GOING HOME

23rd July 1966, Sir Alf Ramsey prevents his players swapping shirts with the Argentinians, following England's World Cup quarter-final victory (1-0), calling them animals. The behaviour on the pitch by the Argentinian team and especially their captain Antonio Rattin was unacceptable; their antics in the corridors of Wembley after the match had to be seen to be believed; kicking, spitting and attempting to break down the door to the English dressing room.

Ken Aston, who was the FIFA referee assessor, watched the German ref Rudolph Krietlein struggle to impress his decisions on the game; mainly on the Argentinians. It was then that Aston, on his way home, realised that Krietlein, with poor language skills on both sides, needed some visual signs to make himself understood. Driving home, at a traffic lights, Aston saw the red, yellow and green colours. That was that- red cards and yellow cards were instigated. Hockey of course uses green also-that would be a good addition for the "first offence".

On my way home today I saw this across the old railway bridge at Penistone:
John Stones is a local lad.

Before I got home, I was at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and saw this "exhibit" by Giuseppe Penone. It reminded of a footballing moment:-


based on this moment at Stamford Bridge in 1954; photo by Tony Worrall-Sports photograph of the year 1954!
The sculpture is by Peter Hodgkinson, unveiled at Deepdale in July 2004.