OLYMPICS AND TWO GREATS

 26th July 1948 Following the end of the Second World War the first major world sporting event to be held was the 1948 Olympic Games in London. The official opening ceremony took place at Wembley on July 29th but three days earlier - Monday July 26th 1948 - saw the Olympic football tournament kick off with two Preliminary Round ties. In those matches Luxembourg beat Afghanistan 6-0 at the Goldstone Ground in Brighton (attendance 5,000) and the Netherlands defeated Ireland 3-1 at Fratton Park, Portsmouth in front of a 8,000 crowd. Great Britain were later to start their Olympic campaign beating Netherlands in a First Round tie at the more traditional London venue of Highbury with GB eventually progressing to the bronze medal match where they lost 5-3 to Denmark in front of 50,000 at Wembley. The top football crowd was 60,000, also at Wembley, who witnessed Sweden defeat Yugoslavia 3-1 to win the gold medal. 

One member of the GB team in 1948 was Scottish goalkeeper Ronnie Simpson who, 19 years later, was one of Celtic's Lisbon Lions who beat Inter-Milan to become the first British team to win the European Cup. Here is his "Obit".

Full name	Ronald Campbell Simpson
Date of birth	11 October 1930
Place of birth	Glasgow, Scotland
Date of death	19 April 2004 (aged 73)
Place of death	Edinburgh, Scotland
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)

On This Day – 26th July 1966.....         

Bobby Charlton scored two and Eusébio one as England beat Portugal 2-1 at Wembley in the semi-final of the World Cup. England would play West Germany - who had beaten the Soviet Union 2-1 the previous evening at Goodison - in the World Cup Final. And later......

Sir Bobby Charlton was awarded the prestigious Ballon d'Or award that same year, cementing his status as one of the game's greatest players.

The Manchester United great, died at the age of 86. He scored 49 goals in 106 appearances for England.