Flying Down to Rio, Flight three

Flight 3 -  Or how not to organise a campaign. To say England were unprepared and disorganized is one of the kinder descriptions I’ve read about England’s 1950 World Cup. The experience however wasn’t lost on Bill Nicholson and Edie Baily key figures at Tottenham in later years and Alf Ramsey our full back when he later managed England.

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It may seem unbelievable to us in this age that that England failed to send someone to check out the facilities such as hotel, catering, training, transport and stadiums that England would experience during their stay. The campaign both on and off the pitch has been described “English football’s first genuine catastrophe“.

The problems started before England even left the country. Players at that time were paid a maximum wage of £12 a week. A few weeks before departing one of the key players Neil Franklin signed a lucrative deal with the outlawed Colombian League. Captain Billy Wright said “We had lost our lynchpin with the World Cup just weeks away. I was fond of Neil and understood his motives, but I could have kicked him for his timing.” 

Just getting to the competition was a major undertaking. The team met in London and traveled by train to Gatwick airport (pictured above). The flight involved a 31-hour odyssey with stops in Paris, Lisbon, Dakar and Recife.

When the plane finally landed in Rio three men in gas masks stepped onto the plane and sprayed everyone on board with pesticide, leaving them coughing and spluttering.

Nicholson, Ramsey and Baily

The team stayed at the Luxor on Copacabana beach which might sound to us rather nice. Back in the 1950’s it was a dive. There was no training facilities available and England’s goalie Bert Williams claims the food was “It was a bowl of olive oil, with a piece of bacon floating around in it,” . He also recalled that “A bowl of fruit was sent up to their room, with a long black trail leading out of it, up the wall and into a ventilation shaft, ants“. 

There are several accounts of Manager Walter Winterbottom get so angry by the quality of the food his team were being served that he marched into the kitchens and took over the cooking himself.

The stadium for the first game still had building work in progress when England arrived to play Chile. The dressing rooms were dirty and someone had to be sent into clean them and chase out the rats before the team could enter.

England V Chile, Williams saves

Even worse, would you believe that the FA had agreed to a goodwill tour of Canada at the same time as the tournament.

After playing in Canada several players including Stanley Matthews faced a 28 hour flight to join their teammates arriving after the first game had been played.

Sit down, now comes the good bit. At that time Walter Winterbottom was manager in name only.

Bill Nicholson keeps an eye on things

 He was the coach. England (like a number of countries) had in place a selection committee who chose the squad and the teams for games. England because of the expense decided to send only one of the committee members on the trip. A Mr. Arthur Drewry, who was a fish merchant from Grimsby. He would watch games and made these decisions in his spare time

Stanley Matthews recalls in his autobiography that when he arrived he was told Drewry had overruled Winterbottom’s wishes and decided not to change a winning team. Thus even towards the end of his career Matthews still one of the best players in England had to sit in the stands and watch the defeat to the USA. Matthews later wrote “The game was purgatory to watch from the stands, Come the final whistle, I thanked my lucky stars I hadn’t been part of it.”

The Maracana Stadium in 1950

Possibly the only thing good thing that came from this trip at the time was Stanley Matthews decided to wear boots at least three ounces lighter than the great heavy ones that English wore until then which resembled diving boots. Other players would later follow his example.  Alf Ramsey who would lead England and Bill Nicholson must of both learnt lessons from this trip which would help them later in their careers.

On Flight 4, We pop back to 1930 and see how it all began, and nearly didn't.

Thanks to - The FA, England on Line, FIFA, THFC, Daily Telegraph, BBC,  Stanley Mathews, Mark Pougatch’s book ‘Three Lions Versus the World’. RKO Pictures, Getty Images, Daily Mail.

About the author:
Keith Harrison, Nilgiris, TN
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