The Football Attic Kit Podcast 03 - Mexico 86

It's podcast No.3 and we've run out of current tournaments to cover the kits of so it's back to the past we go and where better (and more obvious) to start, but Mexico 86?!

So, following nearly an hour of kit news(!) we go back 30 years and see what the kit world had to offer for the heat of Mexico.

We then reveal the results of last pod's Kit Off... like it was ever in doubt!

Also making his debut is kit podcast beginner, Jay from Design Football.com. He manages to overcome his newbie nerves to say some rather interesting stuff about kits... and then ruins it with baselayer talk... again!

Enjoy!

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KIT OFF - RESULT!

On this podcast, we asked you to vote for your favourite shirt from three that are often included in many people's 'worst shirts ever' lists and blog posts.

Thank you for all 162 of your votes. Here's the final result:

1st: Shirt A - Coventry third 76-79: (45%)
2nd: Shirt B - Arsenal away 91-93: (34%)
3rd: Shirt C - Celtic away 94-95: (21%)

REFERENCES:

During the Kit News section of this podcast, we referred to a number of new kits. You can find images for them by following these links:

• Norwich City third (Errea)
• Derby County away (Umbro)
• Heart of Midlothian away (Puma)
• Motherwell away (Macron)
• Wigan Athletic away (Kappa)
• Wigan Athletic third (Kappa)
• Bolton Wanderers home (Macron)
• Roma away (Nike)
• Lazio third (Macron)
• Fulham home (Adidas)
• Leganes home (Joma)
• CD Pinzón (CiPA)
• Pumas UNAM (Nike)

And Jay also mentioned his kit design for Skillshare.com, which you can see here.

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Up For The World Cup (1986)

Under what circumstances can a large piece of printed paper be given such reverence and adoration? When it is printed with the fixtures for the first World Cup to ever ignite your growing love of international football.

The 1986 World Cup was going to be majestic in all its colour and magnificence. I'd seen bits of the 1982 tournament, but it had all arrived slightly too early for me, as if I'd become a fan of The Beatles in the year they split up. Fragmented imagery and an awareness of past glories was fine, but I wanted to see what a new World Cup would really be like. My eyes were wide open and I simply couldn't wait.

In order to get myself in the right frame of mind for Mexico '86, I bought and read whatever items I could find as part of a relentless campaign to educate myself on this sensational sporting spectacle. World Soccer magazine (a publication I'd discovered in 1985) helped, to say nothing of Shoot! and Match Weekly, and that was without the growing mountain of memorabilia being created in readiness for the event.

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Panini: Mexico 86

As far as my own childhood sticker-collecting activities are concerned, Panini's Mexico 86 collection was the very pinnacle of all that I did. Slightly too young to fully appreciate the 1982 World Cup when it arrived, the 1986 tournament began when I was 14 years old, my eyes wide open and my head already crammed full of football knowledge.

At the time, I lived for this most wondrous of sports, the collecting of football stickers and very little else. It was World Cup time again, and I was ready to embark on another campaign of buying, peeling, sticking and swapping.

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Holy Grail No.2 - Argentina 86 Home Shirt

The first ever article that appeared on the Attic was billed as “Holy Grail No.1”. The numbering would clearly suggest that this was perhaps the first in a series and to that, I would say that yes, it was…I just never quite got round to writing about no.2. Until now!

So sit back and wallow in what will turn out to be yet another tale of obsession and ultimate futility!

It’s 1986 (really? What a surprise!) and the 11 year old me is standing in Devlins’ newsagents, unsure as to whether he should spend 42p of his 50p pocket money on what would be his first ever copy of Shoot! In the end, he / me / I buy / buys it, drawn by the World Cup Review inside, the cover of which features Maradona cradling the inspiration for Holy Grail No.1.

It’s possible that my obsession with football kits in general was started by my love of Maradona’s shirt, but whether that’s true or not, it certainly captivated me at the time. It’s hard to say what exactly I loved about it, but I distinctly remember being impressed that the middle stripe was white and not the usual blue. Moreover I loved the holes! This wasn't just an aertex thing, t-shirts at the time were made from what was known as ‘tea bag’ material – I had a lovely camouflage one…and later some fetching Y fronts with tea bag (settle down) inserts…


I was aware of course that replica shirts were available, but such was my naivety and newness to football, I had no idea that my local Intersport wouldn't stock such an item. Never mind the fact the Falklands war and the Hand of God made the possibility of seeing an albiceletse shirt in ANY sports shop in England virtually nil!  Having confirmed the unavailability of said artefact and this being pre-internet days, I scoured the ads in the now purchased Shoot! and once again drew a blank.

In the coming years, I would religiously check every available sports shop or ad I could find and always got nowhere. I seemed destined to never obtain any of my holy grails. As time wore on, I realised that Argentina would surely be changing their kits for the World Cup due in 1990 and sure enough, when Maradona et al stepped out at the San Siro against Cameroon, they had indeed changed their outfits…and what an abomination they were! The blue stripe was now firmly back in the middle of the road and above it some kind of comedy V neck from the late 70s! With heavy heart I accepted the beauty of that Le Coq Sportif shirt was gone forever.  Looking back at old magazines of the time, it seems you could buy a version of this shirt, but I just didn't care for it.

Sorted! Respect Due!

By USA 94, a decent design once again adorned the AFA squad, but also, once more I could find nowhere that sold one! I’m sure it may have been available from a mail order outlet somewhere, but I never managed to find one and so it fell to Score Draw to provide me with my first ever Argentina shirt the following year. OK so it was an unofficial one and it had wide stripes (with the blue one in the middle), but it was only £19.99 and by now I just wanted something!

My first proper AFA shirt would be in my possession a mere 12 months later with the beautiful 96-97 design. I’d seen a slightly different version at the Atlanta Olympics earlier in the year and had loved it on sight! And now, finally, I had my very own Argentina shirt!!! I still didn't have a 1986 one though…
By the time eBay was a part of my life, I’d trebled my collection by purchasing both the home and away World Cup 98 shirts. I would have had even more but the AFA selected Reebok as their supplier for some godforsaken reason and the designs they produced were possibly the worst ever seen - the WC06 one gives them a run for their money!

1990...sort of...

It’s now 2003 and the 28 year old me has discovered the joys of eBay! What a great way to spend money!!! The first obvious search is for Argentina shirts and straight away there was a whole load of 86 shirts available wasn't there? Of course not!!! There was a whole load of Reebok crap, a bunch of 2002 shirts and some 1990 ones (the ones with the plain neck) available, but nothing of any real…oh hang on, what’s this???  A 1990 shirt, but this one has the 2 blue lines in the neck just like the actual shirts at the time did!!! My first taste of eBay last second bidding success and £57.50 later and I was a happier man. Yeah I know the badge isn't right and it too should have holes...that's for another time...

Still, there was that emptiness inside, a holey-shirt shaped hole. Surely eBay was my best bet? Over the next 12 months I saw a few gems, all way out of my price range of course. I even saw a shirt from the Eng V Arg Mexico 86 ¼ Final, but I think the list price was around the 5K mark. Around this time, I began to realise that it was almost certain that proper replicas were never produced, meaning ultimately that if I was ever to obtain one, it would have to be player worn and given I had a child and a mortgage by now, that was obviously not going to happen.

This left me CRESTfallen

So…where did that leave me?  Pretty much without hope…until suddenly there started to appear newer retro shirts…proper looking ones too! Well, almost…3 different versions appeared. One had a sort of tea bag material, but the badge just had ‘86’ on it instead of a proper AFA one. Another had a proper badge, but was bereft of holes. The third was the worst of both of those…86 badge and no holes! Nevertheless, they were better than nothing and I promptly ordered one each of the former two. There were also some away shorts appearing as well with again, several different versions, none of which quite got it exactly right!

Would someone PLEASE make one with a decent badge and some holes??? Was it too much to ask??? Would I ever get my Holey Grail??? HA!

Finally!

The answer would come only a few weeks later. On a cold November day (I assume it was cold, it was November), I chanced upon yet another 86 retro shirt, which were by now, quite common. It looked slightly different though. I checked it out and…OMG, HOLES!!!! And a proper badge!!!! Not only that, but the material was decent quality and the holes were…well, proper holes!!! Not like the other one I had which just had…the wrong holes (oh come on!). The one slight issue was the price. I think there were 2 available, a medium and a large and both were on for 140 euros…approx £100 (the seller was in Switzerland).  I contacted him and managed to agree a price of 99 euros, which made it a total of £83.46. It was the most I’d ever spent on any shirt by a long way (well, by £25.96), but it was entirely worth it!

A week or so later and it was mine! Oh happy day!!! I had found peace at last…weeeeelllll. You should know me better than that. While it was as near perfect as I could possibly hope to get without hunting down an original squad member, it wasn't quite right…yes it had holes, but they weren't as large as the actual shirts. And the neck wasn't perfect…and the badge etc etc…

The "right" holes

As such, I still continue my hunt, which led me to purchase this 1989 beauty earlier this year. Yeah the badge is a bit high and it’s not an 86 one, but look at the holes…

JUST LOOK AT THE HOLES!!!!

I need help…

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Retro Random Video: BBC World Cup Grandstand 1986

If you search YouTube long enough, you'll soon realise there are enough clips to delight and amuse you well into the next century. Yet it's not the quantity of the clips that often delights - more the randomness of them.

To that end, we'll be trying to bring you exactly that kind of overlooked randomness here on The Football Attic, and as ever, if you find any such footage of your own that you'd like to bring to a wider audience, do drop us a line and let us know.

We begin our trawl of the video archives with this quarter-hour clip taken from the end of the very last edition of the BBC's World Cup Grandstand in 1986.

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Radio Times: 1986 World Cup preview issue

For the vast majority of us not able to visit the 1986 World Cup in Mexico personally, the Radio Times did a pretty good job of making you feel like you were actually there. Every possible detail about the build-up to the competition, the British teams involved and the climactic challenges awaiting them was covered comprehensively.

Jimmy Hill’s opening gambit, ‘Here we go!’ prepared us for a slower, more skilful brand of football better suited to the heat and altitude of Mexico. Luckily for Bobby Robson, Hill pondered, England “couldn’t be in a better group if they had applied for it.” It’s a shame that Portugal, Poland and Morocco didn’t end up sharing the BBC man’s sense of logic in the fullness of time.

In ‘Viva Mexico!’ Barry Davies looked at the creeping invasion of commercialism into the World Cup in contrast to the abject poverty of many of Mexico City’s inhabitants. In the wake of a crippling magnitude 8 earthquake the previous September, the Mexican capital was trying to rebuild and create the infrastructure for a successful World Cup. Uppermost in the minds of many, however, were the people that had died and the ongoing destitution they themselves were living in.

“The hoardings of the 12 official sponsors gained by FIFA’s agents, ISL Marketing, were at first slow to appear. Now they look down from every corner and surround the playing areas of the 12 venues” claimed Davies. Of the poor in the city, he said: “It would be nice to think that the World Cup will offer them – the people in the street – long-term gain and not just a passing lift to morale. But history may support the doubters.”

The hotels and base camps awaiting the squads of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland were detailed in ‘A place in the sun.’ While the Mexican heat provided a universal problem for all northern European teams to cope with, Monterrey served up another for the England team. At only 522 metres, it had the lowest altitude of all the venues, and what’s more it was only “designed for the overnight traveller or for a weekend away.” Nice.

Northern Ireland, meanwhile, were "living in style" at their hotel not far from Guadalajara, scene of England's classic encounter with Brazil in 1970. "Every possible sporting diversion is on offer from tennis to horse riding, baccarat to a golf driving range, with four nearby courses open to guests. There is even a bullring" we were told. But which of the hotel's useful facilities did the Northern Ireland squad make most use of? "As for the swimming pool" the article went on "it is one of those where crawling to the bar – freestyle fashion – is quite acceptable."  Question answered.

Acclimatisation to the heat was discussed further in ‘Soccer at the highest level’ where, according to Byron Butler, “the lessons of 1970 have been digested.” As part of the medical preparations the England party took 20,000 pills with them across the Atlantic – enough “to make Bryan Robson and the team rattle.” As if dehydration and a lack of the appropriate medication wasn’t bad enough, there was also ‘the Aztec two-step’ to consider – “a mixture of diarrhoea, nausea, abdominal pain and fever” better known to many as ‘Montezuma’s Revenge.’ Never let it be said it’s an easy life being a footballer.

John Motson, Des Lynam and Bob Wilson were on hand to give their views on the chances of England, Northern Ireland and Scotland respectively. According to the former Arsenal goalkeeper, Scotland’s place in the ‘Group of Death’ with West Germany, Denmark and Uruguay was no bad thing given their propensity for failing at the hands of minnows down the years. With Graeme Sharp of Everton up front with “West Ham’s 28-goal scoring sensation Frank McAvennie,” they could hardly lose, yet lose they did in two of their three games to end their Mexican campaign earlier than planned.

Page after page of team profiles were also provided in this edition of the Radio Times, all written by great figures from the British game including Ron Greenwood, Emlyn Hughes, Terry Venables and Bobby Charlton. And if that 24 pages of World Cup content wasn’t enough, you still had the job of building your viewing schedule for the week ahead.

World Cup Grandstand was where the BBC’s coverage began at 6.10 pm on Saturday 31 May. Italy v Bulgaria and the opening ceremony were featured in the first programme, preceded as it was by The Keith Harris Show and a re-run of Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads? From Day 2 onwards, live matches were broadcast at an altogether less sociable hour of the day, usually from 10.50pm, with highlights shown at around 5.30pm when ITV had live coverage.

And what other televisual delights were on offer throughout this momentous week on the BBC?  Well for children there was The Kids of Degrassi Street, John Craven’s Newsround, We Are The Champions and Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds. For older viewers there was a choice of viewing including Les and Dustin’s Laughter Show, M*A*S*H and Terry and June. Yes, it was entertainment all the way during the first week of June 1986… but mostly on the pitch rather than off it.

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Random Things From Our Football Collections: Pique

Awww, look at little Pique there, a microcosm of all Mexican stereotypes all rolled into one cute (?) little mascotty thing.

Aye Caramba etc

Let's just tick all the boxes shall we?

Sombrero - check
Pencil thin moustache... or is it a beard? - check
Two tone green skin - er...

There are rumours that he was even available in a little gift set, replete with mini wire cutters, false documents and years of second class citizen status, but that may have just been made up... by me... just now...

Ironically, the story of how this little fella came to be in my collection does indeed involve clashes with authority and border crossings.

Let me take you back to 1986 (again). I'm in my first term at secondary school and, as was customary at the time, us first years get the chance of a day trip to France. I believe these trips were known amongst the teachers as 'booze cruises', whereas for the kids, it represented the chance to buy all manner of contraband.

The day before we're due to leave for foreign shores, we're informed that our destination has changed. Far from the Gallic adventure we'd anticipated, we were instead bound for Belgium. To this day I have no idea why this last minute change took place; the only possible explanation must be that one of the teachers was a huge fan of Enzo Scifo...

As with any winter cross channel journey, the weather was horrendous and the decks were awash with salty brine and juvenile lunch in equal measure. We survived, however, and at 8am the following morn we docked in Bruges. On reflection, we technically didn't cross any borders... just sort of sailed into them.

'Twas a misty morn and as we boarded the coach to take us to the delights of the local hypermarket (because that's what you do the first time you set foot outside of your home country, go to a Tesco Extra), the heavens opened... a sign of things to come? Or just a cold front moving in from the east?

Finally, we arrived at the hypermarket and what a huge place it was too... full of... well, the same sort of stuff you could get over in Blighty, really, just with funny packaging and strange prices (remember Francs anyone?)  I made a sweep of the place and while my friends were busy hoovering up all the bangers they could find, I was occupied trying, with my limited resources, to find presents for my family. If you've ever tried to find souvenirs in your local supermarket, you'll perhaps empathise with my predicament and understand why my relatives ended up with mostly stationery-based gifts.

Having made my purchases, I was then wandering round the shop trying to find my friends when my eyes fell upon Pique. His little sucker attachment indicated he was clearly designed as a car ornament, but, being 11, I possessed no such mode of transport. That was not going to deter me from owning a rather ropey piece of Mexico 86 and so back to the checkout I headed.

Upon arrival at the checkout, the woman behind the desk eyed me with xenophobic suspicion, though it could have been mainly because I was with a group of schoolchildren who seemed to be trying to fill their pockets gratis at every opportunity. It probably was that. After I had completed the financial transaction involving my little mascot friend, she (the checkout woman, not Pique, who was, after all, clearly a male chilli) pointed at the bag containing my earlier purchases and demanded I show her proof that I had paid for them... or at least I assume that's what she said. She wasn't speaking English... how very insular!  I searched frantically for my receipts, but to no avail. What had I done with them? I'd only purchased them a few minutes previous.

She handed the bag to what I assume was a manager who looked at the contents and probably decided that any 11-year-old prepared to 'steal' some notebooks and a few pencils probably wasn't worth dealing with, so he handed me back the bag and ordered me from the shop.

The ferry journey back may have been fun for my friends as they hurled their bangers at every possible surface and watched as one of our number sleep-walked into the decks below and tried to get into someone's cabin, but for me, it was a journey of shame for I had been branded (incorrectly, remember) a criminal. I would forever be known as The Pencil Thief and my slow descent into full on criminality was as  inevitable as it was imaginary.

But still... Pique!

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Hero - The Official Film of the 1986 FIFA World Cup

Mexico 86! Again?  Sorry... I don’t just cut 'n' paste these articles you know, but given my football nostalgia begins at this juncture, it’s no real surprise it’s a common reference point.

Anyway, there was a World Cup held in Mexico in 1986 and, as with all World Cups since 1966, FIFA produced an official film. You could tell it was an official FIFA product as it was supplied in a brown envelope and cost £300K in used notes plus a vote in some bidding process. Ha! Satire!  Hello, is this thing on? Sorry... again...

And so to the film, and we begin with footage of Maradona (the Hero you see) gliding through the England defence on his way to score what became the 'Goal of the Century' accompanied by what some may call a cod-Aztec synth riff, closely followed by the mandatory-for-the-mid-80s, syn-drums. This was 1986. Rick Wakeman was providing the soundtrack. Prog rock may have been dead, but keyboards were very much alive. "Worldmark Soccer International Presents" a "Challis / Maylan Production"- "Hero - The Official Film of XIII World Cup..."

The film itself begins by covering the devastating earthquake that so nearly cost the country host status only eight months prior to the tournament’s opening match. To this day it remains a great credit to Mexico recovering in such a short space of time. Contrast that with the current situation in Brazil, who’ve so far struggled just to build the infrastructure needed, let alone rebuild any of it. Stirring music plays as the story is told, then as kids play soccer in the streets, contrasted with footgage of "local boy" Hugo Sanchez in Mexico's first match of the finals, the keyboards are back with a vengeance. A much longed for Sanchez goal brings understandably jubilant scenes in Mexico's still ravaged streets.

Hero - Opening Titles

(NB I'd embed the YouTube video, but Blogger can't find it...it can find Part 2 though!)

After that it's headlong into the bit we all came for; the football, narrated here by Michael Caine doing his best Michael Caine from The Italian Job impression. Greats like Francescoli and Laudrup are showcased in Denmark's mauling of Uruguay, then we link nicely to Denmark's own downfall at the hands of Spain. It’s at this point that the fact this is a ‘film’ as opposed to a record of the event comes to the fore, as a narrative, a story arc, must be forged. To this end, instead of following the tournament in a vaguely chronological fashion, the film details the various routes taken by the more notable teams.

While this approach may provide some dramatic tension, albeit tension somewhat deflated by the keyboard tinklings of Mr. Wakeman, it does leave one with a rather disjointed view of the whole affair.  It also suffers from arc-crash, which is a term I’ve just made up. What I mean is, they follow a certain team down their route to the final, e.g. Argentina. However, Argentina play England in the quarter final, so then we have to jump back to the first round to cover England’s progress to said match.

This method of storytelling, while effective, means that Maradona (the Hero, remember) doesn't feature 'til nearly 20 minutes in and England some while later. As I say, it makes a change from the usual method, but it does often leave you wondering which round you’re watching... and why. Then again, if you want more comprehensive coverage of every goal scored, you may want to track down a copy of ‘Every Goal of Mexico 86’ - though having watched it, I’d advise against it, graced as it is by Martin Tyler in full on ‘reading from the script auto-pilot monotone’ mode and poor man's synth track played through a pillow.

As well as the storyline flying all over the place, the soundtrack also takes a similar flight path, though appears to crash into several objects on its way, such is the jarring nature of it at times. This happens in the form of teams having their own little signature tune, meaning every time, say, France appear, we are treated to a shot of the crowd chanting about their beloved 'Bleus.' This chant isn’t seamlessly blended into the soundtrack however - rather it smashes into it at high speed, meaning the classic quarter final and nerve-shredding penalty shoot-out between France and Brazil is played out to a soundscape that bolts together Mexican Cheese Synth, Cockney narration, “VIVA, VIVA, VIVA LES BLEUS! VIVA!!!” and “Loooooo, lo looooo, lo loooooo, lo lo BRAZIL!”

In spite of these issues, the football itself is served up very well with lots of quality footage, plenty of time given to the stand out teams and matches and goals and replays given the right balance between ‘Ooh let’s see that again’ and the more modern phenomenon of ‘What did that goal look like from the POV of a passing crow?’

To summarise, yes it has its idiosyncrasies and has a distinctly cheesy feeling, but Hero is still a very entertaining watch and does manage to tell the story of Mexico 86 well. The FIFA films do seem to capture the nature of the tournament, with Hero being all bright colours and hard, midday shadows, contrasting nicely with the Official Film of the 1990 World Cup - Soccer Shootout - a much more sombre affair.

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