July 28th 1985, just two days short of its 19th anniversary, the players from the 1966 World Cup final between England and West Germany played against each other again, to raise money for the Bradford Fire Disaster Fund. England ran out winners - or strolled out winners was perhaps a more accurate description of the speed of play - this time 6-4 with Geoff Hurst again hitting a coincidental hat-trick. A crowd of 19.496 at Elland Road, Leeds, contributed nearly £50,000 towards the appeal. Can you name the players above?
and on the same date, in 2007, moving north of the border, Heart of Midlothian have had their home at Tynecastle Park in Edinburgh since 1866. The record attendance at that ground was set back on 13th February 1932 when 53,396 were present for a Scottish Cup tie against Rangers. In more recent years though the Tynecastle capacity has been as low as under 20,000 so when mighty Barcelona visited the Scottish capital for a pre-season friendly against Hearts the venue was switched to the nearby Murrayfield Stadium, the home of the Scottish Rugby Union. And after over 150 years at Tynecastle that match on Murrayfield - played on Saturday 28th July 2007 - saw a new home record attendance for a Hearts match being set.....57,857.
It wasn't the first time that Hearts had temporarily moved "home" to Murrayfield. In the 2000s they played six home Champions League/UEFA Cup matches at Murrayfield as Tynecastle wasn't up to UEFA standards - top crowd 32,459 v AEK Athens.
Later, in 2017/18, they played their first four home League matches of the season at Murrayfield due to building work at Tynecastle - top crowd 32,852 v Rangers. And in the match against Barcelona - Ronaldinho gave the visitors the lead from a 21st minute penalty, Juho Makela equalised, Ronaldinho restored the Barca lead before sub Thierry Henry set up Giovanni Dos Santos to score the final goal in the Spaniards 3-1 victory.
BY THE WAY, in 1962 on this day, the German football association decided to modernised their national fooball by launching a new "National League" to replace the "regional" Oberliga which had regional champions towards the end of their season and then play offs between the top teams. Players would have to be licensed and therefore could earn a "capped" salary. One club, Bayern Munich didn't make the "cut" of 16 and complained bitterly. For the first 8 seasons, 8 different clubs won the championship. With West Germany's relatoive success in European club and national competitions and in the FIFA World Cup, the new plan seemed to have improved the standard of German football.
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