Auf wiedersehen, Tony. Goodbye dreams of winning the league.
40 years ago, Forest's league form fell away alarmingly at around the same time that a key member of their championship winning squad decided to move to pastures new. Tony Woodcock's exciting pace and direct attacking runs had been a big part of Forest's success but in the middle of November he decided not to renew his contract and, instead, was lured away to the Bundesliga to play for 1FC Köln, the team Forest had beaten in the European Cup semi final a few months earlier.
In this blog post, then, I'll track how that happened and how Forest's league form dipped so badly during a spell that included their first home league defeat in 50, after almost three years. Luckily, Forest managed to continue their two cup runs. They beat Bristol City to reach the League Cup quarter final and completed the victory over Romanian champions, Argeș Pitești to reach the quarter finals of the European Cup too.
So I give a small tribute to local lad Tony Woodcock before I continue with my survey of European leagues, looking for evidence of ever reducing competitiveness, by adding four more countries, whose champions were eliminated in the European Cup 1st round. I'll also add a new angle to this here, including coverage of new European leagues that either didn't even exist 40 years ago, or else were seen as too insignificant to bother about. As there are an incredible 27 or so of these "new" leagues, I'll cover five of them each month starting here.
Previously: Leading the league, beating the Swedish champions and getting ahead against the Romanians in October.
In this blog post, then, I'll track how that happened and how Forest's league form dipped so badly during a spell that included their first home league defeat in 50, after almost three years. Luckily, Forest managed to continue their two cup runs. They beat Bristol City to reach the League Cup quarter final and completed the victory over Romanian champions, Argeș Pitești to reach the quarter finals of the European Cup too.
So I give a small tribute to local lad Tony Woodcock before I continue with my survey of European leagues, looking for evidence of ever reducing competitiveness, by adding four more countries, whose champions were eliminated in the European Cup 1st round. I'll also add a new angle to this here, including coverage of new European leagues that either didn't even exist 40 years ago, or else were seen as too insignificant to bother about. As there are an incredible 27 or so of these "new" leagues, I'll cover five of them each month starting here.
Previously: Leading the league, beating the Swedish champions and getting ahead against the Romanians in October.
Match 364: Saturday, 3rd November 1979, Division One.
Nottingham Forest 2 Ipswich Town 0 (City Ground 178, Nottingham Forest 257, Ipswich Town 7) Attendance 24,596.
The month started as the last had finished with Forest on top form, beating struggling Ipswich Town at home 2-0. This was already my 31st game of the season but far more impressively, it was Forest's 50th successive home league game without defeat. Fortress City Ground, indeed!Of course I have no memory of the game. All I have are the match day programme and a match report published in the Guardian.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Trevor Francis, 8 John O'Hare, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Trevor Francis 2.
Substitutions: Gary Mills (12) came on for Tony Woodcock(10).
Ipswich Town
1 Paul Cooper, 2 George Burley, 3 Terry Butcher, 4 Frans Thijssen, 5 Russell Osman, 6 Kevin Beattie, 7 John Wark, 8 Arnold Muhren, 9 Paul Mariner, 10 Eric Gates, 10 Mick Mills.
Substitutions: Robin Turner(12) came on for Arnold Muhren (8).
Here's the report...
Liverpool and Manchester United both also won to keep the pressure going at the top of the league.
The results kept Forest at the heels of leaders, Manchester United whilst Derby's win took them out of the bottom three at the expense of Bolton.
Forest still led the composite (1977-80) table at this stage...
Trouble in Iran
The Iranian revolution had been brewing for years before and reached a climax in January 1979 when the Shah was finally forced to leave for exile in Egypt. Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran in February to become leader of the now Islamic Republic. Images of thousands of angry protesters on the streets of Tehran seemed to be broadcast on the TV every day and things reached a significant flash-point early in November when the US embassy was occupied and 52 American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days.The day after the US siege started, events seemed to be repeating themselves at the British embassy. This time though, armed Revolutionary Guards freed the UK diplomats and things returned to some kind of normality.
Argeș Pitești 1 Nottingham Forest 2
A couple of days later, Forest played their second round, second leg, game in Romania against the 1978 champions Argeș Pitești. Forest already had a 2-0 lead but the game at the City Ground had ended a little nervously for the Reds.
Arges Pitesti
1 Geroghe Christian, 2 Ilie Barbulescu, 3 Doru Toma, 4 Petre Ivan, 5 Constantin Stancu, 6 Constantin Cirstea, 7 Gheorge Chivescu, 8 Sebastian Iovanescu, 9 Marin Radu, 10 Nicolae Dobrin, 11 Doru Nicolae.
Goals: Ilie Barbulescu 1.
Substitutions: Viorel Turcu (13) came on Ralai (12) came on for Nicolae Dobrin(10).
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 John O'Hare, 8 Ian Bowyer, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals : Ian Bowyer 1, Garry Birtles 1.
Substitutions: Bryn Gunn(13) came on Gary Mills(12) came on for John O'Hare (7).
Forest managed to win again, 2-1 to seal their place in the quarter finals, to be played in four months time. Ian Bowyer scored in the fifth minute and then Birtles put the game to bed before half time before the Romanians got a consolation goal from the penalty spot in the second half.
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| The stadium |
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| Celebrations after Bowyer scores |
Here is some barely visible black & white footage of the match with an Italian commentary...
Here are the other results of that round...
And here are some highlights of those games ...
Servette Geneva 2 Dynamo Berlin 2...
Strasbourg 2 Dukla Prague 0
One of the most incredible scores ever - Omonia Nicosia 4 Ajax Amsterdam 0 (it's a pity they lost the first leg 10-0!)
A much friendlier European Cup match at Dundalk than the one against Linfield in the preliminary round...
The big match of the round - Real Madrid v Oporto...
Extended highlights of Dynamo Tblisi's clash against Kevin Keegan's Hamburg SV.
Finally, Hajduk Split won through to the quarter finals despite losing at home to Danish champions Vejle 1-2. Black & white again, with Italian commentary.
The following Saturday, I missed Forest's long trip south the The Dell and instead went to Meadow Lane to watch Notts County play Preston in a Second Division match.
Match 365: Saturday, 10th November 1979, Division Two.
Notts County 0 Preston North End 0 (Meadow Lane 22, Notts County 31, Preston North End 2) Attendance 8,602.
It was a disappointing result for County who were, incredibly, chasing promotion to the First Division under the ageless guidance of Jimmy Sirrel.
Southampton 4 Nottingham Forest 1
It was just as well that I missed out on the Forest game because they lost away again - this time by 4-1. This was their third consecutive away defeat in the league, the first time that had ever happened under Cloughie. In fact this was the worst sequence of matches Brain Clough had experienced as manager since the five successive defeats at Brighton & Hove Albion in 1973-74. That, you may remember, included a 0-4 home defeat in the F.A. Cup to amateur Walton & Hersham and an 8-2 home thrashing by Bristol Rovers in the league (see here for more on that.) But even that season, Cloughie & Taylor's Brighton never lost more than three successive away games in the league.Considering that Forest had lost only six league games in the whole of the previous two seasons (three in each) since their return to the top flight, this was surely a sign that things were not going well.
Southampton
1 Peter Wells, 2 Ivan Golac, 3 Nick Holmes, 4 Steve Williams, 5 Dave Watson, 6 Malcom Waldron, 7 Alan Ball, 8 Phil Boyer, 9 Mike Channon, 10 Graham Baker, 11 Trevor Hebberd.
Goals: Dave Watson 1, Phil Boyer 2, Mike Channon 1.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Kenny Burns, 7 Trevor Francis, 8 Ian Bowyer, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals : Garry Birtles 1.
Substitutions: David Needham(12) came on for Kenny Burns (6).
On a positive note, this was John Robertson's 170th consecutive game for Forest. It is amazing to note than even by this stage he was still not 3/4 of the way through his amazing run.
In other results, Liverpool smashed Brighton to move within a point of Manchester United at the top of the league, after they lost the Manchester derby 2-0 at Maine Road. Crystal Palace kept up their impressive start to the season attracting the second highest attendance of the day.
The table looked very tight at the top now, with 14 teams within five points of the leaders and six teams within two points.
And so, Liverpool, inevitably hauled themselves above Forest in the three-year (1977-80) composite table. Forest had had their time in the spotlight of the English football league as the No 1 club for over two years. But it would be all down hill from now on.
Match 366: Wednesday, 14th November 1979, League Cup 3rd Round (Replay).
Nottingham Forest 3 Bristol City 0 (City Ground 179, Nottingham Forest 258, Bristol City 10) Attendance 20,462.
Despite their early woes in the league - admittedly unnoticed really at this stage - Forest returned to form in the League Cup in midweek with the 3rd Round replay against Bristol City.
This was the last tie to be resolved after the majority had gone to replays. Martin O'Neill returned to the side, replacing Ian Bowyer and David Needham came in for Kenny Burns.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 5 David Needham, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Trevor Francis, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: Viv Anderson 1, Martin O'Neill 1, Tony Woodcock 1.
Substitutions: Ian Bowyer (12) came on for Martin O'Neill(7).
Bristol City
1 John Shaw, 2 Gerry Sweeney, 3 Roger Kenyon, 4 Kevin Mabbutt, 5 Allan Hay, 6 Geoff Merrick, 7 Tony Fitzpatrick, 8 Andy Ritchie, 9 Joe Royle, 10 James Mann, 11 Trevor Tainton.
Substitutions: Don Gillies(12) came on for Joe Royle (9).
Again, no memory, no video, just a couple of photos and this match report...
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| Martin O'Neill puts Forest 1-0 up in front of us in the Trent End |
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| Viv volley's in No 2 |
Other results...
In today's world of very low, or even negative inflation, it's a sobering thought to remember that in the late 1970s mortgage rates weer rocketing. Imagine having to pay a 15% mortgage rate!
On the following Friday, our fears turned to reality as Tony Woodcock ended all speculation and signed for 1FC Köln, the team Forest had beaten in the European Cup semi finals the previous season. He would make his last appearance for the club the next day, at home to Brighton & Hove Albion.
Match 367: Saturday, 17th November 1979, Division One.
Nottingham Forest 0 Brighton & Hove Albion 1 (City Ground 180, Nottingham Forest 259, Brighton & Hove Albion 2) Attendance 25,962.
This was the last time Tony Woodcock played for Forest and, I just worked out, the 150th time I saw him play for the club. Brighton, new boys in the first division, were having a torrid time and were propping up the table. Forest were invincible at home, having just gone 50 games unbeaten in the league. A record stretching back 938 days (about 2.5 years) to 23rd April 1977 when they lost 0-1 at home to Cardiff City. So, easy home win, right?Wrong. Although Robbo missed a penalty and David Needham hit the post, Forest would lose, again, and as Tony departed the City Ground turf for the last time, to very warm appreciation, it surely signaled the end of Forest's serious ambitions of winning the title again that season and, let's face it, ever again.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 5 David Needham, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Trevor Francis, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Substitutions: Ian Bowyer (12) came on for Tony Woodcock(10).
Brighton & Hove Albion
1 Graham Moseley, 2 Gary Stevens, 3 Keith Williams, 4 Brian Horton, 5 Steve Foster, 6 Peter Suddaby, 7 Gerry Ryan, 8 Peter Ward, 9 Paul Clark, 10 Mark Lawrenson, 11 Perer O'Sullivan.
Goals : Gerry Ryan 1.
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| A rare penalty saved by Graham Moseley from John Robertson |
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| A David Needham shot from the edge of the box beats the goalkeeper, but hits the post |
Here's the goal the ended the unbeaten run...
This was the front page of the Football Post that day...
So, here's the run in full...
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| 50 Home League Games without defeat... then the Seagulls came and shat on us. |
It had been a close season up until this point, but I think you know what'll be coming soon, don't you?
Forest now slipped to 5th place in the league but they were still only two points behind the leadership.
The 1977-1980 cumulative table would only get worse from now on.
Here are some highlights of Villa v Stoke City
Steve Daley's first goal for City at Bolton Wanderers ...
Match 368: Saturday, 24th November 1979, Division One.
Derby County 4 Nottingham Forest 1 (Baseball Ground 7, Derby County 10, Nottingham Forest 260) Attendance 27,896.
Next week, things went from bad to "as bad as it gets" when Forest lost their FOURTH consecutive away league game (third home or away) and to cap it all off, it happened at the Baseball Ground, home of their bitter rivals.It's the only Derby game I remember going to in that era where the match day program wasn't the usual rag but a half-decent attempt at a proper program. Apparently Derby fans were not happy with it, though, and the notes contained a promise that "The Ram" newspaper format would be reinstated soon.
This was Forest's first game since Tony Woodcock left for Germany and his usual No 10 shirt was taken up by Trevor Francis. Gary Mills came into midfield.
Derby County
1 David McKellar, 2 David Langan, 3 Alan Buckley, 4 Gerry Daly, 5 David Webb, 6 Keith Osgood, 7 Steve Emery, 8 Barry Powell, 9 John Duncan, 10 Roger Davies, 11 Jonathan Clark, 12 Paul Emson.
Goals: Gerry Daly 1, Steve Emery 1, John Duncan 2.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Gray, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 David Needham, 7 Martin O'Neill, 8 Gary Mills, 9 Garry Birtles, 10 Trevor Francis, 11 John Robertson, 12 Ian Bowyer.
Goals : John Robertson 1 (pen.).
Forest's defence, the foundation on which they won the league championship in 1977-78, was floundering and after this had conceded nine goals in three league games.
This was the fourth consecutive away league defeat for Forest, extending their worst run under Clough.
Here's a biased Derby commentary...
And here's a more neutral one from the BBC... |
| Burns at Derby |
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| McGovern and Birtles at Derby |
This was the fourth consecutive away league defeat for Forest, extending their worst run under Clough.
Here's a biased Derby commentary...
Manchester United returned to the top of the league, thrashing Norwich City 5-0 whilst Liverpool drew 0-0 at Highbury. Forest stayed 5th but were now 4 points adrift.
So Forest found themselves in the midst of their worst current (last 3 home/away) form since their return to the First Division.
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| Forest's worst current (last 3 home/away) form since their return to the top flight |
Match 369: Tuesday, 27th November 1979, F.A. Cup 1st Round.
Chesterfield 2 Grimsby Town 3 (Saltergate 5, Chesterfield 9, Grimsby Town 3) Attendance 7,800.
The next Tuesday, we had another trip to Saltergate to watch Chesterfield play in the F.A. Cup 1st Round. Frustratingly, I have no memory other than a vague idea that it was an exciting night of football - but I could have deduced that much from the score anyway.Conservative troubles with Europe
As November ended Mrs Thatcher had only been in power a few months but there were already rumblings of trouble with the European Economic Community. Maybe it was around this time, then, that the idea of Brexit was first conceived.
Egyptian Winter Break
Forest ended the month with one of their winter breaks in the sun after that, away in Cairo to play a friendly against an "Egypt Select XI" and get some warmth. Forest won 3-1 in front of 25,000.
Music Interlude
As usual, I'll throw a bit of popular culture into the mix. Here is the top 20 as November ended...
And here are my three picks of the month...
The Police's "Walking on the Moon"...
One Step Beyond by Madness...
The Jam's "Eton Rifles"...
Auf wiedersehen Tony Woodcock
As stated earlier, November 1979 saw the surprising exit of Tony Woodcock, one of the young stars that had helped Forest rise to unimaginable heights of this three year period.
The home defeat against Brighton, Forest's first home league defeat in two and a half years, after going 50 undefeated, would be his last for the club. So here is my small tribute to him.
Of all Forest's stars in those days, Tony was the one who was most local - to me, certainly - being born on 6th December 1955 in the town of Eastwood, less than seven miles away from where I grew up, on the other side of the M1, but still (but only just) in Nottinghamshire.
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| I could have walked to Tony's in about 2 hours |
Tony Woodcock made his debut for Forest at Villa Park toward the end of the 1973-74 season. It was Forest's penultimate match on 24th April 1974. Tony was aged 18 years and 4 months old that night. He played No 10 in the same attack as Martin O'Neill and Duncan McKenzie, who scored Forest's only goal as they went down 3-1.
He played alongside Duncan McKenzie the next game too - last of the season, at Fratton Park. Forest beat Portsmouth 2-0 and McKenzie scored both in his last game for the club. Duncan joined Brian Clough's Leeds United in the summer. So, although I was already a big Forest fan before Tony's debut, I had missed both of his games so far.
Woodcock started on the bench in the opening game of the 1974-75 season, at home to Bristol City, he came on to replace Neil Martin. I did watch that match, so I must have witnessed Tony's first home appearance although I have no memory of it. Tony was picked in the first eleven for the next two away games - at Millwall and Portsmouth. No way I was going to go to those scary places - so I'd missed four out of five of Tony's first handful of appearances. Under Allan Brown, Tony made two more appearances, both at home coming on as substitute, before he was sacked and Brain Clough Cloughie became Forest new manager.
The first time Cloughie used his services was another home appearance coming on as a sub against Aston Villa, when Forest lost to them 2-3 at the City Ground on March 8th 1975.
Cloughie gave him three full appearances in Forest's last five games of that season - at home to Sheffield Wednesday, away at Bristol Rovers and for the last game of the season, at home to West Bromwich Albion.
So, at the end of Tony's second season he'd made seven full and four sub appearances for the club. I'd seen all four substitutions but only two of his starts.
After that, Clough seems to have decided against using him as Woodcock was all but forgotten the next season. He went out on loan to fourth division Lincoln City (who won that division that year) where he scored his first league goal in their 6-0 home win against Southport on 25th February 1976. Woodcock only made two full appearances and one as sub for them but Tony later suggested that his short time with their manager at the time, Graham Taylor, had a big influence on his career. But that was, of course, yet to come.Languishing in Forest's reserves towards the end of the 1975-76 season, Tony surely could not have dreamed what was around the corner for him.
At the start of our promotion season, 1976-77, Woodcock was loaned out again, this time to Doncaster Rovers, also in the fourth division. He made six full appearances and scored two goals (both at Belle View against Darlington and Bradford City) for them. His last game for "donnie" was on 25th October 1976. I suspect some communication, perhaps from Doncaster's manager at the time, Stan Anderson, about the lad's form had reached Cloughie's ears because just twelve days later, Tony found himself playing in the Forest first team against Blackburn Rovers at home, a match we won 3-0.
Woodcock was an ever present after that, playing in all 30 league games from that point on and in all five in Forest's F.A. Cup run, which included three replays. So, that's 35 consecutive appearances. He scored his first goal for Forest in the second of those league games, at Orient, and would end up Forest's second highest scorer (behind Peter Withe) in league and cup with 16 goals.
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| Woodcock's debut for Forest was at Villa Park in 1974 |
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| Tony Woodcock nowhere to be seen in this 1973-74 squad photo |
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| Woodcock in for Bowyer, alongside Duncan McKenzie and Martin O'Neill |
Woodcock started on the bench in the opening game of the 1974-75 season, at home to Bristol City, he came on to replace Neil Martin. I did watch that match, so I must have witnessed Tony's first home appearance although I have no memory of it. Tony was picked in the first eleven for the next two away games - at Millwall and Portsmouth. No way I was going to go to those scary places - so I'd missed four out of five of Tony's first handful of appearances. Under Allan Brown, Tony made two more appearances, both at home coming on as substitute, before he was sacked and Brain Clough Cloughie became Forest new manager.
The first time Cloughie used his services was another home appearance coming on as a sub against Aston Villa, when Forest lost to them 2-3 at the City Ground on March 8th 1975.
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| Woodcock's first selection by Brian Clough - coming on a substitute against Villa |
So, at the end of Tony's second season he'd made seven full and four sub appearances for the club. I'd seen all four substitutions but only two of his starts.
After that, Clough seems to have decided against using him as Woodcock was all but forgotten the next season. He went out on loan to fourth division Lincoln City (who won that division that year) where he scored his first league goal in their 6-0 home win against Southport on 25th February 1976. Woodcock only made two full appearances and one as sub for them but Tony later suggested that his short time with their manager at the time, Graham Taylor, had a big influence on his career. But that was, of course, yet to come.Languishing in Forest's reserves towards the end of the 1975-76 season, Tony surely could not have dreamed what was around the corner for him.
Woodcock was an ever present after that, playing in all 30 league games from that point on and in all five in Forest's F.A. Cup run, which included three replays. So, that's 35 consecutive appearances. He scored his first goal for Forest in the second of those league games, at Orient, and would end up Forest's second highest scorer (behind Peter Withe) in league and cup with 16 goals.
I've documented Tony's next three seasons through these pages, so let's now fast forward to the rest of his career, starting in Germany.
It was ironic that Tony Woodcock was following in the footsteps of Kevin Keegan in going to play in the Bundesliga, as Forest meet Keegan's club, Hamburger SV in the European Cup final later that season, whilst Tony would miss out.
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| Bundesliga 1979-70 |
In Tony's third season in Germany, he almost clinched the Miesterscahft but Hamburg SV pipped them for the title.
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| Bundesliga 1981-82 |
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| Tony Woodcock in the 1FC Köln team |
Although Tony Woocock's England career started at Forest, he would really claim a regular place only when he was playing in Germany.
The pinnacle of his international career was probably his appearance in the World Cup finals in Spain in 1982, infamous for England as they managed to not even reach the semi-finals despite being undefeated
In a strange and never-to-be-repeated format, England made it to a second stage which comprised four groups of three, with the top team from each group going through to the semi-finals. So, the nearest Woodcock would come to England glory was probably the match against Spain in Madrid that was drawn 0-0. Woodcock played for an hour before being replaced by Kevin Keegan.
Here is Tony's entire England career - in which he accumulated an impressive total of 42 caps.
Tony's caps were split quite neatly, 20%, 40% , 40% between three clubs he played for.
After the World Cup in Spain, Tony returned to England where he joined Arsenal, for whom he made most appearances and scored most goals. 56 goals in 131 league appearances is excellent by anyone's standards - a 43% scoring rate,
Woodcock would never win any honours with the Gunners but he became immortalised in Arsenal's history when he scored five goals at Villa Park in a 6-2 win there.
Forest were having a bit of resurgence under Brian Clough at the time and during Tony's four years at Highbury Forest had the better of things, winning three, drawing three and losing two of the eight games between the clubs. Although neither club won any silverware in that period, Forest had the better league record...
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| During Tony's time at Arsenal Forest were better |
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| Tony Woodcock at his peak in the Arsenal Squad 1984-85 |
Here are some of his many goals for Arsenal...
Tony picked up a nasty injury in 1985 and manager George Graham decided he was no longer needed at the club. Woodcock then returned to Köln to play out the rest of his career there. First of all returning back to the "Billy Goats" where he would complete 130 appearances, scoring 30 goals. Köln finished mid table the first season but 3rd in his final year with the club.
Woodcock then took a step down to the second tier of German football to finish his career at Fortuna Köln where he made another 40 appearances in all competitions and scored another seven goals. Fortuna just missed out on promotion in Tony's first season there and ended up mid table in his last season.
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| Tony at his last club... Fortuna Köln |
And so he should - what a great player, and what a privilege to have seen so much of his career.
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| Tony, often seen around Forest even today |
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| I watched 150 of Tony's 178 appearances for Forest |
Here's the annual data summarised - After the Brighton game, I'd seen 80% of his career.
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| I saw 84% of Tony Woodcock's Forest Career |
And here's a summary, by club - league appearances only.
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| Tony's League Appearance Record |
The pie...
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| Tony Woodcock, always a "Red" |
No-one (who has played for Forest) has scored more goals for England. Tony Woodcock is the 6th most capped player for England to have played for the club and one of a select band of ten who have been capped at least ten times.
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| Tony @ No 78 in the all-time England caps table, No 6 for Forest |
Here's his career map...
Thanks for the great memories, Tony!!
EurOpen update - four more countries that were knocked out in Round One
And now to another of my axes to grind - the ever reducing competitiveness of football leagues across Europe. At least, that's my assumption. But I am prepared to test my ideas against the data.I might even call this factCheckEU!
The four countries with their champions knocked out in the first to add this month are - Hungary, Iceland, Italy and Luxembourg.
Hungarian League (Nemzeti Bajnokság) ~ Újpest Dózsa
The first country this month is Hungary, after the elimination of their champions, Újpest Dózsa by Dukla Prague in the first round.
The Hungarian league began in 1901 and has always been dominated by clubs from the capital. This shouldn't be all that surprising as nearly 20% of the entire country's population live in Budapest. Incidentally, there are only a dozen or so other European countries that have a greater percentage living in the capital.
The 1978-79 champions were Újpest Dózsa, finishing five points clear of one of their big rivals, Ferencvaros, another club from the capital.
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| Ujpest - another of those rare teams that play in purple |
From 1901 until 1979, the Hungarian league was pretty open, being won by nine clubs, although three quarters of the championships were won by just three. Out of the 77 titles, 75 were won by clubs from Budapest, that's over 97
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| Nagyvarad one minute, Oradea the next. Champions in Hungary, then again in Romania. |
Three quarters of the pie taken by the big three. All but two (the smallest) slices went to Budapest.
In the two decades or so that followed the league stayed pretty similar with seven teams winning the title. It was still largely dominated by clubs from the capital but two provincial clubs again managed to claim one title each, Gyor again and Dunaferr.
So, what about the last twenty years?
I am please to see that the Hungarian league has retained its competitiveness. Even though, like many former Communist countries, the league seems to have become dominated by "new kids on the block" - doubtless funded by dodgy money - at least the new kids' dominance is not overwhelming, at just seven out of 19 titles, and going against over a century of history, they are not from Budapest. In fact 12 of the 19 titles have been won by four provincial clubs. The three Budapest champions are in a minority.
Icelandic League (Úrvalsdeild karland) Champions ~ Valur Reykjavík
Valur had won the league by a clear six points from Akranes.
Six teams had won the league in the first 67 years, all but one from the capital.
In the next 21 years the league became more competitive with seven teams becoming champions, including three from outside Reykjavik.
So what happened to Iceland since (apart from their national side getting pretty good and beating England in the Euro 2016 round of 16 in Nice)?
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| Yes, Yes... Congratulations |
As seems to be the trend with many smaller nations, a club have appeared from nowhere to dominate. In Iceland's case this is "FH". A typical two-letter acronym used in the Icelandic league.
You'll wish you hadn't asked! FH stands for "Fimleikafélag Hafnarfjarðar." Apparently they are quite an old club, having formed in 1929 as a gymnastics outfit, but only got promoted to the Icelandic top division for the first time 40 years ago. They won the championship for the first time in 2004 and have won it seven more times since.
In fact, assuming good weather and not too much traffic (this is Iceland, though!), you could do a tour of all six towns in just over an hour. 18 of the last 19 Icelandic champions are within 24 km of each other.
Italian Serie A ~ AC Milan
Duda's single goal in the San Siro was enough to take Oporto through to the second round at Italian champions, AC Milan's expense.
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| AC Milan 1979-80 |
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| Duda's goal at the San Siro knocked out the Italians in the first round - again! |
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| Italian Serie A - 1978-79 |
In complete contrast to the two previous countries, and most throughout the world, Italian football is not dominated by clubs from the capital. Quite the opposite, really. Only twice out of 77 championships had Roman clubs won the Serie A in 1979.
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| Lots of slices in the Italian Pie before 1980 |
In the next twenty years, things in Italy changed quite a bit with two thirds of the titles being won by just two clubs - Juventus and AC Milan. Roma and Lazio won the league three times between them, giving a 5x bigger slice to the capital clubs.
So, here's what I've been waiting for. How has the total domination of Juventus on Italian football changed the picture now?
The only surprise for me was that Juve hadn't dominated more. I'd forgotten that both Lazio and Roma had won the Serie A and the two Milan clubs had actually won it seven times between them. So five clubs have won the Serie A in the last 21 seasons. I was expecting it to be two.
Still, having won the last eight Italian championships has made the league one of the most predictable on the continent. If any league epitomises the trend from an open, healthy, competitive league to one that's completely dominated by one or two clubs, it's Italy.
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| Juventus - so predictably Italian Champions |
Luxembourg - Red Boys Differdange
Red Boys Differdange, the Luxembourg champions were ignominiously dumped out of the first round by the hardly-mighty Omonia Nicosia. They'd won the first leg 2-1 but got thrashed in Cyprus 6-1 to go out on a 7-3 aggregate. The match was refereed by Clive Thomas.
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| Omonia 6 Differdange 1 probably wasn't the highlight of Clive Thomas' career |
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| Luxembourg League 1978-79 |
It was their sixth (and currently, in 2019, still their last) title in a competition that had started in 1909 and was it's 65th iteration.
As with many leagues around Europe, the Luxembourg competition was pretty open and no less than 13 clubs had won the title in those first 65 seasons. Unlike many European countries, the Luxembourg football league is not dominated by clubs from the capital. Jeunesse Esch are the biggest club, playing in the second biggest town (or should I say village - it has a population of around 28,000.).
So, bringing us right up to date, yet another league has been "disrupted," to use the modern parlance, in that a new club has come from nowhere to totally dominate the league.
In this case, at least the clubs had history. And yes, I do use the plural deliberately there because F91 Dudelange has a complex history of mergers between several ancestral clubs. You need a visual to understand it.
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| F91 Dudelange - formed from a very complex hybrid cross |
As the name suggests, they were only formed in 1991 but since the new millennium, they've completely dominated the league winning it 15 out of the twenty times it's been run.
Just three other clubs have won the league. Even Jeunesse d'Esch have been eclipsed.
But just as you start to despair, a miracle - it seems that maybe, just maybe, this season will see the end of their dominance and another new kid on the block seems to have appeared.
Here's the current Luxembourg league table, with eleven games played, as I write this on 23rd November 2019...
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| F91, F91... you're not famous any more! |
"New country" Football League Survey
Just when I (and anyone sad enough to be reading this, I'm sure) thought I was getting towards the end of this quite long survey of European football leagues, I suddenly realised that there a tonne of new countries that now have football leagues that I hadn't been tracking because they didn't exist forty years ago.Of course, I was anticipating the ex-Soviet Republics. I can't wait, in particular, to do one on my fatherland, Lithuania. But that is just about half of them. There was also the break up of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia to consider. Plus there are a cluster of "micro" countries that have stepped up and decided to participate on the world sporting stage and UEFA have only encouraged them to do so.
So, stand by for the first batch of five (out of 28) new leagues to have a quick look at and include in my ever-growing EurOpen league.
Andorra
Andorra is a tiny country with a population of just over 76,000 (76% of them living in the capital) in the Pyrenees bordering with France and Spain. I visited it myself in 1998 during the World Cup in France. I even watched a game there (on a TV in a bar.) It was part of a crazy idea I had to watch three World Cup games in three countries in one day.
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| 3 Countries & 3 World Cup matches in one day. |
I watched Germany v Yugoslavia in the first village in Spain, then Argentina v Jamaica in Andorra la Vella and finished the day off with USA v Iran back in France.
Armenia
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| So near, and yet so far... Mount Ararat looks down on the beautiful Armenian capital, Erevan |
I spent a day there just before the Russian World Cup in 2018. (See my blog post about it). I wish I'd stayed longer. It's a great city and one can't help but sympathise with Armenians. They way they've been treated by their big bullying neighbors, Turkey, Russia and to a lesser extent, Azerbaijan is heartbreaking. They have a fantastic history and culture with their own language and unique alphabet.
In fact one third of the population of this small, historic country in the Caucasus mountains live in the city and all but 4 of the 28 championships played out since independence have been won by clubs from the capital.
Although nine clubs have won the title Pyunik have greedily snapped up half of the pie.
Azerbaijan
Another recurring theme here is that a large majority (almost 60%) of the population live in the capital city Baku. Their most famous club is Neftchi (Meaning "Petroleum Worker") Baku. Most football fanatics would have heard of them 40 years ago as they also took part in the Soviet league. Unlike Ararat Erevan, they seemed to have made the transition to the independence era smoothly and have continued to be the No 1 side in the country in the country despite Qarabağ winning the last seven titles.
There is obviously a lot of oil money in Baku and the country have managed to position themselves as a key player in UEFA these days, hosting the Europa Cup final between Arsenal and Chelsea last season and being one of the host cities for the forthcoming European Championships in 2020.
I attended a match at the stadium when I visited in 2018. Architecturally, it's beautiful, but it's not so great from a spectator's point of view as you are miles away from the pitch. (Click here for my blog post on my visit.)
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| Baku's Olympic Stadium - Beautifully Designed |
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| But you need binoculars to view the game |
Belarus
The top club at the moment is BATE (which, wait for it, stands for Borisov Automobile and Tractor Electronics.) It seems to be a classic example of "new money" being spent (or should that be "laundered" through football.) The club were actually founded in 1973 but were disbanded. Their current successful history really only started when they were "re-established" in 1996. They have won the Belarus title the last thirteen times, although as a I write this (on 24th November 2019) they are currently second to Dinamo Brest, five points behind with two games to go. Could this be the end of their incredible run?
Wouldn't you just love to be in Brest later today? If they can beat Vitebsk in their 7:00 pm kick off they'll be crowned Belarus champions for the first time and make it an unlucky 13 for the Tractor (& Electronics) boys.
Historically, before the new BATEs on the block came along, the top club in Belarus was always the famous Dinamo Minsk, who even won the Soviet league in 1982.
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| Dinamo Minsk - Top Soviet Dogs in 1982 |
Their city center stadium was having a major upgrade done on it when I was there.
Belarus has a big, impressive capital city in Minsk, but football wise, it doesn't dominate the Belarus league. Only one team from the capital (Dinamo, of course) has ever won the league since independence making up only a quarter of titles.
BATE and Dinamo take up almost 80% of the championships won.
Bosnia- Herzogovina
Once the terrible mess that resulted from the collapse of Yugoslavia started to settle a number of small, independent countries have resulted and started to normalise their existence having finally been allowed to decide for themselves, at least to a degree, how they should organise themselves.
Naturally, one of the first things to do is to form a national football league.
The top team in Bosnia-Herzegovina is, perhaps predictably, FK Željezničar Sarajevo, a team that most football fans would have heard of during the Yugoslov era.
They won the Yugoslav league in 1971-72...
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| Sarajevo, Yugoslav Champions in 1972 |
Their reward? A trip to the Baseball Ground! where Brian Clough & Peter Taylor's Derby County beat them 4-1. I think I must have watched that game on the tely.
Željezničar haven't dominated the nascent Bosnia league, however. A team from Mostar, Zrinjski, are currently matching them with six title wins each. Currently, they seem the least likely to add a seventh title, while Željezničar are in second plcae to the third club on the honours board, Sarajevo. Exciting, isn't it!?
EurOpen League Summary
Right. That was exciting. Time to put these countries together and compare them in terms of how much they are dominated by one or two clubs versus being open.
I'll just recap on the two earlier phases I did - from the start of football history to the date of the blog post (40 years ago) and then the period of time from then until the end of the millennium.
I don't want to get technical here but I tweaked the formula a little so that my "Open factor" could be compared across the three timescales. Before it was just comparing each country with others in the same time frame. As an unexpected bonus, it put England on top of the ladder. That not only feels intuitively right to me but it is quite pleasant to think that long before the days of the Greediership, the English football league was the most competitive in Europe. 24 different clubs won the championship over an 80 year period. Only Romania can match that 30% ratio but their league has been dominated by fewer clubs than England's. It's also satisfying to see how low Scotland lie in the ladder. No surprise there with the "Old Firm" dominating almost completely. Only Greece and Portugal are worse.
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| English Football League the most Open in Europe until 1979 |
In the twenty or so years that followed, the evidence clearly shows how the English league started to become much more dominated by fewer clubs. This was largely in the days before the money-bags "Premier League" but Liverpool, and then Manchester United's domination of the league was clearly largely to do with having more money.
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| From top to mid-table in twenty years |
So, what's been happening since? The table for the last twenty or so years is a "work in progress" of course, which I hope to complete in May next year but here's the table as it stands at the moment with 16 countries (5 new) analysed so far.
It's early days but it does seem that, generally speaking, new leagues seem to be more open than older ones. I guess once a team starts to dominate a competition they are rewarded and reinvest those winnings and increased prestige in more success.
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| New leagues tend to be more open that older ones |
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