What was it like following City away in Europe in the 60's and 70's

[JGL07]

Wrong decade, but Cardiff City away in the old 2nd Division in the 80s was the closest I've probably been (actually, Geographically Southend United away is closer to main land Europe isn't it!).
Seriously, too young to have done such trips so it was the TV and radio for me in the late 70s.
Funnily enough, I don't remember seeing too many of our highlights on the box ,maybe on 'Sportsnight'? (though there was a lot less football on TV back then. ) However, I do remember the radio commentaries as Peter Jones or Bryon Butler (who were proper quality commentators) always sounded like they were commentating with a sock on the microphone at the away games.

There were very few if any highlights on TV in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Match of the Day was the highlights for one match (later two matches). Most football on TV was of International matches. I recall ITV covering an England match and managing to edit out the winning goal (for the opposition). Until reading the papers the next day I was not aware of the winning goal.

The editing was also a bit dubious. I recall a 1-0 away win over Stoke in the 1966-67 season where they managed to edit out a whole string of near misses and goalmouth incidents.

Most Club Chairmen appeared very sceptical about televised matches and really believed that people would not attend if they thought that there would be 30 minutes of highlights on TV. There was always secrecy about which match would be covered.

Bob Lord, Chairman of Burnley, banned TV cameras from their ground for five years. Lord thought is was a ‘Jewish plot’ to put football on TV.

 

[portisheadblue]

Re the 69/70 CWC campaign I went to all the games home and away except for 2 Schalke away and the Final.

The away games involved flights, match tickets, coach transfers and overnight hotel after the game…. I can’t remember the company that did all this but it might have been Finglands as they were connected with City and were a travel company. I assume that I used to pay by cheque !!!

Bilbao was a fantastic trip - somehow we stayed at same hotel as City, spent quite some time in a bar pre-match then we all sobered up as we went 3-0 down. Some of the guys had flags and started to wave them as City fought back to 3-3 but the flags were put away when the Garda arrived with guns!!!! Post match we had to run the gauntlet getting back to the coaches.

Coimbra was exciting - it was snowing at Ringway but we finally took off then it was a long bus ride from Lisbon and they delayed the kick off until we arrived.

Not much happened at Lierse SK as I think we stayed in Brussels.

The best game was Schalke at home - what an atmosphere and what a result.

Apologies if any of the above is incorrect but it was a long time ago !!!!!

Come on City

 

[city68]

Went to game at the Prater stadium with my father with the City social club run by Roy Clark. There's a photo taken just before we all took off somewhere.. In them days a lot younger a group of us had a P in the centre circle. Still got my father's and my programs. And a plaque with Wein on it..Great night...CTID.....

 

[Corky]

Wein

Wine or Wien?

 

[JGL07]

Wine or Wien?

Weiner?

 

[crazyg]

Re the 69/70 CWC campaign I went to all the games home and away except for 2 Schalke away and the Final.

The away games involved flights, match tickets, coach transfers and overnight hotel after the game…. I can’t remember the company that did all this but it might have been Finglands as they were connected with City and were a travel company. I assume that I used to pay by cheque !!!

Bilbao was a fantastic trip - somehow we stayed at same hotel as City, spent quite some time in a bar pre-match then we all sobered up as we went 3-0 down. Some of the guys had flags and started to wave them as City fought back to 3-3 but the flags were put away when the Garda arrived with guns!!!! Post match we had to run the gauntlet getting back to the coaches.

Coimbra was exciting - it was snowing at Ringway but we finally took off then it was a long bus ride from Lisbon and they delayed the kick off until we arrived.

Not much happened at Lierse SK as I think we stayed in Brussels.

The best game was Schalke at home - what an atmosphere and what a result.

Apologies if any of the above is incorrect but it was a long time ago !!!!!

Come on City

I seem to remember the trips were organised by Gaytours (yes, matron). We also flew to Porto for the Coimbra game. At the airport coming back, the team were waiting for their flight to London, so we had a good chat with them. Their plane was then diverted to Birmingham because the London airport was closed due to snow. Our pilot pointed out the team plane to us as it was approaching Birmingham.
When we got off the plane at Manchester, it started snowing! (The League Cup final was also a fun drive on the Friday/Saturday).

 

[city68]

Wien....soz

 

[Fiftyyearsandcounting]

You were only allowed to take £50 out of the country pp in the late 70s

...and any pre-paid hotel element was deducted from that!

 

[libero]

One of the away trips I went to was Standard Liege 78? We shared the ferry with Glasgow Rangers fans , no trouble at all with them. Some of our younger lads robbed all the pursers money so we were met by Belgian police on arrival. Jumped the trains and got caught and fined, slept in the city centre and I think we got fined again. On approaching the stadium a Liege fan pulled at my friend Eric’s scarf presumably to swap it and Eric misread the situation and laid him out with a head but. As I recall there were a lot of army lads there on leave, in our end and let’s just say they were up for it. The return trip was relatively quiet. Happy days.

 

[harborough manc]

In response to the original question , absolutely brilliant. I started going away in 1976 and loved the lot . Yellow ways coaches Middleton. Blackley Blues on tour.

 

[City & Blue Brazil]

Went to a couple of games in 78/79 at twente enschede and monchengladbach. Both times were trips arranged by city. Twente we stayed in Amsterdam and as a 19 year old kid it was a bit of an eye opener meeting 5 Ipswich players (who had been playing in Holland at same time) in the red light district around 4 in the morning! Went on one of 3 coaches from the social club at midnight to monchengladbach via dover. Lots of British army at the game and it kicked off big time behind the goals. Game we lost 3-1 where, iirc, one of the kids (Tony Henry? ) made his debut and was told to Mark euro player of the year simonsen (?). Had a hotel in eindhoven and went into town around midnight only to forget name of hotel and where it was! Did get back and ended up smashed in ostende waiting for boat. Pretty sure there were coaches from Leicester and Blackpool branches on the ferry. Mate was so drunk had to carry him to duty free! Luckily he had sobered up by time we got back to Manchester as he had to drive us home! Great days.

 

[Bluview]

I was on that ferry from Ostende puked the whole way back it was rough. Stayed in Liege, Amsterdam (anything goes) and Eindhoven too. I remember the public toilets on stilts in Amsterdam for some reason there were blokes stood in there for a very long time I think one took a hiding for this reason.
My memory is shot so it’s vague but remember a few pre season games were In Europe too Bruges I think. We stayed In Hotel with the team and Ray Ransom gave me a football coaching session on the hotel lawn, Joe Corrigan was chasing my cousin who was early twenties then and one of us ended up in a police van accused of stealing a bike (mistaken identity in the end). I think we took our Cityzens blue coach for at least one of these trips loaded with cases of cans.
Halcyon days.

 

[oakiecokie]

Re the 69/70 CWC campaign I went to all the games home and away except for 2 Schalke away and the Final.

The away games involved flights, match tickets, coach transfers and overnight hotel after the game…. I can’t remember the company that did all this but it might have been Finglands as they were connected with City and were a travel company. I assume that I used to pay by cheque !!!

Bilbao was a fantastic trip - somehow we stayed at same hotel as City, spent quite some time in a bar pre-match then we all sobered up as we went 3-0 down. Some of the guys had flags and started to wave them as City fought back to 3-3 but the flags were put away when the Garda arrived with guns!!!! Post match we had to run the gauntlet getting back to the coaches.

Coimbra was exciting - it was snowing at Ringway but we finally took off then it was a long bus ride from Lisbon and they delayed the kick off until we arrived.

Not much happened at Lierse SK as I think we stayed in Brussels.

The best game was Schalke at home - what an atmosphere and what a result.

Apologies if any of the above is incorrect but it was a long time ago !!!!!

Come on City

It wasn`t you and your mates that let me and my mate kip in your room after the game was it ?
By the way did you see the Big Joe Corrigan episode with the older City fan who somehow got a bloody great thick eye which came up like a bloody balloon. ;)

 

[ricardo]

Hired a van with with 7 mates from Langley and drove over to Juventus in 76 on the piss all the way through most of Europe took us4 days to get there great adventure one of the best atmosphere ever stadio communal. Done the same again a year later to lodz Poland another great trip through the iron curtain and no man's land vodka dirt cheap a crate of beer a quid Happy days no fear

 

[Gray]

Went to Lierse in Belgium in November 1969.

We paid top price for seating and that consisted of folding chairs placed at the side of the pitch in front of the home fans. A surreal experience.

Won the game 3-0 and went on to beat Gornik in the final of the CWC in Vienna.