ABSTRACT
During the 1960s British football was in many respects on topof the world. England became the first (and only) British national side to win the World Cup in 1966 and the following year Celtic became the first British club side to win the European Cup, overcoming Inter Milan in Lisbon. Manchester United followed in Celtic’s footsteps in 1968, a 4-1 defeat of Benfica finally putting the ghost of the 1958 Munich disaster to rest. Over the next decade and a half, British (especially English) clubs came to dominate European competition. Between 1968 and 1985 they won 8 European Cups (appearing in 11 finals), 9 InterCities Fairs/UEFA Cups (out of 11 finals) and 5 Cup Winners Cups (out of 8 finals). Its closest competitors could not match England’s haul of 20 trophies: German clubs, by comparison, won 8, Dutch and Italian clubs 6 each, and Spanish clubs just 4.1 But the triumphs of club football seemed to mask a more profound malaise. The national teams achieved considerably less success than the clubs. Scotland at least continued to qualify for World Cup competitions, even hoping in 1978 that it might win one, but the England team appeared to be in freefall, no longer able to hold its place among the elite of world or European football. What is more, the British style of play seemed to have become increasingly outdated and redundant, eclipsed by the more sophisticated approaches of the leading South American and European nations. It was in this context that ‘decline’ became the watchword of sports journalists as it had long been for economic and political commentators.
