Football On This Day –

10th July 1978

Back on this day in 1978 the footballing talking point was centred on Tottenham Hotspur. In those days a 'foreign' player in the English game was Welsh, Scottish or Irish so when Spurs - who had just won promotion from the Second Division - signed two players from the Argentine squad that had just won the World Cup it became front-page news. Ossie Ardiles was part of the winning Argentine team while Ricky Villa had played in a couple of matches as a sub prior to the final. Both players became firm favourites at White Hart Lane and after they arrived the trickle of foreign players into the English game slowly became a flood and things would never be the same again.

Football On This Day – 11th July 1966

England started their 1966 World Cup campaign with a disappointing 0-0 draw with Uruguay at Wembley. In that match England fielded nine of the players who would later play in the World Cup final.

Jimmy Greaves and Manchester United's John Connelly were the two players who didn't make the final, being replaced by the goalscorers in the final, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters.

Liverpool signed Ray Kennedy from Arsenal for £180,000 but that news was totally overshadowed by Bill Shankly's announcement that he was retiring as manager of Liverpool. He blamed the stresses of managing a top club.

Football On This Day – 13th July 1930

With no qualification games being played the first ever World Cup matches were played in the finals in Uruguay on this day in 1930 - France v Mexico and Belgium v USA.

Lucien Laurent of France scored the first ever World Cup goal.

Football On This Day – 14th July 1969

The short-lived ‘football war’ started when the El Salvador army attacked Honduras two weeks after the two countries had played a bad-tempered play off match to decide who would progress to the 1970 World Cup Finals in Mexico.

El Savador had won the football match and were winning the war until a cease-fire was called.

Football On This Day – 15th July 1966

Day four at the World Cup finals in England with a fixture in each of the four groups - the match of the day being at Everton’s Goodison Park.

A crowd of 51,387 were present there at one of the best matches of the tournament when Hungary beat Brazil 3-1 – Brazil were without Pele who had been injured in their first match against Bulgaria.

Football On This Day – 16th July 1966

England won their first match at the 1966 World Cup finals, goals from Bobby Charlton and Roger Hunt giving them a 2-0 victory over Mexico at Wembley in their second group fixture.

Football On This Day – 17th July 1991

The day that the Premier League took a giant step to reality. The 22 clubs in the old First Division – led by the ‘big 5’ of Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – signed the Founder Members Agreement in which they agreed to set up a new league.

That league would be separate from the existing Football League although there would be promotion and relegation between the Premier League and Football League with Premier League sides also remaining in the FA Cup and League Cup. The driving force behind the change was inevitably money. The Premier League kicked off in the 1992/93 season.

Football On This Day – 18th July 2002

Leicester City’s Dennis Wise broke the cheekbone of team-mate Callum Davidson in an argument following a game of cards during the club’s pre-season tour of Finland. The incident later saw the England international sacked by Leicester for serious misconduct.

BAD MANNERS Live at 2Funky Music Cafe

Leicester. Wednesday 06 December 2023

Football On This Day – 19th July 1966

In one of the all-time World Cup upsets North Korea beat Italy 1-0 in front of 17,829 at Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough in their final group match. North Korea became the first Asian country to qualify for the knockout stages of the World Cup, Italy went home.

Football On This Day – 20th July 1966

In their final group match Roger Hunt scored twice to give England a 2-0 victory over France at Wembley which saw them qualify for the quarter finals of the World Cup.

Football On This Day – 21st July 1964

Tottenham Hotspur forward John White was killed by lightning when sheltering under a tree during a thunderstorm at the Crews Hill golf course in Enfield. 'The Ghost' had been an ever-present in Spurs double-winning side of 1960/61 and had played 22 times for Scotland.