Amical 1974 Yougoslavie England

5 Juin 1974

Crvena Zvezda Stadium, Belgrade

 

 

Frnd.1974.Youg.Eng.twb22.mp4
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For Kevin Keegan 1974 was a mixed year. In May he scored twice as Liverpool beat Newcastle 3-0 in a one-sided FA Cup final. In August he was sent off during the FA Charity Shield match for fighting with Leeds United's Billy Bremner and both were banned for 11 games. And in between times he was beaten up by security men at Belgrade Airport. The incident was a culmination of a series of unfortunate events. England were on a European tour under the benign caretakership of Joe Mercer, who filled in after Alf Ramsey had been sacked and before the arrival of Don Revie. The team had drawn 1-1 with East Germany in Leipzig, beaten Bulgaria 1-0 in Sofia and now flew on to Yugoslavia. Things started to go wrong when the Football Association's travel agent overlooked the fact that Sofia was one hour ahead of Belgrade with the result that no Yugoslav football officials were waiting when the party arrived. In the meantime a Bulgarian stewardess complained that she had been goosed by one of the players, an act that, considering the general sturdiness of the cabin crew, would have merited a posthumous VC. Either way Keegan could not have been involved since he was asleep throughout the flight.

 

 

England did not look much like an international football team when they came through immigration. As Keegan recalled, they were "wearing casuals instead of uniforms and feeling in a jovial mood". So casual in fact that one of the first off the plane was wearing several days' growth of stubble along with a grubby Harvard T-shirt while carrying a ghetto blaster. And so jovial that Alec Lindsay, again in Keegan's words, "began to fool around" by mucking about on the baggage conveyor belt.

Keegan, carrying two bags of souvenir pottery from Bulgaria, had done nothing more than sit down on the edge of the belt but he it was that the security men dragged off to a back room. Once there he was forced to kneel "like a prisoner of war" while being punched, clubbed and kicked. He was then charged with sexually assaulting a stewardess, assaulting a security guard, disturbing the peace and causing an obstruction. Only then did the travelling England officials – Mercer, Ted Croker the FA secretary, and the FA chairman Sir Andrew Stephen, manage to intervene and explain to the guards just who they were attacking. A tearful Keegan was released, the charges were dropped and when the match went ahead he scored a late equaliser in a 2-2 draw. Croker thought the travelling reporters might be persuaded to gloss over the incident. Fat chance. Like a good professional the Evening Standard's Bernard Joy got straight through to his office and demanded copy, only to be told by the caretaker that there was no one else in the building. After all it was a Sunday.