2 April 2025

My life lived through football has not been in vain

Turns out I’ve been at quite a few major societal events.

Wasn’t it exciting watching England take on the might of Albania at Wembley? And three days later the Lions of Latvia? I was thrilled by Our Boys doing the business, and their new German manager. We will have to get used to his black cloak, if that’s what it is, as opposed to a waistcoat, and his baseball cap, and all that pointing. I liked the fact that he brought back so many pensioners. Me next, I hope.

And the paper darts which fluttered over Wembley before half time in the Albanian game, signalling crowd boredom. Jolly rude. Don’t they know Albanians and Latvians have feelings? I could not personally see many changes in tactics, but what do I know? Anyway, I do love square passing. I could watch it all night. Which I did, till I fell asleep. Most of all I was thrilled to see Wembley. As I always am.

Who would have thought that two of the main obsessions in my long-legged life would elevate me into one of the most exclusive clubs there can possibly be? That’s according to a recent survey done by the London Museum Docklands. What they did was assemble a list of the top historical moments people wish they had seen. The list included watching Hadrian’s Wall being built – I missed that, but I have walked it; the Titanic being launched – missed that too, but I do remember the Queen’s Coronation in 1953; the building of Stonehenge in, er, whenever it was; the Live Aid concert in 1985; and the first performance of Romeo and Juliet in London in 1595. In a vote, the event most people would like to have seen took place on 30 July 1966 at Wembley – and I was there. Still have my ticket to prove it: K 26, Row 9, Seat 37. Cost £5. Massive for the time, as normally you could get into Wembley for 10/6.

Yes, the World Cup final, when England beat Germany and became world champions – a feat unlikely to be repeated in my lifetime, or the lifetime of any living creature. Humans, I mean. My tortoise might make it. They can live for hundreds of years.

Rather touching, really, that the 1966 World Cup win should be what the nation would really, really like to have witnessed. It doesn’t say how many people voted or who compiled the longlist. I suspect it was one of those surveys done by a PR firm as a cheap way of getting a product or venue into the papers – in this case the London Museum Docklands. But it pleased me to see Wembley 1966 right up at the top. All of the England team from that day are now dead, except for Geoff Hurst. I expect by now the majority of the crowd that day has also popped it. But I am hanging on.

I wish my mother was still alive so I could say, “There you are, Mam – I was not wasting all my youth playing football in the street, or going to watch football. It has now landed me among the elite. So there.”

Right, guess which was next in the poll, not very far behind Wembley – the second most important historical moment people wish they had witnessed? Number two was watching the Beatles perform live between 1963 and 1966, when they were at the peak of their powers. I watched them loads of times in the Sixties, close up, not just on stage but sitting beside them in Abbey Road while they were creating and recording. I remember thinking at the time that if they have a row and chuck me out, well, I have been there and seen them play.

I had the same feeling a few years later, sitting in the dressing room at White Hart Lane at half time watching Bill Nicholson bollocking his Spurs team. It is the fantasy of all footy fans to be on the inside. Again, I thought, if he chucks me out and I never get a book out of it – I will have been there.

So lucky me. I witnessed the top two most cherished events of the modern world, British section. How many others have managed that? My living has not been in vain.