England have recently qualified for Euro ’24. Qualification for major tournaments now seems run-of-the-mill, but there was a time when it was far from certain.
Just imagine you hear in tomorrow’s news Gareth Southgate had accepted a big-money contract to take over as manager of the United Arab Emirates, effective from today.
Then imagine his employer, The FA is finding this out at the same time as you.
It would be a huge scandal. Whatever you thought of England and/or Southgate, you’d have to agree it would be a huge story. It would probably ruin Southgate’s reputation and he would be unlikely to ever work in this country again.
He may not care, of course. If he signed a contract worth 10x what the average person could earn in the UK why should he?
This was the situation on 12 July 1977.
Don Revie, the man who had taken Leeds United from the Second Division to become one of the best teams English football had ever seen, had been England manager for two and a half years. He’d taken over from legend, Sir Alf Ramsey, who’d been sacked after England failed to qualify for World Cup ’74. His time in charge of the national team had been a frustrating one, with patchy results.
Under his charge England failed to qualify for the final stages of Euro ’76 and were struggling to make it to the World Cup in Argentina ’78.
“Revie Quits over Aggro”
The football world woke up to read how the England manager had walked away from the national job and was off to somewhere few knew even played football.
He’d accepted a contract worth £334,000 to manage the United Arab Emirates. Bear in mind Liverpool had just agreed to pay Celtic, £445,000 for Kenny Dalglish, then a British transfer record. This gives you some idea of how lucrative the deal was for Revie.
It was a huge scandal.
Jeff Powell of The Daily Mail broke the story and in it Revie is quoted as saying;
“I sat down with my wife Elsie one night and we agreed the job was no longer worth the aggravation. It was bringing too much heartache to those nearest to us. Nearly everyone in the country seems to want me out. So I am giving them what they want.
“I know people will accuse me of running away and it does sicken me that I can’t finish the job of taking England to the World Cup Finals in Argentina next year. But the situation had become impossible.”
In the days before social media, agents and less emphasis on PR, Revie was absolutely canned for his behaviour. He was public enemy No. 1.
With no 24-hour news, it was in the factories and offices where the topic was discussed, and where rumour and counter-rumour developed. With no panel shows, podcasts or door-stepping of players, the public had to wait for rival newspapers to give them an alternative opinion.
Fleet Street, which was where all the newspapers were based at the time, was turned upside down with the exclusive the Daily Mail had just been given.
Gradually the story started to unravel.
Revie hadn’t told the FA first, instead he sold his story for £20,000 to the Daily Mail. Evidently, he’d been trying to find a way out of the job for a while. The pressure was really ramping up on him. He’d received criticism before when he was Leeds boss, but that was more about his team’s style of play or the manner with which they played their football.
Now he was being personally criticised in that he was not up to the job. The results just weren’t there.
He became the first man to resign as manager of England.
Just seven years earlier they’d gone into the World Cup as one of the favourites to retain their trophy. Failure to qualify for West Germany ’74 had a huge effect on the game in this country that legendary manager, Sir Alf Ramsey, was shown the door.
Now with the qualifying campaign for Argentina ’78 well underway, the manner of the defeat in Italy put Revie in the position of being on borrowed time. The first ‘Revie Must Go’ headlines began to appear.
He tried to have his contract cancelled but was refused.
During the summer of ’77 England embarked on a tour of South America. Three friendlies were arranged in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.
Scotland were also in the continent as both FAs felt playing there would prepare them should they reach the World Cup the year later.
England’s first match was in the Maracaña. Three days after this match, Italy were playing an important qualifying match in Helsinki. Revie announced he was going to watch that match rather than be in Brazil.
He wasn’t. He was in the Middle East negotiating his contract.
Just before heading off to South America, England had competed in the annual British International Championships. A win in Belfast masked the decline of the team.
Defeats at Wembley to Wales and Scotland just poured further pressure on a beleaguered manager. You couldn’t see how he was going to get out from the pressure he was under. But then maybe winning against teams like Brazil or Argentina could restore some faith?
Revie only lost three matches at Wembley, yet these had come in the last four matches his team played there. There was a real feeling he’d lost motivation and it was manifesting itself in his side.
The Scotland match was particularly humiliating for the home nation. They were well beaten by a Scotland side who appeared to be toying with them. Then at the end of the game, thousands of Scots fans invaded the pitch, ripping up the turf and climbing on the goalposts which eventually broke.
It was as if England had been invaded and they were helpless to stop it. Revie’s sorry team had retreated to the sanctity of the dressing room, beaten, battered and lost.
There would’ve been plenty who were glad he’d gone, some of them were players. Revie was the sort of man who could easily rub people up the wrong way. The Leeds players who were with him on their incredible journey all admired him hugely. But there were many who came into contact with him when he was England manager who couldn’t wait to see the back of him.
Of course, the fact he’d ‘done the dirty’ on his country just poured more petrol on the fire of his reign. The public had never really warmed to him. He just kept chopping and changing his team, never seemingly able to decide who he wanted. He managed England for 29 matches and the only time he named an unchanged team was his last.
Privately, he complained he didn’t have the talent at his disposal, yet he never seemed to give some players enough time to prove their worth. His third game in charge saw his team beat world champions, West Germany, 2-0 at Wembley.
He recalled Alan Ball after an absence of a year, gave him the captain’s armband and the national team looked rejuvenated. One of the most mercurial talents of 1970’s English football, Alan Hudson was given freedom in midfield and he ran the show. He selected Malcolm MacDonald for the first time and despite his abysmal treatment of the player, he was rewarded with a goal.
Two months later, with Ball still in charge, they tore Scotland apart at Wembley. Then for some unknown reason, he ditched his captain. By then Hudson had pulled on an England shirt for the last time, and soon MacDonald would suffer the same fate. Their club careers lasted longer than Revie did.
In some ways if you had sympathy for Revie you’d see how he’d really done the FA like a kipper. The FA had already sounded out Bobby Robson as a possible replacement, behind the current manager’s back. Revie discovered this and asked for his contract to be cancelled but they refused.
It’s not really surprising he began to lose interest and probably felt he wasn’t wanted. A proud man, why would he wait for his employer to give him the push, when he could call their bluff and choose to go on his own terms?
Once the news broke gradually the tabloids began to dig into the dirt. He was called “Don Readies” for his greed and disloyalty. The public were whipped up into a hate campaign.
After he’d left the England post, The FA charged him with bringing the game into disrepute and banned him from football for 10 years. A subsequent court case reduced this sentence but Judge Justice Cantley still said his resignation showed a “sensational, outrageous example of disloyalty, breach of trust, discourtesy and selfishness”.
A year later The Daily Mirror published the results of an investigation into accusations of match-fixing by Revie. Former Leeds goalkeeper, Gary Sprake, contributed to the investigation. A decision which saw him ostracised by his former teammates. He was always absent from the reunions of that iconic squad.
Sprake was disappointed in the treatment he received but unremorseful of his decision to speak out about his former manager.
The Mirror’s report claimed Revie discovered Sprake was about to go public on the claims and that was the reason he fled to UAE.
Sunderland’s FA Cup-winning manager, Bob Stokoe, accused Revie of trying to bribe him to lose a match. The incident allegedly occurred over 10 years before the two managers lead their sides out in the 1973 FA Cup Final. Stokoe was player-manager of Bury at the time and Revie’s Leeds team was visiting. Revie is alleged to have approached Stokoe in the car park and offered £500 to ‘go easy’. Stokoe refused but then Revie is alleged to have approached some of the Bury players too.
In all, the Mirror’s editor, Richard Stott, handed The FA with a 315-page dossier containing evidence of Revie’s long period of corruption.
Revie threatened to sue the paper but never pursued any legal action.
Whilst back in England winning his court case against the FA, he spoke to Richard Whiteley on Yorkshire TV. He explained how he knew he was going to get the sack. An offer from UAE came up and he felt he had to take it. He said he regretted how it all came out and would’ve done things differently if he had his time again.
In 1982, Revie gave an interview to BBC Nationwide programme in which he described the day he left England for the Middle East as “the saddest day of my life”.
He also revealed how he believed the timing of his resignation was a mistake. He said if he’d had his time again he’d have asked them to wait six months so he could see the World Cup qualifying campaign through to the end.
He added, “I received a lot of stick for my decision and I think it was probably deserved as I should’ve waited till the qualifying matches were over.”
It was an open secret Revie really didn’t get on with Professor Harold Thompson, FA Chairman at the time. Thompson was the man responsible for casting Ramsey onto the scrap heap despite his wonderful legacy. Revie knew Thompson didn’t like him, and felt the weight of pressure on his shoulders that the sack could come at any time. It’s hardly surprising he jumped as the pressure became unbearable.
Revie coached the UAE team until 1980. He then took several coaching roles in the Middle East before returning to England in 1985. He never worked in football again and retired to Scotland.
He died in Edinburgh in 1989 after battling Motor Neurone Disease for several years.
