Salut!

Sunderland's FA Cup glory vs (then) mighty Leeds, 50 years on

 

Forget coronations. This weekend is special because it marks the golden anniversary of arguably the greatest FA Cup final of all time.

As a lifelong Sunderland supporter, I desperately wanted a ticket. Phil, the sports editor of the Harrow newspaper where I was then working, promised faithfully he could and would get me one. He had 'great contacts' at Wembley. It would be a doddle.

Phil was also our neighbour in a company flat. His promise had been repeated as late as the eve of the final. On Saturday morning, May 5 1973, his flat was deserted. He was nowhere to be seen and nor was any ticket.

These are my recollections, helped along by those of Sunderland's goalkeeping hero, Jimmy Montgomery. and my great friend, Pete Sixsmith, who did get a ticket and also saw pretty much the whole of the cup run. I am grateful to the editor of The National (UAE) who consents to reproduction of my work here and to Jim Harker, who readily permitted the use of his magnificent drawing of the winning goal ...

 

 

 

 

Fifty years this weekend from the famous FA Cup final where unfancied, second-tier Sunderland defeated Leeds United, then a mighty force in English and European football, Jimmy Montgomery remembers his moment of goalkeeping glory as if it happened yesterday.

After the Champions League debacle, can Paris be trusted to host the 2024 Summer Olympics?

Well, can France be trusted? And it is not just the Olympics. Are we not entitled to ask the same question about this year's Rugby World Cup?

The answer, of course, should be an indignant “why not?”.

France is a beautiful, civilised, cultured country. Its glorious capital, where the 2024 Olympics will be held (rugby will be spread around the country), is renowned the world over as the City of Light or City of Romance. Pomp and ceremony is there to be admired in countless major spectacles. Organising an important sporting event should come naturally.

Then you remember that its success can depend to some extent on how crowds are managed - and you recall with a shudder what a dreadful mess Paris made of the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid in May last year. I am not alone in suggesting the scandal of the Stade de France raised questions about French trustworthiness in running important sporting occasions; I have seen them canvassed in French media too.

As an independent report commissioned by Uefa has just found, it is in no way to the credit of French authorities - or indeed Uefa itself, as the competition organisers - that the match at the Stade de France did produce a disaster of Hillsborough-level proportions. It was a sinister debacle, the primary responsibility for which was found in the report to be the incompetence of Uefa.

But it is to the everlasting shame of France that two government members, Gérald Darmanin (interior minister, a role colloquially known as that of France's No 1 Cop, and therefore one of the most senior politicians in the country), and Amélie Oudéa-Castéra (sports minister and a former tennis pro), falsely and disgustingly blamed supporters of Liverpool for the dangerously chaotic scenes that occurred outside the stadium that evening.

 

«Menteurs», une banderole des supporters de Liverpool fustige Darmanin et Oudéa-Castéra https://t.co/hEcBfa3Xmp pic.twitter.com/O4adlOFDhg

— RFI – Sports (@RFIsports) February 22, 2023

Jordan's Prince Ali, Fifa and the importance of not being Sepp Blatter

Image: Jordan Football Association

My latest profile in the Newsmaker series of The National's Weekend section*, was - I hope - prepared with the usual care even though I was preoccupied by reports from Paris even as I researched and wrote. Who, then, is the Jordanian prince who would unseat Sepp Blatter at Fifa? ...

In any fair-minded debate >on who should occupy world football’s highest office, Prince Ali bin Al Hussein’s credentials would be seen, at face value, as compelling.

The third son of the late King Hussein of Jordan has announced that he will challenge Sepp Blatter for the presidency of Fifa (the International Federation of Association Football). He’s a man steeped in what is known, with variable accuracy, as the beautiful game.