SPECIAL DAY ON AUGUST 8th

 The 8th of the 8th in '87.....shame its not 1988!

Football On This Day – 8th August 1987
To help celebrate the centenary season of the Football League, a Football League XI beat a Rest of the World Team 3-0 at Wembley.

The Football League celebrated its centenary during the 1987-8 and 1988-89 seasons with a series of events, including the Football League XI v A World XI game at Wembley a Centenary Trophy tournament and other planned but ultimately unfulfilled events. The celebrations were sponsored by Mercantile Credit. on 8 August 1987 as a Football League representative side took on a World XI under the twin towers of the old Wembley Stadium, and despite the appearance of Diago Maradona, who had dumped England out of the World Cup on the way to single-handedly winning the trophy a year previously, the game still failed to live up to its billing. Maradona allegedly demanded £100,000 to be there. Even so, a gate of just 61,000 turned up for a game that was also being screened live on ITV and 8th August 1992 A Wembley hat-trick for Eric Cantona, his three goals helping Leeds to a 4-3 victory over Liverpool in the FA Charity Shield.

On, this day, England referee, Albert Prince-Cox was born 135 years ago. He is known to have officiated 14 international matches of European teams during the period from 1926 to 1930. He passed away on October 26, 1967.

The man in the middle!! Below....Captain Albert James Prince-Cox (8 August 1890 – 26 October 1967) was an English football manager, player and referee, boxer and  boxing promoter and a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society. 

Prince-Cox became the Secretary-manager of Bristol Rovers in 1930. At the time of his appointment the club were struggling financially, but he was credited with turning the situation around through his use of the player transfer market to buy and sell players for a profit. He left The Pirates (a nickname that he introduced, along with the team's blue and white quartered shirts, which are still worn today) in 1936. He then spent two years working as a full-time boxing promoter, before being appointed as manager of Gloucester City in 1938, at which point he was one of the best-known sporting figures in the West of England. He died in late 1967, aged 77, in Bristol.