Players drunk night before match in Blackpool
Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2010 8:03 amThose were the days:
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/211 ... -Blackpool
It was the biggest football scandal of its day – England’s captain and golden boy and the game’s greatest goalscorer caught in a drinking den hours before a big FA Cup tie.
Bobby Moore and Jimmy Greaves, both playing for West Ham, hit rock-bottom one freezing night in Blackpool almost 40 years ago.
The memories flood back because today the Hammers and Blackpool play each other for the first time since that 1970-71 season.
Today they play at Upton Park, but in January 1971 West Ham were at Bloomfield Road in the FA Cup. It was a frozen New Year weekend and, after a couple of drinks at their hotel, Greaves and Moore were heading for an early night when they bumped into a couple of Match of the Day cameramen.
One told the players that the Blackpool pitch was iced over and that it would require a miracle to play the match.
On impulse, Moore and Greaves, Hammers’ striker Brian Dear and tee-total forward Clyde Best found themselves in a cab heading for ex-boxer Brian London’s 007 nightclub. Less than three hours later and hardly the worse for wear, the players were safely back at their hotel.
But they had been spotted by West Ham supporters.
Unfortunately for the players, the ‘miracle’ occurred. The pitch was declared fit and the tie went ahead on a skating rink surface. Worse, Blackpool beat West Ham 4-0.
One irate fan telephoned West Ham and a newspaper. A full-blown scandal ensued.
West Ham and the FA took punitive action. Sir Alf Ramsey dropped Moore for the following month’s England match against Malta. Greaves was dropped by West Ham and Dear and Best found their Upton Park careers suddenly curtailed.
Years later, Greaves said: “The story was plastered all over as if we had been guilty of the crime of the century.”
Moore said in 1985: “It was a completely innocent couple of hours. We only drank two or three glasses of beer. Clyde Best drank orange juice.
“After that, things were never the same between myself and West Ham. I had claret-and-blue blood, but I could never forgive the club for the way they treated me.”
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/211 ... -Blackpool
It was the biggest football scandal of its day – England’s captain and golden boy and the game’s greatest goalscorer caught in a drinking den hours before a big FA Cup tie.
Bobby Moore and Jimmy Greaves, both playing for West Ham, hit rock-bottom one freezing night in Blackpool almost 40 years ago.
The memories flood back because today the Hammers and Blackpool play each other for the first time since that 1970-71 season.
Today they play at Upton Park, but in January 1971 West Ham were at Bloomfield Road in the FA Cup. It was a frozen New Year weekend and, after a couple of drinks at their hotel, Greaves and Moore were heading for an early night when they bumped into a couple of Match of the Day cameramen.
One told the players that the Blackpool pitch was iced over and that it would require a miracle to play the match.
On impulse, Moore and Greaves, Hammers’ striker Brian Dear and tee-total forward Clyde Best found themselves in a cab heading for ex-boxer Brian London’s 007 nightclub. Less than three hours later and hardly the worse for wear, the players were safely back at their hotel.
But they had been spotted by West Ham supporters.
Unfortunately for the players, the ‘miracle’ occurred. The pitch was declared fit and the tie went ahead on a skating rink surface. Worse, Blackpool beat West Ham 4-0.
One irate fan telephoned West Ham and a newspaper. A full-blown scandal ensued.
West Ham and the FA took punitive action. Sir Alf Ramsey dropped Moore for the following month’s England match against Malta. Greaves was dropped by West Ham and Dear and Best found their Upton Park careers suddenly curtailed.
Years later, Greaves said: “The story was plastered all over as if we had been guilty of the crime of the century.”
Moore said in 1985: “It was a completely innocent couple of hours. We only drank two or three glasses of beer. Clyde Best drank orange juice.
“After that, things were never the same between myself and West Ham. I had claret-and-blue blood, but I could never forgive the club for the way they treated me.”