30 - Port Lotniczy Wrocław

Prestige
Remember Hitchcock and his notorious Psycho? That black and white thriller premiered
in 1960. Soooo long ago, right? That was the same year as the first ever football
tournament on the Old Continent. Many were puzzled over the purpose of this
tournament, as national teams had already been clashing with each other at the World
Cup since 1930. However, the history of the European taournament has shown that it
has a decidedly different character, and even “thriller” type matches were not lacking.
It began in the aforementioned
1960, in France, although it was
still called the European Nations
Cup. The first, historic triumph
was won by a nation that remains
today only in memory –
the USSR. Only four teams took
part in the final tournament. It’s
true that the Polish representation
didn’t qualify, but in the semifinal
where France was defeated,
one of the goals were scored
by… Maryan Wisnieski. Sounds
familiar, right? Interestingly, the
tense political situation meant
that the favourite, Spain, did not
even enter the tournament ranking,
which was “thanks to” to
the country’s then-ruler, General
Franco. But what goes around…
The host of the next tournament
was Spain itself, and this time
politics did not prevent its players
from proving who was the
best in Europe on the pitch. In
the final they left the USSR players
empty-handed, which was
a kind of revenge for the games
four years ago, in which... the
Spaniards allowed a walkover.
The next games were hosted by Italy.
The year was 1968, and only
then were they officially called the
European Championships. As the
British had just won the World
Cup two years before, they declared
that the title of continental
champions should be theirs. But
the tournament in Italy showed
that the struggle for primacy in
Europe was not easy. The self-assured
Englishmen lost to Yugoslavia
already in the semi-finals, but
they went down in history for another
reason. In the 89th minute of
the aforementioned match, Allan
Mullery received the first red card
in the history of the championships.
In the second semi-final, the
Italians defeated the Soviet Union
by a… coin toss! Regulations did
not provide extra time in case
of a tie, and the winners were
picked at random. The same
happened in the finals, where
the Italians faced Yugoslavia. But
this time the meeting ended in a
repeated draw. Only in the second
game did the Italians win 2-0
and were declared masters of the
second approach, so to speak.
The championships held in Belgium
(it’s already 1972 now) had
only one favourite – the Federal
Republic of Germany. They did
not disappoint, having in their
ranks an excellent shooter – Gerd
Müller. He was the star, both in the
play-offs and the final tournament,
winning the crown of the top goalscorer
along the way. The USSR
representation reached the finals
again, but that’s as far as they got.
In the decisive battle they were
beaten by the FRG, losing 0-3.
The European Championship
is fast approaching, so we’ve
prepared a special section
devoted to the tournament.
We encourage you to read
the first part of the short history
of the championships right
now. There will be more in the
next, spring issue of Hi Fly.
The year 1976 saw a tournament
on the fields of Yugoslavia. Of the
four teams – the FRG, the Netherlands,
Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia
– the latter were given
the smallest chances. But, as one
classic said, “anything is possible
when the ball is still in play”. In
the semi-final, Czechoslovakia
robbed the Dutch of any illusions
of grandeur on penalties. Then,
for the first time they emerged
the winners of an unresolved encounter.
In the finals, to the astonishment
of even their biggest
fans, Czechoslovakia ran circles
around the favoured FRG, also…
on penalties! Thus, David slew
Goliath, and the organisers of the
tournament increasingly began
to recognise the potential of the
event and prepared a lot of surprises
for the next games…
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