Someone once said that football is not a case of life & death; it is more important than that – or did they? I have watched the video of former Liverpool FC manager Bill Shankly’s interview in 1991. After saying how, for his whole life, he had put his heart & soul into football to the extent that his family suffered, the interviewer asks if he regrets that. This is his exact reply:
‘ Yes, oh I regret it very much, yes. Somebody said football’s a matter of life and death to you. I said listen it’s much more important than that.’
When he left the game after resigning in 1974, Shankly suffered depression and ended up a sad figure. Going to the training ground at Melwood, he would talk to the players, and even started trying to take training sessions. He was barred and died of a heart attack at the age of 68. A fit man who exercised regularly and was teetotal, Shankly succumbed not to the usual excesses. He died of a broken heart; the result of an addiction to football.
Our home is in the North West. For the past week Liverpool, and the families of ‘The 96’, have been on regional news programmes as well as the national ones. Three weeks ago I watched the Europa League match when Liverpool came back from 3-0 down against Dortmund to win 4-3 in the last minute. The media were full of the usual quotes about the game being one ‘that will be talked about for years to come’. I love it when sport produces such moments, but mostly they are fleeting events and ‘real life’ resumes. The following day at Anfield was the final memorial service for the victims of the Hillsborough Stadium Disaster. 27 years after ‘real death’ had visited Liverpool.
On Wednesday 27 April 2016 coverage of the ‘unlawfully killed’ verdict by the jury at the Hillsborough inquest was constantly on our news bulletins. At last the families had the truth they craved and the fans were cleared of contributing to the disaster. It will be some time yet before they get justice.
The very next evening the attention of Liverpool fans returned to football matters. As I started to write this blog, the dulcet tones of former player Mark Lawrenson and Radio 5 Live commentator Ian Dennis were on my laptop. The stadium this time was Estadio El Madrigal the home of Spanish team Villarreal in the first leg of the semi-final. The match ended 1-0 to Villarreal with a goal in the last minute. Fans phoned into the post-game show and mentioned the comeback against Dortmund.
Ten years ago I met my friend Mark at Birch Services on the M62 after we had both done a day’s work. We drove the 110 miles to the Riverside Stadium, home of our team Middlesbrough. Boro were 1-0 down to Romanian side Steaua Bucharest from the away first leg in the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup. In the quarter-final we had come back from 3-0 down against Swiss side FC Basle to win 4-3. The previous Sunday we had been at Villa Park to watch us lose in the semi-final of the FA Cup. Being only 1-0 down, the chatter amongst the fans walking with us to the ground was of a real possibility of reaching the final in Eindhoven.
Manager Steve McClaren, players Gareth Southgate, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, and Stewart Downing (now back at his home town club), will be names known to today’s football fans. Andrew Taylor, now with Reading, also played that night. After 20 minutes we were 2-0 down on the night, 3-0 on aggregate. Surely it couldn’t happen again? Well it did. Like Liverpool we scored 4 goals, the final one in the last minute a diving header from our young Italian striker Massimo Maccarone At the final whistle there were grown men in tears and, as well as Mark, I hugged a complete stranger, an enormous, bearded, bear of a man from the seat in front of me. The players came out after 15 minutes to warm down and we celebrated all over again for what seemed like an hour. Mark and I got home at 2am and were back in work early on the Friday.
The local radio commentator for that game was Alastair Brownlee, or Ali as he was known. Ali had been a fan long before he was on the radio and was unashamedly biased. His excitement that night reached its peak. His screams at the final whistle echoed those of the Norwegian TV commentator after his country had beaten England 2-1 in a World Cup qualifier in 1981. That night it was;
‘Lord Nelson! Lord Beaverbrook! Sir Winston Churchill! Sir Anthony Eden! Clement Attlee! Henry Cooper! Lady Diana! Maggie Thatcher – can you hear me, Maggie Thatcher! Your boys took one hell of a beating! Your boys took one hell of a beating!’
Ali’s slightly more weird shouts in the clip below are fuzzy. As well as his passion when Boro score the goals, after the final whistle sounds listen out for:
‘Boro have struck a stake to the heart of Dracula’s boys…’
‘It’s Eindhoven! Eindhoven!’
‘One of the most glorious nights in the history of football. We go back to 1876, the Infant Hercules, fired out of the foundries of Teesside, mined out of the Eston Hills, are roaring all the way to Eindhoven in the UEFA Cup Final.’
‘It’s party, party, party. Everyone round to my house for a ‘Parmo’!
Ali died on Valentine’s Day this year aged 56 – the same age as me. He told his listeners that he had bowel cancer in November 2015. Football and ‘The Boro’ were his life, he did a lot of charity work and promoted Teesside and the people. The fans think promotion back to The Premier League will be a fitting legacy for this season. I can’t be certain, but I think Ali, ‘Mrs B’ (as he called his wife in commentary) and his daughters would give up all that for a few more years of life.
The ‘death of the steel industry’ came to Teesside this year with closure of the modern Redcar Plant. Seemingly to our government the one in Port Talbot is more important. The estimated £200 Million boost to the local economy that promotion to The Premier League will bring, could help ease the pain of the thousands of families affected. Boro are a club whose links to the local community are strong and important.
Boro went on to lose the 2006 final 4-0 against Sevilla. If Liverpool do indeed stage a comeback in the return leg then I hope they win the final. However, Sevilla could be their opponents too.
These days I would not drive overnight to a game, and given a chance would put time with my family first. I think I can speak for Mark and say he feels the same about his young family.
Some things are more important than football – life & death for instance. Just ask the families of the 96.
Skat's Chat 