Alternative Football History Part IX – Only Liverpool banned from Europe! 1988/89
Following on from the three earlier articles in this series, I am writing a fictional piece on what would have happened if only Liverpool were banned from European football in the 1980’s.
Many English teams missed out on the opportunity of playing in Europe, some for the first time and have never had the opportunity since. Two of those clubs, Luton Town and Wimbledon feature in today’s article. So let’s travel back in time like Marty Mc Fly and Doc Brown did in the hit 80’s film ‘Back to the Future’ and see what could have happened for the English clubs who would have qualified for European competitions…..
Following Wimbledon’s heroic 1-0 win in the FA Cup Final over Liverpool, The Dons qualified for the European Cup Winners Cup in 1988/89. Luton Town, winners of the League Cup qualified for the UEFA Cup along with Manchester United and Nottingham Forest who finished second and third accordingly in the First Division. Liverpool would have qualified for the European Cup after winning the league championship but have only served three of their six year ban from European competition.
Wimbledon began their first season in European football with a 3-0 aggregate win over Cypriot side Omonia Nicosia. A goalless draw in Cyprus was followed up with a 3-0 win at Plough Lane thanks to goals from Dennis Wise, Eric Young and John Fashanu.
They drew Sakaryaspor of Turkey in the Second Round, winning the first leg 3-1 at home before losing the second leg 1-0. The match in Turkey was a tense and violent match, with four sendings off, three of them from the hosts and Dennis Wise for the visitors.
Belgian side Mechelen would knock the South London side out in the Quarter Finals and would eventually go on to win the tournament. The damage was done in the first leg as the Belgians swept Wimbledon aside 4-0 with a fantastic display of counter attacking football.
The Dons put up a valiant effort in the second leg, winning 2-0 with goals from Terry Gibson and Lawrie Sanchez but were knocked out 4-2 on aggregate.
Luton Town were making their debut in Europe as well and exceeded all expectations by reaching the Semi Final. They beat St Patrick’s Athletic, Malmo, Groningen and Real Sociedad before losing to Napoli in the semi finals.
The main reason for their success was their artificial pitch at Kenilworth Road and they won all five of their home matches in the competition.
St Patrick’s Athletic were brushed aside 7-0 on aggregate in the First Round, with a 6-0 home win before a 1-0 win in Ireland.
Malmo were next and a dull 0-0 draw in Sweden meant that it was all to play for at Kenilworth Road. The Swedish side had Martin Dahlin sent off in the first five minutes for punching Tim Brecker after the Luton man went in hard on the Swede, knocking him off the pitch. Dahlin responded by getting up, punching Breacker in the stomach and winding him. The Swiss referee was given little option but to give the red card.
Three second half goals from Mick Harford, Tim Breaker and Brian Stein meant that it was Luton who progressed to the Third Round to face Dutch side Groningen.
The first leg of the Third Round tie was played at Kenilworth Road, where a goal in each half from Brian Stein gave Luton a 2-0 lead going into the second leg in Holland. Luton defended admirably and a goalless draw gave them a Quarter Final place where Real Socieded lay in wait.
Sociedad won 1-0 in Spain before Luton beat them 2-0 in the second leg thanks to a quickfire double in the second half from hard man Mick Harford.
Luton drew Napoli in the Semi Final and Diego Maradona, the Italian’s star player was given a really hard time in the first leg at Keniulworth Road. The crowd were baying for his blood following the ‘Hand of God’ goal in the World Cup two years before. Early in the first half, Maradona went to retrieve the ball from the touchline to take a throw in but a fan got to the ball first and threw it in the Argentine’s face. Maradona rolled around on the floor and the fan was ejected.
Two minutes after the incident with the Luton fan, Maradona was again singled out for some tough treatment. Mick Harford punched him in the ribs when the referee was pacing out a free kick. Again Maradona, rolled around on the floor and a brawl broke out with fifteen of the players involved. Incredibly, no one was booked because of the fracas and it seemed as if the Hungarian referee had lost control of the match.
Harford was given his marching orders seven minutes before half time after singling Maradona out for some retribution. The ball bounced high after a long kick upfield by the Napoli goalkeeper and Harford clattered into Maradona sending him crashing to the floor. As Maradona lay prostrate on the floor after being elbowed in the back of the head, Harford stamped on his hand and was heard to shout “That’s for your Hand of God!”.
Biran Stein netted a 58th minute winner but Harford’s thuggish actions in the first half overshadowed the match. He was given an eight match European ban by UEFA and Luton fined him two weeks’ wages.
Napoli players wanted revenge in the second leg and had three men sent off in the final ten minutes. By this point, they were 3-0 up and were clearly going to qualify for the final. Giovanni Francini, Andrea Carnevale and Brazilian Careca were all given red cards and the game had become something of a farce.
Nottingham Forest and Manchester United were both knocked out in the First Round of the competition without even scoring a goal. Both sides were expected to do much better in the competition, having finished second and third in the league the previous season but Napoli and Bayern Munich preoved to be too tough an opponent for both sides. Forest were beaten 4-0 on aggregate and Manchester United went out after a 3-0 defeat in the second leg at Old Trafford.
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