Wembley Stadium: site of our (second) finest hour |
ACROSS THE SPAN of the twentieth century, England’s World Cup win of 1966 probably ranks second only to victory in the Second World War in terms of popular national pride. It's a moment that has passed into myth and cliché, evoking a mood so exultant that for some nothing’s quite lived up to it since.
But consider those two events in a neutral light and it begs a question or two. The defeat of Nazi Germany was a monumental, world-defining moment: it altered the course of history, not just for Britain, but for the whole of humanity. On the other hand, that moment in Wembley Stadium on July 30 1966 was – dare one say it? – all about a few blokes running around on some grass.
It has not escaped the sharpest minds that there is link between those two events, in the identities of victor and vanquished. It’s a subject that brought football-crazy historians together for a recent one-day conference at De Montfort University, ‘England v. Germany 1966-2006: Football, History and National Rivalry’.
Papers included a discussion by Prof Christiane Eisenberg of Humboldt University, Berlin, of how the British model of sport, which had been a great influence on Germany, ‘fell into oblivion’ in the early decades of the 20th century.
Eisenberg recounted examples of how Germans became prey to “false perceptions and misunderstandings” of the British approach, but also how the British exponents failed to do themselves justice: “They regarded everything their German disciples did as ‘not cricket’, and reacted in such a way as to give the Germans the impression that the ‘inventors’ of modern sport were themselves behaving in an unsporting or unfair manner.”
Dr Christopher Young from the University of Cambridge pointed out that Germany’s ‘1966’ came first, with ‘The Miracle of Berne’ in 1954. Just nine years after total capitulation in the war, West Germany beat the ‘sublime’ championship favourites Hungary to win the World Championship in Switzerland.
“In both politics and football, the relationship between England and Germany is asymmetrical,” argued Jones. “Whilst the English use the Germans as a grossly stereotyped touchstone of their last great victory as a world power, the Germans look on with mild bemusement and occasionally justified irritation.”
“Whilst the English national team has never made it past the semi-final of a major tournament away from home, Germany can look back on the best international record in Europe and a string of world-class cohorts across several generations,” he added.
George Orwell’s famous observation - that international sport is war without the shooting - was pondered by Professor John Ramsden of Queen Mary, University of London. Tired as the notion is, he found it sadly true in the case of football matches between our two nations, which “occupy a particularly obstructive role in the establishment of Anglo-German harmony”.
Noting the DVD re-release of the 1981 film Escape to Victory in the run-up to the this year’s finals, he marvelled at the ability of its makers to exploit the old stereotypes. “By recycling images from 1950s POW camp films, but investing them with greater accessibility through the employment of film and football stars of 1980, Escape to Victory passed on warped and obsolete images of Germany to two more generations of film and football fans.”
TV as well as film has played a part in spinning the rivalry too. Dr Dilwyn Porter of De Montfort University (DMU) invoked fellow historian James Walvin, who wondered whether ‘unforgettable’ scenes at Wembley are more accurately described as “impossible to forget, not least because the media recycled the whole affair whenever it seemed appropriate – that is, as often as possible”.
The longevity of the great rivalry also came under scrutiny. “It is a common misconception to think that England and Germany had been great rivals in international football before 1966,” said DMU’s Professor Tony Mason. “Germany had never actually won a match against England.”
Could it be that the 1966 ‘story’ has been rewritten to suit the outcome? “The big story of 1966 was not England v. Germany but in fact England v. Argentina, where relations between the teams were bad and the England manager famously described the Argentinians as ‘animals’,” continued Mason.
“After 1966 football rivalry with Germany was sharpened by the success of the German team but it was the Falklands War and the ‘hand of God’ in 1986 which inflamed the rivalry with Argentina. Unlike Germany, Argentina reciprocated English hostility and so created a sharper and deeper rivalry than the Anglo-German one.”
Who was it that said: “It’s only a game?” Someone who didn’t really understand, that’s who. |
