GEORGE WEAH
The only African Ballon d’Or winner
CLOUGH AT DERBY
His first league title, half a century later
PETE DOHERTY
CHELSEA’S DOOM DAYS
The Libertines frontman on his QPR love
Electric fences & a club in crisis
WORLD EXCLUSIVE
SALAH
He’s already a Liverpool legend – now Mo thinks he’s the best on Earth
HIDDInK • DYCHE • CLARIDGE • TAFFAREL • ROBSOn-KAnU • BARESI
YOU ASK
the mentality was: ‘as long as you’re committed, it’s enough’. I told them that it wasn’t enough. There wasn’t a good balance of technical qualities and physical condition, and if you’re over-committed, you can go over the top. I slowed that down a bit and encouraged them to think more about football-minded solutions in games. Where does taking Australia to the 2006 World Cup, and the knockouts, rank on your list of achievements? And just how dirty was the play-off against Uruguay? All sorts went on... Alex Watson, via Facebook After we qualified for the play-off, the first thing I asked my backroom staff was whether they could provide me with information on their previous experience of playing Uruguay [in the qualifiers for 2002]. It seemed there was a detailed report about it, and one thing I noticed was how our players had been really drained and held up on several occasions in Montevideo, where they’d been preparing for five days. For example, they couldn’t get onto the training pitch as the gate key had suddenly gone. Or they were kept awake in the hotel until 4am. It meant that on the fifth day, the players were exhausted. They had also arrived from Australia on different scheduled flights, which didn’t help. So, I made sure we got a chartered flight via our airline sponsor. Initially I was told it was too expensive, but I said, “You want to go to the World Cup, right?” We travelled on this huge aircraft with all kinds of equipment. I also told the board that I wanted the training camp to be in Buenos Aires, a 20-minute flight away from Montevideo, meaning we flew to Uruguay only a day before the match. During the game, the Uruguayans didn’t play too dirty – but don’t forget that Australians can take a knock and dish them out as well! We lost 1-0 but we had the best possible recovery for the second leg, as I arranged for us to fly back immediately after the match. The Uruguayan federation requested to join us but I said, “That’ll be difficult, as we’re completely full.” I’d heard that they held up flights for the Australians in 2002, so I asked my organiser if he could book up all flights from Uruguay to Australia, then cancel them just before. It meant players from Uruguay probably had to travel separately, so they’d arrive slightly groggy. I’m not entirely proud of it, but we did it. They got a taste of their own medicine! You wouldn’t do it otherwise. It was a very exciting night. Uruguay had a really good team and in the first half had chances to score, but didn’t – we went through on penalties.
10 June 2022 FourFourTwo
Clockwise from above Taking the Socceroos on a soccer cruise; it’d be their first (and last) trip to a World Cup knockout stage; Hiddink’s record in his first Chelsea spell read P23 W17 D5 L1; Holland’s new coaching team, or the hottest Dutch sitcom of 2014?; success bossing Russia
What went through your mind when Graham Poll dished out three yellow cards for Josip Simunic during the Australia-Croatia group game? Sean Li-wen Cheong, via Facebook I only realised afterwards. It was very confusing, but we made it to the next round nevertheless. In the last 16, we faced Italy and conceded a penalty in the 93rd minute after a dive from Fabio Grosso. Lucas Neill didn’t touch him. It wouldn’t have happened nowadays with VAR, but I accept it. That night we had a farewell dinner with the squad. Everyone was on time, but then I told my staff to wait for a little bit. Thinking back to our first dinner, I deliberately arrived 10 minutes late, wearing a cap, flip-flops, Bermuda shorts and a ripped shirt. Everyone loved it. That was such a nice group of guys and we worked really well together. You were put on a stamp in Australia, are an honorary citizen of both Seoul and Eindhoven, have a club mascot named after you at De Graafschap,
HIGHS & LOWS HIGH: 1988 Leads PSV to European Cup glory in his first full managerial season LOW: 1996 Oversees Netherlands’ bitter Euros campaign as infighting takes over HIGH: 2002 Takes co-hosts South Korea on stunning run to World Cup semis LOW: 2006 Heartbreak with Australia as Italy net late, late last-16 winner HIGH: 2009 Becomes Chelsea boss in February and guides Blues to FA Cup glory
and received a lifetime achievement award from the Royal Dutch Football Association. Which of those honours is the best? It’s the stamp, right? Carl Anderson, Melbourne [Laughs] They’re all great! The honorary citizenship of South Korea is pretty exceptional, as they’ve only awarded it to a few people. But the thing which has given me the most satisfaction is the foundation that we started there. The initial ambition was to establish football pitches for blind children in all of the World Cup cities, and there are something like 30 pitches today, also in other places. Now the foundation is focused on helping disadvantaged people requiring leukaemia or eye-lens
surgery. While the foundation bears my name, my girlfriend, Liesbeth, has done a lot for it. She said, “Now you’re very well-known here, you have to give something back.” When I’m working somewhere, she blends with the local society, meets people, then sometimes discovers things you won’t often come across in the so-called ‘perfect society’. Having taken Russia to the Euro 2008 semi-finals, how disappointing was it to miss out on the 2010 World Cup? Benjamin Clark, via Facebook That was such a great pity. We lost the second play-off game 1-0 to Slovenia, when a draw would have taken us to the tournament, so the second phase was disappointing as we didn’t make it to South Africa. But overall I look back with fondness. We did very well at the Euros, beating England in qualifying and then reaching the semis, which was a fantastic achievement. We had a really good team, with players like Andrey Arshavin and Yuri Zhirkov who later ended up in the Premier League.
WEIRD WORLD OF FOOTBALL
MEAnWHILE In… ...London, five nations launched their shirts for the Women’s Euros – with a grandiose tribute to the Spice Girls
1
GIRL POWER
There was only one way to launch the kits for Women’s Euro 2022: by sending some models to a hotel and getting them to emulate the Spice Girls. One brand did just that as they unveiled six shirts for the tournament, which begins on July 6 and ends 25 days later with the final at Wembley.
12 June 2022 FourFourTwo
Adidas have made the kits for Germany, Belgium, Spain, Sweden and Northern Ireland, and revealed each of the home shirts on the staircase of the St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel – even adding in Belgium’s away jersey for good measure. The location previously staged “an iconic moment of pop-culture female empowerment 26 years ago”, as the press release put it, cryptically referring to the
Spice Girls’ 1996 debut video Wannabe. In it, the five gallivanted around the hotel at a party, while Victoria flirted with a Vernon Kay lookalike and a vicar. Asked what they want, what they really, really want from the Euros, all five nations are believed to have said they wanna really, really, really wanna do as well as they possibly can, but make sure they get out of the group first. Much like Geri Halliwell, then.
UPFROnT
ASK A SILLY QUESTIOn
HAL ‘SPICE BOY’ ROBSOn-KAnU Wales’ Euro 2016 superstar talks turmeric, water balloons, sleep deprivation and mackerel majesty Interview Si Hawkins Illustration Bill McConkey Hi Hal. You’re now a top entrepreneur turning people onto turmeric – what made you become a spice merchant? Hi! When I was a teenager, I realised that my body had adverse effects to standard medications, so my dad and I went on a research binge down the library, studying natural remedies like pomegranate, pineapple, watermelon, ginger... and turmeric! It sounds like a refreshing smoothie. Well, it’s more of a shot format – you have it in one go. It’s a potent product. From when I was 17 up until a decade later, we probably ruined dozens and dozens of blenders; every kitchen top that you can imagine... If we order huge tikka masalas every night, with loads of turmeric in it, can we become international footballers? In a curry you’re having it in powdered form, but the key is to have it in its raw form and mix it with other ingredients. The blend is the unique thing. So, Euro 2016 and your Cruyff turn to fool Belgium... was down to turmeric? Everything was. I wouldn’t have been able to do it, physically – the surgeon told me I’d never play without pain and restriction again. So my whole career is down to it, really. You’re a national hero in Wales. Have you tried out that ‘never need to buy a drink’ thing when entering a pub? I have. And it does work! Apparently Jack Charlton would pay by cheque in Irish restaurants, as he knew they’d frame it and not cash it. [Laughs] I’d never thought about that; I think he’s cracked it there. I still have a chequebook actually… People joked that Jack picked players who’d holidayed in Ireland, but isn’t that how you got selected for Wales? Ha! That was at Reading. Brian Flynn, the under-21s manager, came to see
“MY WIFE ALWAYS TAKES THE MICKEY, TELLInG ME I DRESS LIKE STEVE JOBS”
Simon Church and one of the older lads – Steve Sidwell, I think – shouted out, “Brian, you should bring Robson-Kanu on board – he holidays in Wales.” He looked at me, asked, “Do you holiday in Wales?” and I said, “Well, yeah, my grandma’s Welsh…” The rest is history. We love the surprise in Brian’s voice there, maybe indicative of a man who spent one too many rainy afternoons in Aberystwyth. You went to Tenby – pretty thrilling as a kid? I can’t wait to go back there! Beautiful views, white sands, fishing – one time on a fishing trip, we caught over 100 mackerel. That was really cool. And my gran would make an incredible coffee cake: coffee sponge with coffee icing in the middle… ah, we used to love that. You must be hard to buy presents for, footballer turned entrepreneur. Do your loved ones have to go leftfield? I tend to say socks and aftershave. I’m trying to remember the weirdest thing anyone has ever given me. My brother bought me some water balloons once. I was well into my twenties by then... Is haute couture a passion, too – ever blown a huge wad on a monstrosity? No, I’m fairly standard. I get the mickey taken out of me by my wife, because she says I dress like Steve Jobs. I wear the same thing: lots of different pieces, but all in the same style. My morning preparation time is, what, 10 minutes? Have you picked up any lifestyle tips from other business bods, then: your Bill Gateses, your Elon Musks? I saw something about Nikola Tesla; he slept for two hours a night, then split his day into what he was passionate about: innovation, technology, energy. Margaret Thatcher would brag about sleeping for only four hours. She did seem quite tetchy, though. You try not to nod off during meetings – that’s not effective. I sleep for four or five hours every night, get up early and work late. I power through. Thanks for chatting, Hal! Cheers! Hal is the founder of The Turmeric Co. For more details, visit theturmeric.co
viSiT THE HOME OF THE FOOTBALL QUIZ
UPFROnT
THE ULTIMATE QUIZ fourfourtwo.com/quiz
Curious lower-league internationals, World Cup heroes and strike titans all feature in our latest selection...
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09
Ruud van Nistelrooy will start his first senior management job in the summer, at PSV. Who did he finish his playing career with in 2012? The Lionesses will take on which three countries in Group A of the Women’s Euros in July?
Kevin Betsy is now the manager of Arsenal Under-23s. For which nation was he the sole flag-flyer in the Premier League?
11 12 13
Which national team was the last to retain the World Cup – and in which year did they manage it?
On-loan Nantwich keeper Matt Gould – grandson of Bobby – got a shock call-up for which team’s World Cup play-off in March? Which Belgian Pro League outfit hired ex-Arsenal wideman Marc Overmars as technical director following his exit in disgrace from Ajax?
Which man, who has managed Barnet in five separate stints, has led the non-league England C squad since 2003?
What was significant about the Women’s Champions League game between Barcelona and Real Madrid on March 30?
The last eight seasons of the ’90s are listed below – now tell us the PFA Player of the Year winners...
1998-99 (Tottenham) 1997-98 (Arsenal) 1996-97 (Newcastle) 1995-96 (Newcastle) 1994-95 (Blackburn) 1993-94 (Manchester United) 1992-93 (Aston Villa) 1991-92 (Manchester United)
In March, who became the only club in England’s top four tiers to have defeated all of the other 91 sides in a competitive league game?
Italy’s embarrassing World Cup play-off exit to North Macedonia means their last knockout game in the competition came in which year?
A Barnsley starlet, born in Bury, made his international bow for Hungary in March. Who is he?
10
These four men have all top-scored in a Championship season since the turn of the millennium. Name them.
14 15 16 17 18
Which Spanish city – and what stadium – will stage this term’s Europa League final on May 18? Who is the youngest player to net in a Champions League final, aged 18 years and 327 days? Scotland’s last World Cup came back in 1998. Which midfielder bagged their most recent goal? Only one striker in the history of the Premier Legue has racked up 500 appearances. Who is he? In June, Wembley will host the Finalissima – a tie between which major tournament champions?
1. Malaga 2. Norway, Austria, Northern Ireland 3. Seychelles 4. New Zealand 5. Royal Antwerp 6. Port Vale 7. Paul Fairclough 8. 2006 9. It broke the attendance record for a women’s match (91,553) 10. Daryl Murphy (Ipswich, 2014-15), Matej Vydra (Derby, 2017-18), Svetoslav Todorov (Portsmouth, 2002-03), Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (Wolves, 2007-08 and 2008-09) 11. Brazil (1962) 12. Callum Styles 13. David Ginola, Dennis Bergkamp, Alan Shearer, Les Ferdinand, Alan Shearer, Eric Cantona, Paul McGrath, Gary Pallister 14. Seville (Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan) 15. Patrick Kluivert (Ajax, 1995) 16. Craig Burley 17. Emile Heskey 18. Italy and Argentina
MO SALAH
hope he’s got his slippers on...” Maybe greatness always starts with an enquiry about slip-ons – because it’s certainly how it all began for Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian was spending his very first morning at Liverpool in the summer of 2017, and he had to be dressed for the occasion. No slippers, no deal – at least if the waiting nurse had anything to do with it, her assertion couched with an authoritative tone that suggested this may not have been the first footballer’s medical she’d ever overseen. Perhaps all who aim for legendary status at Anfield must first don the comfortable footwear and win her seal of approval. Thankfully, she was never going to get any trouble from Salah. Liverpool’s new signing emerged from behind a door giggling like a schoolboy, ready for his MRI scan, wearing a pair of natty white slippers – the sort of
“I EXPECT GREAT THINGS OF MYSELF. I THINK POSITIVELY EVEN IF I DON’T ACHIEVE IT” freebies you get at a posh hotel spa – and a fetching hospital gown. “Oh, you look nice!” laughed the nurse. “You can’t take them home, though…” Spoilsport. The video of this exchange still remains on Liverpool’s YouTube channel, charting the No.11’s first day as a Red, and seems ever more surreal in the context of the five years that have followed – five years that have turned Salah into one of the greatest players in the history of an already fabled club. The nurse probably had no idea quite how significant the chuckling footballer stood in
Below “I can’t wait to start playing with Grujic and Klavan”
front of her was about to become – and she wouldn’t have been the only one. “I come back to this video every year,” a Liverpool fan wrote online recently. “None of us knew that this was the day we signed the best player in the world.” That summer, 10 players joined Premier League clubs for a fee of £40 million or more. Salah wasn’t one of them. Manchester United splashed out £75m on Romelu Lukaku and £40m on Nemanja Matic. Manchester City signed Benjamin Mendy, Kyle Walker and Bernardo Silva. Chelsea recruited Alvaro Morata and Tiemoue Bakayoko (plus a £35m Danny Drinkwater). Alexandre Lacazette moved to Arsenal, Davinson Sanchez to Spurs and Gylfi Sigurdsson to Everton. Elsewhere, Neymar switched to Paris Saint-Germain for £198m. Barcelona then shelled out £97m for Ousmane Dembele. Liverpool paid a rather more reasonable £36.9m to lure Salah from Roma, and it bought them a man who would change the club’s modern history. Now, that man is sat in front of FourFourTwo. He smiles as he thinks back to that day when he walked into the city, patted the ‘This Is Anfield’ sign for good luck and officially became a Liverpool player. The grin is because he knew exactly what was going to happen next, even if few others did. “I had a conversation with my friends the other day,” Salah tells us now. “I said, ‘Do you remember what I told you when I came – that we’re going to win the league and the Champions League?’ They laughed when I said that, because they’d supported Liverpool for a very long time. They told me, ‘Everybody comes and says the same’. “But I always expect great things from myself. Even if you don’t achieve it, I always think positively. When I arrived, I wanted to win the Premier League and I wanted to win the Champions League. I wanted to do something great for this club. In the past few years, I think we did something really good.” That’s a pretty accurate assessment of his first five campaigns on Merseyside, as the undoubted star of Liverpool’s first side since the 1980s to claim both domestic and European glory. Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, Mo Salah – his name belongs in that sort of company now, and doesn’t end there. Move over, Lionel Messi: the Egyptian in the gown and slippers may well have become the finest footballer on Planet Earth.
A DINK OF BEAUTY Ask Salah to choose his favourite Liverpool goals, and he doesn’t pick the ones you might immediately expect. He’s already bagged 153 of them in just 240 appearances by the time he sits down to chat with FFT at his home, just hours after starting for Jurgen Klopp’s side in a lunchtime fixture against Watford at Anfield. The Reds won 2-0 and he’s arrived back to his family in a decidedly good mood, even though Manchester City return to the table’s summit, thanks to victory at Burnley, shortly before our interview begins. In January, though, Liverpool had been as many as 14 points
30 June 2022 FourFourTwo
EGYPT
“This is not football. This is a war.”
A
distressed Mohamed Aboutrika was shouting into his mobile phone, live on Egyptian television, as tragedy unfolded around him at the Port Said Stadium. Four years earlier, Aboutrika had scored the winning goal for Egypt in the Africa Cup of Nations final, delivering the Pharaohs the second of what would be three consecutive continental triumphs. Now, he was trapped amid chaos, witnessing the worst moment in his country’s football history. “A fan has just died in the dressing room in front of me,” he told Al Ahly TV. “The security forces left us, they didn’t protect us. I call for the league to be cancelled. Today can never be forgotten.” On February 1, 2012, 74 people died in the Port Said disaster after a riot followed the end of a match between Al Masry and Al Ahly, the country’s dominant club. Until then, the Egyptian Premier League had been one of the most vibrant and volatile on the planet – a melting pot of inter-club rivalries and political turmoil. In a turbulent decade since, barely a single fan has been allowed inside a stadium for a domestic match.
“THE POLICE STOOD WATCHING, THEN AMBULANCES WERE LATE – I CARRIED SEVERAL DEAD FANS”
Al Ahly supporters accounted for 72 of the victims in Port Said, and many have remained steadfast in their belief about the reasons for the riot that took place: revenge. “I’m sure there are some hidden hands behind this,” Al Ahly board member Khaled Mortagy said in the days immediately after the disaster. “This is something that has been well organised.” The club’s main ultra group, Ultras Ahlawy, had been founded just five years previously, though its formative years came in a country facing increasing repression under its longserving president Hosni Mubarak. In one of the world’s largest police states, supporter groups were a rare vehicle for independent expression. Crackdowns were common – Al Ahly’s ultras were sometimes beaten or arbitrarily arrested, and trouble in stadiums was not tolerated. On the field, Egypt’s third successive Africa Cup of Nations victory in 2010 came thanks to a wide talent pool, extending beyond just Aboutrika and 184-cap midfielder Ahmed Hassan. Around the same time, Mido, Amr Zaki, Ahmed Elmohamady, Hossam Ghaly,
Clockwise from below Reaction to the Port Said tragedy; the day after the chaos; fans remember the fallen; riots were later seen in Cairo before Zamalek-ENPPI
Mohamed Shawky, Ahmed Fathi and Gedo all had spells playing in England. Inspired by that generation, a teenage Mohamed Salah made his debut for Egyptian Premier League strugglers Al Mokawloon that year. Soon, however, events began to deteriorate. After clashes with the authorities throughout a pre-season game, the Ultras Ahlawy stated that they would no longer attend matches, asking for protection against further attacks from the police. When the Arab Spring spread to Egypt at the start of 2011, the ultras said they wouldn’t officially join anti-government demonstrations, but members could take part if they wished. Many did, linking up with representatives of the Ultras White Knights (UWK) from bitter rivals Zamalek, in a rare show of unity. Cairo’s Tahrir Square was the venue for many of the protests, notably on the evening of February 1 and 2 when Mubarak followers rode camels into the crowd and all hell broke loose – 11 people were killed and 600 injured.
GEORGE WEAH charges topped Serie A with 17 points and 13 goals. Weah had scored or assisted 10 of them. Matchday two: a left-footed cross on the turn against Udinese for Baggio to bag the winner. Matchday three: two fine goals that transformed defeat into victory away at Roma. Matchday four: two unselfish assists in beating Atalanta 3-0. And then, with the Rossoneri facing reigning champions Juve at a raucous San Siro while someone dressed
as the devil sprayed the dugouts purple (no, us neither), Weah won a free-kick by juggling a bouncing ball beyond the reach of five opponents, and Marco Simone converted it. The two soon combined again for 2-0, Weah brushing off Pietro Vierchowod – named by Gary Lineker as the hardest defender he ever faced – and tucking the ball smartly past Angelo Peruzzi. Milan won 2-1. It continued. A late winner at title-chasing Lazio here, a smart assist for an equaliser in the Milan derby there… when the Rossoneri needed a goal, Weah found it. On December 23, 1995, the striker had a hand in both goals as Milan drew 2-2 with Fiorentina, who were second. The next day, he won the Ballon d’Or. That award was commonly known as the European Footballer of the Year, and with good reason: non-European players weren’t eligible. That all changed in 1995. Weah was one of six African nominees among the 50 players shortlisted, ranging from Finidi George of Champions League-winning Ajax to Japhet N’Doram, Nantes’ Chadian striker, and his win
Left and below “Catch me if you can!”; Weah and Baggio proved a potent strike duo at San Siro
was hugely significant. The Liberian called it “mission accomplished… I’d proved African players could do it at the highest level”. Serie A was the world’s best league and Weah had tamed it. He was dictating games; winning games. Milan scooped the 1995-96 Scudetto, leading uninterrupted from the first week to the last as Weah ended his debut campaign with 11 goals and 14 assists in 26 league appearances. In a 4-0 thumping of Vicenza he was responsible for all four goals, scoring none. No wonder Thierry Henry, he of the joint-most assists in a single Premier League season, identified Weah as one of his three inspirations, alongside Romario and Ronaldo. Henry said these talismen could “pick the ball up anywhere and score”, which is why the aforementioned late clincher at Lazio – and you can watch the whole match online with commentary from the legendary Peter Brackley – encapsulated the George Weah that exists in our mind’s eye. Receiving a pass far closer to the halfway line than the Lazio 18-yard-box behind him, Weah escaped a desperate hack on the turn and saw Cristiano Bergodi and Alessandro Nesta in his way. He simply flicked the ball between them, ran after it and, with his next touch, punted past keeper Francesco Mancini with insulting insouciance. Game over. A marriage of confidence and composure bore glorious offspring: it made Weah great, and great fun to watch. You didn’t do that to 1990s Italian defences. If the score was 0-0 after 87 minutes in a clash between first and third, that’s because it was meant to finish 0-0. Good job, everybody, a decent point for us both. Hang on, who’s this guy? What’s he doing? How dare he?
HELLO, MR PRESIDENT Weah didn’t play many Champions League matches for Milan. In November 1996, the reigning World and European Player of the Year received a six-match suspension for headbutting Porto defender Jorge Costa in the tunnel after full-time, breaking his nose. Costa had accidentally-on-purpose stood on Weah’s hand in their previous meeting, necessitating 16 stitches, and then made a staggeringly high tackle this night. Weah said the defender had also made repeated racist remarks, but had no witnesses. Costa
GOALS: OVERRATED, MATE Weah scooped the 1995 Ballon d’Or by a relatively comfortable margin, beating Jurgen Klinsmann to top spot with 144 points to the Bayern Munich striker’s 108. Third was Ajax’s Champions League winner Jari Litmanen on 67, 10 ahead of Alessandro Del Piero. And trailing in joint-32nd, alongside Ian Wright with one point? Alan Shearer, scorer of 37 goals in all competitions as Blackburn
50 June 2022 FourFourTwo
won the 1994-95 Premier League title, and another 20 before the year was up. If ever there was a sign of how the Ballon d’Or has shifted in the modern era, this was it. Rovers’ main man had fired the Lancastrians to a surprise title victory and liberally bludgeoned goals throughout the year, yet was basically a nobody beyond Britain’s borders. Back in a pre-internet 1995, European and international exploits were vital.
Suddenly, Shearer flew up to third in 1996 on 107 points, behind Ronaldo and Matthias Sammer. Blackburn had tried to defend their title but finished seventh, while England were knocked out of Euro 96 in the semi-finals… but crucially, their leading marksman had bagged the Golden Boot and secured a world-record transfer to Newcastle. Evidently, it’s quite helpful when folks know your name…
GEORGE WEAH
“I DIDN’T LEAVE MILAN, AND SACRIFICE £1.4M, TO BE TOLD TO SHUT UP AND F**K OFF” sued for damages and defamation, but it was wildly out of character for Weah – so much so, FIFA gave him their Fair Play Award weeks later. Context can be instructive: just a few days before headbutting Costa, UEFA president Lennart Johansson had recollected a meeting with South African administrators and declared, “It’s dark when they sit down together… ‘I thought, ‘If this lot get in a bad mood, it won’t be funny’.” This prompted a UEFA suit to explain his “joking manner” and Johansson to give the immortal apologia, “I cannot recall using the term ‘blackie’ but on the other hand I can’t exclude it.” Weah’s hefty ban, and Milan’s contrivance to finish 11th and 10th between Scudetti, meant he didn’t appear in the Champions League again until November 1999, against Galatasaray. He scored, of course, but that would be his final outing in Europe. Unwanted by Milan boss Alberto Zaccheroni and barred from joining rivals Roma, Weah went on loan to Chelsea and turbocharged his tradition of fast starts by scoring a debut winner against Tottenham. He threw himself into English culture, quickly making friends, contributing to Chelsea’s execrable FA Cup final song and wearing the trophy lid on his head after playing all bar two minutes of the Blues’ Wembley win over Aston Villa. His next spell, at Manchester City, was less successful. Even at 33 he represented a coup, City having been in the third tier two seasons previous. Immediately injuring Manchester United’s Denis Irwin in his own testimonial
Clockwise from top “No Lara, this is how to shoot”; lifting the FA Cup with Chelsea; George became the president of Liberia
must have pleased a few fans, but after 10 weeks Weah was gone, collecting £500,000 in severance on top of £250,000 in wages. “I sacrificed £1.4m from Milan to come here,” read an extraordinary statement. “I didn’t leave that for someone to tell me to shut up and f**k off.” He moved to Marseille, while City were relegated. Following a stint in Abu Dhabi, Weah retired and took the obvious next step: running his country. This time, success wasn’t instant. Running for the presidency in 2005 brought defeat and claims of political naïveté – he’d lost to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, an economist who studied at Harvard, worked for the World Bank and later won a Nobel Peace Prize – so Weah earned a high-school diploma in 2006, aged 40, then collected a Bachelor’s degree in business management and a Master’s in public administration. He lost again in 2011, but was finally elected to the senate in 2014 and, despite rarely attending parliament and neither introducing nor co-sponsoring any legislation, became president in 2018. President Weah is popular among Liberia’s young electorate – especially after offering free university tuition – but has faced criticism for prioritising his own former neighbourhood, delivering on a meagre eight per cent of his manifesto promises in the first three years of his tenure, and for generally being a bit, well, ‘celeb’. He has also released four songs since becoming president, returned to the national team in his 50s for a friendly against Nigeria in order to retire his No.14 shirt, and takes part in regular kickabouts where no one dares tackle him (or, possibly, just can’t). Still, it’s not the first time he has controlled Liberia’s destiny. “I single-handedly sponsor the national team without any government assistance,” Weah told FFT in 1996. “I buy the playing gear, return international airfare for European-based players, and pay match bonuses.” Team-mates could also stay in his Monrovia hotel before matches.
With respect to Messrs Litmanen and Best, there’s plainly no contest: Weah and Liberia represent football’s widest chasm in ability. He was the world’s best player. They were far from the world’s best side. Later in his career, Liberia reached their highest FIFA ranking of 66th – their average placing without him is 130th. Their Africa Cup of Nations record reads zero qualifications before Weah came along; two when he was playing and zero since, despite the tournament’s expansion. The World Cup was elusive. Their Italia 90 bid kicked off with young Weah scoring in his country’s first qualifying victory a few days after making his Monaco debut, but in a pool that featured 12 games and 13 goals, Liberia finished behind Egypt, who would then join the English, Irish and Dutch in the bleakest group stage in competition history. After that, Liberia were defeated by civil war for USA 94 and, more prosaically, by Tunisia ahead of France 98. They were set to reach the 2002 edition but, sidetracked by rare success in their concurrent AFCON qualifying campaign, faltered late on and ended one point behind the star-studded Nigeria generation of Kanu, Okocha, Yobo & Co. In the aptly-named Lone Stars’ only other fruitful campaign, Weah funded, organised and played in all seven meaningful fixtures, despite a busy European schedule. The year? 1995. Truly, there was nothing he couldn’t do.
MORE ON FOURFOURTWO.COM • What really happened to Ali Dia, ‘Weah’s cousin’? On the trail of the Premier League’s worst player (by Richard Edwards) • 14 of the best ever Premier League loan signings (by Greg Lea) • Why Arsene Wenger’s legacy will forever endure in Africa (by Aanu Adeoye)
FourFourTwo June 2022 51
RAM RAID CLOUGH
Rewind exactly half a century and Brian Clough was helping unfancied Derby to break into the elite and bag a maiden top flight title. Where was he when the Rams clinched it? On the Isles of Scilly, naturally…
Words Gary Parkinson
U CHELSEA
sually when a new owner joins a club, there’s a bounce, an added energy and some renewed sense of expectation. Enter Oldham Athletic, who arrive for their latest Second Division fixture at a ground that’s long since fallen into a state of disrepair, and a short while later will become notorious as the first in the world to try (the operative word – they weren’t allowed to) controlling supporters via the subtle-as-a-brick use of electricity. The date is April 3, 1982. The location is Stamford Bridge. And the natives? Well, let’s just say they’re as restless as a fan trying to climb over a fence with 12 volts coursing through it. Watching their team is proving a similarly shocking experience. “Kenneth Bates may well be pondering the wisdom of his recent move southwards,” wrote The Times. “After moving from Wigan Athletic to become a director of Chelsea and agreeing to erase their debts, he watched his new side squander a two-goal lead against Oldham. The crowd of 8,938 was the lowest of Chelsea’s season.” Records, however, are there to be broken, and that figure was depressingly lowered four days later when only 6,196 disillusioned souls reluctantly left the pub to sit through the visit of Cambridge United. If Bates hoped that his £1 purchase would galvanise a club plummeting at an alarming rate, then he was left bitterly disappointed. And if the players thought it would usher in an era of largesse, so were they. “I earned more bricklaying and playing for Harrow Borough than I did when I signed for Chelsea [in 1980],” admits Chris Hutchings, the future Bradford and Wigan manager who was there when Bates made an atypically low-key introduction. So desperate was the situation, even the Blues’ fundraising lottery was losing money. Forty years ago in west London, no one was feeling very lucky…
FOLLOW THE MONEY On the morning of the Oldham match, Bates had addressed Chelsea fans to assure them that the club’s future was now in safe hands. Before he fed the press, though, the Ealing native had to find his way around a ground that would become his home from home for more than two decades. “I had to ask my way to the secretary’s office when I arrived,” he told the assembled hacks. “The first thing I can tell Chelsea’s fans is that the problems with the club’s finances have been resolved.” Sharp-tongued, ruthless and smart, Bates made his fortune by any means necessary: in haulage, in South African land development, in Australian sugar cane, in dairy farming
74 June 2022 FourFourTwo
and even cement. Oldham had offered his first avenue into football, as chairman in the ’60s, before he became co-owner and vice chairman of Wigan. Not all of his business interests had succeeded. In 1976, the Irish Trust Bank he set up infamously collapsed and left thousands of investors out of pocket. After a legal war, Bates escaped unscathed. Six years on, Chelsea’s predicament offered a glimpse into the future – for man and club. The debt which had previously belonged to them, along with Stamford Bridge itself, was switched to a holding company which, in turn, leased the ground back to the struggling Second Division side. Bates then took care to ensure that the seven-year lease could be extended, and that any redevelopment of Stamford Bridge would have to include the club. It meant that if the ground Chelsea had called home since 1905 was redeveloped for any other purpose, then an alternative gaff would have to be found for a team that last won the league in 1955 and didn’t look likely to trouble the engravers any time soon. The days of triumphing in Europe – and Chelsea had, lifting the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1971 – were as distant as the view to the pitch from a number of stands, which may as well have been on Fulham Broadway itself. Instead, the Blues were losing £12,000 a week and stuck in quicksand. In short, the club was a mess before Bates showed up – and although their new owner’s presence didn’t eradicate the difficulties, it did at least make them substantially easier
Above Blues fans were notorious in football’s era of hooligan activity Top “And up here is where I can turn on the electricity”
to solve. Were it not for his intervention at a club that only narrowly escaped relegation to the third tier at the end of 1982-83, then it’s more than possible neither Matthew Harding nor Roman Abramovich would have considered investing in an entity that could have been jettisoned from SW6 altogether. Like most things involving Chelsea down the years, though, the road would be long, winding and littered with potholes. In 1981, the Blues had announced profits of £33,000 on a turnover of £1.3 million, mainly thanks to the sale of several players – most notably Ray Wilkins to Manchester United – that had kept them narrowly out of the red. Interest payments in their various debts, reckoned to be in the region of £4.5m (the equivalent of £14.5m in new money) were, according to club accountant Martin Spencer, “crippling”. The root of Chelsea’s financial mess could be traced back to the proposed rebuilding of Stamford Bridge. Buoyed by both FA Cup and European success during the early 1970s, Brian Mears, grandson of the club’s original co-founder Joseph, was intent on furnishing one of English football’s most swashbuckling sides with an 80,000-capacity home befitting the likes of Peter Osgood and Alan Hudson. The revamped Bridge would boast stands closer to the pitch, an electronic scoreboard and even the potential to pipe warm air under cold seats in the winter. The shining centrepiece would be a new East Stand, the largest of its kind in Britain. By the time it was completed, however, it threatened to become a monument to folly. “The optimism of 1971 looked like hubris by 1973,” noted Rick Glanvill, Chelsea’s official historian. By 1974-75, the spiralling costs of rebuilding the stadium meant Chelsea’s on-pitch fortunes had nosedived: only four years after their victory in Europe, they were relegated to the second tier. To compound the Blues’ despair, a deep recession bit, making supporters even more reluctant to spend their hard-earned cash watching a desperate band of no-hopers. As Britain lurched into a financial catastrophe and a three-day working week – inflation ballooning from 9.2 per cent to 24.2 per cent in two years – merely servicing the debt on the East Stand was a job in itself. And it wasn’t just the club’s cash flow that was rushing out of control.
FIGHT CLUB Since 1977, Chelsea had been denied ticket sale revenue – ring a bell? – as the result of an away day ban for their fans. It followed violence and off-field chaos in a 4-0 hiding from Charlton at The Valley, leading Denis Howell, Labour’s Minister for Sport, to go in two-footed after the latest in an ugly string of incidents that involved not just Chelsea but Manchester United, Nottingham Forest and Luton. For a government desperately scrabbling to solve a problem that wouldn’t go away, enough was enough. “Most Chelsea fans following the club at that point were good blokes, but there was a real hardcore who were just there to cause
9000
InTERVIEWS
CHRIS SUTTOn
“I WaSn’T THE LAST STRIKER TO STRUGGLE AT CHELSEA – I SET A TREnD” The poacher turned pundit chats Larsson and Shearer – and reveals why Celtic joy tops a Premier League title Interview Ian Murtagh
TEAMS Norwich Blackburn Chelsea Celtic Birmingham Aston Villa Wroxham England
You’re one of few players to have won titles in both England and Scotland. Do any stand out above the rest? Not really, though I probably appreciated the titles I won at Celtic more than when I won the league at Blackburn. I was young when I joined Blackburn for what was then a British record transfer fee – the 1994 equivalent of Jack Grealish, just a bit better looking! Rovers were on the rise, so it was a wonderful time. It was the last 42-game season and one of the greatest title races, with Kenny Dalglish going head to head with Alex Ferguson. By the time I signed for Celtic I was much more worldly-wise and, of course, I’d struggled at Chelsea, so everything I won up there meant more. I loved Glasgow, loved those fans and loved playing under Martin O’Neill. That first season was very special. I’ll never forget the ‘Demolition Derby’ when we stuffed Rangers 6-2 and I scored in the first minute. My whole time at Celtic alongside Martin was incredible, and I’m immensely proud to have won titles with two great clubs either side of the border. You formed the famous ‘SAS’ partnership with Alan Shearer at Blackburn – did the fact he got more publicity ever annoy you? Does Alan get more credit than me? Yes, but deservedly so – he was phenomenal. I can’t
remember him missing a chance during that title-winning season – and some of his goals were breathtaking. It was the only club title he ever won, but when you look at the man’s numbers and realise even Harry Kane is some way off him, it hammers home just how good Alan was. Younger fans don’t realise that at the peak of his career, he suffered two serious injuries. And he scored a few goals before the Premier League launched, which tend to be forgotten. This country has been fortunate to lure some of the world’s best strikers over the past three decades, but he was miles ahead. Do you regret snubbing England B, which effectively ended your hopes of adding to your one senior cap under Glenn Hoddle? I’ve thought about it many times, and I had no right to do what I did. I work with Glenn now at BT Sport – I like him and have said he was right to put me in my place. I was a bit of a hothead and angry at what I perceived as a slight. Back then I felt I was justified, but it was a big mistake – we all make them when we’re growing up. Was the move to Chelsea a regret, too? That’s the wrong word. I wanted to play for Gianluca Vialli, who I admired as a manager and as a person. I was joining a good team who were pushing at the top of the table but, for probably the first time in my career, I lost confidence and that set me back. Today, as a pundit, I can spot strikers who are playing without confidence because I’ve been there. There’s no doubt that season at Chelsea was a disappointment. I got absolutely battered by the media which comes with the territory. Maybe I started a trend, as I wasn’t the last big-name forward to go there and struggle, was I? It’s a strange club for strikers – Torres, Morata, Shevchenko, Kezman, Falcao and, of course, Lukaku now. But I’d never have been signed by Celtic if I hadn’t played for Chelsea. You’d enjoyed heady days with hometown club Norwich at the start of your career... I look back on my time there with immense satisfaction. We finished third in the Premier League and are the only British side to beat Bayern Munich at the Olympiastadion. But there was also the disappointment of losing an FA Cup semi-final when Sunderland, who were in the Second Division, beat us 1-0 at Hillsborough. That was near the start of my
50 February 2016 FourFourTwo.com 92 June 2022 FourFourTwo