tomclare
10th November 2005, 16:34
This is the first piece of a few articles that I will post remembering the early days of United's European Cup exploits. I hope that you will all find them both interesting and informative.
How United Led The Way into Europe
But for the vision of Sir Matt Busby, English football would have been on the outside looking in for many years, whilst other clubs from other countries competed for the glittering prize of the European Cup. For back in the dark days of the early to middle fifties, English football’s governing bodies wanted nothing to do with this “half-baked” new, European competition; and they didn’t want their clubs to have anything to do with it either!
The first invitation to an English club to enter the European Cup competition was received by Chelsea after they had won the First Division Championship in season 1954-55. The competition had been the brainwave of the editor of the French Sports magazine L’Equipe and at the time the idea was to bring together 32 European Champion teams to contest for the trophy on a knock-out basis, with home and away legs in each round. The ties would be played during mid-week and would not affect the club’s local domestic league commitments.
Chelsea declined that first invitation, not that they had any objections to entering this new exciting competition. They were simply forbidden to do so on fear of reprisals by the insulated and isolated mandarins of the Football league who quite clearly believed that there was nothing those "foreigners" could teach the nation who had invented the game of football.
Undaunted by that snub, the organizers of the European cup sent out a second invitation to the English Champions of 1955-56 who just happened to be Manchester United. Fortunately for them, they addressed the letter to Matt Busby personally. It was read by a manager with the courage to defy the Football League and who had the vision to accept that not only English football, but that British football HAD become more a part of a European and global game.
I can recall many years later, after Sir Matt had been knighted, explaining why he had taken the decision to defy the Football league and blaze a trail for English football in Europe. "I was very keen on the idea of pitching my team against the best in Europe" he recalled. "At one of our Board meetings early in May 1956, my Chairman, Harold Hardman, asked me if I thought that it was wise to enter the club in this European competition. My reply was: "Well Mr. Chairman, football has now become a more expansive game, both in Europe and world wide. It no longer belongs exclusively to the British Isles". It was around this time that we had received a letter from the Football League forbidding us to enter this glamorous new competition. At our next Board meeting in June of 1956, I again repeated to the Board my keenness for this new European challenge, and once more proposed that if the Football Association were willing to back us, we should go ahead and enter. There was always a difference between the two governing bodies of English football, and I had a hunch that if I approached the F.A., then they would back us against the wishes of the League. I went down to London and spoke to the powers that be at the Football Association and came away with their blessing to enter the competition. So, at a further Board meeting on June 22nd 1956, we decided to go ahead and step into new waters and enter the challenge of the European Cup." *****
What a momentous decision that proved to be - not just for Manchester United, but for every other English football club who subsequently followed in the path United had trodden to the doors of the great football stadia of Europe. For Manchester United and Sir Matt, it was to be a European adventure sprinkled with equal measure of both triumph, and great tragedy.
We all know what happened on that dark, dark, day in February 1958 and it will be forever remembered as the blackest day in Manchester United’s long and illustrious history. But like the phoenix, United somehow managed to rise from the ashes of that sad inferno to build a new team which would give Sir Matt the chance to hold aloft his "Holy Grail" after a never to be forgotten night at Wembley when not even the mighty Benfica from Portugal, could deny the lovable United manager the opportunity to achieve an ambition which many believe had helped survive the aftermath of the Munich disaster.
However, the tears of Munich and the ecstasy of Wembley were events still waiting to unfold when Matt Busby and his directors sat around that boardroom table in June 1956 to make a decision which would affect the whole destiny of Manchester United, and English football. It was Europe here we come!
***** This conversation was taken from Sir Matt’s autobiography “My Story” as told to and written by David Jack.
How United Led The Way into Europe
But for the vision of Sir Matt Busby, English football would have been on the outside looking in for many years, whilst other clubs from other countries competed for the glittering prize of the European Cup. For back in the dark days of the early to middle fifties, English football’s governing bodies wanted nothing to do with this “half-baked” new, European competition; and they didn’t want their clubs to have anything to do with it either!
The first invitation to an English club to enter the European Cup competition was received by Chelsea after they had won the First Division Championship in season 1954-55. The competition had been the brainwave of the editor of the French Sports magazine L’Equipe and at the time the idea was to bring together 32 European Champion teams to contest for the trophy on a knock-out basis, with home and away legs in each round. The ties would be played during mid-week and would not affect the club’s local domestic league commitments.
Chelsea declined that first invitation, not that they had any objections to entering this new exciting competition. They were simply forbidden to do so on fear of reprisals by the insulated and isolated mandarins of the Football league who quite clearly believed that there was nothing those "foreigners" could teach the nation who had invented the game of football.
Undaunted by that snub, the organizers of the European cup sent out a second invitation to the English Champions of 1955-56 who just happened to be Manchester United. Fortunately for them, they addressed the letter to Matt Busby personally. It was read by a manager with the courage to defy the Football League and who had the vision to accept that not only English football, but that British football HAD become more a part of a European and global game.
I can recall many years later, after Sir Matt had been knighted, explaining why he had taken the decision to defy the Football league and blaze a trail for English football in Europe. "I was very keen on the idea of pitching my team against the best in Europe" he recalled. "At one of our Board meetings early in May 1956, my Chairman, Harold Hardman, asked me if I thought that it was wise to enter the club in this European competition. My reply was: "Well Mr. Chairman, football has now become a more expansive game, both in Europe and world wide. It no longer belongs exclusively to the British Isles". It was around this time that we had received a letter from the Football League forbidding us to enter this glamorous new competition. At our next Board meeting in June of 1956, I again repeated to the Board my keenness for this new European challenge, and once more proposed that if the Football Association were willing to back us, we should go ahead and enter. There was always a difference between the two governing bodies of English football, and I had a hunch that if I approached the F.A., then they would back us against the wishes of the League. I went down to London and spoke to the powers that be at the Football Association and came away with their blessing to enter the competition. So, at a further Board meeting on June 22nd 1956, we decided to go ahead and step into new waters and enter the challenge of the European Cup." *****
What a momentous decision that proved to be - not just for Manchester United, but for every other English football club who subsequently followed in the path United had trodden to the doors of the great football stadia of Europe. For Manchester United and Sir Matt, it was to be a European adventure sprinkled with equal measure of both triumph, and great tragedy.
We all know what happened on that dark, dark, day in February 1958 and it will be forever remembered as the blackest day in Manchester United’s long and illustrious history. But like the phoenix, United somehow managed to rise from the ashes of that sad inferno to build a new team which would give Sir Matt the chance to hold aloft his "Holy Grail" after a never to be forgotten night at Wembley when not even the mighty Benfica from Portugal, could deny the lovable United manager the opportunity to achieve an ambition which many believe had helped survive the aftermath of the Munich disaster.
However, the tears of Munich and the ecstasy of Wembley were events still waiting to unfold when Matt Busby and his directors sat around that boardroom table in June 1956 to make a decision which would affect the whole destiny of Manchester United, and English football. It was Europe here we come!
***** This conversation was taken from Sir Matt’s autobiography “My Story” as told to and written by David Jack.