So the first question is then: How come Mexico got it again only 16 years later ?
It was because Colombia – the country who were originally chosen to host it, just at the wrong moment went skint. FIFA then placed an urgent advert in the Fulham & Hammersmith Chronicle asking if anybody could accomodate them and their friends for a couple of weeks.
We’ll be very quiet and clean up after ourselves.
The Mexican President then looked in one of his cupboards and saw that they still had some corner flags and the nets left over from last time and said hey let’s put the show on (again) right here !
Many of us will remember this one better from that one incident, but this post will be a general overview of the tournament that year. Ah maybe I’ll give it a mention. But first the main event…
Because of the heat and altitude the finals once again favoured the central/south American countries, but a few European teams got through to the Quarter Finals: They were France, Spain, England, Belgium…. (Belgium…seriously…? How did..? Oh three from their group of 4 qualified…couldn’t miss really) and West Germany.
England’s progress through the competition (after scraping through the group stage) was helped when their lucky talisman, the Captain Marvel was injured in the second group game against Morocco.
Although Bryan Robson tried to impede their progress by wearing a shoulder harness, it was clear that he couldn’t go on and after this England’s performance improved.
They made it through to the latter knockout stages and for the first time since the Falklands war, they faced Argentina in the Quarter Finals…
…In which Maradona scored that goal and England were out.
After that more matches were played and eventually somebody won.
To the music then…
The music – and before the England team departed they did the usual route of stopping by the recording studio first. The resulting cacophony (which reached the giddy heights of No.66 in the charts) was a song which is making it’s appearance here on the web for the very first time. Go on...go and google it, you'll not find it anywhere else.
You will probably not thank me for digging it up after all these years, but here it is anyway:
» 1986 England World Cup Squad –
We’ve Got The Whole World At Our Feet
I don’t know why but like BBC’s 1990 World Cup theme this one is embedded in our memory like…like Gazza’s plastic breasts…
» World Cup Mexico ’86 ITV Theme
Additionally… Keep an eye over at Twohundredpercent because they are undertaking a series looking at all the telly themes from 1966 onwards.
EXTRA TIME:
– From a comment posted by Doro a few months ago. He added a link to the video below, and on the YouTube page there’s another link where you can download the audio version, again below.
i think saint & greavsie nicked the theme for their programmes as well, after the world cup was over?