ON THIS DAY

You’d think that politicians would realise by now that trying to be ‘one of the lads’ usually ends in disaster for them. Days after a disastrous General Election and burdened with all the Brexit problems our Prime Minister Theresa May joined French President Emmanuel Macron at the friendly match between France and England at the Stade de France in Paris. Sadly that wasn’t enough for her and she decided to join in a Mexican wave but got her timing wrong – as she did with the General Election! – and did her bit seconds after everyone else had done theirs. The general opinion was that she was a muppet…and England lost 3-2. 14 th June

Diego Maradona was a great footballer but he did have his dark side. He had a long-standing drug addiction and in February 1994 he made the news when he fired an air rifle into a group of reporters and photographers who had assembled outside his Buenos Aires home. Four of them were injured. It took four years for Maradona to appear before an Argentinan court charged with that offence and he denied the charge despite him having been filmed hiding behind a car a firing the weapon. On 13th June 1998 he was found guilty and received a 2 year 10 month suspended prison sentence.

The first European Cup Final was played at the Parc des Princes in Paris between Real Madrid and French side Stade de Rheims. Real Madrid won 4-3 and went on to win the first five European Cup tournaments. The was no English team in the first competition although the first final did have an English presence – it was refereed by Arthur Ellis who was later to find fame in television’s It’s A Knockout.