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‘They think it’s all over, it is now!’
In the 2018 World Cup in Russia, my generation, and indeed my parents’ generation, saw England go within touching distance of becoming world champions for the first time in our lives. Gareth Southgate’s men had gloriously made it all the way to the final four, with a young squad with few expectations. In the semi-final against Croatia, Kieran Trippier’s scrumptious 25-yard free kick within the first five minutes had us all dreaming…but it was not to last, as England went on to lose 2-1 and were eliminated.
Though that was not to be,
England’s one and only World Cup victory in 1966 has been immortalised in
legend. It was extremely fitting that the tournament was hosted in England,
with a royal opening ceremony and the commencement of the games announced by
the Queen herself.[1]
It was a chance for England to show off to the world that it was changing with
the time and had broken free of its conservative shackles of previous decades.[2]
It was an especially eventful tournament. North Korea qualified for the
tournament as immense underdogs, submitting and entirely unknown team. Playing
most of their games in Middlesbrough’s Ayresome Park, the Asian side became idolized
by the local population after passing through the group stage with a
giant-killing against two-time world champions Italy.[3]
England’s final against West Germany was shrouded with controversy; the game went
into added extra time at 2-2, when Geoff Hurst’s goal in the 98th
minute ricocheted off the crossbar and was adjudged to have crossed the line,
though it was slim.[4]
Fortunately, no VAR or goal-line technology existed then! Ironically, the opposite
occurred in the 2010 World Cup, again against Germany, when Frank Lampard’s
effort, again off the crossbar, which clearly crossed the line by a yard, was not
considered a goal.[5]
Nearly eleven years later, that poor refereeing decision still stings, though
perhaps it is karma balancing out…Back to ’66, and as the crowd begins running onto
the pitch to celebrate, Hurst scores again to become a hat-trick hero, prompting
the iconic line ‘they think it’s all over…it is now![6]
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| Geoff Hurst's controversial second goal. It definitely crossed the line...right? |
This tournament was a first
for the advancement of globalisation of football. Though Switzerland ’54 was
the first to be televised in line with the more widespread availability of
televisions,[7]
the financial and technical investments made in this tournament represented a significant
advancement in the field of televised sport. When assessing viability of
stadiums, a venue’s ability to accommodate mass media centres became as
important as spectator capacity and pitch size.[8]
Football, already the world’s most popular sport, was growing into something
much more – a business. The Daily Mirror claimed that over 400 million viewers
tuned in for the final between England versus West Germany, the largest
audience since the funeral procession of Winston Churchill, which it exceeded
by over 50 million.[9]
England ’66 was not only a display of England’s strong football heritage, but a
performance to the world of its ability to adapt to the rapid changes that were
brought on by the Sixties.
[1] FIFATV, ‘What Made England so ’66?’, YouTube Video, 1:39, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5qB6PXQ06k
[2] BBC Sport, ‘The Story of the 1966 World Cup’ 16 May 2014 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/27392991 (Last Accessed 12 March 2021)
[3] Tosh Warwick, ‘The FIFA World Cup, International Friendship and the “Mystery Men of the East”: When Middlesbrough Fell in Love with North Korea’ North Korean Review, Vol. 15, No. 1 (2019) pp. 51-72 (pp. 58-59)
[5] FIFATV, ‘Germany v England | 2010 FIFA World Cup | Match Highlights’, YouTube Video, 4:59, 27 June 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v_t3NCDZG8
[6] FIFATV, ‘Final Replay ‘66’, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3bcX8NaYW0
[7] Fabio Chisari, ‘When Football Went Global: Televising the 1966 World Cup’ Historical Social Research, Vol. 31, No. 1 (2006) pp. 42-54 (p. 43)
[8] Ibid., p. 46
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