In 1969 there were around 150 British players registered with South African clubs, set up as whites-only. Stanley Matthews, well into his 60s, had visited South Africa to top up his "income" by playing exhibition matches. But seeing black children playing by the road, he was moved to return annually and set up a black team called "Sir Stan's Men". At a time when white men were not easy visiting Soweto, Matthews showed no fear. Stanley Junior, Matthews' son, once a professional tennis player, has become film producer and is making a documentary about his father. Matthews senior became UN "blacklisted" by the government putting his life at risk and of course going against authority.
Matthews sorted funding from Coca Cola to make the trip to Brazil possible and The Sunday Times in Johannesburg became involved. An airline offered free travel and the team boarded the plane along with 2 "undercover policemen".
In Brazil the group met Pele and trained with Zico, playing at the Maracana. The squad then went to Germany. Some would say that Matthews was regarded higher than Nelson Mandela.
A year after this tour South Africa erupted into violence, especially in Soweto when students protested about being forced to use Afrikaans in schools, "the language of the oppressor". There were deaths and in the next year Steve Biko was beaten to death. Matthews returned as soon as he could and was still visiting until his death in 2000, at 85 years old.
Stanley's daughter lived in Johannesburg for 14 years and a foundation set up in her father's name has allowed students from Stoke (Matthews' last club) to coach in Cape town.
Matthews led the way in modernising football in the post war years. He had a rigorous training regime, had no bad habits, he developed lighter boots, walked around with weights on his ankles during the day to make his boots feel lighter and insisted that the pitch was watered before a game to make it slicker. All this clearly worked because he played until he was well over 50 and indeed turned out in a Charity match at 70.
The film "Matthews; The original no7" can be downloaded and is available on DVD from October 30th.
Born in 1915, Mathews played for English Schoolboys against Wales at Dean Court, Bournemouth in 1929 in front of 20,000. I am pleased to say I would have trod the same pitch playing right wing for Sutton in an FA Cup tie in November 1975! I then met Matthews later at two coaching events, one outside the House of Lords and then other at Pontins Morecambe, where he attended the ESFA Easter Tournament.
He also became manager for the day when Charterhouse staff and boys played a match at the Royal Military Academy in 1984. Where was I? New Zealand!!
He played for his home club Stoke City from 1932-47, 259 times scoring 51 goals. He was transferred to Blackpool and played for them until 1961, scoring 17 goals only(he was a supplier but in those days they didn't measure assists). During this period he played in three Cup Finals (1948, 1951) winning the famous "Matthews' Final" in 1953 against Bolton W.
At 46 years old he went back to Stoke and played until 1965, helping the Potters to a Second Division title, scored 3, becoming the oldest professional player, both for club and country-England 1934-57; 54 caps (11 goals).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54HRpvcRn0w
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