Today I'm going back 25 years to 1997 and England's Friendly International meeting with South Africa played in Manchester at Old Trafford, attended by 52,676 spectators. The programme cover is attractive and colourful but lacks authenticity as neither side has ever worn a kit resembling the ones depicted. Inside the programme we were exhorted to "Back the bid!" as part of the FA's campaign to host the 2006 World Cup.
South Africa had historically been subject to a sporting boycott amongst an array of other sanctions for decades. In 1948, the governing and racist National Party introduced apartheid to daily life in South Africa and sports-specific restrictions were added in the late 1950's. Football's governing body, FIFA, suspended South Africa's membership in 1963 and expelled South Africa altogether in 1976. As far as football was concerned, South Africa was a non-entity until readmission in 1992. South Africa hosted, and won, the African Nations Cup in 1996 and came to Old Trafford as African champions.
South Africa's national team are known as "Bafana-Bafana" which means "young men, young men" in the xhosa language or "the boys, the boys" in zulu. The featured match was the first ever full international between the two countries and was the first full England international to be played at Old Trafford for over 58 years. England have only met South Arica once since this game, a 2-1 win in Durban in 2003. At the time, England were in the midst of their France'98 World Cup Qualifying campaign and would meet Poland in Chorzow the following week so the South African Friendly was seen as a key part of their preparations for the match against the Poles.
The game was England's 733rd international and it was manager Glenn Hoddle's seventh game in charge. The England side was a little experimental with some of the more obvious first choice picks starting on the bench. Nigel Martyn of Leeds United was picking up his first cap for four years and Phil Neville was the only Manchester United player to start. South Africa fielded a few players who were or would become familiar to the English football-watching public including captain Lucas Radebe of Leeds United, Mark Fish of Lazio (who would go on to play for Bolton Wanderers and Charlton Athletic), Phil Masinga of Salernitana in Italy (but formerly of Leeds United) and Eric Tinkler of Cagliari (but soon to be of Barnsley).
The opening England goal came after 25 minutes from the boot of Newcastle's Rob Lee who was winning his 10th of 21 caps (scoring 2 goals in total including this one). Lee had a long career spanning 1983 to 2006 and, Newcastle aside, he is best remembered playing for Charlton Athletic. In total he made 837 club appearances scoring 123 goals. To everyone's surprise the next goal went to the South Africans as Philemon Masinga equalised just before half time when Martyn failed to collect. Then, in the 76th minute, a Gascoigne free kick was flicked on by Paul Scholes to Ian Wright who turned on a sixpence and lashed the ball home for 2-1 despite South African protestations of handball. The delight on Wright's face was a real pleasure to see and, despite his Arsenal connections, I was always happy to see Wright in an England shirt. In total Wright won 33 England caps and scored 9 goals for his country, At club record Wright had a goal ratio of better than one every two games which puts him in the very top bracket for strikers (324 goals in 626 club appearances). The featured game finished 2-1.
England went on to beat Poland 2-0 in that match in Chorzow and indeed they qualified for France'98 the following autumn. England never did get to host the 2006 World Cup, nor indeed any World Cup since, with Germany getting the nod for 2006. After the debacle that was the organisation of the Euro2020 Final at Wembley, I actually hope that we don't receive the right to host another World Cup until the authorities have proven that they can operate a tournament where fan safety is actually the top priority.
CRB Match No. 1114
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