Euro '96

sid waddell wrote: ITV (I think it's ITV 4 actuallly) are showing this over the next month.  Where does it stand in the pantheon of international tournaments? I don't think it's especially memorable in football terms - the memorable moments in this tournament mainly involved England. But what it is memorable for is how it is indivisible from a particular time in British popular culture - Britpop, lad culture, the run up to Labour coming to power, a general sense that Britain was on the up - yet Britain was very self-consciously trying to live out the 1960s 30 years later. At the same time it felt like a better place than now, it felt more gennuinely irreverent, more intelligent, more dynamic and, despite the harking back to the 1960s, it was at least harking back to a good time in history. Or maybe that was a facade, given the Achtung Surrender! and Let's Bllitz The Fritz headlines before the Germany game? Along with the 1990 World Cup, it's nearly remembered more for the musical backdrop to it. I think my biggest memory of it is the few minutes before the England-Germany semi-final when the crowd were singing "it's coming home, it's coming home" and the BBC showed it all without commentary. Yet the England team was a strange vehicle for all this. It was very white, which even for 1996 seems quite surprising as black English players were very common by then. I think Paul Ince was the only black player who was first choice. There was a sense of English people in general trying to reclaim the England team from the boot boys, a bit like in 1990, but it looks a bit strange in this time of Brexit looking back on it now, what thoughts were lurking underneath the faces of those singing at Wembley. And in the end the boot boys won at Euro '96, when they wrecked Trafalgar Square after England lost to Germany.

The night England played Switzerland in the opening game was the second time in my life I got drunk. The first time was the previous Saturday. Myself and five other lads badgered passers by to go into an off licence in Rathgar (lahdi da) to buy us booze, and when we were eventually successful we went down to a green patch beside the Dodder to drink. I drank a naggin of vodka straight and sat there twisted (it didn't take much to get me drunk then) for what must have been at least three hours, occasionally getting up to wave at traffic passing by. Then we went to the house of one of the lads in Ballinteer and talked scandalous talk about the sister of one of the lads and watched overnight MTV. Euro '96 themed songs were heavily featured. England's Irie by Black Grape and Eat My Goal by Collapsed Lung. I just found out yesterday that lad who was the rapper with Collapsed Lung is now a chap, he calls himself Mr. B The Gentleman Rapper and raps through Ye Olde Received Pronunciation English and dresses like somebody from the 1890s rather than the 1990s. Michael Gove apparently is a big fan of his. 

Trigboy 10 wrote: Veronica Guerin was shot the same day as the England v Germany game. It wasn’t really a good tournament from what i can remember. Euro 2000 in Belgium/Holland was much more memorable.

pre Madonna wrote: Not a great tournament, very few standout moments and lots of the traditional contenders in transition or disarray. Talk of the Dutch having a racial divide in the camp; France only beginning to develop the side that would win the next two major championships; Italy were a bit of a mess; Spain were still Spain and Portugal's 'golden generation' was just short of their peak. That's why a fairly average Czech side, who flooded the midfield, made the final. The memorable moments were England thumping the Dutch; Suker's goal against Denmark and Poborsky's scoop against Portugal.  Culturally, it was important over here for the reasons given. I wouldn't read too much into the tabloid headlines, they always be there, see Colombia at the last World Cup, but it was the first major tournament in a generation where following England didn't mean throwing plastic chairs and rampant xenophobia. The team may have been very white, only Ince starting and Campbell and Ferdinand in the squad, but the game against Germany seemed more about football rivalry than even 1990. The song helped and it did seem like the peak of 'cool Brittania'. A mixture of nostalgia from lads hitting middle age and the love of the younger generation for the decade itself have cemented it as a cultural high point.  The team weren't that great, in a poor tournament. Spain's disallowed goal was onside and they were very poor against the Swiss and Scotland, bar Gazza's goal, but they were also extremely close to winning it. It's funny how England seemed to lose that innocence quite quickly and regain the far-right groupthink of their supporters, bizarrely as the team has become more ethnically diverse. The England football team is probably the best example of diversity in England, yet a section of their support still find it acceptable to acclaim Tommy Threenames when he walks into a pub in Lisbon. I suppose the opposite of how France supporters have gone to seeing their team of representing the best of multiculturalism and sticking two fingers to Le Pen. Another highlight will always be Andy Moller's celebration after that penalty. Top trolling by the Germans at their celebrations when they got back home too.

Edited by Denis Irwin - 12 May 2020 at 12:27am

Edited by sid waddell - 12 May 2020 at 12:36am

sid waddell wrote: Moller's celebration is one of the best of all time. There's a lovely subtle intelligence to it. Gazza's celebration against Scotland just came across as boorish, even though it was quite a neat celebration in and of itself. There was an anger on Gazza's face in 1996 that hadn't been there in 1990. The blonde matted down hair made him look like an angry version of yer man from Scooter.

pre Madonna wrote: sid waddell wrote: Moller's celebration is one of the best of all time. There's a lovely subtle intelligence to it. Gazza's celebration against Scotland just came across as boorish, even though it was quite a neat celebration in and of itself. There was an anger on Gazza's face in 1996 that hadn't been there in 1990. The blonde matted down hair made him look like an angry version of yer man from Scooter.  Gazza's celebration, as much as I never liked him, was brilliant! Two fingers to the tabloids.  Had they scored in extra-time against the Germans they were all going to run straight down the tunnel, or at least that was the plan. That would also have been excellent. Möller's was brilliant though. One of the most memorable celebrations ever and is iconic to German fans.

sid waddell wrote: pre Madonna wrote: sid waddell wrote: Moller's celebration is one of the best of all time. There's a lovely subtle intelligence to it. Gazza's celebration against Scotland just came across as boorish, even though it was quite a neat celebration in and of itself. There was an anger on Gazza's face in 1996 that hadn't been there in 1990. The blonde matted down hair made him look like an angry version of yer man from Scooter.  Gazza's celebration, as much as I never liked him, was brilliant! Two fingers to the tabloids.  Had they scored in extra-time against the Germans they were all going to run straight down the tunnel, or at least that was the plan. That would also have been excellent. Möller's was brilliant though. One of the most memorable celebrations ever and is iconic to German fans. I liked the Phil Collins lyrics being inserted into interview responses in 1998.  They were rumbled before Alan Shearer could say "I can feel it coming in the air tonight, I've been waiting for this moment all my life" before the Argentina match.

Both were no longer products of society and became products sold to society. Anybody that made it in either had to follow the corporate script. I think the fact that there were lots of people making music that were football fans and people playing football that were music fans. There was a connection to these things that just isn't there now, certainly not to the same degree.