ISSUE FOUR RED

1 THE SQUALL Matt Thacker

It’s worth repeating here the reasons We are very grateful to all of the people why we set up The Squall four months who have waived fees and donated to ago as a digital football magazine to give The Squall since we announced the freelance writers a forum for their work. project. Special thanks go to: Nick Ames, Not just so they can get paid to write, Philippe Auclair, John Brewin, Kieran but so they have something to aim for, a Canning, James Corbett, John Cross, sense of job satisfaction at a time when Martin da Cruz, Miguel Delaney, Andrew such satisfaction is in short supply. Downie, Peter Drury, Ken Early, Emmet Gates, Sasha Goryunov, John Harding, The Blizzard has never been about the Simon Hart, Gary Hartley, Ian Hawkey, here and now, it’s much more taken with Frank Heinen, Tom Holland, Adam Hurrey, the there and then. And although current Elis James, Neil Jensen, Samindra Kunti, events led to its emergence, we see Jonathan Liew, Simon Mills, James The Squall as serving the same function, Montague, David Owen, MM Owen, showcasing great football writing on Simone Pierotti, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Gavin subjects you are unlikely to read about Ramjuan, Callum Rice-Coates, Philip anywhere else. We hope you enjoy this Ross, Paul Simpson, Marcus Speller, Jon “Red” issue. As Jonathan mentions over Spurling, Seb Stafford-Bloor, Ed Sugden, there, despite the generous waiving of Jonathan Wilson, Suzy Wrack, and fees and donations to date, if The Squall is Shinobu Yamanaka. And huge thanks to not to blow itself out, it will need further Getty Images, for use of the photos. funding.

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August 2020

2 EDITOR'S NOTE Jonathan Wilson

As the 2019-20 season comes to its it did when we launched. Which is to say conclusion with the later stages of the that we will keep going for a little while Champions League in Lisbon, it becomes longer – but we do need your support. apparent just how long-term the impact of the virus may be. The magazine has been funded largely by writers for The Blizzard waiving their fees The situation is fluid but at the time of for last year, but also by kind donations writing, infection rates are beginning from the public. In addition, all editorial to rise across Europe. There are plans and design staff are working for free. for fans to begin to return to Premier Such sacrifices to help the community League grounds in October but there is of readers and writers suggests the initial no guarantee that will be possible. At least spirit that fired The Blizzard’s launch a until a vaccine is found, and maybe after, decade ago still burns. there is no possibility of a return to life as it was before. But The Squall can’t be a charity. It has to stand as a magazine in its own right. We Meanwhile, the full economic impact of needed the donations to launch, but now the crisis is beginning to be glimpsed. we need people to buy the product. Each As losses mount for multi-nationals, issue will be available on a pay-what- sponsorship deals will inevitably shrink. you-want basis. We recommend £3, but Tottenham expect to make £200m less in if that’s a stretch then pay what you can this financial year than they would have afford; conversely, if you can afford more, done. Everybody is being squeezed. The then every extra penny is welcome. And Guardian has announced plans to reduce please do promote us however you can. costs by 12%, with 20% of that to come in sport. Other papers and magazines will be Hopefully we won’t need to exist for too forced into similar cuts. much longer. We’re a temporary product to get us through the crisis and we urge Even though matches are being played, you to support us on that basis. few journalists are allowed in to games, several leagues have been cancelled August 2020 and, with budgets limited, so too are opportunities. The Squall was established as a short-term measure to try to provide at least some work for at least some people and, perhaps more importantly, as a symbol that some opportunities do still exist, remains just as relevant now as

3 AN UNMISSABLE HIGHLIGHTS PACKAGE The Best of the First Five Years features 23 brilliant essays originally published between 2011 and 2016. Buy now at theblizzard.co.uk

4 CONTENTS The Squall, Issue Four – Red

8. Ben Welch, The Science of the 44. Ian Hawkey, No Quarter Given Red Mist The politics that led to Spain forfeiting What happens physiologically when we a European Championship tie against lose our rag? the USSR

14. Alex Hess, The Premier League 50. John Irving, The Dirty Red in Red Cards An interview with Paolo Sollier, the From Brian McAllister to Rafael da Silva, Communist who spent a season in the sendings off that tell the story of Serie A the league 56. Ewan Flynn, Bring Your Dinner 20. Luke Alfred, Greeks Bearing John Sitton, the Rwandan genocide and Gifts the fabled Leyton Orient documentary How Highlands Park rose with two Brazilians signed from Hellenic 64. Huw Richards, The Last Post A trip to East Germany to see what 26. Michael Yokhin, The Unfulfilled turned out to be their last international An interview with Ruben de la Red, forced to retire far too soon 70. Emile Avanessian, The Lord of Misrule 32. Felipe Almeida, Belfort Duarte Sergio Ramos and the art of the red card The rise and fall of a Brazilian icon of fair play 76. The Contributors

38. Tom Reed, They Only Need Seven Men How Northampton failed to beat Hereford, even with a four-man advantage

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6 About The Blizzard

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We want as many readers as possible for All advertising, sales, press and business The Blizzard. This is why we make three communication should be addressed to the free articles available to read for everyone, this office: every month, at www.theblizzard.co.uk The Blizzard Digital Version Unit 34, (Current & Back Issues) 4th floor Bedser Stand, All issues of The Blizzard are available Kia Oval, to download for Kindle, Android, iOS London, and PC/Mac via the Amazon Kindle and SE11 5SS Google Play Stores. • RRP: £3 (or local currency Email: [email protected] equivalent). Telephone: +44 (0) 203 696 5730 Website: www.theblizzard.co.uk Printed Version Facebook: www.facebook.com/blzzrd (Current & Back Issues) Twitter: @blzzrd Purchase a physical copy of The Blizzard in all its luxurious, tactile, sensual glory About The Blizzard at: www.theblizzard.co.uk. If you haven’t Editor Jonathan Wilson felt our cover-varnish and smelled Publisher The Blizzard Media Ltd the inner genius, you haven’t properly www.theblizzard.co.uk experienced its awesome true form. Design TriNorth Ltd Read it, or leave it on your coffee table to www.trinorth.co.uk wow visitors. Copyright • RRP: £12 (+P&P) All content is © The Blizzard Media Ltd and may not be reproduced without explicit consent. Thanks to Jeanette G Sturis at the Kingsley Motel, Manjimup, for kind use of Warren Walker’s original sketches of Dog.

7 THE SCIENCE OF THE RED MIST

WHAT HAPPENS PHYSIOLOGICALLY WHEN WE LOSE OUR RAG?

BY BEN WELCH

Zinedine Zidane walks off the Olympiastadion pitch after being sent off in the 2006 World Cup final

8 9 Marco Materazzi grabs Zinédine Zidane biggest stage, prompting reams of analysis, around the chest as another hopeful but this kind of emotional detonation cross is repelled by Italy’s rearguard. The isn’t exclusive to the elite where fans and France captain, drenched in sweat, turns pressure can incite acts of violence. back towards the defender and the pair exchange words. Players all the way down to grassroots level go berserk when subjected to “I prefer the whore that is your sister,” enough stress. Then, once the waters says Inter’s master of the dark arts. have calmed, hindsight brings on feelings Zidane slams on the brakes, plants his of regret and introspection knowing that right foot forward, dips his head like a their rush of blood cost the team. bull preparing to charge and tries to put a hole through the Italian’s chest with So, why is it so difficult to suppress the full force of his shaven skull. There’s these murderous thoughts when the a moment of confusion as ball-watching consequences outweigh the benefits? fans try to figure out what’s happening. What bypasses the brain’s handbrake and “You can’t excuse that,” exclaims the BBC slams down on the accelerator in these commentator John Motson. Horacio moments of madness? Elizondo consults his assistants before showing Zidane the red card. One of the You don’t have to spend too long greatest footballers of all time trudges off consuming sports-related content to find the pitch, unwrapping the tape around an athlete, journalist or commentator his wrists as he walks past the World using the phrase “red mist”. It’s the Cup trophy and into retirement. France go-to term for describing a fit of rage. went on to lose the 2006 World Cup The dictionary defines it as a feeling of final on penalties and the Player of the extreme anger that clouds one’s judgment Tournament can’t escape the blame. temporarily. Basically, turning into the Incredible Hulk, minus the green skin and This was meant to be the 34 year old’s tight purple shorts, before shrinking back poetic goodbye, a beautiful climax to a into human form following a destructive magnificent career; instead it ended in a rampage. Use of this phrase dates back to shroud of red mist. Rage consumed his the 19th century and could stem from our brain and erased the iconic performances ancestors, say researchers at the North he delivered in the knockout stages. Dakota State University. In a 2012 study, they found that angry people are more Zidane knew what was a stake. As an elite likely to see red in a series of images that player accustomed to devious opponents were neither wholly red nor wholly blue. and malicious fans, he would have had similar insults thrown at him across a To explain this connection, scientists 17-year career. So, what was it about this point to hunter-gatherers linking the moment that made him snap? Why did he colour to danger, avoiding red-coloured sabotage his own glorious send-off? What plants and animals. They also reference came over him in the split second before facial flushing and how it can turn an he lashed out? The headbutt was on the aggrieved person’s face red.

10 Had our ancestors caught sight of Experience as a captain and now as the former West Brom defender Paul Birmingham City’s under-18s coach has Robinson charging towards them, they helped Robinson to mellow as he tries to would have run back towards the sabre- teach the next generation the importance toothed tiger prowling in the bush. of managing their emotions. Admitting he wanted to put a pacy tormentor into row Robinson was sent off five times during Z sends out the wrong message, but most a 22-year playing career. Bereft of pace, of us have had those thoughts at one the 38-year-old full-back used aggression time or another on the pitch. and mind games to level the playing field against tricky wingers. “I’d say I was However, Robinson is happy to cite like [Wayne] Rooney or [Roy] Keane – I one instance that pushed him over needed to be pumped up to be at my the edge and it wasn’t triggered by an maximum,” he said. opponent. During the 2013-14 campaign, Birmingham hosted promotion- “There’s no mates during 90 minutes. I chasing Burnley at St. Andrew’s in the would try and intimidate the wingers I was Championship. The home side were 19th, up against with a tackle or a snidey one with their toes dipped in the relegation off the ball where I’d leave a little bit on quicksand. The score was 1-1 when the them and just laugh at them or say things referee James Linington awarded Burnley in their ear as they were walking past.” a free-kick following a foul by Robinson. Kieran Trippier whipped a cross to the While Robinson admits to walking a back post where Michael Duff rose disciplinary tightrope he insists he never to send a brilliant header into the net. set out to hurt anyone and believes he Robinson claims Linington mocked him was singled out by referees who had a as they ran back to restart the game. preconceived misconception of him. “I was in control of my passion, but referees “He said something to the player [Duff] would use me as a target because they that suggested he was happy they scored knew what I was like as a player,” he said. because we deserved to concede,” he recalls. “I was raging. It was a soft free- “I knew they were going to book me kick to give away, but I didn’t like his after my first tackle rather than talk to chirpiness towards Burnley. I lost my me. I’ve been sent off for bad tackles head for about two or three minutes. He that hurt players, but that was never rubbed my nose in it and five or six of intentional – it was just aggression and our players surrounded him. I ended up frustration. Sometimes I could feel my getting booked, but I was lucky I didn’t body temperature rising. get sent off.

“I’d watch myself back and think, ‘Why “I just snapped, I thought, ‘Oh my God I didn’t you just walk away, you idiot?’ I can’t believe you just said that – we are immediately felt frustrated with myself for fighting for our lives and you’re doing letting the team and fans down.” things like this.’

11 “I lost all interest in the game, I just so we lose our ability to think logically. wanted to get into it with the referee. We Any learned behaviours that have helped were a big club near the bottom and we us deal with stress previously hide in the felt everything was against us. depths of our internal hard drive.

“When you’re in a niggly game like that Heart rate cranks up, sweat starts to seep where there’s a lot at stake, the fans through our pores, we’re in prehistoric impact the tension of the game - they get survival mode. “We assume all behaviour you pumped up. Thankfully we came back is conscious, but being overwhelmed and and ended up drawing the game 3-3.” acting on it is not conscious. It’s too fast. Players are in survival mode. They are The clash with Linington was the tipping unable to consider the consequences,” point, but Robinson’s recollection reveals explained Dr John Sullivan, a clinical a number of forces that edged him sport psychologist who has worked with that little bit closer to eruption. This is a number of Premier League clubs and important when understanding what the US military. “You’re taking in sensory exactly happens when the ‘red mist information – sight, sound, tactile descends’. It’s not a headhunt, like Roy stimulation, invasion of personal space Keane’s attack on Alf-Inge Håland in – and the brain starts to build up to a 2001, or an overzealous tackle from a breaking point. player urged on by the crowd. “Once a line is crossed the individual has one It’s an explosive switch from calm to of three reactions: fight, flight or shutdown. crazy, fuelled by a set of antagonising When players see the red mist they choose circumstances. In Robinson’s case, he to fight. They lose all sense of perspective, references the pressure of a relegation zeroing in on the person or incident that battle, the persecution complex of a big sparked this perceived injustice.” club on a poor run of form, the niggly nature of the game and the frustration Overriding an amygdala hijack and of conceding a free-kick that led to a returning a player’s fractured psyche goal. Birmingham’s captain was in a state from a mindless, destructive force, to of hypervigilance, then Linington’s alleged a cool, calm, collected member of the comment finally overwhelmed his brain team requires specialised training. For and set off an emergency response. instance, Dr Sullivan challenges athletes to control their breathing like a sniper This is what the psychologist Daniel in environments that mimic conflict. Goleman termed an “amygdala hijack” “When we get our breath rate under in his book Emotional Intelligence. In six breaths per minute, the brain gets this situation, the amygdala – the part really calm and we’re much more in the of the brain responsible for emotion – management state of being able to see, pumps stress hormones like adrenaline feel, do,” said the author of The Brain and cortisol into your system. This is Always Wins.“Snipers and biathletes shoot when the brain decides to shut down the between heartbeats, they know how to neural pathway to our prefrontal cortex detect this feeling and act on it.

12 “When I work with younger athletes I that has negative consequences. But get them to play video games with their anger should not be demonised. It’s a siblings – they’ll get frustrated, their perfectly normal human emotion that siblings will rile them up and then they’ll has evolved over millions of years into a practise bringing their breath rate down. protective mechanism hardwired in the Now, transfer that into gameplay. Get to nervous system. the point where it’s subconscious.” Rather than suppress it, footballers should The elite performance psychologist Tom learn to channel it. “Anger is not a bad Bates, who works with Team GB athletes emotion, you just need to show people and Premier League footballers, asks his how to use it,” said Sullivan. “It’s a really clients to relive the moment and visualise important emotion for teaching us what a more constructive response. “We do we believe in, where our boundaries are pause and play sessions. We watch the and how we want to be treated. incident right up to the moment before they lose their head and I’ll pause the “You wouldn’t want angry surgeons, video and ask them, ‘What was going fighter pilots or snipers but we keep through your head right there and then?’” telling people this is the emotion we want he explained. “They usually say things like, in sport. Aggression is only effective if you ‘Couldn’t care less if we lost, I just want know how to use it.” to kill them,’ and I ask them to explain the consequences of this action. Tribal, combative, emotional – football by its very nature is an expression of “Once they admit it’s negative, we go war. Hostilities between rival clubs through internal self-talk before the next generate a sensory overload that works its game – visualising moments of conflict and combatants up into a frenzy. overcoming that situation. I get them in that frustrated state because neurologically they Those who manage their emotions are forming the capacity to overcome it most effectively triumph. But even those when it really happens. who have won a World Cup and Ballon d’Or can be consumed by the red mist “I’ve had a player write ‘passion, energy, and when someone calls your sister a control’ on his hand that he would whore, a headbutt seems like the best read during breaks in play to keep him course of action. emotionally stable. You can also train the coach to look for signs that the player “The greats like Zidane are the greats is starting to get heated and then they because they don’t allow antagonism can give them a signal to play hard, but to distract them,” said Bates. “And at the fair for the next five minutes. This resets highest level it’s constant – fans, media, their focus and gives them a window of coaches, opposition – but players are opportunity to regain control.” human beings and everyone has a limit.”

The red mist is an outburst – a release of energy that usually results in action

13 THE PREMIER LEAGUE IN RED CARDS

From Brian McAllister to Rafael da Silva, the sendings off that tell the story of the league

BY ALEX HESS

Rafael is sent off by Howard Webb against Chelsea

Brian McAllister, Tottenham v took minimal interest in the incident, Wimbledon, May 1993 restarting play as soon as they could with In the Premier League’s inaugural season, no fuss or fallout. Such was the way in the the whiff of glamour was still very, very Premier League’s earliest incarnation. distant. The games were televised, and Gazza’s tears had given the “slum sport” Fabrizio Ravanelli, Middlesbrough v of the 80s a new voguishness, but the Sheffield Wednesday, January 1997 football itself left a bit to be desired. While That no-frills Britishness would not last the terraces were now largely free of long. The Premier League had hints bloodthirsty oafs inflicting head wounds of internationalism from the start – on each other, the same could not said of Schmeichel, Cantona and Kanchelskis the pitch. were all there when the curtains came up – but it took five years for the foreign No team better illustrated the Premier influx to begin in earnest. The summer League’s early years than Wimbledon, of 96 saw English football, hot off the the small south London club who kept back of hosting the Euros, welcome a their head above water with a potent sudden and glittering array of overseas combination of grit, guts and route- talent to its shores. Bright young things one punts. The Premier League would like Patrick Berger and Karel Poborský eventually wave goodbye to Wimbledon arrived alongside established superstars as it morphed into a place of wealth and like Gianluca Vialli. Players jetted in from flair, but in its first season the Crazy Gang Cagliari and Costa Rica. finished comfortably in mid-table, their bullish presence a sign of the sport’s Assimilation was not always seamless. cheery unreconstructedness. Shortly after swapping Strasbourg for Chelsea, Frank Leboeuf pronounced, “In In more immediate need of all my life I have never seen such horrible reconstruction, however, was the training conditions.” West Ham’s record forehead of Spurs midfielder Paul signing, Florin Răducioiu, was accused by Allen after deciding to contest a 50/50 Harry Redknapp of shopping at Harvey challenge with Wimbledon’s Glaswegian Nichols when he should have been defender Brian McAllister in an otherwise playing an FA Cup tie at Stockport. unremarkable 1-1 draw in May 1993. When an aimless clearance led to a game Messy as it was, the Premier League of head-tennis in midfield, McAllister leapt melting pot had been fired up elbow-first towards a high ball, leaving his and few signings spoke to this flattened opponent in need of six stitches. new cosmopolitanism more than It was a brutal elbow, Thatcheresque in Middlesbrough’s acquisition of Fabrizio intent, and yet it sparked almost nothing Ravanelli, scorer in the Champions in the way of drama. The referee issued League final for Juventus only weeks the red immediately and McAllister left the before. His arrival on Teesside was a field without complaint, closely followed moment of thrilling grandeur, with all by a dazed Allen, blood flowing from his optimism confirmed by a dramatic hat- brow. The other 20 players on the pitch trick against Liverpool on the season’s

16 opening day. His wife soon hotfooted it and a wonderfully bitter war of words back to Rome with their son, citing the between Ferguson and Arsène Wenger air pollution as unliveable, while Ravanelli had been simmering since – the remained in the village of Hutton Rudby, Frenchman proving that he could walk becoming a noted darts player in the the walk, too, as his side reeled in United Queen’s Head pub. en route to the double.

But darts skills aside, Ravanelli was about The Arsenal-United enmity would become as far from English as you could get. He a delicious spectacle, with the hatred was handsome, flaky and wildly talented. and respect genuine on either side, and Most of all he was comically emotional, the highlights split evenly over the years starting a fistfight with Neil Cox on the between displays of great football and eve of the FA Cup final after his teammate displays of great violence. Seven red cards left him out of a preferred XI in a were shown in matches from February newspaper interview. 1997 to February 2005, including to Patrick Vieira for booting Ruud van Nistelrooy, Roy The hot-blooded Italian’s defining display Keane for booting Marc Overmars, Frannie came in January 1997 at Hillsborough. Jeffers for booting Phil Neville and even Having already won and converted Wenger himself, for booting a pitch-side a penalty in an eventual 4-2 victory, water bottle before his iconic Christ-the- Ravanelli was flagged offside as he tapped Redeemer act at Old Trafford. home in the 70th minute and reacted by sprinting over to the linesman, hopping In that pantheon, then, Nicky Butt’s on the spot as he screamed in the sending off (his second in five days) in this assistant’s face. Booking. Two minutes 3-0 defeat was a rather low-key affair: a later, the same official’s flag went up harsh decision by Graham Barber, albeit again and Ravanelli responded in much to punish a needless hack. But the red the same way, this time with added card set the tone for what was to come, hand gestures. And that was the end hinting at the combination of brutality of his day’s work: one goal, two yellow and pettiness that would come to define cards, one sending off, three points the Premier League’s greatest rivalry. and countless giddy spectators. English football could rest assured that its future Geremi, Chelsea v Leicester, August 2003 was bright: the entertainers had arrived. The single-minded genius of Ferguson and Wenger ensured that the title was Nicky Butt, Arsenal v Manchester United, a two-horse affair for nearly a decade. September 1998 But no dynasty lasts forever, and in this The defining rivalry of the Premier case it was to be broken by the arrival of League’s formative years was already unprecedented wealth. In the summer of heating up before Alex Ferguson’s side 2003, Roman Abramovich transformed travelled to Highbury in what would English football, kickstarting a wave of become their treble season. Ian Wright takeovers by billionaire ego-trippers and and Peter Schmeichel had clashed asset-strippers; 17 years on, almost every violently in February the previous year club in the division has a new owner,

17 most of them billionaires and many of ways their mirror image, one who spent them based in another country entirely. lavishly to break into the elite … and hurtled off the edge of a cliff. Leeds had Although Abramovich signalled his intent been flailing for some time when their from the start – no club had ever spent relegation became a reality in spring as much in a single window – the first 2004, but it was confirmed in fittingly iteration of Abramovich-era Chelsea slapstick style as they turned a 1-0 was something of a mess, the summer’s lead against Bolton into a clanging 4-1 scattergun transfer policy having left a defeat. mish-mash squad of heavyweight cast- offs, exciting youngsters and expensive Their best player, Mark Viduka, slotted let-downs-in-waiting. home a penalty to give his side the lead – and then collected two bookings That sense of unplanned chaos would before half-time, first kicking Emerson eventually spell the end of Chelsea’s Thome, then flinging an arm in Bruno season, with a wretched capitulation at N’Gotty’s face. Once the Australian home to Monaco, and the end of Claudio was given his marching orders his side Ranieri’s employment. Little time was quickly self-immolated, conceding wasted between the Italian’s departure four goals in half an hour to condemn and the hiring of José Mourinho, who themselves to the gallows. brought focus, hunger and – most importantly – an absolute willingness “Doing a Leeds” has since entered to break every rule in the pursuit of the lexicon as shorthand for reckless victory. The mindset has endured; major overspending, the club’s fall from grace silverware has since followed at a rate of going down in lore as the ultimate just over one a year. example of Big Football’s promethean potential, a moral fable about money’s The Chelsea team that lined up for the capacity to breed idiocy. Perhaps it’s no first home game of the Abramovich surprise that this has become a story era, featuring Adrian Mutu, Juan Verón football likes to tell itself. In a sport in and Mario Melchiot, was a far cry from which all evidence suggests that you can the trophy-machine Mourinho would buy your way to the top, Leeds’ demise build. But Geremi’s red card – for a exists as a reassuring demonstration of take-no-prisoners tackle in the centre the opposite: that money isn’t everything, circle as his moneyed club swatted and that the decadent and irresponsible aside a lesser competitor – contained will get their comeuppance. all the ingredients that would come to characterise the Premier League’s Either way, Viduka’s 33 minutes on the nouveau riche. pitch at the Reebok Stadium neatly encapsulated that pivotal half-decade in Mark Viduka, Bolton v Leeds, May 2004 his club’s history: a rapid early rise that As Abramovich’s Chelsea embarked on took them tantalisingly close to the holy their rapid rise, they were passed on the grail, followed by self-inflicted fall from downslope by a club that was in many which they never recovered.

18 Rafael da Silva, Chelsea v Manchester No red card captured the sport’s United, May 2013 newfound theatricality better than Taking place as it does in front of a crowd the one produced when David Luiz of buoyant spectators who cheer and – the truest embodiment of this new jeer the events before them, football unseriousness – lured Rafael da Silva into has always contained a strong element a rash lunge in a late-season trip to Old of pantomime. But that component Trafford. Gently kicked, Luiz collapsed has grown dramatically in accordance in the pantomime manner before lifting with the Premier League’s popularity. As his head to deliver a covert and maniacal English football has been beamed around grin to nearby home fans, then quickly the world by broadcasters willing to pay resumed his fallen-soldier act, glancing through the nose for the privilege, so the up once more to see his victim traipsing Premier League has become less a pure off the field. sporting event and more a made-for-TV soap opera replete with heroes, villains, “There may have been more outrageous long-running storylines and moments of cases of one professional conspiring combustible drama. in the dismissal of another from their workplace, but they were not so easy Bombast has been the order of the day, to recall,” wrote the Independent’s and the stars of the show have responded James Lawton. “From now on it will be accordingly: the average Premier League impossible to forget that Luiz can make player’s skill set now includes theatrically the stomach crawl. This is football, a feigned injuries, wildly embellished game increasingly bedevilled by full- goal celebrations and a note-perfect blown fakery.” His words were a reminder expression of earnest innocence, best that the Premier League’s Punch-and- deployed after the most blatant instances Judy era has alienated as many as it has of rule-breaking. This is showbiz, after all. excited – and that it’s not just the players who are guilty of absurd exaggeration.

19 GREEKS BEARING GIFTS

How Highlands Park rose with two Brazilians signed from Hellenic

BY LUKE ALFRED

The Brazilian former Highlands Park midfielder Jorge Santoro Hermanncaption

On Easter Monday 1965, Johannesburg’s The 1965 season was to prove no Highlands Park (in red) hosted Cape exception. Da Silva and Santoro – for Town’s Hellenic (in blue). National ease of use, he dropped the Hermann – Football League (NFL) football on a thrilled the home crowds at Hartleyvale public holiday had a carnival feel to it. through the year but by the end of The upcountry café owners from which winter Hellenic had nothing to show Hellenic traditionally drew their Highveld for it. They finished 11th out of 16 on 23 support shut up shop for the day, and points, only two and three points above fathers and sons clicked through the relegated Wanderers (21) and Brothers turnstiles before kick-off. The afternoon (20) respectively. match took place in bright sunshine at the beginning of winter. Hellenic’s bosses wrung their hands; the fans muttered. That season the club Hellenic were known to play fast and had gambled on something better than loose with their supporters’ resolve, often Hellenic losing half of their league games. promising more than they delivered, and They were now financially over-extended on this Easter Monday they twisted their and the Brazilians were put up for sale. fans’ hearts yet again, taking a late lead through Vasilis Mastrakoulis, for what Despite flirting with relegation, Hellenic’s promised to be a tasty away win. Shortly Brazilians had shown enough during before the final whistle, though, Highlands the season for South Africa’s football equalised to make it 2-2, thus preserving community to be impressed. Here were their home record. The ’65 league had two players clearly more imaginative than only started the month before, but the doughty Englishmen, dour Scots and Highlands (so called because their home determined locals who scurried about in ground was in the suburb of Highlands the league. Who, though, could afford North) were 1964 NFL champions, so they Hellenic’s hefty asking price? Perhaps had a growing reputation to uphold. Durban City, no strangers to ambition, would stump up the cash? Maybe Cape For Hellenic it was an all-too familiar Town City, often the bane of Hellenic story: they had played enterprising fans’ lives in local derbies, would induce football and taken the lead, although they them to cross the floor? City finished couldn’t hold it. They and their entourage second in the league behind Highlands flew back to the Cape in a strop. that 1965 season, and losing the Brazilians to their more successful neighbours was Catching they eye for the ‘Greek Gods’ just the kind of thing Hellenic’s long- that day were two Brazilians, Jorge suffering fans had come to expect. Santoro Hermann and Walter Da Silva. Mario Tuani, Hellenic’s Chilean coach, had Rex Evans, the canny Highlands Park recruited four Brazilians during an off- chairman, waited for the saga to unfold. season buying spree in South America, It seemed as if the ambitious Norman hoping they would bring the requisite Elliott down at Durban City wasn’t killer instinct to a Hellenic side stranded tempted by the Brazilian bait and an offer perpetually on the cusp of better things. from Hellenic’s neighbours in the Cape

22 never materialised. Hellenic’s asking were witnessing just that. From that day price dropped through the off-season on Santoro and Da Silva were players and eventually Evans pounced, grabbing Evans had to have. the Brazilians for far less than had been originally asked. By the beginning of the As Evans bade his time, the veteran 1966 NFL season the chain-smoking soccer writer, Sy Lerman, covered the Santoro and his wing man, Da Silva, would story for the Rand Daily Mail and the be wearing the red of Highlands Park. local Press Association, pointing out that Santoro had attracted attention from Highlands were captained that year by the beyond South Africa’s shores. Barcelona redoubtable Malcolm Rufus, nominally a were interested, as were Juventus, but midfielder but capable of playing pretty Santoro had enjoyed his time in Cape much anywhere. Rufus was a Durbanite, Town and had settled down. He found having played at the amateur club South Africa congenial. He was reminded Stella and Durban City before moving of Rio, his home town, and, wherever he up from the coast to join Highlands in finally ended up in South Africa, he made 1962. A lithographer by trade, Rufus up his mind to stay. was by then in the twilight of a long and illustrious career, and had seen pretty According to Ilan Hermann, Santoro’s much everything South African football son, Jorge was an only child, the son had to offer. Evans’s recruitment of the of a Brazilian woman and an itinerant two Brazilians was, he thought, just the German musician who had once played thing, the finishing touch to a complete in Rio’s Philharmonic Orchestra. Brazil Highlands side that had been years in was not to Hermann senior’s liking and the making. “They added that flair,” Rufus it wasn’t before long before Jorge’s said. “Our soccer was pretty conventional mother was raising the boy single- at the time, very British. We played 5-3-2 handed. He was sent to boarding school and it could be predictable. Jorge and on the outskirts of Rio where he ran (and Walter just brought that skill.” won) middle-distance races with ease, holding several records; he excelled at Santoro had shown the Highlands players basketball. First played on the beach, a thing or two that Easter Monday in 1965, football was his first love. as he and Da Silva brought the Balfour Park faithful and Greek café owners some As a teenager he played for Botafogo South American sunshine. Legend has reserves. A year or two later and he was it that on one occasion, working back, knocking on the door of a first team a slide tackle had taken Santoro across place in what was probably the world’s the touchline where he ended up at the strongest domestic league. “Then he feet of Highlands seated reserves. Before sustained a bad ankle injury,” says his he got up, they kicked him, snidely, slyly, son. “It caused him to lose ground and, before the referee could see. Although by the time he recovered, others and Highlands escaped with a draw, it was the immortal Gérson were keeping him more difficult to wiggle away from out of the side. I’m not completely sure humiliation, and the reserves knew they but that’s when I think he decided to

23 come to Hellenic. He was impressed by Once he was finally wearing Highlands Tuani, who could be very persuasive, red, Santoro, an inside-right, entered and thought, ‘What the hell?’” into a destructive partnership with Bobby Hume, a Scottish right-winger The NFL was a cosmopolitan league in whom he regarded highly. The two of the 1960s, full of players from the British them tormented defences down the Isles (two of Highlands’ stalwarts at Highlands right, helping the club to 101 the time were Charlie Gough, father of goals in 30 games while only conceding Scotland’s Richard, and the terrier-like 26. Of their three consecutive league Joe Frickleton, whom Santoro used to titles, the one in 1966 was by far the torment at practice) as well as Greeks most freewheeling, the most romantic. and Portuguese. The two Brazilians, The fans flocked through the turnstiles however, took exoticism to the next and the youngsters couldn’t wait to level, representatives of the most famous get the Brazilians’ signatures in their football brand in the world. The papers little books. “They thrilled the crowds were full of their exploits and Lerman and only lost twice,” said Hermann, a fanned the fervour through the bellows Jo’burg rabbi. “One of those losses was of his daily writings. At one point, and when they already had the league title with the move from Hellenic apparently sewn up.” in the balance, Lerman floated the possibility that Santoro and Da Silva might In later years Rufus was asked to compare throw their lot in with other Brazilians Highlands with the dominant Durban making their way in numbers to play City side of the early 1960s and found professionally in North America. It wasn’t that Highlands were better-rounded. “I to be. Santoro was as good as his word: remember going along to their home he and Da Silva duly caught a flight up to matches at Balfour Park as a boy during Jo’burg from Cape Town to join the 1964 the period,” said Martin Cohen, himself a and ’65 league champions, then the most Highlands stalwart of the 1970s. “It wasn’t glamorous side in South Africa. a case of whether they were going to win, it was more a case of how much they Glam they might have been but Highlands were going to win by.” never neglected the basics. Under the martinet Jimmy Williams, a coach who After winning both the league and the had learned his trade as a British Army PT Castle Cup in ’66, Highlands lost their instructor, they were always a fit side, and league crown in 1967 to Port Elizabeth Santoro, the athlete, never struggled to City, improbable champions. The Ford shuttle up and down the pitch. Now they plant in Port Elizabeth was instrumental had something extra – the very ingenuity in recruiting a raft of journeymen and flair Tuani had hoped the Brazilians from England and with one or two would bring to Hellenic. To Highlands, who exceptional players they were forged were a better, more cohesive and more into a formidable unit. Highlands were confident side than Hellenic had been in ‘65, still banging them in but defensive re- they now brought best practice – combined alignment meant they leaked 48 goals in with a certain off-the-cuff charm. the season, too many.

24 As it was, they only surrendered the title anchoring the Highlands midfield – that to PE City by a point, but the stardust they would remind their fans of the easy was falling no longer. Players retired joy of ’66. Forgotten in Brazil, Santoro and Santoro was badly injured in a freak died in South Africa in 2011. hit-and-run accident while holidaying in Rio in December 1968. It wasn’t until the 1970s – when the young Cohen was

25 THE UNFULFILLED

An interview with Ruben de la Red, forced to retire far too soon

BY MICHAEL YOKHIN

Ruben de la Red lifts the European Championship trophy

“I feel lucky,” Rubén de la Red told the Caminero was forceful, energetic and Squall. It might be a bit strange to hear robust, always looking to explore spaces that almost a decade after the midfielder in the opponents’ rearguard. De la Red was forced to retire at the age of 25. had all those qualities. Two years previously, in late 2008, the promising Real Madrid star fainted He was versatile in the extreme, able to during a Copa del Rey fixture – and perform as a classic defensive midfielder, that turned out to be his last ever game. a box-to-box runner and a playmaker. His Heart problems didn’t allow him to path through the academy wasn’t always continue his meteoric rise, and football smooth, but eventually his talent was lost a very special talent. recognised and by the 2004-05 season he was a key member of the Castilla (Real De la Red is just 35 now, which means Madrid B) side who triumphantly returned he could still have been playing. Sergio to the second division after an eight-year Ramos, David Silva, Borja Valero, Raúl absence. The last game in the play-offs Albiol and Roberto Soldado – all of them took place in late June, with the first De la Red’s teammates in the victorious team already on vacation, and almost 60 Spain squad at the 2004 European thousand fans went to Santiago Bernabéu Under-19 Championships – are still going to support the reserve team. “It was an strong. He could have become a legend unforgettable experience, with all those at the Santiago Bernabéu. It wasn’t to be, supporters in the stands. Castilla was one of yet Rubén considers himself fortunate. “I the best stages of my life,” De la Red said. achieved a lot in a very short time,” he said. The Real president Florentino Perez It all started when De la Red joined the was in the stands as well. The man was famous Real Madrid academy at the age responsible for the “Zidanes y Pavones” of nine. “I fell in love with the club as a concept of building a squad of superstars little kid,” he remembers, but while one of and local academy graduates, and he his idols was Real’s Argentinian maestro admired the new generation that included Fernando Redondo, the other – José Luis Diego López, Álvaro Arbeloa and Javi Caminero – was symbolic for the city García. “Our cantera is in good health,” rivals, having starred in Atlético’s historic Perez announced that day, and for players league and cup double in 1996. like De la Red that was a very promising sign. “Francisco Pavón was the example “Redondo was supreme in defensive we wanted to follow. He managed to positioning, anticipation and ball become a starter alongside Fernando distribution. Caminero excelled in Hierro, and that was supposed to open timing his runs into the penalty area. His the door to other Castilla players. I trained attacking contribution was remarkable,” with the first squad for three years and De la Red said. And that, in a nutshell, is improved to a good competitive level,” De the secret of his own success – he tried la Red said. to combine the qualities of them both. Redondo was graceful, his game full The midfielder remained optimistic but of subtle touches and delicate passes. even under Fabio Capello, who trusted

28 him a little more than his predecessors, The feeling was sensational. We managed De la Red only enjoyed a handful of to fill the stadium every game and the substitute appearances in the 2006- club enjoyed its best season ever. We 07 season – the last of those was in El reached the Copa del Rey final and the Clásico against Barcelona, in which Leo Uefa Cup quarter-finals – and that was a Messi scored a hat-trick in a 3-3 draw. just reward for our efforts.” The fact that the Argentinian prodigy was two years younger than De la Red His role was instrumental, and he was highlighted the problems faced by Castilla recognised as one of the best midfielders graduates. in La Liga. “Laudrup helped me a lot,” De la Red said. “He is a brave coach who “I was supposed to leave for Zaragoza in wants his team to have the ball all the January 2007, but eventually stayed – time. He was bold enough to gamble on and we won the championship. It was a us and gave me a lot of advices.” tough year emotionally, but I learned a lot during it,” said De la Red, who claims that One of his first big matches was the 2-1 Arsenal, Newcastle, Aston Villa, Valencia win over Tottenham at White Hart Lane in and Villarreal showed interest in signing October, and the team didn’t look back. him at the time. He chose to fight for his They easily eliminated AEK Athens and place at Madrid and extended his contract Benfica in the knockout stages before – only to be sold to Getafe against his facing Bayern Munich in the last eight. wishes on the final day of the summer De la Red was imperious in the 1-1 draw transfer window. in the first leg in Germany, but had an unusual role to play in the return leg a “I didn’t think of leaving. I found myself week later. With the key centre-back signing a contract at Getafe at 11.30pm Mario suspended, Laudrup asked him to on August 31,” De la Red remembers. perform in defence for a change. There were some hard feelings, but the move turned out to be a blessing in “We were going step by step, but after disguise. Even though he missed all of winning against top clubs there was a pre-season, the midfielder immediately feeling that we could achieve amazing became a key player in Michael Laudrup’s history for the club if we beat Bayern,” De line-up. Given the number 10 shirt, De la Red said. For himself, the match started la Red was free to create wherever he disastrously, as he was controversially wished, but also had a lot of defensive sent off for a foul on Miroslav Klose just duties in a hard-working and ambitious six minutes into the game. “That was a young squad. debatable red card,” De la Red said. “The referee thought that it was a professional “Getafe are in a suburb of Madrid, so I foul, but I was not the last man.” The ten didn’t have to move to another place,” he men of Getafe nearly won it, but Franck said. “I was still at home with my family, Ribéry sent the game into extra-time with in my surroundings. There were a lot of a very late equaliser. “Watching the drama young players who came with a lot of from the stands was thrilling,” said De la desire and were helped by the veterans. Red. Laudrup’s team then incredibly took

29 a 3-1 lead, only for Luca Toni to score a mistake and decided to exercise the late brace to make it 3-3 and take Bayern buy-back clause from Getafe before into the semi-final on away goals. the Euros. There, De la Red was again fortunate to work with a coach who had What would have happened if De la Red been a top central midfielder and Bernd hadn’t been sent off? “That was a great Schuster fully appreciated his talents. run for us,” he said – and the year kept The adventure started with a glorious getting better. Just a few weeks later long-range strike against Valencia in the he was unexpectedly called up to the Supercopa. He added another strike at national team by Luis Aragonés, and went Racing Santander, ran the show with on to represent his nation at Euro 2008. two sublime assists in the demolition of Sporting Gijón and cemented his position “The truth is that I didn’t expect that at all,” in the starting line-up. The dream was he said. “There were rumours that Luis about to be fulfilled, but that was when was planning some surprises, and I turned disaster struck. out to be one of them. Even though I didn’t play in the qualifiers, the coach Real Unión de Irún are a tiny club who chose the squad based on current form. rarely make headlines, and their Stadium When I found my name on the list, it took Gal is arguably best known as the pitch time to understand it fully. It was easy to where De la Red lost consciousness on find my feet in the squad, though. There 30 October 2008. He was rushed to were many teammates from Under-19 hospital and while tests were inconclusive and Under-21 teams, and I felt at home.” it was eventually decided that the midfielder should miss the rest of the Spain were considered eternal losers season as a precaution. As it turned out, before the tournament and a glass ceiling he never returned at all and tearfully had to be broken in order to win the announced his retirement in November trophy. Aragonés’s team possessed the 2010. With Sevilla’s Antonio Puerta having right mentality to do so. De la Red only died from a heart attack in 2007 and the played in the last fixture at the group Espanyol captain Dani Jarque suffering stage, when Spain were already assured the same fate in 2009, it was only natural of their place in the quarter-finals, but he no risks should be taken. scored a magnificent goal. It turned out to be his only strike for the national team. “I had a syncope and it was strange, because I was never told anything special “After beating Italy in the quarter-finals, we about my conditions,” De la Red said. felt that we are going to win it,” he said. “There were two years of testing that led “To be a champion of Europe is something to no diagnosis. They couldn’t say why special. You are chosen and lucky, you that happened to me. I wanted to return write your name in history forever. I and believed that would be possible, but returned to Real Madrid as a champion.” the reality was different. The cases of Puerta and Jarque, and my story as well, It was a triumphant return indeed. Real highlighted the need to check footballers’ fully understood the measure of their health more seriously. Fortunately, I

30 am here to do this interview. I wish my Xabi Alonso after the Basque star joined colleagues could do the same.” the club from Liverpool in 2009.

The final diagnosis was only made in And yet, De la Red feels lucky. “I won 2013. It turned out that a virus had the European Championships with the affected his myocardium and left a scar Under-19 team and the senior team,” he that caused arrhythmia. The decision to said. “I played in the Champions League, retire proved to be correct and crucial. It in the Europa League and in the Copa del was a desperately early and sad end to a Rey final. I won the Supercopa. I shared highly promising career and Real Madrid the field with superstars like Raúl and fans were left to ponder what might have Zinedine Zidane. I scored goals for Real been had De la Red been fit to partner Madrid. I lived in a dream.”

31 BELFORT DUARTE

The rise and fall of a Brazilian icon of fair play

BY FELIPE ALMEIDA

A portrait of former Brazilian defender João Evangelista Belfort Duarte

João Evangelista Belfort Duarte was killed An accomplished defender, Belfort on 27 November 1918, his 35th birthday. wanted to play for Fluminense, the most He was shot in the back, following an successful team in Rio. But, convinced argument with a neighbour over land by his friend Gabriel de Carvalho, he issues. His daughter, Maria, said that at ended up at America, a small club based that moment he was wearing a red jersey, in Tijuca, a neighbourhood in the north the red jersey of America, his beloved club. of Rio, far from the beauty of the famous beaches in the south of the city where Yet the man who died by violence became most of the main sides were based. a symbol of sportsmanship, fair play and discipline for generations to come At America, Belfort found something of a in Brazilian football to the point that an blank canvas to put in motion everything award named after him would be given he imagined. He was soon appointed the to players who played for ten years and at team captain – at that time, an even more least 200 matches without being sent off. important task than nowadays, so much so that the captain was elected along with Belfort was born in 1883, in São Luís, the board. His influence was evident from capital of the state of Maranhão in the his arrival: he was far from only a player. north east of Brazil; its flag is red and blue. His father was the first governor First, Belfort brought some of his friends of the state and worked in the Brazilian from Mackenzie to play for America. He embassy in London. Belfort was able to is also credited as the first to salute the pursue higher education in a country in supporters when going onto the pitch which social and economic inequality before kick-off. He started to campaign was even more pronounced than it is for the club to accept black players at a today. He moved to São Paulo, where he time when football in Rio de Janeiro was graduated in engineering from Mackenzie largely racist and elitist. That would only College. There, he was one of the effectively change with Vasco da Gama founders of Mackenzie, the first football in 1923. But there was another aspect team in Brazil made up of only Brazilians - of Mackenzie that he would bring to forget the English pioneers for a moment. Rio: America played in a black and white The colour of the jersey? Red. jersey. With Belfort, that would change quickly. He made a suggestion that was But Belfort’s true love was for Rio de promptly accepted: on 12 April 1908 Janeiro. He moved there in 1907 to work America decided that from that moment for a Canadian company, the Rio de on the team would play in red. Janeiro Tramway, Light and Power, who provided electricity to the then-capital America’s headquarters, for a while, of an incipient republic – proclaimed was the house were Belfort lived, in the eight years earlier. He befriended José bohemian neighbourhood of Vila Isabel. Paranhos, Baron of Rio Branco, a hugely From there, after bouncing around several influential politician in Brazil whose buildings, the club moved to Campos high-society parties would be literally Salles street, Tijuca, still its headquarters illuminated by Belfort’s work. today. At that time Campos Salles also

34 became the pitch where America played. Belfort to come to America, would be That was a hugely influential move. Before spared. “In a friendly, Belfort sent Gabriel that the team had trouble securing a place off, because his friend, on a whim, tried to play. In 1908, Belfort even proposed to a series of unnecessary dribbles,” wrote the authorities a project to build a “general Orlando Cunha and Fernando Valle in stadium” in the north of the city, where all their book Campos Salles 118 on the the clubs could play. The idea would only history of America. come to fruition 42 years later, with the construction of the Maracanã. Mario Filho, the famous journalist after whom the Maracanã would officially be At the beginning of the 1910s Belfort named, wrote that, “He was always the would expand his influence from America first to begin training. He would only to Rio de Janeiro football as a whole. At pardon Marcos de Mendonça, because he the club, he was player, captain, treasurer knew that the goalkeeper used to practise and director. He would even travel to at home. Belfort also would lead by other states to spread the America gospel example, leaving everything on the field.” and try to found new clubs. It is unclear how effective he was, but fact is that In 1913, America were playing in red and there were 19 clubs named America in thriving. With Belfort as a cornerstone in Brazil – six of them founded in the 1910s. defence and players like the goalkeeper Marcos Carneiro de Mendonça – who Broadly, it was Belfort, with help of his wife, started for Brazil in their first international – Aida, who translated the rules of football and the Chilean striker Fernando Ojeda, the into Portuguese for the first time. He was team won its first Rio state championship. a referee in the Rio State Championship But that campaign wasn’t only a history of and used to apply new rules established in triumph on the pitch. It would also show England that were still unknown in Brazil – how influential Belfort was at America – and to the confusion of his rivals. how that began to be a problem for the club.

But who would argue with Belfort? He In the final game of the season, America developed such a reputation that legend has faced São Cristóvão and needed only it that when he committed a foul, he himself a draw to be crowned champions, but would raise his arm to flag up his infraction. they were hit by a political crisis. The club In another version of the story, he owned president Alberto Carneiro de Mendonça up to a penalty he had conceded but the had resigned in August amid complaints referee had missed. Not even his teammates about Belfort’s influence. When Guilherme would argue. Belfort was a gentleman but Medina was elected in November, his he was also a man who prized discipline. victory provoked several associates and He demanded the same behaviour from players to leave the club. That left America his colleagues. He would be nicknamed without eight first-teamers for their game ‘Madame’ for his authoritarian ethics. against São Cristóvão.

Not even Gabriel de Carvalho, his closest They lost 1-0, which meant the top three friend and the man who had convinced – America, Botafogo and Flamengo – all

35 ISSUE FOUR RED had the same number of points. Two days “America has been my life for as long as later, though, it was discovered that São I can remember,” she said. “When the Cristóvão had fielded a player who wasn’t president invited me onto the board, I registered with the league. The authorities asked him if he was sane. He told me that decided to scrap that match and schedule I was exactly who he wanted: me, with another one. To encourage the players to my history, my name and my discipline. return, Belfort resigned. “It is being said Discipline runs in the veins of the family.” that America will not play with a full squad because I’m still director. I declare that, Maria and Lucilia lived in very different when I walk on the pitch, I will no longer times for America. The club was still a be a director if the full team plays the challenger in Rio de Janeiro football until match today. That is my decision, based the 1980s, but its last State Championship on my love for America.” came in 1960. In the Brazilian league of 1985, America reached the semi-finals. Seven of the former players returned and From there the path has been downhill. America beat São Cristóvão 1-0 to lift the first of its seven Rio State titles. Belfort would Today, the club scrambles to remain in no longer be a director, but stayed at the the elite of the Rio State Championship. club. In April 1915, he suffered an injury in a Its fanbase has aged as America have friendly and could play only four matches failed to make new generations fall in love that year. Unable to recover fully, he brought with it. The old stadium in Campos Salles an end to his footballing career. But soon he was demolished in the 1960s. America became the coach of the team and guided now in Mesquita, a city on the outskirts of 1 America to a second title, in 1916. Rio de Janeiro, 33km away.

Slowly, though, Belfort began to lose Belfort entered the gallery of early heroes influence at America. Sensing the change, of Brazilian football. In 1932, Coritiba, in he began to distance himself from the Paraná, southern Brazil, inaugurated its club. But he never cut his ties completely: stadium with a match against America The idea of The Squall is to help out freelance Belfort developed a habit of writing letters and named it after Belfort. In 1945, the to the new captain with instructions for the National Sports Council created the Belfort writers during the Covid-19 crisis. For it to survive players and eventually would attend some Duarte Award, to reward players known for training sessions to check on the team. fair play. The award was prestigious and and thrive, we are asking readers to pay what they players such as Evaristo de Macedo, Didi, In 1918, Belfort caught Spanish flu. He Telê Santana and Vavá all won it. can and we suggest a minimum donation of £3. retreated to a house in the countryside to begin treatment. It was at that time In 1982, the award was discontinued. that he was murdered. His lineage, Rede Globo tried to resurrect it in the You can pay into The Squall's bank account though, remained at America. In 1972, his 2000s, but it didn’t last long. After all, it daughter Maria was appointed head of seemed that there were no more players (sort code 40-05-17 and account number the women’s department at the club. With like Belfort. Players who could spent ten her came Lucilia, Belfort’s granddaughter. years playing without seeing red? It’s rare. 71515942) or via PayPal to paypal.me/thesquall. Today, Lucilia at 85 years old is a member Players who would give everything for the of the board of directors. red jersey of America? Rarer still. Thank you in advance for helping out.

36 ISSUE FOUR RED

1

The idea of The Squall is to help out freelance writers during the Covid-19 crisis. For it to survive and thrive, we are asking readers to pay what they can and we suggest a minimum donation of £3.

You can pay into The Squall's bank account (sort code 40-05-17 and account number 71515942) or via PayPal to paypal.me/thesquall.

Thank you in advance for helping out. THEY ONLY NEED SEVEN MEN

How Northampton failed to beat Hereford, even with a four-man advantage

BY TOM REED

Former Hereford player/manager Greg Downs during his days at Coventry City

We’re going down Field was Bauhaus’s first album while the We’re going down football club ploughed a furrow on the We’re going down torn-up pitch that was used by the cricket To the kamikaze dive club as a car park in summer. (Bauhaus, 1980) Bauhaus were done by 1983 via an offshoot collaboration with Moore Nonconformist Northampton, dissenting called the Sinister Ducks in which David to the Church of England and non- J from the group read out extracts from compliant to a winning style of football, the morning paper. The football team even when four men to the good. were pretty much done too by the 80s, nobbled by a rampant George Best in The Castle Hill congregation there dates 1970 and the brunt of jokes from the back to 1692 and its nonconformist town’s new London overspill population. chapel, still standing on Doddridge Street, was rebuilt in 1695 after the great fire By 1992 the Cobblers were on the bones of Northampton, stubbornness another of their arse and run into the ground by a trait of the landlocked market town. The man called Michael McRitchie. Deborah freemen shoemakers in the 19th century Marshall, who wrote the fanzine What a liked their Mondays off and re-elected Load of Cobblers was roped in to do the their atheist Liberal MP Charles Bradlaugh club programme as well and found out every time he was censured for trying to about the background financial implosion affirm instead of taking the religious oath when the printers said they weren’t being of allegiance. paid. The week before she’d been paid in 50p pieces from the gate receipts. Bradlaugh’s statue stands with its finger pointing out over Abington Square as a Marshall got in touch with the late Brian sign of Northampton doggedness, even Lomax, decried as “the Rugby man” by at the residents’ own cost. Alan Moore McRitchie – a reference not to the sport will tell you all about it, the author of but the fact he hailed from a couple of comics and a thousand-page book called stops up the train line. Lomax had worked Jerusalem which features Northampton for the Mayday Trust which helped at the centre of the earth. Moore is people experiencing homelessness and supposedly a hermit but he’ll chat suggested that Northampton fans should happily in the local BP station food court set up their own trust. It aimed to make about local history. Quis custodiet ipsos fans partners in running the club to try to custodes? Who watches the sausage rolls? stop it going out of business.

Northampton throws up genius, At a home game against York City, Lomax volcanically, here and there, such as was escorted out of the ground while Bauhaus, the influential goth-punk band, doing a bucket collection. In the eyes of led by the superbly cheek-boned Peter the fans, that was McRitchie done. Lomax Murphy, its discography like some retort went on to set up Supporters’ Direct and to the Town’s football team. In the Flat a worldwide fan ownership movement

40 while McRitchie was shown the door. of “There’s only one Alan Fordham” in The newly formed Northampton Town tribute to the batsman who had scored 91 Supporters’ Trust appointed two reps at Lord’s. to the club board in 1992, the year the Premier League began. Little did the 2,668 supporters that turned up realise but they were about to witness Administration got rid of McRitchie but a very different kind of history. also meant that nine players and the manager Theo Foley had to be dispensed Northampton Town and Hereford United with to lighten the wage bill. Foley, a taking to the County Ground pitch at Dubliner, had been assistant to George the County Ground to the refrain of Graham when Arsenal won the league “Simply The Best” by Tina Turner felt in 1988-89 as well as being the captain like a piss-take – although not as much of Dave Bowen’s Northampton side that as McRitchie and the Aldershot owner spent the club’s one and only season Trevor Gladwell to “Always Look On in the top flight in 1965-66. Sentiment The Bright Side Of Life” a year earlier, would have kept him; financial reality shortly before Aldershot were liquidated. could not. Hereford and Northampton were featherweight opponents. In those days Northampton went to Barnet after Foley’s the bulls were sponsored by the chicken dismissal with an extremely inexperienced processors Sun Valley, and this game team and lost 3-0. But, at the final whistle soon turned into a cockfight. the away team and the travelling fans at Underhill embraced, knowing that the Unusually, both managers were player- result was largely irrelevant. coaches with Northampton’s Phil Chard a Division Four winner under Graham “I want to straighten out my finances” Carr in 1987. Hereford’s Greg Downs, read an advertising hoarding for previously a Coventry regular under John Prudential, outside the entrance for the Sillett, set the tone with an X-rated tackle Hotel End as beered-up stragglers left the on the gangly Kevin Wilkin in front of the County Tavern in 1992 not knowing what children in the Family Enclosure. Downs sort of team would take to the field from was shown the yellow card by the referee, one game to the next. the Sheffield local government officer Brian Coddington; it wouldn’t be their The opening home game of the season only tête-à-tête that afternoon. at Northampton was always delayed until the cricket season had come to There’d been some rain the night before an end. In 1992-93, that match was and both sides struggled to get to grips against Hereford and was played on with a hard pitch that had a loose surface. Sunday September 6. The day before, David Titterton, another ex-Coventry Northamptonshire County Cricket Club man, was next for a yellow, joining his had won the NatWest Trophy, leading boss Downs in the book. This time it was fans of the football team to serenade the a two-footed scythe on the teenager empty adjacent cricket stands with chants Mark Parsons.

41 Andy Theodosiou, the former Spurs double V signs while the away contingent trainee then went one better with a chanted, “We only need nine men”. combination of Downs’ and Titterton’s hacks with a two-footed lunge from It turned out that they needed fewer than behind. Theodosiou looked on in faux that. Titterton collected another yellow surprise pointing at an unknown issue and so another red for time-wasting after in the distance as Coddington flipped kicking the ball away with five minutes to another yellow. go. On the match video a Hereford fan can be seen trying to untie his St George’s Wilkin, Northampton’s number 11 had flag with the game in its final stages but clearly done something to rile Hereford, stopping to remonstrate with the ref. as Richard Jones took him out with a classic tread down the back of the heel. In the dying moments, Hereford’s Richard Terry Angus, the Northampton defender Jones found space for a balletic flying who went on to a career with Fulham, ankle tap on poor Wilkin. Coddington waved his arms in protest as Coddington, flashed the yellow/red combination with perfecting the unamused school master aplomb as Jones stomped to the dugout. stance, began to worry his pencil lead with another name in the book. It would be an untruth to say that Northampton pummelled Hereford for A red card had become inevitable and it those few remaining minutes after a went to Theodosiou for nailing Chard off Football League record of four sendings the ball, in the box. Downs responded to off for their opponents. Instead, the Coddington with choice words from two drab game ground to a halt with Downs feet away leading to another red card. interviewed by Northamptonshire Police Northampton was not a happy hunting in the aftermath for allegedly inciting the ground for Downs, who had been part crowd. Chard, meanwhile, limped heavily of the Coventry side that had lost to the away from the ground refusing to speak Cobblers in the FA Cup in 1990. Sillett had to the press. then gone on to Hereford before being replaced by Downs after just a season. The Telegraph’s Glenn Moore was there to write a feature on Brian Lomax and Hereford were down to nine and facing was stunned at what unfolded. He had a penalty. Stuart Beavon converted. The to wait to speak to Downs outside after video commentator described Beavon’s Northampton police had spoken to the goal as leaving “Hereford with a mountain player-manager. “It wasn’t a dirty game,” to climb” but the nine men claimed an Downs pleaded unconvincingly. “If I said equaliser two minutes later with the ease what I wanted to they’d lock me up and of a Panzer negotiating a speed bump. A throw away the key.” pair of Hereford thumps released an indignant Max Nicholson who surged Moore retreated to a phone box to ring forward to cross for Simon Brain to prod through his story while the Hereford past Barry Richardson. Brain celebrated fans chanted “we only need seven men” in front of the Northampton fans with jamming too many syllables in to a

42 chant that could have been written for Brian Coddington meanwhile, went on them. Northampton fans filtered out to achieve infamy at Manchester City in from the crammed home end and back 1999 when Joe Royle accused him of into the County Tavern, letting out the showing Kevin Horlock a second yellow familiar Northampton sigh, the club from for “aggressive walking”. the difficult town making life difficult for themselves. At least they had the supporters’ trust.

43 NO QUARTER GIVEN

The politics that led to Spain forfeiting a European Championship tie against the USSR

BY IAN HAWKEY

Gary Powers in Washington after he was traded by the USSR

In the late spring of 1960, a pair of spies aircraft just in time to parachute to safety from the West plotted reconnaissance and into immediate custody. His Soviet trips to the Soviet Union. One of them, captors knew Powers was spying, had a pilot, secretive and anxious, planned all the proof they needed once they to skirt over the radar, take some aerial examined the wreckage of the U-2 and photos and sneak out unnoticed. listened to the various fibs offered from Washington about what Powers was up The other, a high-flyer in his profession to – he had been researching ‘weather with theatrical tendencies, slipped into patterns’, the US government spluttered, one of his several identities and selected and strayed mistakenly into USSR what he felt was the most suitable airspace – with a weary derision. The CIA passport for his mission. That was a handy operation that had sent Powers on his thing about Helenio Herrera, born in mission was sloppy in several respects, Morocco, raised in Argentina, citizen of not least in calculating that if the luckless France and the son of Spaniards: nobody pilot flew his U-2 above a certain altitude, was ever quite sure exactly where he Soviet radar would miss it. came from. The capture of Powers, red-handed, Herrera’s trip to Moscow, via Brussels, would become a defining episode in the travelling on a French passport, Cold War, and among the many knock-on went well in that he gathered useful effects of the airman’s capture would be information about the menace of the collateral damage to Uefa’s new project. USSR. He watched their national team wallop Poland 7-1, compiling detailed Up until May 1960, the Nations Cup, notes. He left Moscow confident that, the first edition of what we now call with his intel, he could sufficiently the Euros, imagined it would not only prepare the squad he managed, Spain, galvanise international football as to counter the USSR’s strengths and their European Champions Cup had command their forthcoming quarter- redefined the club game, but that it final in the inaugural European Nations could symbolise, even aid, political Cup. Spain, or ‘Club España’, as Herrera rapprochement, make its own small dent had started to call them to cultivate a in the Iron Curtain. sense of fraternity, were quite the equals of the USSR, he believed. Spain versus the USSR was always going to test that. In 1960, it looked just about The pilot, meanwhile, had a disastrous as charged a fixture as any on the political mission. The United States airman Gary map of Europe. The tournament’s Powers had taken off in his U-2 from structure – two-legged home and away Peshawar in Pakistan and, after some ties until the semi-finals, when the show 2,000-odd miles heading north, his would move to France, and matches in plane was shot down near Sverdlovsk Marseille and Paris – meant there was a (Yekaterinburg, as it is now). Powers strong possibility of long-haul trips from wrestled with his ejector mechanism the reactionary far West to the red East, and freed himself from the plunging from one ideological extreme to another.

46 Spain was Franco’s Spain, fascism behind the savvy of Marquitos. Herrera wanted the thinnest of veils; the USSR was under Paco Gento’s pace and was ready to use an expansionist communist regime. The the winger, who operated wide on the left enmity wore no disguise: a Spaniard in for Madrid, on either flank for Spain. He that period would read in their passport looked forward to having Luis del Sol at the words, “This document is valid for all the apex of his midfield. the countries of the world except Russia and its satellite countries.” Above all, he had Alfredo Di Stéfano, totem of Madrid, and, as of 1955, a But there are always back channels. Spanish citizen; as of 1957, a Spain Diplomats had made preparations for international. Di Stéfano had played for relatively frictionless travel for the players his native Argentina in the 1940s but for the games in Moscow, where the first that was in a distant past. At 33, he could leg was scheduled for May 29, and in see the 1960 European Nations Cup Madrid in early June. with his adopted country as perhaps his best and last opportunity to win an Within Franco’s cabinet there were some international trophy to go with all his doves among the hawks, men who club achievements. Herrera believed Di appreciated the power of sport to soften Stéfano, notoriously grouchy, had been the image of a shunned nation. Among won round by the Club España dynamic. them was Fernando María Castiella, who On his scouting mission to Moscow he served as foreign secretary, supported was left in no doubt that the USSR feared Real Madrid and described that club’s Di Stéfano more than anybody. “I was glorious command of the European walking through Red Square, and people Champions Cup as “the best embassy kept asking me, ‘Is Di Stéfano coming?’” we ever had”. Perhaps never better than Herrera recalled in his memoir. in May 1960, when Madrid took their brilliance to Glasgow and beat Eintracht Yes, Di Stéfano was due to come. So Frankfurt 7-3 in the so-called Match of was the 1960 Ballon D’Or-elect, Luis the Century to win their fifth European Suárez, principal representative of the Cup on the trot. large Barcelona contingent in Spain’s squad. Herrera knew them intimately Herrera, head coach of Spain, watched because he had combined the Spain the USSR score seven against Poland job with coaching Barcelona, who in Moscow while Madrid were still won the Spanish league and the Fairs celebrating that European Cup triumph. Cup in 1959-60. No wonder ‘HH’ was He already knew all he needed to know optimistic – “We will win the Nations about Real and how he intended to Cup,” he declared. He would be picking harness their swagger in service of his his Spain from the champions of the two Club España. He had it in mind to use main European club competitions, Real half a dozen of the 1960 European Cup- Madrid and Barcelona, plus assorted winning squad in the national cause. talents from Atlético Madrid, Athletic of The man-marking excellence of Pachín Bilbao and Sevilla. Provided Suárez or Di would be an asset in defence, as would Stéfano or Gento could find a way past

47 Lev Yashin, the USSR goalkeeper, HH felt radio about the massive welcome that Spain could go on to Paris in July with would be given to the team from Moscow every confidence. at the Bernabéu stadium to show the public’s rejection of Franco” caused Unfortunately, in Paris, the Cold War particular jitters. was icing up. The downing of Powers and his U-2 blew a chill draft through a Nine days before the first leg in Moscow superpower summit in the French capital was scheduled, Spanish newspapers that May which, it had been hoped, would and radio stations were sent an abrupt thaw relations between the USA and the order not to report anything about the USSR. Instead, the respective leaders imminent Nations Cup quarter-final. Dwight Eisenhower and Nikita Khrushchev Even Herrera, a man not easily silenced, engaged in a series of very public spats was effectively censored. His Spain over the fallout from the Powers affair. players had begun to gather in Madrid, The summit effectively collapsed. as requested by the Spanish Federation, and, with scant explanation, told to wait. What had this to do with a European “It was total confusion,” remembered Nations Cup quarter-final? A great deal, Vicente Train, the goalkeeper. according to records of the meetings Franco and his advisers held in the days The outside world learned before many that followed. Eisenhower had become a Spaniards did that the matches were significant economic ally of a Spain with off, that Franco would not under any few friends and in the aftermath of the circumstances host a team from the table-thumping and threats at the Paris USSR. In London, the Times fumed that summit Franco reminded his cabinet of Spain “had defied Olympic principles” and that fact. This was not a good time to be brought “the Cold War into sport”. Uefa shaking hands in public with Soviets, be scrabbled about for a solution, suggesting they mere athletes or not. Nor – perish a one-off match on neutral territory the thought – was it a time to have a flag might save the day, to which the USSR with a hammer and sickle fluttering over a responded with justifiable indignation. stadium in central Madrid. They were not the spoilsports.

A deep-seated fear of local rebellion What the USSR would soon be was also seems to have hardened the Franco European champions, the winners of the government’s suspicion of what a Spain- first ever final of the Euros, 2-1 victors USSR match might carry in its wake. in extra-time against Yugoslavia, in According to diaries kept by Franco’s the Paris climax of a tournament that, cousin, Francisco Franco Salgado- from the seat of government in Madrid, Araújo, a trusted general close to the would have looked alarmingly red. First discussions about the viability of Spain- place: USSR. Second place: Yugoslavia. USSR matches, there was concern that Third, after a repechage against France: the arrival of the Soviet team could stir up Czechoslovakia. Or, in the argot of Spain’s every red in Iberia. Salgado-Araújo wrote Home Office, gold, silver and bronze to that “a campaign on underground red the Soviet Union and its satellites.

48 But what was peculiar is how quickly the Soviet Union flag was run up its mast, things moved on. Not so much full hammer and sickle in central Madrid. Generalissimo Franco, who stayed in The Soviet anthem was played. After some power until 1975, but his government’s deliberation, Franco even chose to attend. position on sporting contacts. That shifted considerably, turning a little less As he watched Spain, playing in blue tin-eared to the possibilities of realpolitik. shirts, win 2-1 thanks to a late Marcelino The world altered, too. By 1964, the goal, he might have imagined that here Cuban missile crisis had given East-West was a national team with all the tools relations its very sharp intake of breath. By to go on and dominate international 1964, the airman Gary Powers had left his football. He would not have been alone Soviet incarceration and – in a moment for that. But it would be well into the next retold vividly by Tom Hanks and Mark millennium before Spain reached a status Rylance in the movie Bridge of Spies – comparable to its leading clubs. And in returned to the US in a prisoner exchange the 21st century it was truly a different deal. And in 1964 the second edition Spain that produced its slick serial Euro of Uefa’s European Nations Cup was winners and world champions and came under way, having passed off with only to know them as ‘La Roja’: reds to delight, one early-round refusenik (Greece took not to dread. umbrage at having to play Albania).

And the final? Precisely the scenario that had caused such fright. Spain versus the USSR. The venue? The Bernabéu, where

49 THE DIRTY RED

An interview with Paolo Sollier, the Communist who spent a season in Serie A

BY JOHN IRVING

The former Italian forward Paolo Sollier

Paolo Sollier is remembered in Italy as the proletariat,” is how Sollier puts it. As the ‘revolutionary footballer’. Despite a teenager, he did volunteer work for only playing one full season in Serie radical Catholic groups but struggled to A – for Perugia in 1975-76 – he has reconcile his religious beliefs with the left an indelible mark on the national suffering he witnessed. One night in the game. Not for his play (“Technically I was mountains, he looked up at the stars and poor, tactically anarchical”), but for his said, “God, if you really do exist, give me politics. In the so-called ‘years of lead’, in a sign now, otherwise I won’t believe which extremists from either end of the in you any more.” No sign arrived – political spectrum engaged in the lotta “naturalmente” – and Sollier concluded armata, or armed struggle, and terrorism that the world’s inequalities are a political became an everyday part of Italian life, problem that can only be solved by Sollier stood out from other footballers political action. for his left-wing views. In 1968 he dropped out of technical He now lives in an apartment in the college and took on a blue-collar job suburbs of Vercelli, in the rice-growing at a Fiat engine factory. His time there country between Turin and Milan. In his coincided with the autunno caldo, or playing days, he sported a mane of black ‘hot autumn’, of 1969, a season of bitter hair and a full beard, today he’s bald industrial disputes. with a salt-and-pepper goatee. He’s also much leaner than he used to appear on He remembers taking part in a protest the pitch and looks more like an ascetic march in front of Mirafiori, the main Fiat than a revolutionary. One wall of his living plant in Turin, during which the police room is occupied by a floor-to-ceiling sprayed him and his fellow protesters with collection of vinyls. His tastes are eclectic, tear gas. “That was an important lesson ranging from folk music (I notice more because it taught me that the so-called than one anthology of Atlantic whaling defenders of legality were the first to shanties) to alternative Italian bands, violate it.” At first he wasn’t affiliated to any such as Lo Stato Sociale. Their “Io odio particular political group but eventually il capitalismo” (“I Hate Capitalism”) is joined the extreme-left Avanguardia one of his favourite songs. On another operaia, Workers’ Vanguard, movement. wall, beside a portrait of Che Guevara, photographs document excursions in the On Sundays, Sollier played football, Alps, another passion. which he regarded as part of his mission. “An event that involves millions of It was in the mountains that Paolo people, that sets whole cities against Sollier was born, in 1948 in the village one another, that often acts as a drug, a of Chiomonte in the Val di Susa, the pretext to forget and a safety valve – how valley that leads westwards from Turin can it not be political?” to the French border. When his father, a wartime partisan, found work at the As a teenager, he turned out for amateur Turin municipal electricity corporation, teams in Turin and its environs, including the family moved to the city. “We joined the Cinzano vermouth company’s works

52 side at Santa Vittorio d’Alba, where the beating Mussolini’s favourite team.” The Italy national team trained in 1982 in Lazio fans didn’t take it kindly. preparation for its victorious World Cup campaign in Spain. Sollier describes the In a hostile atmosphere, Sollier’s entrance pitch there as “the best I ever played on”. was met by a barrage of whistles and when Castagner benched him in the In 1969, when he signed for the semi- second half, his exit was hailed by professional Serie D team Cossatese, thousands of fascist salutes. The match, he quit his job at Fiat but continued which Perugia lost, was followed by living with his compagni, comrades, in a incidents inside and outside the ground. commune in Turin. Then came a season “My teammates told me to cut the in Serie C with Pro Vercelli, where he was political crap after that!” spotted and snapped up by the Serie B side Perugia. His career had taken off and Given his role as a well-paid footballer, a year later, in 1974, it reached its pinnacle Sollier was often accused of hypocrisy. when the team, under the manager Ilario “At Perugia I used to earn eight million lire Castagner, was promoted to Serie A. a year. I wasn’t rich but I felt privileged. I used the money to support the Today sportspersons take the knee, Paolo movement. It’s not as if I was playing at Sollier used to raise a clenched fist. He being a revolutionary with a bank account began making the gesture at Cossatese in Lugano.” as a way of saluting fellow travellers in the crowd, but in Perugia, a traditionally Only one of Perugia’s 1976 line-up, communist stronghold, it assumed an Walter Sabatini, shared Sollier’s political overtly political significance. views. The two still keep in touch, though Sabatini has now passed to the other side I saw him make it in Turin when Perugia of the barricade, overseeing multi-billion- came to play Juventus on a wintry euro transfer deals as director of football afternoon in February 1976. It was his for the likes of Roma and Inter. “It’s not my way of reminding people of the need for job to pass judgment on a job so remote a fairer society and the protection and from my own way of being,” said Sollier. extension of individual freedoms. “I will always be that clenched fist,” he said. He once gave Castagner a book of Cesare Pavese’s verse for Christmas with the At away matches in Serie A he was often dedication, “There’s more to life than greeted as “Dirty Red” or “Communist football,” but he still loves talking about Bastard”. But names never hurt him and the game and the opponents he most the only stadium where he risked having admired. Gianni Rivera he describes as his bones broken was the Olimpico in “the best of them all: he knew what he Rome. In an interview in the lead-up was going to do with the ball even before to Perugia’s away match there against he received it.” Lazio, a club with notoriously right-wing connections, he said, ill-advisedly, that, Then comes Gigi Riva: in one Perugia- “On Sunday there’ll be added pleasure in Cagliari game, Sollier was marking the

53 great striker on the edge of his own box publisher’s deadline. The next morning, when a high cross came over. “I thought I phoned Perugia and they told me I’d it was going out of play but Riva took been sold to Rimini.” off and connected, almost scoring with a bicycle kick.” His eyes sparkled at the Back to Serie B. memory. “I wouldn’t have reached that ball even with my head,” he laughed. “That’s the way it was then. We footballers belonged to our clubs, who could dispose The last in the list may come as a surprise: of us without even consulting us first.” Mario Frustalupi, the former Inter and Lazio regista. “It was my first year in Serie When Helenio Herrera joined Rimini in B with Perugia and he was pulling the 1979, he and Sollier – the millionaire strings for Cesena. Castagner tasked me ‘Mago’, or wizard, and the ‘Compagno’ with marking him and told me to beat him – formed an unlikely partnership. to every ball. But Frustalupi was so skilful I HH, who was convalescing after a never even saw the ball, never mind beat heart attack, was officially hired as him to it!” a consultant but acted as de facto manager. Babbling in his own personal Sollier himself was a journeyman Franco-Italo-Spanish argot, he would midfielder who ran a lot. He may have psyche up his Serie B charges as if he played with the number 9 shirt but it was still at San Siro. Of Vorazzo, the would be wrong to describe him as a centre-forward, he would ask, “What falso nueve, a term that evokes a class he has Mazzola got that Vorazzo hasn’t?” didn’t possess. Rumours still circulate about Herrera’s At the end of his season in Serie A, Sollier use of drugs during his time at Inter. At wrote a book, Calci e sputi e colpi di Rimini, Sollier says he asked players to testa, at once an account of his own take a “miraculous potion” before games. experience and a critique of the world “I only took it once. All it was, was an of professional football. The title is aspirin dissolved in an espresso!” normally translated as Kicks, Spits and Headers, but it should be explained that The pair got on so well (“We respected it involves a play on words, since colpi and admired each other”) that when di testa can also mean ‘rash actions’. Sollier was planning a romantic weekend Reviewing the book, which sold 30,000 in Paris with his fiancée, Herrera offered copies, the Neapolitan journalist Antonio him the use of his apartment there on Ghirelli described it as “the portrait of a the condition that he train every day. generation” and praised Sollier’s “pure, “In the end I didn’t stay at his place but revolutionary vision of the world”. I did go to Paris, where I followed his instructions and persuaded some kids at Ironically, Sollier fell victim to the system the Luxembourg Gardens to let me join he was exposing, even before the book in their kickabouts. It’s one of my fondest was published. “I remember staying memories because that’s exactly how I’d up all night typing it out to meet the like football to be.”

54 In Rimini, he helped found an alternative The coaching job Sollier most enjoyed radio station, Radio Rosagiovanna, was with the Osvaldo Soriano Football and attempted to set up a left-wing Club, the Italian writers’ national team. footballers’ collective with Maurizio “We used to play in the European Writers’ Montesi, then of Lazio. “I wrote to the League. We once had a match in Israel AIC, the Italian Footballers’ Association, but I refused to travel. I’m a member of asking them to take a political stand the Forum Palestina, which supports the like other unions,” but they replied that Palestinian people, so it would have been politics wasn’t on their agenda. out of place.”

Three seasons by the sea were eventually Sollier still cultivates his ideals of peace, enough for Sollier who, unable resist the justice and a better world, writing for left- allure of his native land-locked Piedmont, wing journals and taking an active part in played out his career at his old teams Pro local politics. His latest battle is against Vercelli and Cossatese, with a spell at TAV, the Turin-Lyon high-speed railway Biellese in between. line under construction in the valley where he was born. After hanging up his boots and a failed attempt to run a bookshop in Milan, he He regrets that the political debate dabbled in coaching at local level but degenerated into violence in the 1970s, never rose above Serie C2. With hindsight, but added that, “Those were the most he believes he had enough knowledge fertile years in Italy’s recent history and of the game to be a good manager, but ours was the most fortunate generation. lacked the necessary passion. We were the first to live in a period of peace and relative wellbeing with One player who owes Sollier a debt freedom to travel, listen to music and of gratitude is the lanky Andrea hang out with our contemporaries.” Caracciolo, who played under him as a youngster with the Milanese amateurs He looks back at the causes he fought for Sancolombano. He was nominally a – from abortion and divorce to feminism midfielder but, “the mister said that with and workers’ rights – with nostalgia. “Old my long shanks my natural position age is a terrible thing,” he said, “but I want was centre-forward and that’s where to live mine in the spirit of the 70s.” he picked me.” Caracciolo was later nicknamed l’Airone, the Heron, and he went on to make two appearances as a central striker for Italy.

55 BRING YOUR DINNER

John Sitton, the Rwandan genocide and the fabled Leyton Orient documentary

BY EWAN FLYNN

John Sitton (right) poses for a photo at Brisbane Road with Chris Turner.

Tuesday, 7 February 1995, half-time: catastrophic 1994-95 campaign in which Leyton Orient 0 Blackpool 1. Home Leyton Orient fell apart on the pitch and Dressing Room. imploded off it.

“What did I say to you about good The opening day of the season gave few players wanting to be good players clues of the horrors to come. A tanned all the time? Do you not know how Sitton, wearing gold-rimmed aviator profound that is? Have you not examined sunglasses, sat on the sun-drenched the fucking words? Coz you’ve had Brisbane Road bench, alongside two good performances, and you think joint-manager Chris Turner as Orient I’m fucking Bertie Big Bollocks tonight dispatched highly-fancied Birmingham and I’ll play how I fucking like. But you City 2-1. Birmingham would end the won’t play how you like… because if I’m season promoted from League 2 (then going to take abuse from a bunch of the third tier of English football) as cockroaches behind me, I’ll take abuse Champions; Orient would exit at the by doing it my way. And that is fucking bottom, 24 points adrift, after just six conformity, not fucking non-conformity. wins and 32 losses. They went eight So you, you little cunt, when I tell you consecutive games without scoring, to do something and you, you big cunt, suffered the ignominy of going two when I tell you to do something, do it. years since their previous league away And if you come back at me, we’ll have win and rounded off the season with a right sort out in here. And you can nine straight defeats. pair up if you like… and you can bring your fucking dinner coz by the time I’m Almost unbelievably, the seeds of this finished with you, you’ll fucking need it. footballing disaster were sown in an Do you fucking hear me or not?” atrocity that unfolded 6,000 miles away in Rwanda. The Saint Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V it is not, but the 34-year-old Orient co-manager John Sitton has just delivered what will become the gold Walthamstow boy Tony Wood watched standard of managerial meltdowns. his first Leyton Orient match in 1937. It Immediately before detonating this was to be the start of a life-long passion. bomb, he’d sacked one of his starting In 1968 Wood followed the path less XI. Terry Howard, a former teammate of travelled from East London to East Sitton’s and a player soon eligible for a Africa working for Rwandex Chillington. testimonial, received two weeks’ notice According to Wood, the firm traded in before he’d even had the chance to hosepipes, wheelbarrows and coffee. change out of his sweaty kit. Rwanda proved incredibly lucrative for The clip, from Orient: Club For A Fiver, Wood. Significantly, he once told the broadcast on Channel 4 in October 1995, journalist Linda Melvern “if a handkerchief has been viewed on YouTube nearly drops on the ground it’s washed and 700,000 times. The film chronicles a laundered before you can turn around.”

58 Wood lived in a sprawling compound Secured by this patronage, Orient’s results in Kigali, where he hosted parties to improved. In January 1989, the Arsenal celebrate the Queen’s birthday and kept forward Kevin Campbell arrived on loan. three grey parrots, trained to regale the Campbell’s goals, combined with the visiting British ambassador Snodgrass with sterling defending of the granite-jawed a chorus of “Snodgrass, Snodgrass, silly club captain John Sitton, lifted Orient to old arse”. Tony Wood was awarded an the play-offs. With a 2-1 aggregate victory OBE in 1985 in recognition of his work in over Wrexham in the final, the club was Africa. Britain had no embassy in Rwanda, restored to Division 3. so Wood had also been appointed to the position of Honorary Consul, making There Orient remained in mid-table him the Foreign Office’s point man in the comfort for four seasons. Wood country. This would be highly significant pitched in £200,000 a year. During the for the bloodshed to come, which 1990-91 season, he appointed Clark as appeared to take Wood – and therefore, Orient’s managing director, with Peter the British government of John Major – Eustace taking responsibility for the by surprise. first team.

But Wood still followed Orient, travelling The Os appeared to be enjoying a rare back to Brisbane Road a few times a period of stability. But it was to prove season. By 1986 the club had slumped illusory. to the fourth tier for the first time in its history. Like many cash-starved clubs Towards the end of a campaign that in the lower reaches of the English saw Orient finish 13th, Eustace fell out professional game, Orient faced an spectacularly with Sitton after a run of existential crisis. The manager Frank poor results. Ahead of their game against Clark, a former European Cup winner Huddersfield, Sitton, affording a glimpse with Nottingham Forest, recalls having of his own future management style, to operate on an annual budget of took to Leyton Orient’s ClubCall – a £20,000, with directors regularly making premium rate phone service providing up the shortfall. Clark says the club fans ‘news’ from their club – and let was a week away from receivership, rip. Teammates were branded cowards, “when suddenly a guardian angel turned unfit to wear the shirt. In the days before up. His name was Tony Wood.” Wood performance departments and player gifted the chairman Neville Ovenden analytics databases, ClubCall could £10,000 to keep Orient afloat – but provide useful insights for the opposition. the club needed more, much more. In The Huddersfield manager Eoin Hand desperation, Ovenden begged Wood to had called the line to get the inside track buy a controlling stake and assume the on any Orient injuries. After hearing role of Chairman. Wood agreed, on the Sitton’s broadside, he tipped off his condition that he could be an absentee counterpart Eustace that he should listen owner. Frank Clark would oversee the to the recording. Sitton was stripped of day to day running of the club, while the captaincy and released by Orient Wood picked up the bills. soon thereafter.

59 More significantly, at the end of the reports of Wood’s dramatic escape, with inaugural Premier League campaign the help of French forces, focused on in 1993, relegated Nottingham Forest his work as a coffee trader and honorary appointed Clark as Brian Clough’s consul. What they failed to pick up successor. Forest’s gain was Orient and on was that Rwandex Chillington, the Tony Wood’s loss. Wood was unwilling company through which Wood made to dedicate more time to the club and a fortune enabling him to inject around in the power vacuum created by Clark’s £2million into Leyton Orient, also traded departure, Orient began to spiral. in machetes, the weapon of choice for the genocidal militia. Near the end of the 1993-94 season, Orient travelled to Cambridge in search Back in League 2, Sitton/Turner secured of a first win in six. This run of form had one win and a draw. Orient avoided sucked them into a relegation battle. relegation by four points. According to Sitton, restored to Orient as the youth team coach, relations between Eustace and his players had reached breaking point. As Sitton recounts Jo Treharne, a Plymouth fan, was a in his autobiography, at half-time of regular attendee at Brisbane Road the Cambridge match an argument having completed a Media degree at the culminated with Eustace hitting the University of East London. Recognising Orient defender Kevin Austin. Eustace the upcoming 1994-95 campaign would quickly departed. Sitton and the veteran be a tumultuous one, the enterprising goalkeeper Chris Turner were asked to Treharne approached the club about take charge of the five remaining fixtures. making a documentary. A meeting was quickly arranged with Sitton and Turner. From Rwanda, Tony Wood would In the malaise around Brisbane Road, telephone Orient’s commercial director the duo had been asked to lead Orient Frank Woolf during matches for score into the new season. Sitton would updates. Woolf recalls hearing gunfire remain on his existing youth-team down the line. coach contract and salary. After warning the 24-year-old Treharne that she might Three days before Sitton and Turner took “hear some choice language”, the pair charge of their first match, an aeroplane gave their blessing. carrying the Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down as it As Treharne explained in an interview with approached Kigali. This was the trigger the Orientear fanzine, hers was a one- for the genocide of the Tutsi in which woman operation, “It wasn’t a film crew; it more than one million people were was just me.” murdered. Tony Wood was forced to flee the country. As he explains in the Following the opening-day victory over documentary, “I lost three people who Birmingham, Orient went on a run of worked for me at my house out there for just one win in 13. It became clear that over 20 years… all killed.” Contemporary Tony Wood could no longer prop up

60 the club, which was losing £10,000 a Before the end of the season, the snooker week and was reliant on the PFA paying and boxing promoter Barry Hearn gave the players’ wages. A memorable scene Tony Wood his fiver and became Leyton from the documentary shows Sitton Orient’s new chairman. With relegation being informed that the local coach confirmed, Sitton and Turner were out. company Angel Motors will no longer transport the team to away matches Orient: Club for a Fiver was broadcast at without payment in advance. Even the an inopportune time for Sitton. The day milk bill went unpaid. before its premiere, England produced a particularly turgid 0-0 draw against In this climate, Wood gave an interview Norway. The national team’s failure to to ClubCall explaining that things were so qualify for the World Cup in the USA was dire he’d sell Orient “for a fiver”. Treharne still fresh in public memory and questions had a name for her film. about what was wrong with the English game dominated football discourse. A white knight briefly appeared on the The very day after Channel 4 introduced scene in the shape of Phil Wallace, Sitton to the nation, thumping his chest another boyhood fan-made-good as while screaming “fuck the tactical shit”, the managing director of an Essex food the BBC aired a documentary called business. Before his proposed takeover, Dreaming of Ajax. Gary Lineker, in his new Wallace instructed Orient that costs must presenting career, explored what the 1995 be slashed. Exactly how was unclear. Champions League winners, a team of The first-team squad consisted of just 16 youth academy products, were getting players, some of whom were on week- so right and England so wrong. Sitton to-week contracts. seemed to personify all the ills of the English game. Wallace’s directive precipitated another of Sitton’s ‘inspirational’ half-time team In the Observer, Will Buckley talks at 3-0 down to Brentford. “What commented, “There were eight year olds this geezer wants [is any of] you who at Ajax who talked about the game more are on 35 grand a year – you’ve all got intelligently than John Sitton. There were to go … But who’s gonna take you on eight year olds at Ajax more comfortable that performance? He’s thinking about on the ball than players who have been offering you settlements and I’ll hold my awarded England caps.” The Daily hands up – I’m beginning to think the Express’s David Emery condemned Sitton geezer’s right.” as “a pitiable ogre”.

Wallace later thought better of buying It was to prove personally devastating. Orient and pulled out of the deal. Then Sitton never got a second chance, came the Blackpool fixture during which even at youth team level; clubs feared Sitton sacked Howard and uttered the that parents would remember the immortal “bring your dinner” line. It would documentary and take their promising effectively make him a pariah in the boys elsewhere. After a period of professional game. unemployment and battle with

61 ISSUE FOUR RED depression, Sitton retrained as a taxi Where are they now? Terry Howard, driver. Perhaps he’d been naive to allow sacked by Sitton at half-time, would cameras into the dressing room and quickly be signed by Wycombe. When he more naive still to think his combustions eventually retired from football, Howard would not become the documentary’s took a job at Billingsgate fish market. headline attraction. The Blackpool manager that night, Sam Allardyce, would go on to manage The Orient experience was scarring for Jo England, albeit briefly. Treharne too, despite the critical acclaim and enduring popularity of Orient: Club Following the genocide, Tony Wood For A Fiver. She is not keen to talk about returned to live in Rwanda where he died the documentary and has not pursued in 2002. a career in filmmaking. While rebuffing Sitton’s accusations that the film was During a near 20-year reign as chairman, unbalanced, she acknowledges, “I badly Barry Hearn proved far more successful overestimated the ability of some viewers at promoting snooker and boxing than to look past the swearing and shouting to bringing success to a football club. examine the humanity and desperation of He sold Leyton Orient to Francesco the situation.” Becchetti in 2014. The Italian presided over relegation from the Football League, Perhaps if the game’s authorities had the first in the club’s history, and saw heeded the documentary’s warnings about Orient issued with a High Court winding- the hardships faced by clubs in the lower up order before a takeover headed up by 1 leagues, the gulf between the haves and a lifelong fan saved them. have nots in English football would not have accelerated to the point of no return.

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62 ISSUE FOUR RED

1

The idea of The Squall is to help out freelance writers during the Covid-19 crisis. For it to survive and thrive, we are asking readers to pay what they can and we suggest a minimum donation of £3.

You can pay into The Squall's bank account (sort code 40-05-17 and account number 71515942) or via PayPal to paypal.me/thesquall.

Thank you in advance for helping out. THE LAST POST

A trip to East Germany to see what turned out to be their last international

BY HUW RICHARDS

Matthias Sammer, who scored the winner for GDR against USSR, at the 1994 World Cup

You don’t always see history coming. World Cup qualifier against Russia. We Some games – cup and play-off finals, could go to that.” first or last matches at a ground – are predestined for the annals, whether Given the GDR’s history, the game chapter or footnote. Others only gain matched the anniversary. It was also a significance in retrospect. Seeing fitting end to a trip which said more about the German Democratic Republic the GDR than those trade fair assignments play the Soviet Union in what the which, while distinctive and memorable, match ticket proclaimed a Fussball- were constrained by the priorities of the Weltmeisterschafts-Qualifikationsspiel working journo. Would the Zeiss optics at the Ernst Thälmann stadium in research director Wolfgang Nordwig, Karl-Marx-Stadt on 8 October 1989 remembered from childhood as a pole- certainly had a sense of the exotic. It vaulter disappearing into the lights at was hipsterish, had we yet known the RAF Cosford, grant an interview ? (He word. Two shades of political Redness would not). Perhaps someone from the clashing. But history? Machine Tool Association? (Ditto. Try the Electronics guy?) I’d like to claim that visiting the country usually known as East Germany showed Interviewing through translators is an percipient awareness that a historic intimate process, heavy on eye contact. deluge would shortly render both nations Five years later in Budapest, interest in obsolete. But in truth I should, but for a the opinions of Hungary’s Minister for sudden, painful break-up, have been in Higher Education gave way to intense France. Visiting somewhere characterised curiosity about the plans for the evening that year as “the Unloved Country” – and possibly the rest of her life – of matched my state of mind. an interpreter with huge, liquid eyes. Nothing like that happened in Leipzig. It Nor was the match part of the plan. It was an awkward reality that interpreters was tough in 1989 to get advance notice were also minders, probably required to of fixtures anywhere outside Britain, report on you. But they were interesting, least of all beyond the Iron Curtain. Two sophisticated people enjoying, as years later it took a call to a bemused but academic linguists, a connection helpful German cultural attaché to find with native speakers rarely otherwise forthcoming Bundesliga fixtures. permitted to GDR citizens. Enduring friendships formed. I did hope to see football, but at Lokomotive Leipzig. I had made East East Germany was changing. Being able German friends while reporting Leipzig to buy Deutsche Reichsbahn’s national Trade Fairs and Manfred, a university rail timetable hinted that state paranoia lecturer who interpreted for me, was a might be retreating. DR passengers Lok fan. But as Manfred explained: “That’s wanting to initiate conversations about the weekend of state celebrations for the politics was a spectacular break with 40th anniversary of the GDR. There are the citizenry’s previous, wholly justified, no First Division games. But there is the wariness of being observed chatting to

66 foreigners. Too bad my German extended geriatric figurehead Erich Honecker might little beyond “Noch ein Bier, bitte,” but step down, but knew not to expect much, there were numerous English-speakers. least of all imagination or initiative, from a sclerotic apparat conditioned to channel There was much to discuss. Monday Moscow’s wishes. night demonstrations in Leipzig were growing in numbers and confidence. Hope seemed to come from Russia. From mid-August hordes of East Badges picturing the General Secretary of Germans visiting Prague had, instead the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of returning home, besieged the West had become, in an almost satirical turn, German consulate and asked for asylum. signifiers of dissent. Mikhail Gorbachev On October 4 several thousand were put badges were common, and his name on sealed trains to the West, crossing the regularly chanted, at the Leipzig demos. GDR via Dresden. Stations en route were But awareness of the large Soviet garrison cleared and other traffic delayed, giving in East Germany and memories of 1956, me an interminable wait at Riesa for a the last time new, liberalising leadership in connection into Dresden. Moscow had coincided with unrest in the GDR, were a hard check on optimism. Back in Riesa that evening, a casual twist of a radio dial suddenly located the BBC Local grumbles and Soviet occupiers – not World Service or British Forces, but were both evident when watching TSG Radio Two – loud and clear. A growing Markkleeberg, a club based in a suburb sense of unreality was scarcely diminished of Leipzig, play Motor Suhl. There was by hearing Scarborough beat Chelsea in history of a sort, TSG inaugurating their the League Cup. new stadium. This was not, in spite of promotion to Division Two, an expression Yet as it changed, the GDR remained of club ambition but down to typical GDR constrained and controlled. A decision priorities. The old ground was now a to cross the Berlin Wall East-West was lignite mine. soon regretted, exasperation setting in at form-filling, queues and searches: About 30 blokes with brutal haircuts and “Why am I doing this? I don’t have to, ill-fitting jackets stood on the far side. and there’ll be other chances. It’ll be here Guessing they were a down-at-heel for years.” The sensory impact of that hooligan firm was truer than I knew. They short trek justified the effort. Going from were Soviet squaddies. Other spectators subdued Friedrichstraße to the ultra- seemed indifferent rather than fearful or garish Kurfürstendamm was like turning hostile, the laughter more cheerful than an old-style TV colour dial full circle, from venomous when a vehement clearance dullest monochrome to eyeball-aching nearly beheaded one of them. out-of-focus colour. The local hero René Müller, until recently Expectations were still limited. My the GDR’s best goalkeeper, performed the friends hoped for some lifting of travel ceremonial kick-off. His reception was restrictions. They wondered if the warm but hardly rousing, perhaps because

67 he was widely blamed for the home At the ground long, stoically patient queues defeat by Turkey that had them playing testified both to complicated ticketing catch-up in the World Cup qualifiers. and vast collective experience of waiting for things. Standing ticket no 14124 was Not quite qualifying was standard GDR secured for nine marks and 10 pfennigs. practice. They were usually in contention This was about £3 at official rates, pretty but, the memorable cameo in 1974 much what you paid to see Swansea excepted, habitual absentees from lose away in Division Three. The Ernst- World Cups and Euros. You could hardly Thälmann-Stadion, honouring a pre-War expect more of a country of 16 million, Communist leader murdered by the Nazis, particularly when so many of its athletic proved a basic, unpretentious venue. The elite were identified young and directed pitch was circled by a running track, stands into individual disciplines which, with the and terraces were largely uncovered and at help of sophisticated quantitative analysis, one end an electronic scoreboard fronted merciless training regimes and systematic a squat blockhouse-cum-gateway. Just doping, delivered startling medal hauls at under 16,000 squeezed in. successive Olympic Games. Each team wore lettered shirts – DDR They’d not beaten the Soviet Union in 12 for the Germans, CCCP for the visitors – years. With two matches left, the unbeaten which have also since acquired hipster Soviets were close to qualifying. The GDR cachet. While the Soviets wore red, were fourth, needing to beat them and GDR forsook their usual blue for white. have other results go their way to pip This was probably not one of those Austria and Turkey to the second slot. marketing-led changes which blight the modern game, although hoardings from Karl-Marx-Stadt, and its fairly modest advertisers like Atari, Agfa and Bauhaus stadium, seemed an unlikely venue even showed greater commercial drive than is if it was the ninth time East Germany generally attributed to the era. had played there. But Berlin was fully occupied, with Gorbachev in town for the While the squaddies at Markkleeberg 40th Anniversary. The demos probably were quiet, several thousand of their made Leipzig’s huge Zentralstadion compatriots here were highly animated – look too risky and Karl-Marx-Stadt’s flourishing red flags and sounding horns comparative remoteness was perhaps at the slightest pretext. Their hosts were a plus. But it was happily only about 90 quieter, out of either deference, courtesy minutes from Leipzig in Manfred’s Trabant, or simply having little to cheer. The the GDR-made car whose dimensions Wunderkind Andreas Thom was deeply and puttering two-stroke engine inspired anonymous and GDR hairdos were more unfavourable comparisons with sardine noticeable than their play. The midfielder tins and sewing machines, but would later Matthias Sammer paraded a vivid orange attain a certain radical chic. A largely rural barnet. The imposing defender Dirk route’s main landmark was, at least to Stahmann might in 2020 have been the someone brought up on 1970s BBC TV answer to “Irksome Virtual Assistant, show dramas, the signpost to Colditz Castle. me a brick outhouse with a beard.”

68 The visitors were that bit classier and evening’s demonstration, the match quicker in thought and movement, had no significance beyond the GDR’s progressing calmly towards the draw qualification hopes. needed to seal qualification. Then, 16 minutes from time, Oleh Protasov A draw would have sufficed in Vienna on escaped on the right, cut in and chipped November 15. That they lost 3-0 was by into the D. Struck as it landed by then academic. The Berlin Wall had been Hennadiy Litovchenko, the ball appeared broken a week earlier. While I watched instantaneously in the net behind the the festivities on TV, wished desperately GDR keeper Dirk Heyne. It was a supreme I was there and pondered the sensory exhibition of timing and technique, impact on first-time Wall crossers, the football’s version of the effortlessly bigger picture was clear – the GDR’s stroked cover-drive. Home fans divided separate existence was doomed. between resignation and appreciation that a nondescript match had produced My hipsterish excursion took on a new something authentically special. light. Seen from a football world in which ‘Red’ and ‘Leipzig’ evoke very different Facing elimination, GDR responded. In associations, that day in Karl-Marx-Stadt the 80th minute the Soviet keeper Viktor looks the end of several eras. It was the Chanov charged out in pursuit of a corner. GDR’s last competitive home match. It looped back, off either his flailing fist Reunification came less than a year later. or some part of the imposing Stahmann, By then Karl-Marx-Stadt’s citizens had towards the goal. Ulf Kirsten got up among voted for their city to become Chemnitz three defenders standing near the line and again. The Soviet Union was dissolved in his header was probably going in before December 1991. Thom hooked it home from about four inches. Two minutes later Sammer rifled a Some careers survived these changes. low shot from 20m. Chanov seemed slow Oleh Kuznetsov, Oleksiy Mykhailychenko getting down and it rocketed between him and Igor Dobrovolski played for the and the left-hand post. Confederation of Independent States against the unified Germany at the 1992 The decorous procession at last became Euros. Thomas Doll started for Germany the archetypal cup-tie, with much at stake and he, Sammer and Thom all appeared and underdog hosts hanging on. The roar in the final. Manfred wound up in at the end could hardly have been greater California and translated for Germany at or more heartfelt had everyone been the 1994 World Cup. offered free beer and an exit visa. That same weekend Gorbachev, in Berlin, On the way back to Leipzig a mad withdrew the Soviet guarantee which dog nutted the car. It seemed oddly underpinned the GDR, telling Honecker fitting. But as I boarded a train that he would not back a suppression of the night, cursing the flight home that Leipzig demos. Those October days were made it impossible to join the following more important than we knew.

69 THE LORD OF MISRULE

Sergio Ramos and the art of the red card

BY EMILE AVANESSIAN

Sergio Ramos is sent off in El Clasico in 2014.

No defender has scored more often in argue, however, that the first of these La Liga than Sergio Ramos. He scored shouldn’t even have happened. penalties, many of them Panenkas. He has scored in two Champions League In November 2010 at the Camp Nou, finals. He got two in four minutes as Madrid’s first Clásico with José Mourinho Madrid cathartically hammered Pep at the helm, Ramos could easily have Guardiola’s Bayern Munich in the 2014 seen red in the 73rd minute, for a brutal Champions League semi-final. As a foul on another international teammate, captain and as a player who scores at David Villa, with Madrid trailing 4-0. vital times, he is one of the greatest 20 minutes later, seeking somehow to legends of Real Madrid. And yet he is just rain on the parade of Barça’s 5-0 win, as well known for his disciplinary record. Ramos cynically chops down Messi from behind, earning Madrid’s ninth Ramos is not only the most cautioned yellow card of the night and his first player in the history of Real Madrid, La Clásico expulsion. Not reflected in the Liga, the Champions League and the Spain official record but worth noting are national team, but the leader in bookings the shoves to faces of another pair of across all major European leagues over international teammates, Carles Puyol the years spanning his career. and Xavi, on his way off the pitch. The incident is Ramos’s second red card of Most notable is the groundbreaking work the week, after first attempting to game he’s done in the field of the sending-off, the disciplinary system by intentionally accumulating a spectacularly diverse earning a second yellow for time- catalogue of 26 red cards. He holds the wasting in the Champions League, in record tallies for Real Madrid and La order to serve his one-match ban in a Liga, as well as the shared record for the meaningless group game rather than in Champions League. Despite a staggering the knockout rounds. 170 appearances and 24 bookings with the Spanish national team, Ramos has only Eight times his actions have been ever been sent off while in a Madrid shirt. deemed worthy of immediate expulsion via straight red. He’s been ordered off These are often star-studded affairs, at least one in each month except June as he’s walked for fouls against the and July, including the Novembers of former Atlético strikers Sergio Agüero six different years. In his first season in and Fernando Torres, as well as La Liga Madrid, 2005-06, he saw red four times, notables Iván de la Peña, Aritz Aduriz and including in his second league game (a Xabi Prieto. He’s seen red for infractions “professional” shoulder into the chest involving a pair of international teammates, of De la Peña) and via straight red in Torres and Sergio Busquets. He’s been his home Champions League debut ten sent off for fouls against each member of days later. There are four calendar years Barcelona’s MSN, including twice for fouls in which he’s been sent off at least three against Lionel Messi, with whom Ramos times. He’s been issued marching orders remains engaged in a dozen-year (and twice against crosstown rivals Atlético counting) battle. One could convincingly and five times against Barcelona.

72 This affinity for the red card clearly stems advantage, Ramos, already in the book from something within the man himself. for dissent, vents some frustration with an However, it’s no doubt been reinforced elbow at Sergio Busquets’s head, offers by a preternatural gift for dodging a derisive handshake to the official and, repercussions. Consider: just two of with a now-familiar incredulous smile, his first 24 sendings-off – Clásicos in makes for the door. His second Clásico March 2014 and April 2017 – preceded sending-off is the tenth of his career, a post-red deterioration in Madrid’s matching the Real Madrid record, held position in the game. Even these lost at the time by Fernando Hierro – in 264 battles didn’t sting for long, as 2014’s fewer games with the club. Décima cured all ills, while Madrid won their final six league games – and the Elsewhere among his greatest hits is title – in 2016-17. Conversely, on six a performance that’s, shockingly, thus occasions, the efforts of Zidane, Raúl far one-of-a-kind. In February 2013, a Bravo, Júlio Baptista, Robinho, Gonzalo twelfth-minute header gives Madrid an Higuaín, Pepe and Cristiano Ronaldo early 2-0 lead against Rayo Vallecano. have actually powered Madrid to better Five minutes later, he’s booked for a foul. results. Not much cause for remorse or Less than one minute later, he’s leaving self-evaluation. the pitch, having been booked again for handball. The red card is admittedly harsh, Most impressive is his restraint in the but cosmically forgivable, as it delivers aftermath of that initial Clásico sending the first goal-plus-red performance of off, as he accumulated just two yellow Ramos’s career. That it’s the result of cards across eight Clásicos in 14 months two separate infractions in a one-minute (including that Supercopa contest, span makes it all the better. That all three involving Mourinho and Tito Vilanova’s events unfolded in seven minutes, within eye), an incredible four (league, Copa 20 minutes of kickoff, is perfection. del Rey final, two-legged Champions League semifinal) coming in 17 days in It’s tempting to look at this body of work the spring of 2011. The rivalry awash and imply a lack of emotional control. in animosity born of shared contempt The ‘red mist’. It’s true that few players and forced confinement, and young are as fiery. Also true is that the striker Sergio, despite his own disdain for the that joined the Sevilla academy at age Blaugrana, a general enthusiasm for the ten forever lives within him, frequently dark arts and Mourinho granting all the flouting positional discipline. And yet, on latitude he could desire, remained above close examination, what’s remarkable the fray. about the incidents for which Ramos has seen red is just how often he seems fully On 25 January 2012, amid Madrid’s cognisant of what he’s doing. By and historic 100-point league-winning large, Sergio Ramos doesn’t do 'red mist'. campaign, however, it’s back to work. In the dying minutes of a Copa del Rey Some infractions are judged more harshly quarter-final in which Barcelona hold a than expected, but there aren’t a great 4-2 aggregate lead and the away-goals many accidents.

73 He’s often incredulous, never apologetic slid comfortably into the sport’s most and seldom truly out of control. Whether searing spotlight. All as a teenager. strategic, professional or the venting of some frustration, it’s tough to ignore the On arrival he understood that adulation sense that he is aware of how things will from Madridistas comes not through (or very well could) go down and has made humble genuflection, but through peace with a penance of an early shower, amplification and imposition. It’s the innate absence from the game and an extra knowledge that, at the Bernabéu, respect weekend (or midweek evening) at home. is neither given nor earned – it’s taken.

For better and for worse, the blueprint Now 34, a decade and a half and 13 for the Sergio Ramos that’s loved by managerial tenures in, Ramos – club many, hated by more and boring to none captain, talisman, and the sport’s most was essentially in place from the very compelling character – is no longer at beginning. He so effectively converted his “best” as a player, his swashbuckling from attack to defence that he warranted more often resembling recklessness. not only call-ups to both Sevilla’s senior At the same time, he remains, as ever, side and the national team, but also maniacally self-assured, endlessly (at the time) the largest-ever fee for a entertaining, infuriatingly smug… and Spanish defender. He left his boyhood arguably as important to Real Madrid as club a pariah, pulled on the shirt that he’s ever been. once belonged to a Bernabéu legend and

74 THE BLIZZARD DOES BOOKS!

Dominic Bliss, through a combination of interviews, painstaking archival research and careful detective work, pieces together the lost history of one of football's most influential early heroes - Ernő Egri Erbstein.

Iain Macintosh's comic novel. It’s that old-fashioned rags-to-rags, boy-has- girl, girl-doesn’t-like-boy, boy-wants- to-keep-girl, girl-wants-a-boy-who- doesn’t-use-farts-as-punctuation story, juxtaposed against the top level of English football and set to the music of Supertramp.

Check out the latest releases at www.theblizzard.co.uk theblizzard.co.uk/shop 75 ISSUE FOUR RED CONTRIBUTORS

Luke Alfred is a Cape Town-based author more than a quarter of a century. His and journalist. He has written six books latest book is Vuvuzela Dawn, written with on a variety of sporting themes. His latest Luke Alfred. book, co-written with fellow contributor Ian Hawkey is Vuvuzela Dawn (2019), the Alex Hess is a subeditor at the Guardian story of South African sport in the first 25 and writes about football and film for years of democracy. anyone willing to pay him. @A_Hess

Felipe Almeida is a Brazilian football John Irving is a football and food writer writer, based in Rio de Janeiro. His work based in Piedmont, Italy. He is the author has appeared in major Rio newspapers of Pane e football (Slow Food Editore, and websites, and Placar magazine. 2012). @irving_john

Emile Avanessian is a freelance writer, Tom Reed is a football writer and originally from the United States, now photographer focusing on fan culture and based in Barcelona. His work has supporter activism. His work has been appeared in the Blizzard, Los Angeles published in 11 Freunde, Mundial, STAND, 1 Times, ESPN, Yahoo Sports, Sports No Place Like Home and When Saturday Illustrated, Tifo Football, Beyond Comes magazines. @tomreedwriting the Last Man, Barça Blaugranes, Barcablog and Forum Blue and Gold, as Huw Richards is a freelance journalist well as his own website, Hardwood Hype. and university lecturer. He is the author He also provides consulting services to of the Swansea City Alphabet (2009) and The idea of The Squall is to help out freelance the sports, sports media and video game co-editor of For Club and Country: Welsh industries. @hardwoodhype Football Greats (2000) and the Cambridge writers during the Covid-19 crisis. For it to survive Companion to Football (2013). Ewan Flynn is a freelance writer whose and thrive, we are asking readers to pay what they work has appeared in the Independent, Ben Welch is a football writer specialising When Saturday Comes, FourFourTwo and in sports science and performance. His can and we suggest a minimum donation of £3. on BBC Radio 4. His first book, We Are work has appeared in FourFourTwo, Men’s Sunday League, is a bittersweet real- Health, the Independent, Sky Sports, life story from football’s grassroots. @ Eurosport and the Daily Mirror. You can pay into The Squall's bank account flynn_ewan Michael Yokhin is a European football (sort code 40-05-17 and account number Ian Hawkey is the author of Feet of the writer with a keen interest in the history Chameleon: The Story of African Football of the game. He contributes to the likes 71515942) or via PayPal to paypal.me/thesquall. and Di Stéfano: The Biography. He has of BBC, FourFourTwo, the Guardian, been writing for the Sunday Times for ESPN, Independent and Josimar. @Yokhin Thank you in advance for helping out.

76 ISSUE FOUR RED

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The idea of The Squall is to help out freelance writers during the Covid-19 crisis. For it to survive and thrive, we are asking readers to pay what they can and we suggest a minimum donation of £3.

You can pay into The Squall's bank account (sort code 40-05-17 and account number 71515942) or via PayPal to paypal.me/thesquall.

Thank you in advance for helping out. Issue 4, August 2020, Red

Featuring:

Ben Welch, The Science of the Red Mist

Alex Hess, The Premier League in Red Cards

Luke Alfred, Greeks Bearing Gifts

Michael Yokhin, The Unfulfilled

Felipe Almeida, Belfort Duarte

Tom Reed, They Only Need Seven Men

Ian Hawkey, No Quarter Given

John Irving, The Dirty Red

Ewan Flynn, Bring Your Dinner

Huw Richards, The Last Post

Emile Avanessian, The Lord of Misrule