Everton FC: the Forgotten Game of the 1985/86 UEFA Super Cup Liverpool Echo  

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NEW ARTICLES Everton FC: The forgotten game of the 1985/86 UEFA Super Cup

Blues were denied their chance for more European silverware

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BY LIVERPOOL ECHO 05:00, 14 NOV 2015

European Cup Winners Cup Final. Rotterdam, Holland. Everton 3 v Rapid Vienna 1. Everton players Kevin Ratcliffe, Andy Gray and Graeme Sharp celebrate with the trophy after the match 15th May 1985. We have noticed you are using an Ad-Blocker. To continue enjoying the Liverpool Echo for free please whitelist us. You can 밄nd out how to whitelist our site here. http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/incoming/evertonfcforgottengame19858610443502 1/11 5/25/2017 Everton FC: The forgotten game of the 1985/86 UEFA Super Cup Liverpool Echo

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By Tom Woods

The Heysel Stadium disaster was one of the darkest days in the history of football. The events that took place cost the lives of 39 fans that attended the 1985 European Cup ﬁnal between Liverpool and Juventus, and less importantly it was the catalyst in ushering in a blanket ban on English football teams entering European competition.

Just two weeks earlier Everton wrapped up the European Cup Winners’ Cup, defeating Rapid Vienna 3-1 in Rotterdam. Goals from Andy Gray, Trevor Steven and Kevin Sheedy not only brought the Blues their ﬁrst-ever piece of European silverware, but also earned them a berth in the upcoming UEFA Super Cup.

From 1972 to the Cup Winners’ Cup’s last year in 1999, the winners of the competition went on to play the winners of the European Cup in a game akin to the FA Charity Shield whereby the victors of the two tournaments face off in a ‘champion of champions’ contest for the Super Cup over two legs. Dates for the tie in both Merseyside and Turin should have been set. But in the end that’s not the way it played out.

We have noticed you are using an Ad-Blocker. To continue enjoying the Liverpool Echo for free please whitelist us. You can 밄nd out how to whitelist our site here. http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/incoming/evertonfcforgottengame19858610443502 2/11 5/25/2017 Everton FC: The forgotten game of the 1985/86 UEFA Super Cup Liverpool Echo   European Cup Winners Cup Final. Rotterdam, Holland. Everton 3 v Rapid Vienna 1. Everton's 22°C NEWS WHAT'S ON LIVERPOOL FC EVERTON FC CELEBS IN YOUR AREA SPORT BUSINESS Graeme Sharp celebrates with the trophy after the match 15th May 1985.

Just two days after the season’s conclusion, then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, already an unpopular ﬁgure in Merseyside, asked the FA to withdraw teams from European competition. A further 48 hours later her decision had been, albeit indirectly, ratiﬁed by UEFA and English clubs were banned from Europe for “an indeterminate period of time.”

As a consequence, Everton were unable to enter the 1985-86 European Cup, and it has since been hotly debated as to whether the Blues would have gone on to lift the trophy.

They were one of Europe’s strongest teams in the midst of domestic domination - with seven of the last nine victories in Europe’s biggest club competition going to English sides.

The eventual winners were Steaua Bucharest. Could Everton have outlasted the Romanians? Quite possibly.

Though that argument is now a moot point, Everton were effected in another way. Their continental barring also resulted in the cancellation of the 1985 UEFA Super Cup. Not only were they missing out on entering a tournament, but also the chance to win their second European trophy.

It wasn’t the first time that the game had been cancelled. Just over a decade before, Bayern Munich and Magdeburg couldn’t find a mutually convenient date to hold the games, and so their clash was never played. And in 1981 the Super Cup wasn’t contested as fixture congestion prevented Liverpool from finding a suitable date to take on Dinamo Tbilisi.

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Everton fans cheer their team to victory

To many, the Super Cup is probably as insigniﬁcant a trophy as they come. But to a club starved for European silverware ever since, it is an empty space on the honour roll and yet another stark reminder of what could have been.

So just how important is the Super Cup? Brighton & Hove Albion may well know, as the only major honour in their 114-year history was the FA Charity Shield which they won all the way back in 1910 as reigning Southern League Champions.

“[It is important] as long as it is based on merit, i.e. the Premier League champions against the FA Cup winners, rather than a somewhat random invitational match as it has been on occasion,” believes Tim Carder, Brighton club historian.

“In 1910 there were only six Football League teams south of Birmingham. The Charity Shield was therefore a contest of some signiﬁcance: the champions of the south against the champions of the north and midlands. By beating Aston Villa 1-0, Brighton & Hove Albion earned the right to be called ‘Champions of all England’”.

So while Everton wouldn’t really have been the true Kings of Europe - that right reserved for the winners of the European Cup itself - it was still a chance to gain a victory of some signiﬁcance. What better way to send a message and instill conﬁdence than to beat the reigning European champions?

But perhaps the most important question is whether UEFA can, or will ever do anything about it. It appears not. According to European football’s governing body, they stand by the decisions made 30 years ago in banning English teams from club competition.

In addition to this, “the Executive Committee took some time to reﬂect before dismissing the idea of cancelling the UEFA competitions for a season, or even longer.” They also discussed We have noticed you are using an Ad-Blocker. the possible eTxop cuolsnitoinnu eo fe nthjoey iEnng gthlaen Ldiv neraptoioonl Eacl htoe afomr ffrreoem pl ethasee 1w9h8it8e lEisut ruosp. ean Championship, You can 밄nd out how to whitelist our site here. http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/incoming/evertonfcforgottengame19858610443502 4/11 5/25/2017 Everton FC: The forgotten game of the 1985/86 UEFA Super Cup Liverpool Echo though at its meeting in Vienna on 17 October, 1985, that same committee voted   unanimously in allowing England to participate in the tournament qualiﬁers. 22°C NEWS WHAT'S ON LIVERPOOL FC EVERTON FC CELEBS IN YOUR AREA SPORT BUSINESS There has also been “nothing mentioned about a plan to reschedule the 1985 Super Cup at a later date,” said UEFA on Tuesday.

LIKELY LINE-UPS Everton: GK - Neville Southall; RB - Gary Stevens; CB - Kevin Ratcliffe; CB - Derek Mountﬁeld; LB - Pat Van Den Hauwe; RM - Trevor Steven; CM - Alan Harper; CM - Paul Bracewell; LM - Kevin Sheedy; CF - Gary Lineker; CF - Graeme Sharp. Juventus: GK - Stefano Tacconi; RB - Luciano Favero; CB - Gaetano Scirea; CB - Sergio Brio; LB - Antonio Cabrini; RM - Massimo Mauro; CM - Massimo Bonini; CM - Michel Platini; LM - Gabrielle Pin; CAM - Michael Laudrup; CF - Aldo Serena.

The unoﬃcal Super Cup

The teams would have to wait a further 28 years to cross paths again, and they did so during the 2013 International Champions Cup pre-season tournament.

Though this wouldn’t decide anything oﬃcial, perhaps it may have given Evertonians some comfort in knowing that they could have had another piece of silver sat alongside the Cup Winners’ Cup and the Canon League Division One trophy.

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Everton vs Juventus at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Youngster John Stones chips his penalty and scores

The game, famed for John Stones out-chipping Andrea Pirlo, ended all square in 90 minutes after Kwadwo Asamoah’s strike cancelled out Kevin Mirallas’ early goal.

It was a rough-and-tumble affair - not even extra time could split the two teams and so it came down to a penalty shootout. With eight penalties taken, and four scores apiece, Andrea Pirlo stroked his spot kick wide of the mark. All that was left to do was for John Stones to seal the win, and he did with a show-stealing Panenka to end it.

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