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	FOOTBALL ON THIS DAY..... June Day by Day........ Football is a 365 day a year game. A day by day reminder of some of the famous, record-breaking or bizarre things that have happened in the month of January over the years. Index January February March April May June July August September October November December

	1st June Football On This Day – 1st June 2007 England returned to Wembley with their first match at the rebuilt stadium. A crowd of 88,745 saw John Terry score the first goal in the 68th minute but opponents Brazil equalised in added time through Diego. Football On This Day – 1st June 2009 The distinction between film-stars and footballers became even more blurred with Eric Cantona attending the UK premiere of the film Looking for Eric at the Lowry Centre in Salford Quays, near to Old Trafford. Cantona played himself and appeared in the imagination of the main character of the film to give him encouragement to get through the problems in his life. The most memorable line though was Cantona's - 'I am not a man, I am Cantona'.
	2nd June Not Football On This Day – 2nd June 1975 This has got bugger all to do with football - but it made me smile. On 2nd June 1975 at Buxton the second day of the County Championship cricket match between Derbyshire and Lancashire was abandoned...because of snow! It was the only time a days play has been abandoned in a County Championship match because of snow - it was an inch deep on the pitch. I guess that's the equivalent of a football match in England being abandoned in January because of the heat. That hasn't happened....has it? Football On This Day – 2nd June 1982 The Pope popped into Cardiff City’s Ninian Park ground. No, not to watch a close-season friendly but to speak at a Youth rally being held at their ground during a UK tour. Over 30,000 were at the ground to hear the Polish Pope John Paul II speak. Football On This Day – 2nd June 1985 In the days immediately following the tragedy of Heysel Stadium which resulted in the death of 39 spectators the Belgian government announced a ban of all English clubs from their country while our government insisted that the FA ban English clubs from playing in Europe for 12 months. However on June 2nd 1985 UEFA banned all English clubs from European competition for an indefinite period, although it didn't affect the England national team. The ban lasted five seasons with Liverpool serving another year on top of that. Football On This Day – 2nd June 2015 Four days after Sepp Blatter had been controversially elected for a fifth term as FIFA president he announced his resignation and would leave the post when a replacement was found (presumably giving him time to shred a few documents!). It was a traumatic time for FIFA with daily revelations in the press - 14 people were indicted in USA for corruption, 7 officials were arrested in Switzerland on bribery charges, there was talk of World Cup boycotts and the withdrawal of UEFA from FIFA, allegations of bribery in the bidding process for the finals in South Africa, Qatar and Russia and reports of unhappiness amongst FIFA's commercial sponsors. ....and just hours after Blatter's announcement a sign that things would change for the better came when Macclesfield Town announced that they would be bidding to host the 2026 World Cup finals. They reckoned they could stage the whole thing for £249.99 with a budget of just £40 for gifts to FIFA execs. With the Moss Rose ground - capacity 6,335 - penciled in for the final and opening and closing ceremonies surely football would be coming home in 2026!
	3rd June Football On This Day – 3rd June 1950 At the Football League AGM the League membership was increased from 88 to 92 clubs with two new clubs being added to each of the regionalised Third Divisions. Colchester United and Gillingham joined the Southern Section while Scunthorpe & Lindsey United and Shrewsbury Town became members of the Northern Section. On the opening day of the 1950/51 season the clubs played each other in their respective divisions, both matches ending in 0-0 draws. Football On This Day – 3rd June 2006 England played Jamaica for the first time, England winning 6-0 in a friendly in front of a 70,373 Old Trafford crowd. Peter Crouch scored a hat-trick - and also missed a penalty - and Aaron Lennon won his first England cap. Football On This Day – 3rd June 2008 Gretna announced their resignation from the Scottish League and so ended one of the most dramatic rise and falls in British League history . The Scottish borders club had been members of the English Northern Premier League in 2001/02 (finishing the season in 7th place in the second tier of that competition) when they were elected to the Scottish League. By 2007/08 they had won three promotions and were in the Scottish Premier League having already been Scottish Cup finalists (beaten on penalties by Hearts) and had competed in the UEFA Cup (hammered by Derry City). But then it was rapidly downhill. In 2007/08 they had to play their home matches in Motherwell because their Raydale Park ground in Gretna wasn't up to SPL standards. Then their main financial backer - Brooks Mileson - withdrew his support and the club entered administration, finished bottom of the SPL with crowds dropping to as low as 431, were demoted to the fourth tier because of the financial problems, and then went into liquidation shortly after resigning from the Scottish League. Tragic!
	4th June Football On This Day – 4th June 1977 The date of one of the more memorable England v Scotland internationals. Scotland were in the ascendancy at the time. They were the reigning Home International champions and needed a victory over England at Wembley in 1977 to retain that title. And a victory they gained - goals from Gordon McQueen and Kenny Dalglish gave the Scots a comfortable 2-0 lead before a late Mick Channon penalty gave the English a consolation goal. But it was what happened after the match that made most of the headlines. Many Scots in the 98,103 crowd invaded the pitch, digging up turf from the pitch and wrecking the goalposts. It seems that many a Scottish lawn saw the addition of a bit of the Wembley turf after that Saturday afternoon fixture. The Scottish victory was the first at Wembley since 1967 when the Scots became the first country the beat England after they had won the World Cup - and that of course allowed them to claim to be the unofficial world champions! Football On This Day – 4th June 1988 Before setting off to the Euro Championships in Germany England played a warm-up match against mighty…..Aylesbury United. England beat the Southern League champions 7-0 but didn’t do as well in Germany – they found the opposition was a tad better than non-league standard and lost all three matches.
	5th June Football On This Day – 5th June 1968 Yugoslavia beat England 1-0 in the Semi-Final of the European Championships in Italy with Alan Mullery becoming the first England player to be sent off. In a bad-tempered encouter the Spurs player was dismissed for retaliation after being on the receiving end of a bad tackle by Dobrivoje Trivić. Football On This Day – 5th June 1999 After receiving two cautions for two foul tackles Paul Scholes was sent off in the 51st minute of England's Euro 2000 qualifier against Sweden at Wembley. It was the only time an England player was sent off in an international at the old Wembley Stadium.
	6th June Football On This Day – 6th June 1986 For the first time England played an African nation in the World Cup, against Morocco in a group match at the 1986 finals in Mexico. A disappointing 0-0 draw was marked by the first sending off of an England player in a World Cup finals match when Ray Wilkins threw the ball at Paraguayan ref Gabriel Gonzalez. England qualified from the group in second place with group winners Morocco becoming the first African nation to qualify for the knock-out stages. Football On This Day – 6th June 1996 It's a little known fact but on June 6th 1996 the Czech Republic started out on their successful Euro96 campaign with a friendly....against Bamber Bridge! Just before the Czechs played their first group match against Germany they played a warm-up friendly against the Northern Premier League side. A capacity 2400 crowd and international TV coverage was enjoyed although the result perhaps wasn't - Bamber Bridge lost 9-1. Three days later the Czech Republic lost 2-0 to Germany at Old Trafford and that fixture was repeated on June 30th in the final at Wembley - which Germany again won.
	7th June Football On This Day – 7th June 1970 England ‘keeper Gordon Banks makes the ‘greatest ever save’ from Pele in an England v Brazil World Cup group match in Mexico. But Brazil inflicted a 1-0 defeat on World Cup holders England and their grip on that cup was beginning to loosen....
	8th June Football On This Day – 8th June 1953 England played an international under floodlights for the first time. At New York’s Yankee Stadium against USA. two goals apiece from Tom Finney and Nat Lofthouse helped England to a 6-3 victory. Football On This Day – 8th June 1990 The opening match at the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy produced one of the shock results in the history of the competition and confirmed that success in the footballing world was no longer confined to European and South American sides. Reigning world champions Argentina were beaten 1-0 by Cameroon at the San Siro stadium in Milan despite the winners finishing the match with only nine players on the pitch. Cameroon became the first African nation south of the Sahara to win a match at a World Cup finals and then they went on to become the first African nation to reach the quarter finals where they suffered a narrow loss to England. By contrast the country Cameroon defeated in that opening match, Argentina, only progressed to the knock-out stages as the best third-place side in a group but then went on to reach the final again where they were beaten by West Germany. Football On This Day – 8th June 1998 Sepp Blatter replaced João Havelange as President of FIFA. He beat Lennart Johansson of Sweden in a straight vote in Paris but there have been allegations that votes were being bought even then. You have to wonder how different world football would now be if Blatter had lost that vote 111-80 rather than defeating the Swede by that margin!
	9th June Football On This Day – 9th June 1979 There was a time when it seemed that all pop stars wanted to be footballers and all footballers wanted to be pop stars. Take Kevin Keegan for example. On June 9th 1979 he released a single, Head Over Heals in Love, the B side being Move On Down. That wasn't his first single - It Ain't Easy bombed in 1972 but Head Over Heals reached the dizzy heights of 31 in the UK pop charts. In did even better in Germany, where Keegan was playing for Hamburg at the time, where it reached number 10 in their charts. When he returned to English football in 1980 it saw the release of another single, aptly named England, but by then any dreams of pop stardom were long gone. But hey, the Gallagher brothers didn't make the Manchester City first team either! Football On This Day – 9th June 1993 An embarrassing result for England against the USA. Paul Ince captained the side for the first time at the Foxboro Stadium in Boston but the 2-0 defeat saw the headline in the Sun – ‘Yanks 2 Planks 0’.
	10th June Football On This Day – 10th June 1934 The first World Cup finals hosted by a European country saw the first European winners of the competition. Sixteen nations took part in the finals – hosts Italy plus Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Rumania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. None of the British countries were there – they weren’t members of FIFA and so weren’t eligible to enter the World Cup – and the reigning champions Uruguay didn’t take part either. Uruguay hosted – and won – the first World Cup in 1930 and weren’t too chuffed that only 4 European nations travelled to Uruguay for those finals and so not attending the 1934 finals was Uruguay’s form of protest. No group matches just a straight knock-out competition which saw the 4 non-European nations all eliminated after their first match. In the final in front of around 50,000 at the Stadio Nazionale PNF in Rome on 10th June 1954 hosts Italy became world champions with a 2-1 victory over Czechoslovakia. Football On This Day – 10th June 1972 Well this sounds a bit like a dream only enjoyed by the keenest of Blackpool fans - the Seasiders beat an Italian side 10-0 when defending a European trophy they had won the previous season. But it really did happen! OK, it was the Anglo-Italian Cup which Blackpool won in 1971 but on 10th June they beat Lanerossi Vicenza 10-0 at Bloomfield Road in their final group match of the 1972 competition. That put them into the final again although this time they were beaten 3-1 by Roma in Rome. Still sounds like a dream though! Football On This Day – 10th June 1984 First international goals from both John Barnes and Mark Hateley gave England a 2-0 friendly victory in Brazil. It was England’s first away victory over Brazil and Brazil’s first defeat at the Maracanã in 27 years while the John Barnes goal was a wondergoal worthy of a Brazilian at his best. Happy days! Football On This Day - 10th June 1989 There can hardly be anything more proudly English than captaining England at Wembley against the Germans but on this day in 1989 the England captain for the schools fixture was one Ryan Giggs - then known by his fathers' surname of Wilson. The Welsh-born player was eligible for England schools as he was at school in England at the time but was not eligible to play for the England senior side.
	11th June Football On This Day – 11th June 1925 Herbert Chapman became the manager of Arsenal. The most innovative manager of his time he turned the Gunners from a club who hadn’t won a thing into one of the leading clubs in the country. Football On This Day - 11th June 1969 A late finish to the season for Newcastle United who were in Hungary to play the second leg of their Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Final - a forerunner of the Europa League - against Újpesti Dózsa. They won 3-2 on the night and 6-2 on aggregate to win the competition in their debut season in Europe. Newcastle's team that evening - McFaul, Craig, Clark, Gibb, Burton, Moncur, Scott (sub: Foggon), Arentoft, Robson, Davies, Sinclair. Link - Newcastle results in Europe Football On This Day - 11th June 1990 England played the Republic of Ireland in the group stage of the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy - and England striker Gary Lineker later admitted that he suffered the 'most horrendous' experience of his life in that match. No point beating about the bush - he didn't feel well and lost control of his bowels - and shit on the pitch! So lets have a look at that incredibly embarrassing moment ..... Still England drew 1-1 and both England and Ireland qualified for the knock-out stages with England reaching the semis. I reckon if fertilising the pitch in that way is the secret of England doing well in the World Cup all 11 England players should be doing it! Link - Pitches, and what they have had to put up with. Football On This Day - 11th June 1994 Bobby Charlton became Sir Bobby Charlton with the announcement of a knighthood for the former Manchester United and England player in the Queen's Birthday honours list. The award was for services to football generally although he became the first England player from the 1966 World Cup winning team to be knighted. 'Everybody calls me Bobby and that won't change' he said. Football On This Day - 11th June 2017 At last some good news for England fans - England won the World Cup final! Well, the Under-20 version that is but a great achievement secured with a first-half goal from Dominic Calvert-Lewin and a brilliant second-half penalty save from Freddie Woodman. That saw England beat Venezuela 1-0 in the final in Suwon in South Korea to claim their first world footballing title since 1966. Inevitably the English press seemed to indicate the the winning players would do exactly the same in the grown-up World Cup of 2022. We live in hope - as always - but these are the players who won the 2017 final, let's see how they develop in the years to 2022....Freddie Woodman (Newcastle), Jonjoe Kenny (Everton), Lewis Cook (Bournemouth), Fikayo Tomori (Chelsea), Jake Clarke-Salter (Chelsea), Josh Onomah (Tottenham), Dominic Solanke (Chelsea), Ademola Lookman (Everton), Kyle Walker-Peters (Tottenham), Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton), Kieran Dowell (Everton). The subs were Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Arsenal) for Lookman and Sheyi Ojo (Liverpool) for Dowell with Paul Simpson being the Alf Ramsey of the side.
	12th June Football On This Day – 12th June 1986 Goalkeeper Pat Jennings made his 119th and final appearance for Northern Ireland, a 3-0 defeat against Brazil in a group match at the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico. It was his 41st birthday making him – at the time – the oldest player ever to appear in the World Cup. Football On This Day – 12th June 2008 Who'd be a ref? At the Euro 2008 finals English ref Howard Webb awarded a controversial 90th minute penalty which allowed co-hosts Austria to draw 1-1 with Poland. Everybody from the Polish Prime Minister downwards got on Webb's case and he became the butt of much computer humour. More serious though within hours websites were listing the home address, telephone number and works email address of Howard Webb of Rotherham. It turned out to be the wrong Howard Webb though who needed police protection because of the threats made to him.
	13th June Football On This Day – 13th June 1956 The first European Cup Final was played at the Parc des Princes in Paris between Real Madrid and French side Stade de Rheims. Real Madrid won 4-3 and went on to win the first five European Cup tournaments. The was no English team in the first competition although the first final did have an English presence – it was refereed by Arthur Ellis who was later to find fame in television’s It’s A Knockout. Football On This Day – 13th June 1998 Diego Maradona was a great footballer but he did have his dark side. He had a long-standing drug addiction and in February 1994 he made the news when he fired an air rifle into a group of reporters and photographers who had assembled outside his Buenos Aires home. Four of them were injured. It took four years for Maradona to appear before an Argentinan court charged with that offence and he denied the charge despite him having been filmed hiding behind a car a firing the weapon. On 13th June 1998 he was found guilty and received a 2 year 10 month suspended prison sentence. Football On This Day – 13th June 2017 You’d think that politicians would realise by now that trying to be ‘one of the lads’ usually ends in disaster for them. Days after a disastrous General Election and burdened with all the Brexit problems our Prime Minister Theresa May joined French President Emmanuel Macron at the friendly match between France and England at the Stade de France in Paris. Sadly that wasn’t enough for her and she decided to join in a Mexican wave but got her timing wrong – as she did with the General Election! – and did her bit seconds after everyone else had done theirs. The general opinion was that she was a muppet…and England lost 3-2.
	14th June Football On This Day – 14th June 1947 A severe winter saw the latest ever finish of a League season until Covid came along. In one of the seven final-day League matches Stoke needed a win to pip Liverpool for the League title but they lost 2-1 at Sheffield United. Football On This Day – 14th June 1970 Bobby Charlton played his last match for England on 14th June 1970. He finished his illustrious England career with 106 caps and 49 goals - at the time both England records. Sadly though it wasn't Bobby Charlton who made the headlines that day, more the fact that his England team suffered a major defeat. England's problems started just before kick off when their greatest-ever goalkeeper, Gordon Banks, was forced to drop out with a severe case of the trots due to food-poisoning. But England took a 2-0 lead before slipping back to 2-2, Bobby Charlton and Martin Peters were controversially substituted before England finally suffered a 3-2 defeat after extra time with two of those goals being blamed on Banks's replacement - Peter Bonetti. Oh, and England's opponents that day were West Germany in the 1970 World Cup quarter-final in Mexico - and England's reign as World Champions was over.
	15th June Football On This Day – 15th June 1982 The highest score in a World Cup finals match was recorded. Hungary defeated El Salvador 10-1 in a group match in Spain with László Kiss being the first substitute to score a hat-trick in the World Cup finals. Football On This Day – 15th June 1996 England met Scotland for the first time in seven years in a Euro 96 group match in front of 76,864 at Wembley. Alan Shearer gave England the lead and David Seaman saved a Gary McAllister penalty. England’s second was one of the best ever seen at Wembley – Paul Gascoigne chipped the ball over Colin Hendry and then volleyed the ball into the net. He then celebrated with the ‘dentist’s chair’ routine. 2-0 – happy days. Football On This Day – 15th June 2009 After previous spells in charge of Celtic and Jamaica John Barnes was appointed manager of Tranmere Rovers with Jason McAteer joining the club as his assistant. The two were sacked just four months later having achieved just two victories in the first eleven League matches of the new season. Link - Tranmere results 2009/10
	16th June Football On This Day – 16th June 1982 In England’s first match in the finals of the World Cup since 1974 Bryan Robson scored after just 27 seconds against France. England won the match 3-1, won all the three group matches and finished the tournament with an unbeaten record although, sadly, not as World Cup winners. Football On This Day – 16th June 1982 Algeria hit the headlines when they played their first match in the World Cup finals – they beat West Germany 2-1.
	17th June Football On This Day – 17th June 1902 Tuesday 17th June 1902 was the date of the formation of Norwich City Football Club. Two team-mates from the Norwich CEYMS club - well that was Norwich Church of England Young Men's Society FC to give it its full name - set up a meeting with friends at the Criterion Cafe in Norwich to form a new and hopefully more ambitious club. From that meeting Norwich City was formed. Norwich City joined the Norfolk & Suffolk League in the 1902/03 season when they finished in third place, one place behind the club who would become their greatest rivals, Ipswich Town. It doubtless took a lot of hard work from generations of people but they joined the Southern League in 1905/06, the Football League in 1920/21 and by 1992/93 had become founder members of the Premier League. Well, they certainly became a more ambitious club than Norwich CEYMS who now play in the Anglian Combination. Football On This Day – 17th June 1977 Wimbledon were elected to the Football League in place of Workington. Eleven years later they were FA Cup holders and members of the top division. In 2003 they controversially left London to set up home in Milton Keynes and changed their name to Milton Keynes Dons a year later. That move saw AFC Wimbledon formed who were to become Football League members themselves in 2011. On June 17th 1977 who would have guessed any of that was going to happen!
	18th June Football On This Day – 18th June 1996 England recorded an impressive 4-1 win over Holland at Wembley to reach the quarter-finals of the Euro 96, Alan Shearer and Teddy Sheringham scoring two apiece. The late goal scored by Holland also saw them through to the last 8, at the expense of Scotland. Football On This Day – 18th June 2002 Perhaps your memory dwells on just one match at the 1966 World Cup finals but one of the shocks of the tournament was North Korea's 1-0 defeat of Italy at Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough's old ground. That victory saw North Korea qualify for the quarter-finals at the expense of the Italians. On June 18th 2002 it was the turn of South Korea to record a famous World Cup victory over the Italians. At the last 16 knock-out stage South Korea, who co-hosted the 2002 finals with Japan, progressed to the quarter-finals with a 2-1 victory over Italy with the winner being an extra-time golden goal scored by Ahn Jung-hwan. Ahn played his club football in Italy with Perugia - well he did until the next day when the the Perugia owner cancelled his contract saying 'I have no intention of paying a salary to someone who has ruined Italian football'. South Korea beat Spain on penalties in the quarter-finals before losing to Germany in the semis and then Turkey in the 3rd/4th place play-off.
	19th June Football On This Day – 19th June 1958 The 1958 World Cup finals in Sweden were unique in that a quarter of the competing nations were from Britain - England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales all qualifying. Sadly though the Home countries didn't take the finals by storm - between them they played 12 group matches with only Northern Ireland managing a win. The Irish and Wales - who drew their three group matches - both qualified for the knock-stages. In the quarter finals Northern Ireland lost 4-0 to France while on June 19th 1958 Wales met Brazil. A 17-year-old Brazilian player named Edson Arantes do Nascimento scored the only goal of the match which was his first World Cup goal. He scored another five in the semi-final and final as Brazil became World champions for the first time. Edson Arantes do Nascimento - probably better known as Pele - was to make a bit of a name for himself in the years to come! Football On This Day – 19th June 2014 When Leeds United named Dave Hockaday as their new manager on this day in 2014 it was one of the more bizarre managerial appointments. His only other job as a manager had ended 8 months previously when he was sacked as boss of Conference side Forest Green Rovers. At Elland Road he didn’t even get through August before he was sacked - he had taken charge of just four Championship matches and two League Cup ties. He next footballing job was as assistant manager of Southern League side Swindon Supermarine!
	20th June Football On This Day – 20th June 1995 New Arsenal manager Bruce Rioch signed Dennis Bergkamp from Inter-Milan for £7.5 million. Arsenal’s best-ever signing? Football On This Day – 20th June 2000 Alan Shearer made his England debut against France in February 1992 while on Tuesday 20th June 2000 he won his last cap for England having scored 30 goals in the 63 appearances for his country. Mind you, had England done a little better in that last match against Rumania in the 2000 European Championships Shearer might have won a cap or two more. It was the last group match for both sides and after England had beaten Germany but lost to Portugal in the first two group fixtures they needed a draw against Rumania to progress to the knockout stages. They looked to be getting that draw with just a couple of minutes of the match remaining - it was 2-2 with Shearer and Michael Owen the scorers - but then Phil Neville gave away a penalty and of course the Rumanians scored from it. So Rumania won 3-2, they progressed to the quarter-finals and Alan Shearer and his England team-mates were on there way home.
	21st June Pele scored his first World Cup goal on June 19th 1958, against Wales, and a fraction over 12 years later, on 21st June 1970, he scored his last goal in the World Cup. This time the opposition was Italy in the World Cup final at Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium in front of a 107,412 crowd. Pele scored the first goal in Brazil’s 4-1 victory. That victory saw Brazil become the first nation to win the World Cup three times with Pele the only player to appear in each of those three finals. The hat-trick of victories saw Brazil allowed to keep the original World Cup – the Jules Rimet trophy – although sadly that was stolen in 1983 and, with no Brazilian equivalent of Pickles the dog, it was never recovered and is believed to have been melted down. Football Michael Owen gave England the lead against Brazil in the World Cup quarter-finals in Shizuoka in Japan but goals from Rivaldo and Ronaldinho – a free-kick from over 40 yards which beat David Seaman – saw 10-man Brazil into the semis against Turkey. What might have been!
	22nd Scotland and the USSR drew their final group match at the 1982 World Cup finals in Spain 2-2 in the scorching heat of Malaga. That result saw Scotland pipped on goal difference by their opponents for a place in the next round but Scotland were to win a victory in doping control. John Robertson and a Russian player were required to provide an after-match sample but both being severely dehydrated needed to drink plenty of fluids before a sample could be given - and in those days it wasn't just soft drinks that were available to the players but alcohol as well. The Russian tried to match John Robertson drink for drink, but lost. He had to be carried out of doping control somewhat worse for wear singing White Christmas! Football On This Day – 22nd June 1986 England bowed out of the Mexico World Cup at the quarter-final stage thanks to two memorable goals from Diego Maradona. The first was the infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal scored against Peter Shilton which he followed with one of the best individual goals ever seen at a World Cup. Gary Lineker scored one for England in the 2-1 defeat. hspace="10" vspace="10" width="194" height="259">Football On This Day – 21st June 2002 bordercolor="#C2DAA5"> face="Arial" size="5"> style="font-family: Arial">Football On Football On This Day – 22nd June 1996 England showed that they can win a penalty shoot-out beating Spain 4-2 on penalties at Wembley to reach the Euro 96 semis. Four days later things were different….. Link - Penalty Shoot-outs Football On This Day – 22nd June 2004 Fixtures between Denmark and Sweden are generally amongst the most competitive of matches but the Euro 2004 group match in Portugal between the countries was seen by many as lacking any of that competitive nature. The evening of Tuesday 22nd June 2004 saw the four countries play their last matches in the Euro Group C – Denmark v Sweden and Italy v Bulgaria. The table before kick off had Sweden and Denmark equal top with 4 points and Italy third on two points. Italy were expected to beat Bulgaria (they did) which would have meant that Italy would qualify for the quarter-finals with a winner from the Denmark-Sweden match. But if Italy were to win and Sweden and Denmark were to draw 2-2 (or higher) then all three countries would be equal until it got to goals each of the three countries scored against each other – which would see Denmark and Sweden through. Worries were expressed about this possible permutation before kick off time but of course the Scandinavian rivals denied there would be any collusion. That looked to be the case when Denmark led 2-1 with 90 minutes almost up – then Sweden equalised! Plenty of headlines about match-fixing but no complaint was made and Denmark and Sweden progressed to the quarter-finals – where they both lost.
	23rd June Football On This Day – 23rd June 1968 A tragedy in Argentina at the end of a local derby between River Plate and Boca Juniors at the El Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires. As the fans left the ground after the 0-0 draw one of the exit gates was found to be closed trapping those at the front of the growing queue. Fans further back weren’t aware of the problem at the gate and pushed towards the exit, crushing those fans at the front. Tragically 71 fans died and over 150 others suffered injury in the ‘Tragedy of Gate 12’. It all sounds very familiar doesn’t it – if only lessons could have been learned! Football On This Day – 23rd June 1998 A low point for Scotland. A 3-0 defeat against Morocco saw them finish bottom of their group at the 1998 World Cup finals in France. It was the eighth time in their eight appearances in the World Cup finals that they have failed to progress to the knock-out stages. Football On This Day – 23rd June 2016 One of the most momentous days in British history – we voted for Brexit in a referendum. And it seems that it may have all been Leicester City’s fault! Yes the argument put forward was that with Leicester City being the most successful underdogs ever having won the Premier League title the previous month it became acceptable to support the underdog – so we voted for Brexit. Worse still – Leicester’s triumph became well-known the world over and so when the Americans had their Presidential elections in November Donald Trump was voted in for the very same reason, the Yanks supported the underdog. Leicester City had a lot to answer for!!
	24th June Football On This Day – 24th June 1989 Who says that Scotland never do well in World Cups – they got to the final in 1989! Well OK, it was the Under-16 World Cup but they all count! The 1989 Under-16 World Cup tournament was held in Scotland and after the hosts had played Bahrain, Ghana, Cuba, East Germany and Portugal they found themselves in the final against Saudi Arabia. The match was played at Hampden Park on Saturday 24th June 1989 in front of a 51,000 crowd. Scotland took a 2-0 lead, missed a penalty, Saudi Arabia pulled back to 2-2 and the Scots were beaten 5-4 on penalties. Of course a disappointing defeat but also a controversial one. Many considered that Saudi Arabia had fielded over-age players with a newspaper report describing the Saudi Under-16 players as ‘all moustached and maturity’. The Scottish team – Jim Will, Kevin Bain, Jim Beattie, Scott Marshall, Tom McMillan, Gary Bollan, Brian O'Neil, John Lindsay, Ian Downie, Paul Dickov, Kevin McGoldrick. Used subs: Andy McLaren, Neil Murray. Paul Dickov, Brian O’Neil and Andy McLaren all later progressed to the full Scotland team. Football On This Day – 24th June 2004 England lose another penalty shoot-out, this time against hosts Portugal at the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon in the quarter-finals of Euro 2004. David Beckham and Darius Vassell failed with their pens. Link - Penalty Shoot-outs Football On This Day – 24th June 2014 On the day when the headlines should have belonged to England and their magnificent 0-0 draw with mighty Costa Rica to end their World Cup campaign with a point (yes, I'm being sarcastic!) it was 'Cannibal Suárez' who everyone was talking about. Feeling peckish again, the Uruguay forward bit Italy's Giorgio Chiellini. A four-month ban followed during which time he fancied a change of appetite and moved from Liverpool to Barcelona for £75 million. And the internet loved it!
	25th June Football On This Day – 25th June 1978 Hosts Argentina defeated Holland 3-1 after extra time to win the World Cup for the first time. Football On This Day - 25th June 1982 West Germany needed to beat Austria by one or two goals to allow both countries to progress through their World Cup finals group at the expense of Algeria. The Germans took the lead after 10 minutes after which their appeared to be an agreement between the sides not to score any more goals. The match became known as the ‘Disgrace of Gijón’.
	26th June Football On This Day – 26th June 1992 Denmark beat Germany 2-0 to win the Euro 1992 Championships in Sweden. Denmark had been eliminated from the competition by finishing second to Yugoslavia in their qualifying group but a civil war in the Balkans had seen Yugoslavia replaced by the Danes in the finals. Many of their players were enjoying holidays on the beach when Denmark were awarded their place in the finals but they went on the win the championship defeating the reigning European and World champions on their way to the trophy. Football On This Day - 26th June 1996 Alan Shearer gave England a 3rd minute lead in the Euro 96 semi against Germany at Wembley but once again it was the Germans who progressed to the final after a penalty shoot-out. Gareth Southgate missed the crucial penalty. Link - Penalty Shoot-outs Football On This Day - 26th June 2006 On this day Switzerland met Ukraine at the last 16 stage of the 2006 World Cup Finals in Germany. It wasn’t one of those edge-of-seat cup-ties. One national newspaper reported that it was ‘a game so dull that dishwater should take offence if ever mentioned in the same sentence as this horrorshow’ But no, it’s not getting a mention here as the dullest match in World Cup history – Switzerland did record two ‘firsts’ in that match. Switzerland topped their group with two 2-0 wins and a 0-0 draw while against Ukraine they drew 0-0 – after extra time – before losing 3-0 on penalties. So they became the first country to be eliminated from the World Cup finals without conceding a goal in normal play and the first country not to score a goal in a World Cup finals penalty shoot-out. Sounds like records you would have thought England would hold!
	27th June Football On This Day - 27th June 1984 France beat Spain 2-0 in the Euro 84 final in Paris. Michel Platini scored one of the goals, his ninth in his five matches to finish as leading scorer in the tournament. Football On This Day - 27th June 1997 Howard Kendall took over as Everton manager for third time. It was his least successful spell and he left a year later after Everton had escaped relegation from the Premier League only on goal difference. Football On This Day - 27th June 2010 A penalty shoot-out certainly wasn't needed to see the end of England's hopes at the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. England were well beaten 4-1 by Germany in the World Cup quarter-finals at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein. Mind you, if Frank Lampard’s well-over-the-line ‘goal’ been allowed the result would doubtless have gone in England’s favour! Football On This Day - 27th June 2016 Just four days after the shock of the Brexit vote which saw our country decide to leave Europe and its 'manager' (David Cameron) resign the England football team decided to do exactly the same! Despite taking a 4th minute lead through a Wayne Rooney penalty England were beaten 2-1 by mighty Iceland in a Euro last 16 tie with manager Roy Hodgson resigning soon after the final whistle. One of England's most embarrassing defeats but the really sad thing was you just know it was going to happen! Still, we kept smiling...
	28th June Football On This Day - 28th June 1984 Mark Hateley, the son of former Liverpool and Chelsea player Tony Hateley, spent five years with top flight Coventry City before joining Portsmouth before the start of the 1983/84 season. Pompey were Second Division strugglers in 1983/84 but Mark Hateley certainly made a name for himself finishing top scorer for Portsmouth with 22 League goals, becoming the first Pompey player to be capped by England since Jimmy Dickinson in 1956 and then in his second England appearance he scored in the 2-0 defeat of Brazil at the Maracana Stadium. That England win helped put him into the superstar status and several days later - on June 28th 1984 - he moved to AC Milan for a fee of around £1 million. Sadly though he didn't enjoy the best of time in Italy, Arsene Wenger later signed him for Monaco before moving on to Rangers and then back to England with QPR, Leeds and Hull where he had a short unsuccessful spell as manager. He played a total of 32 games for England but I guess most will remember him for the part he played in that England win at the Maracana! Football On This Day - 28th June 1994 Russia beat Cameroon in a group match at the 1994 USA World Cup finals. Two goalscoring records were set in Russia's 6-1 victory – Oleg Salenko became the first player to score five goals in a World Cup finals match while the Cameroon goalscorer – Rogers Milla – at 42 years of age became the oldest goalscorer in the World Cup.
	29th June Football On This Day – 29th June 1950 England’s most embarrassing result? USA 1 England 0 in the World Cup Finals in Brazil. The part-timers of the United States had recorded what would prove to be one of the most amazing results in World Cup history. The goal came from Joe Gaetjens, an acountancy student and part-time dishwasher. England player Wilf Mannion said after the match ‘Bloody ridiculous. Can't we play them again tomorrow?’ But it wasn’t just the defeat but the realisation that England – playing in their first World Cup - weren’t even close to being the best in the world. Football On This Day - June 29th 1995 In the early hours of June 29th 1995 a fire broke out in the main stand of Doncaster Rovers Belle Vue ground and around £100,000 of damage was caused to the seating and roof. In 1999 Ken Richardson, who was the owner of the club at the time, was convicted of organizing the blaze and was sentenced to four years in jail for conspiracy to commit arson. It was suggested at the trial that the plan was to destroy the stand and force the local council to help find the club a new home. Football On This Day - June 29th 1998 You might think that David Beckham's career was one success after another but Goldenballs did suffer his off-days, perhaps the worst of which happened on this day in 1998. England had got past the group stage of the World Cup and so, inevitable, every England football supporter was expecting a repeat of the success of 1966. England were up against Argentina in the last 16 match, very much a grudge encounter. England had taken a 2-1 lead after a young Michael Owen scored what was widely regarded as a wonder goal - but then Argentina equalised, a Sol Campbell golden goal 'winner' in extra time was disallowed and England lost on penalties. Paul Ince and David Batty missed their kicks. Although England had played well the press didn't celebrate a gallant loss but blamed one person for that defeat - David Beckham. He had been sent off early in the second half for stupidly kicking Diego Simeone after the Argentine had fouled him. Of course everyone thought that if England had the full 11 players throughout they would have won and had Beckham been available for the penalties he would doubtless have taken the place of Ince or Batty and won the match again. The press crucified Beckham, effigies of him were burnt outside pubs up and down the country and away fans certainly didn't forget quickly!
	30th June Football On This Day – 30th June 1996 Football may have ‘come home’ for Euro 96 but the trophy didn’t stay here with Germany defeating the Czech Republic with a golden goal in the Wembley final. It was the first major tournament to be decided with a golden goal and was the first major competition won by the unified Germany team. ` Football On This Day – 30th June 2011 Qualifying for European football is great but it can mean an early start to the season. Fulham started out in the 2011/12 Europa League on this day in 2011 at Craven Cottage against Runavik, the first side from the Faroe Islands to play a competitive match in England Link - Fulham results 2011/12