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London stages Euro 2000
Adam Walker reports on a tournament in which football was the winner.
Disappointment over England's failed bid to stage the 2006 World Cup was less in evidence in Barnett Waddingham's
London office, which once again played host to the office Subbuteo table football Euro 2000 tournament following its successful staging of the analogous 1998 World Cup two summers ago.
All sixteen participants of the "real" Euro 2000 participants were represented, and a blow was struck for sexual equality with the inclusion of two ladies' teams in competition for the first time. Off the pitch a climate of probity prevailed, as all parties sought to avoid a repetition of the minor betting scandal which had threatened to undermine the previous World Cup.
Controversy
The tournament sprang into life with a glut of goals, as Sweden ran roughshod over new boys Belgium. A stern warning about excessive goal celebrations presaged continuing difficulties with match officials for the Swedes over the course of the tournament. Controversy arose later in the day when the Czech Republic side managed to field twelve players for the entire first half without the referee noticing. This did nothing to prevent them losing the first match one-nil to Holland in what came to be known as the "Group of Dearth" following a serious goal drought.
World champions Germany came from behind to beat England 4-3 in the last minute, and went on to hammer Portugal 11-0 in the trouncing of the tournament. Yugoslavia gave a taster of things to come with a 7-0 thrashing of Slovenia and a 6-0 demolition of Spain. Turkey were the surprise packet of the group stages, qualifying at the expense of an increasingly abusive Sweden.
With the pressure on, the quarter-finals proved less enthralling than the group games. England edged past Turkey. Germany squeaked past Italy thanks to a dubious "golden goal". Yugoslavia eased past the Czechs. Norway and Holland provided the best entertainment, sharing four goals in normal time, with the Norwegian keeper Myrhe the hero after saving a penalty in extra time and all three spot-kicks in the penalty shoot-out.
Phlegmatic
In the semi-finals, illness affected all of the players, and the Germans succumbed to Yugoslavia's phlegmatic approach to the game. England controversially edged out Norway in the other semi-final after the Norwegians had a first-minute goal disallowed by the German referee for a barely-visible foul on a defender.
The final was held on actuarial exam results day in front of a large crowd cheering on the English. As so often happens, a game which had promised so much regressed into a dour midfield battle. The breakthrough came half-way through the second half, when Mijatovic took on the defence and fired low past David Seaman, at which point the crowd began to leave in droves. The small contingent of red-haired Yugoslav fans celebrated long into the late afternoon.
Acrimony
Shortly after the tournament, a meeting of the office's table football governing body unanimously voted in favour of the 2002 World Cup being staged in London again in two years' time, thus avoiding the acrimony and public scandal which has dogged other football authorities in recent weeks.
Adam Walker, July 2000.