Goodison Park - The Grand Old Lady Part 2

 

Goodison Park 1939-1940

 

Everton FC: The Story Of The Grand Old Lady

 

“Goodison Park is for me the best stadium of my life.” - Eusébio

The intervening years between Dixie Dean’s record breaking season and England’s hosting of the 1966 World Cup, had seen Goodison Park subjected to numerous changes, development and reconstruction. 

As integral as anybody in the metamorphosis of the stadium was Scottish architect Archibald Leitch whom, in the first half of the 20th century, was the British Isles foremost football stadia architect. 

Leitch, who was responsible for part or all of the stadium designs at more than 30 clubs up and down the country, had in 1938, with the completion of the new Gwladys Street stand, achieved his 30 year Goodison Park dream. The ground had now become the first entire two tiered stadium in the country.

On September 18, 1940, the Grand Old Lady had also, by the skin of her teeth, survived the Luftwaffe blitz of Liverpool. Confirming the near miss in the Everton Football Club Minutes Book, the secretary’s recordings allow a fascinating insight into the event, as well as a clear understanding of the ‘keep calm and carry on’ attitude towards the German bombing of the city. Raids that would span more than two years in total:

War Damage

 

'The Directors inspected the damage done by enemy action on the night of the 18th inst. & it was agreed that the Secretary make arrangements to have necessary repairs made. 

It was also decided that Messrs A. Leitch be instructed to value the cost of complete renewal of damaged properties & that a claim should be forwarded to the War Damage Claims department within the prescribed 30 Days. The damage referred to included:

The demolition of a large section of the New Stand outer wall in Gwladys Street destruction of all glass in this Stand; damage to every door, canteen, water & electricity pipes and all lead fittings, perforated roof in hundreds of places.
 
On Bullens Road side, a bomb dropped in the school-yard had badly damaged the exterior wall of this stand and the roof was badly perforated here also. 

A third bomb outside the practice ground had demolished the surrounding hoarding and had badly damaged glass in the Goodison Avenue and Walton Lane property. The Secretary estimated the extent of the damage at about £1,500.'

Goodison Park had survived, and with her, the magnificent legacy of Archibald Leitch. One that lives on as vividly today as it has throughout the last hundred years. 

The signature Leitch criss-crossed steel balustrades remaining as much a part of Everton Football Club’s iconic history as the great Dixie Dean, the Toffee Lady and the depiction within the clubs famous crest of Prince Rupert’s Tower.

The Greatest Show On Earth

 

1966 Golden Boot Winner The Legendary Eusebio

The summer of 1966 in Liverpool must have been heady days indeed for supporters of both the city's football clubs. As the red half of the city were still celebrating a first division championship, the blue half returned triumphantly from Wembley after seeing their heroes overturn a 2-0 deficit, to snatch the FA Cup away from opponents Sheffield Wednesday. 

Only a matter of weeks later, the greatest footballing show on the planet rolled into town as Goodison Park, selected as a host stadium of the 1966 FIFA World Cup, welcomed seven nations onto her hallowed turf.

Playing host to five World Cup fixtures, including three group games, a quarter-final and a semi-final, the stadium witnessed the magic of footballing greats such as Pele, Garrincha, Beckenbauer, Haller and the tournaments outstanding player and Golden Boot winner, Portugal’s Eusébio da Silva Ferreira. 

The Benfica striker would fire six of his nine goal haul at Goodison Park, with four of those coming in one of the most extraordinary football matches in the history of the game.

July 23 1966, Portugal vs North Korea, Goodison Park

 

The unknown and secretive North Koreans, who, despite having earlier shocked the tournament into life with a giant killing 1-0 victory over Italy, arrived for this World Cup quarter-final as the overwhelming underdogs. 

They would meet Eusébio’s Portugal who had, four days earlier put pre-tournament favourites Brazil, to the sword at Goodison Park. Those fans fortunate enough to be inside Goodison that day, could never have imagined the rollercoaster of a football match they were about to witness.

Belying their status in the game, and seemingly indifferent to their opponents’ reputation, the Koreans immediately went on the attack and within a minute of the kick off, a sensational strike at the Gwladys Street End from Pak Seung Zin, had put the minnows in front. 

Portugal were shell shocked and with the 40,248 inside Goodison Park roaring them on, North Korea were seemingly unstoppable.

A swift Korean counter on 22 minutes, after Eusébio had failed to convert a Portuguese attack, saw goalkeeper Pereira badly misjudge a cross and when the ball was returned, Li Dong Woon was on hand to send the Koreans and Goodison Park into raptures. 

Incredibly, the underdogs were not finished there as just three minutes later, Yang Sung Kook, following in on a deflected shot, composed himself and arrowed the ball into the far corner of the Portuguese net.

Three down after 25 minutes and with his team in disarray, it would be left to Portugal’s best player, top scorer and captain to almost single handedly drag his team back into the World Cup. 

Eusébio, the man nicknamed the ‘Black Pearl,’ gave his country some much needed hope, finding the top corner of the Park End goal before racing back to the centre circle with the ball under one arm.

On 43 minutes, Eusébio converted from the penalty spot after centre forward Jose Torres was brought down in the box. By the 56th minute, Portugal were level.

Picking up the ball in his own half, Eusébio drove forward and after playing a one-two, the ‘Black Pearl’ slammed a shot past Li Chan Myong in the Korean goal. Just three minutes later, the Portuguese were in front as the unstoppable Eusébio scored his fourth goal and second from the spot. 

The North Korean dream was eventually ended as the four goal hero turned provider, with his corner kick finding Jose Augusto to make it 5-3 to Portugal.

Eusébio’s Portugal would fall in the semi-final to eventual World Champions England, however his remarkable performance that summer afternoon will forever be enshrined in the annals of legends who have graced this historic stadium.

Likewise, the 1966 North Korean team, who shocked, thrilled and enthralled the world, at the Grand Old Lady of English football, Goodison Park.


1966 FIFA World Cup Games at Goodison Park

 

Group Games

12 July, Brazil 2 - 0 Bulgaria
15 July, Hungary 3 - 1 Brazil
19 July, Portugal 3 - 1 Brazil

Quarter-Final

23 July, Portugal 5 - 3 North Korea

Semi-Final

25 July, West Germany 2 - 1 Soviet Union


Acknowledgements:

The Everton Collection
Planet World Cup

​
Coming soon On OTS: 
A look back at the all conquering Everton of the mid-Eighties:

Goodison Park: The Grand Old Lady - Part 3



Everton F.C. Talk Is Not Cheap

Whilst the annual madness that is the summer transfer window yet again chokes the hope out of Evertonians, the latest installment of a continuing spat between a recently formed supporters group and current CEO Robert Elstone has flown somewhat under the radar.

In short, Evertonians For Change would still like to talk and our egg chasing CEO is having none of it. The reasons given are apparently twofold; firstly Mr Elstone accused Evertonians For Change of "openly seeking to disrupt Club events and having the ousting of the current Board of Directors as one of its explicit aims." Both of these accusations have since been denied by the group.  

Secondly and once again according to Mr Elstone, "the Club works hard on all aspects of communication ensuring we reach as many fans as we can, in a variety of different ways. We are confident our dialogue is open and transparent, our engagement with fans is representative and our agendas are relevant. We believe we do a good job."

CEO

As is par for the course with most things EFC, a view from a safe distance displays a pro-active club, one that seeks both a meaningful and earnest club/supporter relationship. As the man says; "dialogue is open and transparent, our engagement with fans is representative and our agendas are relevant."

Yes, a quick scratch of the surface reveals numerous initiatives in which the club strive to meet the demands of interested supporters. Within the last twelve months alone there has been a roadshow, a fan's forum and an exclusive Fans Conference. The club has been mobilised to reach out to supporters, doing their bit to ensure an openness and transparency not seen since the banning of AGMs and EGMs.

I mean we are only the fans, giving up our very hard-earned money and time and as many an Evertonian will tell you; a professional football club and private company such as Everton FC are simply under no obligation to communicate with its loyal supporters.

Well, actually they'd be wrong. It turns out those supporters who felt a manipulative edge to the rather clandestine and secretive, recently implemented fans forum, fans conference and roadshow had it right all along. Not only will Everton FC be required to communicate with supporters, refusal to do so will see the club failing to meet the UEFA licensing requirements and the occurrence of  penalties this football club could ill afford.

From UEFA: Under Article 35 of the new UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations, clubs will have the obligation to appoint a Supporters Liason Officer (SLO) to ensure a proper and constructive dialogue between a club and its fans.

The SLO concept, which has been under consideration for some time, has gained full approval from the national associations represented in the UEFA Club Licensing Committee and has been drawn up with the strong cooperation of Supporters Direct.

Supporter liaison officers at clubs already exist in a limited number of European countries and primarily help improve the dialogue between the fans and the clubs they follow. Most importantly, SLOs must be credible with supporters, and therefore should have experience with, and contacts to, the networks in the club's fan base.

They inform supporters about relevant decisions made by the club's management board and, in the other direction, communicate the needs of the fans to the board.

With the scrapping of AGMs and EGMs the current board of directors have left themselves exempt, excluded, unchecked, unaccountable and totally closed to any meaningful scrutiny and whilst on the one hand, the current CEO paints a very rosy picture of openness and transparency, his disdainful refusal to talk to a genuine and organised group of Evertonians tells its own enlightening story.

Whether the new UEFA article will carry enough weight to force Everton FC to do away with the current veil of secrecy remains to be seen but instead of going through the motions perhaps Mr Elstone will feel the need to address the real concerns of Evertonians before he is obligated to do so by the governing body of European football.

Right, have we signed anyone yet..............

 

 

Everton FC: How To Alienate Fans And Lose Supporters

On the back of the news that Everton FC have banned the local press, it turns out that 'the club' have decided now is the time to flex its muscles by threatening a number of its own supporters with legal action.

The initial information was released by Everton FC supporters site and forum NSNO. The site, officially recognised by Everton Football Club, were surprised and disappointed to receive an email from a Newcastle based law firm warning them to remove the moniker 'EFC' from t-shirts available to buy on the NSNO site, or face the consequences of legal proceedings against them by 'the club.'

NSNO were surprised to find out that 'EFC' was a registered trademark belonging to 'the Club' and disappointed that the initial contact on the issue was an email threatening legal action.

The owner of the site was clear that a simple and less costly email from 'the club' would have solved the problem without any threat of legal action. "The letters ('EFC') will be removed.  They would have got the same action if they'd sent an email themselves." I do take issue with the club feeling unable to contact me directly and rather using expensive solicitors instead.  A direct email from EFC would have just resulted in me taking down the t-shirts and carrying on, nobody would have ever known anything, because clearly no fucker wants to buy them anyway! haha!"

Apparently NSNO have sold just 3 'offending' t-shirts in the last 12 months.

The next supporters to feel the recent wrath of Everton Football Clubs internet snoops were Podcast producers Followtonians. As with NSNO, they are recognised by Everton Football Club as an unofficial Everton website and were similarly surprised to find themselves under threat of legal action by Everton Football Club.

In an almost identical situation, the people at Followtonians received an email from an image rights solicitor warning them to remove t-shirts from their site that featured any images of Everton Football Club players.

Further to this, it has emerged that Everton Football Club had taken the decision to disassociate itself from Followtonians due to one of its founders making his feelings known on twitter. Apparently and according to 'the club,' tweeting  “Fuck off, Howard” after a mistake that led to a Spurs goal and “Fuck off, Moyes” after he subbed Yakubu in the same match is tantamount to making personal threats against Everton staff.

The madness doesn't stop there! Only yesterday, the excellent The Peoples Forum was not surprised to be contacted by an image rights company by the name of NetResult, bizarre as it may seem, a forum run by Evertonians for Evertonians is not allowed to use the Everton FC crest as the Premier League owns all the image rights to all club crests. The forum host, Boardhost, received a similar email and The Peoples Forum was warned to remove the image within 24 hours or the board would be taken offline.

It seems someone at Everton Football Club has enough time on their hands to warn the Premier League that one of its supporters fora is in breach of image rights law. Which is very erm, vigilant of them.

Likewise, the Everton supporters website and forum Grand Old Team, after receiving a similar email has agreed with Everton Football Club to post the following warning to its users: 

'Our client (Everton Football Club) has highlighted Player/Match Action Images, Club Crests and Fixtures among the posts and as member’s avatar’s in your forum

I understand that due to the huge number of posts the tracking and removing of infringing images would prove difficult and very time consuming to perform.

A suggestion I have made with other football forums, is that when you do come across new images please take steps to remove them, but I would be grateful if you could routinely post a message to members warning them of the issues in question.'

 

 

[caption id="attachment_306" align="aligncenter" width="178" caption="Can You Tell What It Is Yet?"][/caption]

 



If you are a member of or are running an Everton supporters website/forum/facebook page/blog and currently find yourself scratching your head in disbelief, confusion and fear over what image/words/avatar you can or cannot use then you are just a click away from salvation. Well maybe:

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/tm/t-os/t-find/t-find-adp?propnum=0556745001

Who knows how many Everton supporters or their websites/fora have been threatened with legal action by their own football club? One thing is certain: 

Be warned, Everton Football Club is watching you! 

 

 

 

 

Everton FC: You're Banned

Sources at the Liverpool Daily Post & Echo (LDP&E)  have confirmed that a press blackout, enforced more than three weeks ago, remains firmly in place.

The banning of the regional newspapers, with hard-copy readership in the region of 100,000 and a combined online daily unique user figure of over 62,000, was imposed by Everton Football Club in the aftermath of a week-long series published by the LDP&E entitled: Everton FC in focus: Just what does the future hold for the Blues?  

The series of articles, which the club declined to participate in, focussed on the clubs finances, comment on the ongoing stadium issue, the 'search' for new owners and the fans view through a supporters poll.

Since then, the local journalists who have been denied access to players and staff as well as press-conferences, have had to make do with reporting second-hand news and mend by writing filler comment-pieces.

The current chairman and board of directors seem to have caught the banning bug; AGMs, EGMs, local journalists, all fair game for the current regime.  

The message from The Bunker is clear then; do not dare to criticize, analyze, question nor examine, refrain from inquiry, scrutiny and inspection or we will ban your arse brother.

[caption id="attachment_297" align="aligncenter" width="250" caption="Your Arse"][/caption]

In related news, the clubs official site has proudly announced they will be holding an exclusive Fans’ Conference in April.

Apparently, if you have already purchased your 2011/12 Season Ticket you could be one of the lucky 200 hand picked supporters who will be given the chance to pose questions to Chief Executive Officer Robert Elstone and a specially selected panel and 'talk about Club matters close to your heart' (local journalists and curious Evertonians need not apply). 

I'm preparing my question as we speak:

"Hi Robert, firstly can I say thank you for allowing us plebs to take up some of your precious time, we are not worthy.....and erm, could you tell us all whether Mikel uses gel, wax or mousse on his gorgeous Spanish barnet?"

Marvellous!