picket waved the chairman past with the cheery comment, ‘OK lads, let him through. An exasperated club director once He does nothing anyway.’ famously complained that you had to be mad to put What the Cobbolds did do, at money into football when you could get a return their football club certainly, of ten per cent or more by investing it wisely. was introduce a great deal True as that may be, it hasn’t prevented countless of light-hearted fun that businessmen, tycoons, celebrities and wannabes brought everyone together from becoming embroiled in the workings of football and diffused difficulties before at boardroom level. they developed into serious problems. After a run of poor Some, of course, have thrived on the experience. performances, Patrick Cobbold, Others have been less fortunate and less who had taken over from brother favoured. But all have played John by then, declared, ‘The only their part in shaping the time there will be a crisis here is game as it has evolved and when we run out of white wine.’ True to the family’s long-standing expanded into the global affiliation with the drinks industry, business enjoyed today. that never happened. 66 FOOTBALL The Men at the Top 67 Eccentrics Frozen assets Happy return During the big freeze in the bitterly cold winter of early 1963 In order to serve a twelve-year prison the Football League programme was thrown into disarray for sentence, E. Streltson was dismissed several weeks. Halifax Town, for one, came up with a novel way of from the USSR 1958 World Cup team. substituting their loss in revenue through the turnstiles. The club However, he was back in 1967, after turned the pitch into an ice rink and charged skaters half-a-crown his sentence had been reduced, and (12.5p) entrance fee. To add to the fun, the club secretary played became Russian footballer of the year. pop music over the public address system and kept up a steady supply of piping hot tea at sixpence (2.5p) a cup. Blimey, the ground looks a bit different to Watford. Where’s the dog track? Luther Blisset, on seeing the San Siro in Milan for the first time Winter blues One bitterly cold winter morning the Hartlepool squad showed understandable reluctance to strip off for their regular training session. Seeing this, the club’s secretary-manager in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Bill Norman, decided to set an example. So he stripped off himself and rolled in the snow..

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