THE FIRST four winners of the European Championship were the Soviet Union, Spain, Italy and West Germany. The competition didn’t really take off until 1972 when a brilliant German side captivated the continent with its progressive football. When the USSR … Continue reading The Euros – 1960 to 1972: From Netto to Netzer
THE European Championships have become the second most important international football competition after the World Cup, although you could argue that the UEFA Champions League is doing its best to overtake both. In the first of a new series, Game … Continue reading Soviet power won the first Euros of 1960
YOU ONLY need see pictures of Chernobyl to understand what happens when science goes wrong. The world’s greatest nuclear disaster took place 150km from Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine and in 1986, part of the USSR. Science and the … Continue reading Dynamo Kiev 1975 – the Soviet school of science
IN 1980-81, Dinamo Tbilisi put on a scintillating display when they met West Ham United at Upton Park in the European Cup-Winners’ Cup. They won emphatically by playing a brand of fast, attacking football that stunned the London crowd. “Those … Continue reading Great Reputations: Dinamo Tbilisi – Georgia’s on our mind
THE collapse of communism and the plethora of velvet revolutions across Europe undoubtedly diluted the strength of the old Eastern Bloc and its acolytes. We feared the technique, strength and organisation of the state-run footballing machines, but once the Red … Continue reading Pact men – the USSR and its friends
YOU ONLY need see pictures of Chernobyl to understand what happens when science goes wrong. The world’s greatest nuclear disaster took place 150km from Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine and in 1986, part of the USSR. Science and the … Continue reading Great Reputations: Dynamo Kiev 1974-75 – the Soviet school of science
