Chapter 27
The Battle of Frankfurt
The Waldstadion in Frankfurt, West Germany - June 30th 1974. A day and football fixture that would be remembered by the supporters or anyone from England and Scotland but not for all the reasons one might think. On that morning all across the UK, there was a great deal of anticipation, excitement and quite a good deal of tension as June 30th would be the day that England and Scotland would play each other, not for the first time, in crucial World Cup match in which both sides badly needed a win in order to keep their hopes of reaching to the final alive. Why was this? Due to the strange way this second group stage had been designed with only the group winner being able to reach the final and with the English and Scots both losing their opening matches, anything other than a victory for either would mark the end of the road for both nations in the tournament.
The build up to the game was extreme; arguably much more so than when the two nations faced each other in a World Cup final nearly ten years ago, with many pundits calling the game hard to call by and with the game being played on a Sunday, many would be at home from work to watch the game with a kick-off time at four in the afternoon and viewing figures in Britain alone were expected to range some where just under twenty-five million to watch the game live. Though this might have not been the final and in the big picture of things it was just another World Cup fixture in the eyes of the rest of the world, it felt as though there was so much at stake than just the usual bragging rights that came whoever would win these games and many in pubs and living rooms around the country could feel tension grip them as it got closer to kick off. It was a hard feeling to say why other than both needed the victory and defeat or even a draw would pretty much kill of both had to reach the final.
That all said, all those sitting at home or in pubs preparing to watch the game weren't the only ones though feeling the pressure. Over in Frankfurt where the game was to be played, the traveling support for both sides felt even
worse for they could not only feel tension throughout the day but in cases could almost taste it which said everything for how the situation was. With such trepidation in the air it was almost a certainty there would be fights taking place prior before the game even started and the German police had to step in to break out various skirmishes that were happening between English and Scottish supporters and many of the huge crowd going to the game didn't even have a ticket for the match and just seemed there to purely cause trouble, at least as what the local German police thought so.
There was also another and perhaps more important edge that many officials from both football associations had been fearing that that was a worst kept secret in British football that most politicians didn't know or even
wanted to know about and that was a now emerging problem of football hooligans. The stories about hooligans across the United Kingdom have been well documented over the years though the origins of they came about from theories about broken families, mass unemployment that gripped the country in the 1970's and feeling like they were shunned by the rest of British society were all suggested; only thing that was certain is that football hooligans were starting to become more and more frequently at club level since the start of the decade and was only starting to get seen at now international level in which included England and Scotland and the last thing anyone wanted was the whole world to see an almighty football riot to take place at a World Cup with the whole world to see it.
Some relaxed Scotland fans heading to the game, though they would be rather the minority out of the many thousands there
Even as the supporters who had tickets were led into the ground, It only seemed to get worse as when the large crowd was packed into the Waldstadion at near capacity as the local police didn't think of segregating the supporters and this not only was a foolish situation in which the local authorities had utterly failed to read the situation and the rivalry between the two supporters, it only helped make the situation into being a very likely to be a powder keg. At one point with just ten minutes to go until kick off, another scuffle broke out between rival supporters, this time in the stadium and although the police quickly stop the fight it did very little to ease the tension and vile chanting that was being heard all around the stadium and several German neutrals in the crowd who simply wanted to see this famous fixture in the flesh all felt trapped and probably wished they'd stayed at home.
The stadium was turning into a cauldron of hate and the longer it seemed to take until the players would appear then the more likely it was for things to quite literally spill onto the pitch so when the players did arrive to be led onto the pitch by the East German referee they were greeted the with sight of Union and Lion rampart flags being waved across the ground, chanting and an almighty sigh of relief to the police in the ground who could only hope that they wouldn't be needed for anymore and that a crises had been averted. That said when the England and Scotland teams walked out onto the field, they were shocked to see the huge police presence that were lined up around the ground that were facing the supporters; it was unlike anything they had ever seen either at Wembley or Hampden Park and clearly there was a hostile atmosphere in the air that the German police were not wanting to take chances with.
Finally after what felt like an age from early in the morning that had the whole country on the edge all day, the game would finally start and one German police officer years later would describe the roar that greeted the first kick of the ball as one of the loudest he'd ever heard in not just this World Cup but rather at any football ground he'd been to. Just like the thousands of fans here in Frankfurt, the players all had a point to prove with it most likely being with England due to to the fact that in their last game with Scotland at Hampden Park in May in the Home Championship, they had lost 2-0 in which the Scots had gone on to win the Championship that year. Now with just a month later after that game, here was the great chance to not only get revenge on the Scots, but knock them out of the World Cup with a win.
Early moments of the game between England and Scotland
Though Scotland might have won the last tie rather comfortably, everyone knows that in derby games like this, anything can change quickly and it wasn't out of the realms of possibility and a 5-0 hammering from England like what they had inflected upon the Scots a year ago for what was the SFA's centenary celebrations could honestly happen again here in Frankfurt. Nonetheless in the early moments of the most recent game between the two rivals, the game itself wasn't a graceful nor a scrappy affair as both sides seemed to take great care with the ball and the first half alone hadn't really been all the exciting game it had been built up in the press for with the commentators and many watching at home all wondering when things would really kick-off.
The only thing to note was not relating to the field but rather the actions of the Scotland and England supporters both trying to out chant each other which made for quite a strange yet amusing experience. In the thirteenth minute however, the game finally came to life when England took an advantage on with Martin Peters almost scoring for England but his attempt is saved by David Harvey who knocks it up over the bar to prevent England getting the early lead. The game itself is noticeable for having many of the players for both sides playing for Leeds United with half of the Scottish team alone having Leeds connections and it had been joked that a Leeds civil war was on the cards with the makeup of this tie and no doubt when the players were to return to Leeds Untied after the World Cup, there would no doubt be some interesting questions asked.
Then in the twenty-third minute of the first half, Scotland are awarded a corner kick and Jimmy Johnstone takes it and it flies over a sea of heads in the box before connecting with that of Joe Jordon who sends the ball thundering downward past the hands of Ray Clemence into the bottom left of the goal and it is a goal that fires Scotland into the lead, their fans in raptures and hopefully maybe a critical goal that keeps Scotland's World Cup hopes alive. The German police look on with nervous expressions at the Tartan Army not knowing what was more dangerous; a drunken Scot celebrating or a drunken and furious Englishman wanting to fight each other. Pretty much any hopes of peaceful game at least of what was happening up on the terraces seemed very much misguided.
Jordon celebrates his opening goal that puts Scotland in front
Afterwards, the game starts to come to life though it is quite a brutal affair with both sides tackling and fouling each other with perhaps little consequence that they would be booked or sent off, the latter of which has, amazingly, never happened in the amount of games the two sides have played in. In the twenty-seventh minute, there has been already been three yellow cards for John Blackly, Terry Cooper and Jim Holton respectively and the fourth comes about when Norman Hunter brings down Scotland captain and his fellow Leeds United teammate Billy Bremner and although Hunter is booked, Bremner gets up and starts ranting in perhaps the most Scottish way possible towards Hunter using so many swear words under the sun and crying out that he hates his guts all of this despite being his teammate at club level. The situation of those watching what can be either an argument or a meltdown depending on who you ask is quite amusing in the middle of a this powder keg of a game and it hasn't gotten to the half hour mark, let alone half-time.
Willie Ormond and Sir Alf Ramsay, The two managers for Scotland and England respectably, stand there on the touchline glancing at each other with Ramsay being the more nervous of the two and for good reason. He had faced a vile reception by the English media following their defeat to Sweden and many were now calling for his head should they lose to Scotland which would surely end their World Cup hopes. To be an England manager and lose your last game in charge would be a terrible thing, but even
worse if it was to Scotland and at a World Cup. England do try to push forward but Scotland seem more than happy to hang onto their 1-0 lead and play defensive football. As the first half winds down, the Tartan Army are making most of the noise in the ground with them chanting, '
If you hate the fucking English clap your hands'.
Despite Scotland holding onto the lead, throughout the final ten minutes of the game, England do look better with them having more of the ball and even some of the Scottish players, either thinking of the first half ending already or perhaps even what might happen next, make some foolish mistakes with one such embarrassing moment coming in the thirty-ninth minute when Jim Holton has the ball but suffers from a slip which has him lose the ball, much to the amusement of the English support and accidently lets the ball roll off the field for an England throw in Nonetheless despite England looking the better team prior the end, they fail to turn their chances into goals in which the first half ends right after Keegan almost scores a great chance that just goes wide of the post and the players walk of with England 1-0 down still.
In the heart of the action as England try to find the equaliser just before the break
Yet despite many wanting all things to happen on the field, one would imagine that sooner or later another scuffle would break out in the stands and sadly it does with terrible scenes, thankfully not caught on camera due to this being in the middle of half-time, the two teams are inside their dressing rooms and unaware of what is going on outside in which there is the sorry sight of two bloody faced Scotland and England fans who have gone on at whack a glass beer bottle at each other causing the blood the drip down their clothes. It is not the atmosphere nobody wanted for a family and it is just another example of how huge this game really is for both these teams. As it stood though, England looked liked they were going to be heading home and Scotland would be staying a little longer in West Germany...
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Throughout the interval just before the second half begins, the German security try all they can to try and calm down the two sets of supporters as several fights in random pockets in the ground take place among the huge crowd of nearly fifty-eight thousand packed in the ground. Indeed years later, the head of the German police there had even considered stopping the game should things get more violent though others would blame the poor planning and operations that had seen the rather foolish and dangerous idea of putting both fans together instead of segregating them which honestly seemed to be causing a lot of the problems here. Lord knows if this operation was carried out with a crowd three times this size at either Wembley or Hampden Park..
Finally, upon with the players returning the field, the second half gets underway and it seems that after quite a big team talk that Ramsay has had with his players, England start to play much better and the Scots' original idea of holding back is seemly ruined as the England forwards all start to bring more chance of a goal for the team and Peters nearly scores in the forty-seventh minute, only for Scotland's David Harvey to make a vital save in the bottom left corner. Despite the save, England fans start to find their voice again after seeing the good play that their team is showing early on in this second half. Willie Ormond then makes a substitution just two minutes later after that chance in which Gordon McQueen goes on for Jim Holton after Ormond fears that the tension from the terraces is starting to get to him after it looks like the tackles he's been performing could see him being sent off.
Despite England having the better half in terms of possession, they just can't seem to find the goal and it looks like it could be a repeat of the Sweden game in which all Scotland need to do is defend all game. Then in the fifty-six minute of the game, Alan Ball attempts to cross the ball over to Allan Clarke just on the very edge of the box, however Sandy Jardine makes a rotten lunge in on the Englishman to get the ball off him and instead it only causes the Arsenal player to come crashing down right on the edge of the box. It looks like it might be a freekick for England in a rather tempting area, however every Scotsman is shocked when the referee blows his whistle and points to the spot for a penalty to England. The England fans in the ground roar in delight and the Scottish players all start protesting to the East German referee that challenge didn't happen in the box. However despite the fierce protests, it is still going to be a penalty and it'll be down to Kevin Keegan to take it and hopefully get England back level.
All flying heads during the second half between the two teams
With little error (as well as perhaps a good deal of praying from many Englishmen), he slots the ball past Harvey right down the middle with great confidence and England are back in the game in which while it has been a goal that the Three Lions have deserved, time is now running out for one of teams to find a winner that will save their World Cup; as it stands a draw for both will be terminal for both sides. The supporters are giving it their all which rubs off the players as in the sixty-first minute, Bremner and Trevor Brooking come together as the as the former tries to get the ball of the Englishman's feet, but they end up being rather tangled up and the fiery Scot finally loses his cool and elbows the England player in the face and sends him crashing to the ground with him covering his face.
The England players, bench and supporters both in the ground and watching the game back home all cry out for the referee to get involved and sure enough, he does. But to the horror of the Scots, the referee brings out a red card for Bremner. much like regarding the penalty, the Scottish players protest angrily as they surround the referee and their up-close nature is so that Joe Jordon finds himself booked just getting right up into the face of the East German referee. It seems that now half of the Scottish team is booked and any discipline they had has now fallen apart. Despite them trying all they can to reverse the choice, Bremner has to do the walk of shame and the Scotland captain gains the unwanted reputation of being the very first player to be sent off in a England/Scotland match; an award that no one will want to have.
Things aren't any better with the Tartan Army, now feeling great frustration of how things are now not going their way, try to pick a fight with their English counterparts on the terraces and the police try their best to stop the game turning into a bloodbath though the players and vaguely aware of something going on up in the stands, all they can do is keep their head down and play the game and hope the matter can be solved sooner or later. For any any sporting journalist watching crowd it has become something like that of a bad tempered rock concert that will sooner or later end with a riot and given the reputation of hooligans being here, the worst case scenario looks to be on the cards for all concern. With the Scots now down to ten men, the English seen a good chance to try and use this to their advantage to try and win the game.
Kevin Keegan, the scorer of England's equaliser, during the second half of the match
Yet the Scots, with their plans more or less ruined, can only try and play deep trying to keep at bay a rampant English onslaught inside the Scottish defence with the game now turning something like that of the Alamo with the Scots only very occasionally making some chances to get forward, but most the chances seen are English. With just ten minutes to go and despite England now looking like a team up and running, the score for some crazy reason remains 1-1 thanks to some desperate and dogged Scottish defending though as it would stand, England and Scotland would both find themselves crashing out of this World Cup with their last group games being nothing more than glorified friendlies unless one of them can find a winner.
To add to the mad situation unfolding here in Frankfurt, there has also now has been a total of eight bookings altogether and pretty much shows just what a violent and brutal game it has been that hasn't been a good advert for British football in contrast to the breathless 4-3 both sides played in the last World Cup. The Scots have done themselves good by holding off the furious English assault but it can't last forever as then in the eighty-eighth minute, Allan Clarke finally breaks through the Scottish defence and puts the ball into the back of the net which looks as though as put England in front, saved their World Cup hopes and finally kill of Scotland's World Cup hopes. However his celebrations are short lived when for some reason, the East German referee chalks of the goal and there seemly isn't any sign of offside flag being shown in which confuses both sides. It is pretty much a resemblance of the Sweden game with much like that penalty not being awarded, so too has been what looks like a perfectly good goal for the Three Lions
The England players now angrily protest not being given the goal and the English supporters cry out, '
Dirty German bastard!' at the referee. However the Scots have been let off the hook, a rather
big hook, and yet still have a slim chance to snatch a winner from the jaws of defeat and instead turn the tables on the English. Alas, time is now near it's end. Despite the yelling and chanting become more intense from both supporters as the game enters it's final few moments, both sides throw out any plans they might've had before and Scotland start pushing forward to strike home the final blow. However in the end, neither side can score and before anyone knows it, the whistle is blown to end the game at 1-1 and for both sides hopes in this World Cup. England and Scotland have caused each other to crash out of the tournament, something that one couldn't make up.
The reaction that says it all at the end of the game
An almighty roar of booing roars around the ground as at firsts, fans on both sides cry out abuse at their teams before many walk off out of the stadium dejected with their World Cup hopes now all but at an end. While the game itself would be a rather sad affair for both teams, the game itself would not be remembered but sadly for another reason after the game in which why it would become infamous in the history of British football but perhaps in all of the World Cup. An event to be known as 'The Battle of Frankfurt'. With the tension that had been building up at the start of the day, the random fights in an unsegregated stadium, poor police tactics, much alcohol that was latter found to be consumed by both sets of supporters and finally the final result which ended both teams' hopes of reaching the final, it could only end one way.
Feeling angry and upset at what has happened, the bad police handling saw both fans meeting outside the ground in which given the circumstances of what had happened which like a red rag to a bull and thus from what was a handful of supporters would soon snowball and erupt into a huge street brawl in the city of Frankfurt in which England and Scotland fans decided to let their boiling frustrations at each other in a event that nearly lasted for the next few hours and with the cameras present on seeing this horrible scenes of vandalism and brawling happening, it was the worst case scenario that the FA and SFA had feared would happen and now they could only watch in despair as Britain's dirty little secret of football hooligans was there for all the world to see.
Though the police would eventually control the situation which saw over six hundred people arrested and many more either deported back to the UK are injured in what can be described as one of the worst scenes of football hooligan violence ever seen. The day itself at that point is said to be the darkest moment of British football in which FIFA and the Frankfurt authorities fine the FA and SFA an undisclosed sum of money, which is rumour to be in the millions though there is no way of confirming this, over the failure to control their supporters and even another from FIFA and UEFA who threaten that they will ban the two nations should something like this should ever happen again. To sum it up for the rest of the world watching on, one German journalist who had been at the Frankfurt game and saw what happened would later write down on the front page of one Germans newspaper saying, '
No football please, we're British' as it showed a picture of the fans fighting each other on the streets.
Rare news footage of a scene from the 'Battle of Frankfurt'
The anti-climax would be made more apparent on 3rd July when both teams played their final group games with England losing 1-0 to the hosts and eventually winners West Germany and Scotland losing 2-1 to Sweden who would make it to the third-place game where they'd lose to Argentina. Thankfully there wasn't anymore hooligan action in which a combination of deportation and many supporters who just wanted to go home following the draw though in a classic case of the tabloid twisting the truth around, they went to town on the former in saying about ten thousand supporters had all been deported from West Germany and would be facing lifetime bans though the reality was that the number of those who were was in fact much lower but alas, it seemed like everyone wanting to stick the knife into the football supporters.
Speaking of which, the fallout from Frankfurt would mark serious changes for the game in the UK going forward. With the whole world having seen the shameful scenes action was needed though the question was in terms of the international game of what to do. The rather brutal answer would be, as suggested by one certain Jock Stein was to end the British Home Championship in which he had felt, at least from a Scottish perspective, that only the England game and beating them seemed to be all the Scottish supporters cared about and that they should think that there was more to world than just playing England, not to mention the huge amount of money the SFA was getting in compared to most games in the Home Championship. It had been an idea he had thought about for a while now and with the thought of nationalism being bred from these games as well as more hooligan action happening, it would be with a heavy heart that the FA and SFA would announce that the 1975 Home Championship would be the final one though both the FAW and IFA were not happy at the news fearing the money they'd lose out all on what they said were a handful of mindless hooligans who had ruined it for everyone and that this tournament had been sacrificed just to please those at the top.
Many supporters shared the sentiment of the latter two associations but with hindsight and in a ever increasing world, the old Home Championship was looking more dated the more times each of the Home Nations went to the World Cup and the more money that was awarded for those who did make it, many soon began to take on Stein's mindset. The following year in May, the very last Home Championship was played in which ultimately England would win by beating Scotland 5-1 at Wembley and it was a bittersweet outcome in which that championship marked the end of an era. An era in which the Home Nations would no longer play each other, even talks of at least games between England and Scotland could carry on were shot down (likely in the wake of the Frankfurt scenes) and thus a brave new world appeared that was far greater than those games in the British Isles. The Home Championship would be nothing more than memories and while there have been countless talks in the decades since then to bring back the games, they have often come to nothing. The next tournament to see a post-Home Championship world would be Euro 1976 and who, if any, would make it. A strange new world had opened up...
Final results of England and Scotland's second round games at the 1974 World Cup
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Well then, 1974 ended with a bang though not for all the right reasons. Quite similar to how it all happened in the old TL though the consequences here are far more in which in big twist of history is that the Home Championship is over in 1975 and thus many things such as Wembley 1977 and NI winning it permanently in 1984 are all butterflied away sadly and even more sad from a Scottish perspective is that poor old Stewart Kennedy will be the last thing we'll remember of Scotland in that tournament which in a way makes this both a Dystopian and Utopian TL all at once. Not sure what to think of that.
Anyway, the idea of getting rid of the Home International much earlier than OTL has more truth to it than you'd think in which Jock Stein did say that it should be stopped but alas it carried on for many years afterwards which did see attendances, other than the Scotland/England games, fall away. This does happen here with perhaps a very good excuse to finally end it which in terms of hooligan action might be a good or bad thing depending on who you ask. So yeah, Euro 1976 is next and this is first big change that never happened in the old TL and if you are Welsh, you might say that an old wrong will be righted...
Before we go though for those who are interested how the other group went, here it is:
So there we are, what did you think and what changes to you see coming in either Euro 1976 or beyond? Fair to say a lot of butterflies will all be at work here going forward so I hope you enjoyed and until next time, catch you all later!