Football began with Euro 96 (3/6)

[gooner.ed]

http://www.onlinegooner.com/exclusive/index.php?id=642

Usual thread starter… hmmm… well there are some of us who would rather we were still at highbury and the game was still unfashionable! Let’s face it, we are watching better football, but the game has lost its soul. Sad, true and irreversible. Any dissenters…

[dvbrisgooner1]

I agree with the Ed (despite writing the article) and I would also far rather be at Highbury. But it doesn't change the "fact" that Arsenal had to move with the times. Over the next year or two we will find out whether moving was worthwhile. (Oh, and it is, ever so slightly, tongue-in-cheek).

[REB]

miss thof even more now,, pre 1996 our club still had a soul

[Cus Geezer]

A few points

Old Trafford, Anfield and St James’s Park in Newcastle were all half-empty throughout the tournament. Here we were, with our first major championship for 30 years, and the English public was so disenchanted with football that we couldn’t fill our grounds.

There were many complaints that a lot of tickets for Euro 96 went to corporate types, I remember being in a lift at Morgan Stanley the day after England were knocked out of Euro 2000 and eavesdropping a conversation where someone said they wasn't into football but did go to 'an England match' once where we lost against Germany on penalties.

You also have to take into account the cost of tickets for the games outside of Wembley and the economic difference between London and the regions under John Major in 1996. Believe it or not the regions outside London and the South East have more disposable cash since Blair came in in 1997.

Would a Geordie at this time spend big bucks on Romania v Bulgaria or watch a near Premiership winning Newcastle side under Keegan that played good football? There was no great difficulty in filling St. James's, Anfield and Old Trafford for Premiership games in 1995/96. Premiership attendances rose from the early to mid 1990s.

There was also no sign of hooliganism inside the grounds, a problem that had driven many away over the previous 20 years or so.

Can you note a major instance of football hooliganism inside an English football ground in the five years prior to Euro 96?

Suddenly we were seeing what the rest of Europe saw week-in, week-out. The English public loved it, and they returned to the national game in their droves.

How's this different to any other international tournament?

In Mexico 86 we saw Maradona, Laudrup, Scifo, Platini, Tigana, Careca, Matthaus, Rossi and Sanchez yet we saw no rebirth of fashionable football.

It was no rarity to see the best of what Europe had to offer as we had Football Italia on Channel 4.

These “newâ€

[dvbrisgooner1]

Fuck me Cus, you really do talk some incredible shite.

The article is just a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the way things have gone since 1996, and you've turned it in to a google-fact-fest.

To take one of your points - the reason it was different to any other major championships was that it was in this country.

[QuartzGooner]

So called "University Types" have been in football since the nineteenth century!

The early years of the FA Cup are littered with Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Harrow and Eton Public Schools.

I would say that the years of the article should span 1990 - 1996, rather than zone in one one year.
1990 because that was when Gascoigne cried, and the nation got very caught up in the tournament.

I do not think that so called "middle class new comers" came to the sport for the first time in 1996.
I think what happened was that a chunk of the middle classes (for want of a better term) turned away from it in the early 70's, largely because of the fighting, and then returned post 1990.

It must be remembered though that people of all classes (again for want of a better term) have gone to football for well over a hundred years.
Certainly when I first went to Highbury in the late 1970's there were people from all social backgrounds there.
It is a myth to say that the game was just working class then, the West and East stands had significant middle class fans.


My experience has been that the "1990's newcomers" tend to be from both an increased corporate presence, but also from a non coprporate wider ethnic background than has been seen before the mid 1990's.

The main ethnic fanbase of Arsenal during the bulk of the 20th Century have been at Arsenal for a long time.
Jews (mainly from the 1920's when people started moving out of the East End and into Finsbury Park/Stamford Hill) ), Irish and Cypriots (mainly from the 1960's immigrations into Holloway and Archway).

The "1990's newcomers" come from a wider part of the world, from the reaches of Africa and Asia. Both as children of immigrants from countries such as Eritrea, Somalia, Pakistan, India etc and populations still based in these countries..
The more ethnically diverse newcomers are attracted by the good football, the increasingly multi cultural nature of British population, and the increasingly multi cultural playing staff of the club..plus of course, the wider viewability of games because of satellite and cable tv.


For more on the history of Arsenal's fanbase, I recommend the excellent book "The End" by Tom Watt.

[Cus Geezer]

Fuck me Cus, you really do talk some incredible shite.

I suppose you'd be well placed to judge that with your article.

The article is just a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the way things have gone since 1996, and you've turned it in to a google-fact-fest.

well your article posed the question of whether 'modern' football was born in Euro 96, and the bottom of the page said "Got a comment or opinion on this article? Discuss it further here", I'm just pointing out some contrary evidence. So don't get fucking personal

To take one of your points - the reason it was different to any other major championships was that it was in this country.

But your comment was.....

What those people saw was a type of football far removed from what they had witnessed years ago.

The big international tournaments usually bring a type of football far removed from what you'd witness on a weekly basis in English football, more so in years gone by than now as you'd not see foreign players or foreign sides on a weekly basis as you do now.

I don't think you are correct to infer that the football world we see today started with Euro 96, it was more so Italia 90. The big difference with Euro 96 was that the Premiership money from Sky had started to kick in and some of the star players from there on in were attracted to coming to England, along with Britain being a more glamourous destination for foreigners than in the two decades or so prior, when our best players headed out and the likes of Maradona or Platini would have never considered a move to England.

[Ben-gooner14]

Great documentary, the amount of times i've seen them goals from Gazza against Scotland and Shearer against Holland that it dosn't seem it was 12 years ago.

[Cus Geezer]

With regards to one of Quartz's point

That's been one of the big strengths of Arsenal as a 'consumer' brand, especially compared with other London clubs.

As the indigenous fans moved out to the suburbs they have retained support with the club, but the ethnic newcomers to the area have been inclusive with Arsenal's identity, from the Irish players in the 70s, the black players of the 80s and the Africans in the late nineties and noughties. Arsenal is still felt strongly in its own yard.

Other London sides haven't had the same success in doing this, most of the asians in Newham don't feel part of West Ham's once Cockney but now Essex, mostly white identity. Having spent the last 12 months in South East London you'd barely notice that Millwall, Charlton or Palace are on your doorstep, no-one seems to care as most of their fan base now lives in North Kent or Surrey.

[proudtosaythatname]

I think what happened was that a chunk of the middle classes (for want of a better term) turned away from it in the early 70's, largely because of the fighting, and then returned post 1990.

I was a regular from late 50s up to the early 80s whose attendance dwindled to a few key games - yes there were a few - until 1997. But I didn't return because of Euro 96; simply that I had access to a Season Ticket from a Bond Holder who couldn't attend every game and became rehooked on Bergkamp, Vieira, Petit... [/quote]

[Flaminal Planet]

wow, this forum is boring post-season

[gooner.ed]

wow, this forum is boring post-season

please enlighten us as to the superior ones you are frequenting

[I Hate Hleb]

Take it as a compliment gooner.ed. Afterall, it must also mean that the forum isn't boring during the actual season.

[proudtosaythatname]

Never mind, it will soon be time for ...

The Cesc Fabregas Show!

[QuartzGooner]

wow, this forum is boring post-season

You have it in your power to make it more interesting if you feel it is boring.