From Gerry Dean : Holier than thou…
Dear Myles,
Avid reader here of your excellent, gutsy, heart filled yet always insightful blog.. I have also read 2 editions of your book on Wenger.
I have to admit now at the beginning of this post though that I am not a football fan. I am an ardent Arsenal fan though, I am a season ticket holder and have been depressed of late with our capitulations… What do I mean by this? I mean I would never watch Manchester United vs Liverpool.. I would never watch Barcelona vs Real Madrid.. I don’t care who wins and am not interested in their players…whether or not Messi scores a wondrous goal.. If it’s not for my team I don’t care and its not wondrous to me.. Along these lines I have to admit I have never really supported England as I don’t like Rooney, Gerrard, Lineker, Shearer … I love my team.. MY players… If I am to watch an International game that Arsenal are not playing I support the team with most Arsenal players in it.. if they are subbed I am no longer interested.. simple as that.
So I feel I am in a great position to be impartial about the World Cup.
Though it was not the England team that was bidding but our country in international football terms i am neutral… That’s why I feel you would never publish my post as what I am going to say is never ever uttered on these shores.. I work in Emerging markets so am in Russia, Qatar, Africa a lot… and there the following fact is known to be true… England along with the Germans rigged the 66 and 74 World Cups.. Joao Havelange former FIFA President has admitted so… http://fourfourtwo.com/blogs/championsleague/archive/2008/07/04/how-to-fix-a-world-cup.aspx
English and German referees were assigned to games involving Brazil and Argentina, so that other team could kick the Latin teams out of the game. Pele played just 3 games in the 66 World Cup the rest he missed through injury and after which he vowed never to play in another World Cup!! Bulgaria and Portugal were allowed to kick him to pieces.. Please PLEASE watch this video of Brazil Portugal.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QouiPzeIi4
It’s a disgrace what they did to Pele.. who was the referee who let it all happen? English referee George McCabe.. Shame on us, Pele was forced off.. This was the last World Cup that was not televised to the world.. Brazil were ruling the world of football back then..1958 Brazil World Cup winners, 1962 Brazil World Cup winner, 1966 England… 1970 Brazil World Cup winners, 1974 Germany… a coincidence? I can go on..
Argentina’s best player and Captain Rattin was sent off for no reason against us (German referee). It seems the official reason was bad language though the German referee did not speak Spanish!! It wasn’t for a foul, for handball he just sent him off.. Rattin refused to leave the pitch and English referee supervisor Ken Aston had to come on and persuade him to leave. At the end of the game the German referee was escorted away by Police.When asked about the incident Rattin states there ‘other forces at work’ to ensure England won. Most importantly for me though Rattin is NOT OUTRAGED BY THE THOUGHT. It was he said just the way of things.
And that is why I am so appalled by the current furore in the British media.
This sour grapes, this pretence that we have never harmed a fly, never cheated, never invaded sovereign nations under the pretence of a threat of weapons of mass destruction, never ordered… sorry I digress. We fixed our only ever World Cup victory!! Now that we are too indebted under a mountain of welfare payments and bloated civil servants to be able to bribe and fix our way to what we want and other cash rich nations Russia and Qatar can, we throw our toys out of the pram and hide behind fairplay and Britishness. That’s absolute rubbish, England Captains get away with GBH, drink driving and whatever else and we protect them from prosecution.
At least you say we are not corrupt enough to win the World Cup, I agree wholeheartedly with that. If we could WE WOULD bribe and cheat like we did in 66. Unfortunately we don’t have the money to do so and it’s the old emerging market countries whom we used to cheat that are now cash rich and have taken our place… A shame but the truth and thats just the way of things..
Addendum : Apologies I forgot to add all host nations cheat.. lets go back to this the first international Olympic Games held in the Modern era 1896 Athens, Greece. MEDAL COUNT:Ten of the 14 participating nations earned medals, in addition to three medals won by mixed teams, i.e. teams made up of athletes from multiple nations. The United States won the most gold medals (11), while host nation GREECE WON THE MOST MEDALS(46) as well as the most silver (17) and bronze (19) medals, finishing with one fewer gold medal than the United States… hahah Greece won the most medals though it was a hugely impoverished nation that had only that century won independence from the Ottoman Empire.. The major event of the games was the marathon, held for the first time in international competition. Spiridon Louis, an unknown water carrier!! won the event to become the only Greek athletics champion and a national hero.. ( we subsequently know that he ran a different SHORTER route).. When has Greece ever since then won the most medals in the Olympics? NEVER!! just like England has never won the World Cup again since 66.. Home nations cheat, it’s just the way of things.
Myles replies :
Thanks for the history lesson, Gerry.
Not sure about your logic, or your exclusive focus on one team.
Surprised you don’t mention The FA’s promise not to bid for 2006 if the Germans let us have Euro 96. That was ungentlemanly conduct and Bert Millichip, one of our good guys, was treated disgracefully by two Englishmen. I wish I could spill the beans on who did that.
FIFA has been contaminated since 1974. That was when Havelange took over from Sir Stanley Rous. Don’t give any credence to anything Havelange ever said. Sepp Bladder was his bag-man. Don’t give any credence to anything Bladder ever says either. World football governance has been toxic since 1974. Last week’s fiasco, giving out two World Cups on the same day because it makes more money for FIFA that way, was the moment when contaminated football governance exploded in a mushroom cloud. In sporting terms it was the equivalent of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Think of it that way: Hiroshima and Nagasaki 1945, Zurich 2010. Unfortunately, this mushroom cloud does not end a war.
Back in 1966, I was a 21-year old student who attended all of England’s World Cup games. Rattin, a centre half in a vicious team, was a thug whose behaviour was totally out of order. Rattin held up the game for 12 minutes. I’ve never seen that before or since. Rattin was a very tall hatchet-man who thought the armband allowed him to do anything he wanted. The German referee was strict because you had to be strict when Argentina played. In the end, he had to choose between sending off Rattin or allowing Rattin to referee the match. So Mr Rudolf Kreitlin sent him off. But then Rattin refused to go off. So I don’t accept your conspiracy theory on that one. Yes, I was biased. But not that biased.
You mention how Pele was cruelly butchered. I once met Eusebio, a lovely, gentle character, and talked to him about that. I was in Prague to see Portugal’s presentation to get Euro 2004.