News of the World Football Annual 1966-67

As the dust began to settle on the 1966 World Cup, English football realigned its sights once again on domestic matters. For the top club managers in the land, it was time to stiffen the sinews and summon up the blood. Many knew that great success was within touching distance, whether it be in the League, cups or European competitions. Hope was in the air and for some it seemed only a matter of time before a piece of silverware was rightfully earned.

In the News of the World Football Annual 1966-67, Bill Shankly spoke of his team’s growing appetite for continental glory. Liverpool had reached the European Cup semi-finals at their first attempt in 1964-65 and followed it with a defeat in the final of the Cup-Winners’ Cup against Borussia Dortmund the following season. Now they were ready to try and go one better in the European Cup of 66/67 and Shankly was in confident mood.

“Not once in 1965-66 did we lose two successive matches” he said. “It was a testimony to the players that they bounced back after each defeat. And only 14 men were called upon in our 43 League and Cup fixtures; one of them, Bobby Graham, appearing only in the final game away to Nottingham Forest.”

The history books show that the increasing pressures on Liverpool’s minimal band of players resulted in a demanding and ultimately unsuccessful season for them. Their European Cup campaign started in stuttering fashion with a play-off win against Romanian side Petrolul Ploieşti, only to end in the Second Round with a thumping 7-3 aggregate defeat to a Johan Cruyff-inspired Ajax. They fared little better on the home front - 10 defeats led them to a fifth place finish in the League Championship, while their local rivals Everton ended their FA Cup run in the fifth round.

Bobby Charlton was similarly hopeful about Manchester United’s upcoming season. Having recently received the Footballer of the Year award, the England international was pleased at his personal fortunes, but less happier with his team’s exit from the previous season’s European Cup at the semi-final stage.

“Don’t let me beat about the bush” said Charlton. “Defeat by Partizan of Yugoslavia… was a shattering blow to United. After our great 5-1 Lisbon victory over Benfica, we felt it was our year - and that we could become the first British club to win the prize.”

Little did Bobby Charlton know that exciting times were ahead. The 1966-67 season saw Celtic become the first British team to win the European Cup while Manchester United won the First Division championship. That in turn allowed United to compete in the European Cup in 1967-68 and go on to become the second British winner of the trophy.

Tommy Docherty seemed less happy with his lot as Chelsea manager. His side were facing a season that for once didn't involve playing in Europe, although it wasn't for the want of trying. Beaten by Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup semi-finals the season before and thumped 5-0 by Barcelona in an Inter-Cities Fairs Cup semi-final play-off, Docherty felt that his side were on the verge of greatness.

“Now the target for Chelsea in the months ahead is crystal clear. With a playing staff which I believe I have strengthened as the result of incoming and outgoing transfers, we must establish ourselves as England’s Number One club. And that means winning League or Cup, or both if it can be done.”

Yet again, Chelsea came close but not close enough. Though the 1966-67 season started badly for Docherty when Peter Osgood broke his leg in October 1966, Chelsea ultimately reached the FA Cup Final in 1967, but were beaten 2-1 by Tottenham. A ninth-place finish in the League completed another disappointing season for The Blues and in October 1967, Docherty resigned as manager. Ironically, most of the team he’d put together finally did win some silverware a few years after his departure and undoubtedly became one of the top clubs in the country around the turn of the decade.

The News of the World Annual once again provided a review of the previous season’s events in its ‘Football Diary’ feature. Here we get a tantalising glimpse into not just the world of football but British life in the mid-to-late sixties.

Before the 1965 season got underway, Fulham’s chairman and comedian Tommy Trinder received a £50 fine for “failing to give written undertaking not to repeat remarks he’d made on TV about referees.” Alan Ball, Nobby Stiles and Pat Crerand were also out of pocket before the World Cup-winning season. All three were fined between £75 and £100 “following incidents in Continental matches.”

At Manchester City it was all change as the Maine Road club appointed Joe Mercer as their new manager, shortly followed by his assistant, Malcolm Allison. Unable to play their part as the season started, however, were Gordon Banks who had a broken wrist, and Luton’s David Pleat who had a leg fracture. For one of them, a full recovery would be vital to England’s chances of becoming world champions. (Clue: It wasn’t David Pleat.)

In October, the first soccer match shown on closed-circuit TV took place as Coventry City’s fans watched their team’s match at Cardiff on four big screens erected at Highfield Road. Coventry played in the red and white striped shirts of Stoke to aid visibility for their fans watching 120 miles away. Coventry went on to win 2-1.

Hooliganism was on the increase with disturbances taking place at Manchester United, Burnley and Huddersfield, while in November, England’s 16-month unbeaten run of 10 games came to an end after a 3-2 defeat to Austria at Wembley. They became only the third team after Hungary and Sweden to beat England at home.

November 1965 was also the month when Brian Clough’s managerial career began as he took the reigns at Hartlepools United. The following month, future Northern Ireland boss Billy Bingham started his managerial career at Southport.

At the start of 1966, however, the worrying increase in off-the-field violence took a shocking turn for the worse as Everton manager Harry Catterick was “kicked and knocked down by young Everton hooligans following defeat at Blackpool.”

On the field, things weren't much better. In February 1966, a match between Leeds and Valencia in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup saw both teams dismissed from the field for 10 minutes after a “fierce brawl” as police intervened to bring the matter under control. After the match resumed, three players were sent off, one of which was Jack Charlton.

In mid-March, a flurry of transfer activity saw Manchester City sign Colin Bell from Bury for £40,000 after Mike Summerbee had arrived at Maine Road the previous August. Allan Clarke switched from Walsall to Fulham for £35,000 while Rodney Marsh travelled the short distance from Fulham to QPR for £15,000.

At the end of the month, the World Cup had been stolen while on display in London and found again a week later by a dog called Pickles. Where shock value was concerned, that was nothing - in early April, Bobby Moore supposedly wanted to leave West Ham and was ‘seeking a new club,’ according to the Annual.

Finally, as the season ended amidst further reports of hooliganism, sendings-off and other turmoil, it was time for awards to be handed out to the biggest achievers. Manchester City won promotion to the First Division, Liverpool won the League Championship, Everton won the FA Cup, and the Football Writers Association made Bobby Charlton their Footballer of the Year.

A season of highs and lows reviewed and another one eagerly anticipated by the News of the World Football Annual. Yet for all that, the book missed out on the greatest event of them all. Because of an early printing deadline, the World Cup of 1966 was regrettably absent from any of its pages. Ah, never mind. It’s not like England were going to win it or anything.

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News of the World Football Annual 1974/75

I've often argued that British football had far more in the way of strong personalities in the 1970's, and this little book proves my point nicely. It was published on the eve of the 1974/75 season and everywhere you looked there was an important someone somewhere doing something of note.

Frank Butler, Sports Editor for the News of the World was first up to sing the praises of Joe Mercer, one of the acknowledged nice guys of the domestic game in England. Mercer, nearing his sixtieth birthday, had just completed his spell as caretaker manager of England. With three wins and three draws from his seven games in charge (not to mention a shared British Home Championship with Scotland in 1974), some were wondering whether there was any need for Don Revie to take over permanently.

Certainly the players in the England squad at the time were happy to acknowledge his casual style of leadership. 'Uncle Joe' merely wanted them to enjoy playing and to express themselves with flair and skill on the pitch. "The side played with a new freedom" said Butler, "without tension and even England's most severe critics agreed the team would have done well in the World Cup."

Commendable though his reputation was, it's dubious to suggest that Mercer would have made a better job of qualifying for the Finals in West Germany than his immediate predecessor, Sir Alf Ramsey, or even his successor, Don Revie. For all that, the FA wouldn't have made many easier decisions than picking the former Leeds United manager, given his brilliant record with the Elland Road club. "[First Division] Champions in 1969 and 1974, they were runners-up on five occasions - 1965, '66, '70, '71 and '72" the Annual told us, "and never, during the last six years of the Revie regime, did they finish out of the top three."

Interestingly, the Annual was quick to point out Revie's acknowledgement that he'd been prejudiced against international football while at Leeds. "It was rarely easy for the last manager, Sir Alf Ramsey, to secure Leeds players for England games, and even Revie now admits that on the question of releasing players for the national team: 'Nobody has been more guilty than me personally at Leeds.'"

Revie's former club captain Billy Bremner wrote of his eagerness to take part in the European Cup, but even he couldn't have foreseen the eventful season that was to come. To begin with, he'd have to face the indignity of being sent off in the Charity Shield match along with Kevin Keegan in Brian Clough's first game in charge. Bremner's new manager would also face dismissal, only 44 days after replacing Revie, and with Jimmy Armfield finally picked to replace Clough, Leeds were almost eliminated in the Fourth Round of the FA Cup against non-league Wimbledon. Though they eventually reached the quarter finals, it was the European Cup that ultimately proved their main shot at glory. Sadly for Bremner, Leeds Unitedwere defeated 2-0 by Bayern Munich in what can only be described as a contentious Final for any number of different reasons.

Back on the international front, Scotland were having to regroup after a disappointing World Cup during the summer of 1974. Patrick Collins, writing for the News of the World, was philosophical about what lay in store for the Scots. "The next stage will be the important one, for it will tell us if they mean to learn from their experiences of Dortmund and Frankfurt, or if they are content to be known as the side which might have made a real impression if only goal average had been kinder."

He went on: "But, as events in West Germany demonstrated, there are genuine signs that they intend to live in the real world where games are not decided by tanner ba' players, and where they do not reward you with the World Cup because you happened to beat England. It may just be that Scottish football is about to set off in a new and exciting direction... the season ahead will show us how they are preparing for that journey." The records show that Scotland went on to win only three of their next nine games, and it wouldn't be until late 1975 that Willie Ormond's team would return to some truly convincing form.

A quick look through the statistical pages of the News of the World Annual provides the usual fascinating snapshot of who was at the top and bottom of their game as the 1974/75 season was about to start. Manchester United were gearing up for life in the Second Division after finishing 21st of 22 teams in 1973/74. Heading in the opposite direction, Luton Town and Carlisle United were set to begin a rare campaign in the First Division, and though they were both relegated at the end of it, they did at least bring a fresh feel to top flight football that season.

As for the previous season, 1973/74, the Football Diary feature in the Annual provides a great summary of the events that took place and the state of the English game. Here are a few highlights:

6 Sept 1973 - "George Best returns yet again to Manchester United, promising never to run away again and revealing that his return to football was prompted by a visit by Sir Matt Busby."

26 Sept 1973 - Scotland qualify "for the World Cup Finals for the first time since 1958 with a 2-1 win over Czechoslovakia"

15 Oct 1973 - "English football begins its most traumatic week for many seasons with the news that Brian Clough has resigned as manager of Derby County."

17 Oct 1973 - "England go out of the World Cup. Despite making all the running in the decisive Wembley match against Poland, they can only manage a 1-1 draw. Sir Alf Ramsey says: "If I could play the match again, I would do the same. The team played as well as it could have played.""

21 Oct 1973 - "Poland are beaten 1-0 by the Republic of Ireland in Dublin."

22 Oct 1973 - "Ipswich manager Bobby Robson turns down the vacant managership of Derby and Derby players deliver a letter to the directors demanding the return of Clough and Taylor."

23 Oct 1973 - "Astonishing scenes at Derby as the players demand to see the board, then Dave Mackay, manager of Nottingham Forest, is appointed new manager."

2 Nov 1973 - "Brian Clough becomes the new manager of Third Division Brighton at a reported £15,000 a year."

21 Nov 1973 - "Derby players pull back from the brink of another threat. They had threatened to boycott training sessions at the club before their match with Leeds."

29 Dec 1973 - "Leeds draw 1-1 at Birmingham and establish a new record First Division start to a season of 23 games without defeat."

3 Jan 1974 - "The first big shock of 1974 - Chelsea place Peter Osgood and Alan Hudson on the transfer list after a training row. George Best fails even to make training and goes missing from Manchester United again."

6 Jan 1974 - "The great Sunday soccer experiment - prompted by the power crisis - gets under way. Four FA Cup ties are played and each club attracts its biggest gate of the season."

20 Jan 1974 - "Sunday League football gets under way - and nine of the twelve home clubs are rewarded with their largest gates of the season."

24 Jan 1974 - "George Best, transfer-listed by Manchester United, decides to give up the game for good."

23 Feb 1974 - "Leeds lose their first League match of the season, by 3-2 at Stoke. Their run had stood at 29 unbeaten games."

14 Mar 1974 - "Bobby Moore leaves West Ham and joins Fulham for £25,000."

24 Apr 1974 - "Leeds are the League champions, securing their title by virtue of Arsenal's success over Liverpool at Anfield."

1 May 1974 - "Sir Alf Ramsey is sacked as manager of England. Joe Mercer takes over as caretaker manager."

...which neatly brings us full circle. 1974/75 would have to go a long way to match the rollercoaster of events of the previous season, but with the likes of Revie, Clough, Bremner and Keegan constantly in the spotlight, it would never be far away from the headlines.

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The News of the World Football Annual 1983/84

The arrival of the 1983/84 season prompted many to wonder how far football had fallen in recent times. The game had lost its allure and was in something of a tailspin but The News of the World Football Annual, through its anecdotal ponderings, acknowledged this for the ages and tried to offer some cause for hope at the start of a landmark campaign.

The season began with a new name for an old competition. The Football League was now known as the Canon League. According to the Annual, an announcement was made on May 5 1983 that a deal had been struck with the Japanese camera and business equipment maker to the tune of £3.2 million, lasting three years.

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News of the World and Empire News Football Annual 1961-62

Behind the creased and crumbling cover of this 50-year-old pocket book lies not only 384 pages of facts, figures and statistics but a fading image of a football world few of us can fully appreciate.

Things were very different at the start of the 1960’s, including the title of our subject. The News of the World Football Annual (as it came to be known for more than 40 years) started out as the Athletic News Football Supplement and Club Directory in 1887. Little more than a pamphlet back then, it covered more and more content with every passing decade and merged with other similar publications, changing names as it did so. In late summer 1960, the 70th edition of the annual appeared, and for the first time, The News of the World saw its name on the front cover.

Stats, stats and more stats

The purpose of the book remained constant; to cram in enough anecdotal and factual information to sustain the most ardent football fan for an entire season. Beyond the hand-tinted picture of Sheffield Wednesday’s Ron Springett and Don Megson on the cover, there was more than enough to satisfy the enthusiastic youngster or the seasoned veteran, whatever their interests.

Though football had existed for around 100 years at the time of publication, the book showed the sport as only just entering a new era where foundations were being laid for the game we know today. The £20 maximum wage had only just been abolished (allowing players to earn anything up to £100 a week), the England team were preparing for only their fourth World Cup tournament and the great old teams of the 1950’s were slowly making way for the sides keen to make an impact in the 60’s and 70’s.

One-man teams

On this latter point, the NoTW Annual features a piece written by Tom Finney OBE, a legend for Preston and England who had retired in 1960. The Lancashire-born striker lamented his old club’s relegation at the end of the previous season and noted how other big teams of the era had only just avoided a similar fate. “Blackpool only just escaped it” said Finney. “How they will miss the inspiration of Stanley Matthews when the old maestro finally decides to call it a day. Without the skill and drive of Nat Lofthouse, Bolton Wanderers just steered clear of the danger zone. And how would Fulham have fared without the genius of Johnny Haynes?”

Tom Finney wondered whether the great teams of the day were too reliant on a single star-name player to get success. If they were, the removal of the £20-per-week wage limit in January 1961 was designed to keep more of them in the British game. Prior to the pioneering work of Jimmy Hill, chairman of the PFA, many Italian clubs were offering vastly better pay for any professional willing to up sticks for the continent. The Annual reported how Jimmy Greaves had joined Milan in June 1961 for guaranteed earnings of £40,000 over three years plus a £10,000 signing on fee. Aston Villa’s Gerry Hitchens went to Inter in the same month for £25,000 over three years, while Charlton’s Eddie Firmani made Inter his second Italian club in June 1958 having already spent two years at Sampdoria. Just before the book was published, Denis Law left Manchester City for Torino for a British record fee of £100,000.

Costs increase, squads shrink

Such a slow bleed of England’s top talent to the continent was of great concern – not least because attendances were falling and clubs were operating at a loss. Ivan Sharpe wrote how “the day of the club with a staff of 50 or more professionals seems to be over” and lamented that the ability of teams to nurture young talent could be severely threatened. Sharpe also commented that 17 of the 44 First and Second Division clubs were financially in the red, thereby causing a pall of doom to hang over the game in England.

It wasn’t all depressing news, however. Malcolm Gunn was quick to highlight the positive change in fortunes for East Anglian clubs at the time. Ipswich Town had returned to the top flight as Division Two champions under the promising leadership of Alf Ramsey. The total cost of the team? Just £30,000 – around the same price paid for a typical top flight player.

Gunn also highlighted the great achievements of Peterborough United – champions of Division Four in their first ever league campaign of '60-'61and newly-crowned record holders for scoring 134 goals in their 46 games. As for Norwich City, they too were on the up-and-up; 1961-62 would be the season in which they won the Football League Cup in only its second outing

Spurs at the Double

Elsewhere, the buzz was all about Tottenham, recent double winners proudly lead by captain Danny Blanchflower. As well as reflecting on the rare achievement of winning both major competitions in English football, Blanchflower also took the opportunity to write about the growing demand for substitutions to be allowed in the FA Cup Final. The future Northern Ireland manager went one step further by calling for subs to be allowed in every Cup round. “Supposing Leicester City had got to Wembley by knocking out a team that had been reduced to ten men [through injury]. How would they have felt if, in the Final, they were allowed what their earlier opponents were denied?” said Blanchflower.

Yes, things were certainly different back then and a glance through the five-page 'Football Diary' of the previous season illustrates this perfectly.

On October 26th 1960, Charlton and Middlesbrough drew 6-6, equalling the record for the most goals in a drawn Division Two match. 'T.Docherty', an Arsenal and Scotland international became coach at Chelsea on February 10th 1961 - ten full years before taking the reins of the Scottish national team. March 17th 1961 saw the appointment of Don Revie as manager at Leeds United and within three years had got the side promoted to Division One. Finally, on June 26th 1960, the great Arsenal, Sunderland and England centre forward Charles Buchan passed away. At the end of his football career, he turned his hand to journalism and eventually gave his name to the world's first football magazine, 'Football Monthly'.


And as if all that wasn't enough, the Annual also had plenty of froth and nonsense to break up the formality of endless words and statistics. Adverts for 'Gent's Drip-Dry Shortie Raincoats', appliances to increase your height and gold-plated lucky charms were littered throughout the publication along with a welter of ads for bookmakers and pools companies alike. Some 50 years before British TV screens were treated to the sight of Ray Winstone's revolving head for Bet365, it's fair to say the public were tempted into the tantalising world of gambling in an altogether more serene way.

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