Читать книгу Football Extreme - Rob Crossan - Страница 13
ОглавлениеHow Scotland thought they’d won the easiest international match of all time
There has been precious little for Scotland supporters to cheer about in recent years. At the time of writing it’s been over a decade since they qualified for an international tournament and, even on the occasions when they have made it to the World Cup or European Championships, they’ve proved adept at either sustaining the worst of luck (getting knocked out of the 1974 World Cup in West Germany without losing a game) or suffering the most ignominious of defeats (Costa Rica in Italy in 1990 and Peru in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina being perhaps the two most embarrassing examples). But there was one game on the road to the 1998 World Cup in France that even Scotland thought they couldn’t lose…
An away game in Estonia looked on paper like a potentially tricky tie for Craig Brown’s men. It was October 1996 and confidence in the Scotland camp was fairly high. Having just beaten Latvia 2-0 they were off on a short journey down the Baltic to Tallinn where, unbeknown to the squad, the most almighty of off-pitch rows was about to ignite.
When Scottish officials arrived at the stadium they were nonplussed to find that the floodlights were nothing more than temporary structures mounted on lorries. This, coupled with a 6:45pm kick-off, gave rise to major concerns that the goalkeepers would not be able to see the ball properly as evening descended. Having voiced their objection to the governing body, FIFA, the next morning the decision was made to bring the kick-off time forward to 3pm. Scotland were happy, the fans in the city were informed, but the Estonian officials refused to play ball.
Claiming that they were concerned about security, and pointing out the fact that their players were based 80 kilometres away, they decided that making it to the ground on time would be impossible. The fact that the TV contract they’d signed stipulated a 6:45pm kick-off made the matter academic to them. The match would start at 6:45 and that was that.
With the Scotland players on the pitch, the fans in their seats and the referee about to blow for kick-off, there was still no sign of the Estonian squad. Unperturbed, on the stroke of 3pm the match began. Billy Dodds passed the ball to John Collins. That was all the action the ref wanted to see. He blew the final whistle, to cheers from Scotland fans and players alike. FIFA rules dictated that should the opposition not turn up, they would be automatically punished with a 3-0 loss. Scotland had thrashed them. And the game had lasted no more than about two seconds.
This being Scotland, however, things were never going to be as easy as that. A subsequent FIFA meeting decided that the match should be replayed after all, in the neutral venue of Monaco. It finished goalless. Scotland still qualified for the World Cup in France (before going out in the first round, of course) but never has the phrase ‘there was only one team in that game’ been more appropriate.
DID YOU KNOW?
The first international match not involving a British side took place in New Jersey, USA, on 28 November 1885. The USA played Canada, with the Canadians winning 1-0.
