sutton015

Sometimes I stumble across something on sport in the 1980s that I have no recollection about. Last week I tentatively started researching a piece about England's far from successful World Cup song in 1986; and then I uncovered a gem. Why had I never heard about this before? How did this masterpiece bypass me? How on earth did this whole collaboration come about? There really were more questions than answers. Read more »

“Bobby Robson can start looking for alternative employment if England fail to reach the last 16 of the World Cup.” The words of Harry Miller in the Daily Mirror, under the headline ‘Nice and easy for England’, seemed to imply that Bobby Robson’s team basically had a bye out of the 1986 World Cup group stages. But the course for England at major tournaments is rarely smooth. Read more »

It’s strange to think that if all had gone to plan, that there would never have been a Mexico 86. No shadow on the pitch of the Azteca Stadium, no Mexican Wave, no Pique . All these sights, sounds, and memories of my first World Cup would simply not have existed if the original host country had not been forced to step aside. It should have been Colombia 86. Read more »

I compiled an A to Z of Mexico 86 four years ago, so I thought I'd give Spain 82 the same treatment. Read more »

Uruguay entered the 1986 World Cup as one of the favourites; they left with their reputation in tatters. Like it or not, there has always been a place in sport for a pantomime villain. The kind of behaviour that generally unifies opinions, as a competitor or team acts in a way that brings derision from all quarters. Think of the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, and the names Harald Schumacher and Diego Maradona immediately spring to mind. Read more »

Growing up, there were not many non-Arsenal players I admired. Cyrille Regis was one of them. This this week I'm looking back at some memories of the great man during the 1980s. RIP Cyrille. Read more »

The independent state of FIFA can be accused of a lot of things - probably best I don't expand on those for fear of legal action - but something that cannot be levelled at the governing body is that they don't know how to turn the World Cup draw into an event. Normally a very, very, very long event, that will probably last longer than England's three matches in Russia next year. Read more »

When the draw was made for the 1986 World Cup qualifying campaign, England manager Bobby Robson was taking nothing for granted. With two to qualify from England, Romania, Northern Ireland, Finland and Turkey, the press claimed it "easy pickings". But Robson urged caution. Read more »

With the 2017 Rugby League World Cup about to start, this week I am taking a look back at the 1985-88 tournament, as Australia continued their domination of the sport. Although the Rugby League World Cup had been running since 1954, the irregular staging of the tournament had not helped the event establish itself in the sporting calendar. Indeed, after the 1977 tournament, it would be another eight years before the International Board decided to resuscitate the concept. A Paris meeting in May 1985 saw the five member nations of Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, France, and Papua New Guinea agree to take part in a ninth World Cup, although a change in format meant that it was now a three-year event. Read more »

Wales failing to qualify for the 1986 World Cup was a devastating blow to their supporters. But the tragic death of Scotland manager Jock Stein put everything into perspective. Although many would say Scotland have had a monopoly on footballing tales of so near and yet so far, surely no one could digest as much disappointment as Welsh football fans in the 1980s. Missing out on World Cup qualification in 1982 on goal difference, and a minute away from Euro 84 , the last thing the Welsh nation needed was another agonising near miss during their 1986 World Cup qualification campaign. But the pain of September 10, 1985, would soon be a new chapter of Welsh woe. Read more »

Hockey was hardly a popular sport in UK during the 1980s, but for a couple of weeks in October 1986, all this changed. I have to admit that the sport of hockey had not registered much on my radar during my formative years. There were the occasional matches played at Wembley on ITV's World of Sport, but these were of little interest to me. Generally, the sport was perceived very much as a jolly pastime, a female activity lumped into the same category as netball, and certainly not part of PE at my local school. Read more »

The Rugby Union World Cup is now one of the biggest events in the sporting calendar, but it took years of negotiations and rejection before the tournament finally kicked off in 1987. Read more »

Following on from my recent piece on the top performances at the 1983 World Cup , this week I am looking back at the 1987 tournament. Featuring a typical one day innings from Allan Lamb, a superb knock in a losing cause by Dave Houghton, some explosive hitting from Viv Richards, top semi-final displays from Craig McDermott and Graham Gooch, and a contribution in the final that perhaps should get a bit more credit than it deserves. Read more »

There were a number of memorable displays at the 1983 World Cup, during a tournament in England and Wales that saw the West Indian champions finally toppled. This week I am looking back at some of the key performances during the tournament, covering the story of an inspired Zimbabwean, an unlikely West Indian hero, struggles for Sri Lanka, an inspired Indian skipper breathing life into his team, and the subsequent successes of India's seamers who took their team all the way to the ultimate prize. Read more »