The FIFA football World Cup has always been about more than just football. No doubt each and every edition of the tournament has showcased stunning football on the pitch. Brilliant goals, spectacular comebacks, bewildering upsets and surprise heroes: the tournament is truly a connoisseur’s delight. But the world’s most watched sporting event has also had its fair share of action and adventure off the pitch as well.

For weeks before this year’s tournament Rooney’s metatarsal fracture was probably more talked about than the tournament itself. Andres Escobar’s gruesome shooting (he was shot twelve times, the killer shouting ‘Goal!’ before each shot) plunged the 1994 tournament and the world sporting fraternity into shock and mourning.

But today we go back forty years to 1966 for a similar off-pitch story that took the world by storm and warmed the hearts of millions.

The 1966 World Cup

What a world cup it was!

Even today no overview of the history of the world cup is complete without an inordinately long portion dedicated to the first and only tournament to take place in the ‘Home of Football’, England. The hosts won it, of course, after a final game that saw them beating West Germany by four goals to two. At least two goals scored by the English were controversial then and continue to be topics of heated debate today. The Germans still vehemently claim Geoff Hurst’s strike in the eleventh minute of extra-time bounced on the line and NOT over it (in football the ball has to cross COMPLETELY over the line), while the fourth goal was clearly scored while a pitch invasion was in progress.

That game was merely the perfect cap on a tournament which, throughout, saw spell-binding action and drama on the pitch. North Korea, considered whipping boys before the tournament began, beat Italy by a solitary goal to advance into the quarter-finals. In the quarters they faced Portugal led by the legendary Eusebio. (The Portuguese are yet to repeat the success of that great 1966 team. Perhaps in 2006 Figo and his boys will change all that.)

That match remains to this day my favourite classic world cup game. Or at least the first twenty-two minutes of it. After twenty-two minutes Wembley Stadium and the football world at large sat spell-bound as the North Koreans led by three goals to nothing. Portugal, one of the tournament favourites, looked flabbergasted.

Eusebio, one of the most underrated of all football greats, then brought sanity back to proceedings. Five Portuguese goals later, including four from Eusebio’s boot itself, Portugal had made one of the great comebacks and North Korean dreams of glory were squashed.

It still gives me goose bumps when I think of the game and the look of bewilderment on the face of the thousands at Wembley when the Koreans began to pump in one after the other.

The 1966 tournament showcased a vintage collection of talent. Lev Yashin, Geoff Hurst, the Charltons and Pele all made appearances. Beckenbauer made his world cup debut.

And who can forget Pickles the mongrel.

Thief!

On 20th March 1966, just months before the world cup, the Jules Rimet trophy was on display at the Methodist Central Hall at Westminster. Five guards (forty years ago the world was an innocent and happy place) were assigned to, er, keep guard. As if scripted for a bad b-movie, one of the guards was on his day off and the others were busy on a coffee break when it happened.

Thieves broke in through the back door and stole the Jules Rimet trophy.

The nightmare, if indeed anyone had seen it, had come true. Three months before the world cup the cup itself was missing. For some time the Metropolitan Police tried to keep things quiet. They even approached a silversmith to make a replacement for the trophy before the world at large came to know. But it is the world cup after all and soon the secret was public. (A case for 007 if there ever was one!)

Amidst the flood of crank calls and crackpot letters the Chairman of the Football Association got a call from a man calling himself ‘Jackson’. Soon the police received a letter and a tantalising piece of the cup. The letter spoke plainly:

“Dear Joe Kno (sic) no doubt you view with very much concern the loss of the world cup… To me it is only so much scrap gold. If I don’t hear from you by Thursday or Friday at the latest I assume its one for the POT.”

The pot is clearly a sub-optimal place for the world cup. We know this now and the English knew it then. What followed would have done justice to any Ludlum or Le Carre novel of high suspense. There was ransom, an undercover operation, secret agents, and a daring escape. One of the thieves was caught but the cup and the rest of the perpetrators were lost. Time was running out. Who could salvage the trophy and the pride of London’s finest?

Sniff sniff!

David Corbett, one Sunday evening, stepped out of his flat in South London along with his four-year old dog Pickles. Corbett was a lighterman who operated barges on the Thames; and was given the dog by his brother who could not stand its furniture chewing. There is no better way to unravel the story than David Corbett’s own words:

‘I put the lead on Pickles and he went over to the neighbour’s car… Pickles drew my attention to a package, tightly bound in newspaper, lying by the front wheel. I picked it up and tore some paper and saw a woman holding a dish over her head, and disks with the words Germany, Uruguay, Brazil. I rushed inside to my wife. She was one of those anti-sport wives. But I said, "I’ve found the World Cup! I’ve found the World Cup!"’

In spite of being labelled a suspect in the initial investigation David Corbett was soon acquitted and able to bask in the glory that the world showered on Pickles. The mongrel starred in his own film and in several television shows. He was made Dog of the Year and invited to visit several football playing nations. Pickles even had a manager of his own! (For Trivia buffs: Pickles had the same media manager as Spike Milligan)

Pickles was a star and brought his owner considerable fame and fortune. And it was not so bad for the dog either. He won several offers of free dog food for life.

The dog was even allowed into the official player’s party after England won the world cup. This was remarkable. Even the player’s wives were not invited to the do. They were not thrilled when they were informed of Pickles’ privilege. The dog was lifted and cheered by several of the players including Bobby Charlton.

And like many a celebrity thrust into the harsh limelight of global stardom Pickles’ merry life was cut short by tragedy. A year after these life-changing events he was strangled by his own leash. Pickles was buried in the backyard of his then home in Surrey.

The story is a charming one and full of romance. A simple bargeman’s dog suddenly became the most important thing in world football.

But Pickles was sorely missed. In 1970 Brazil won the world cup for the third time and was allowed to keep the Jules Rimet trophy for good. In 1983 the trophy was stolen again from Brazil. But this time it was never found again and is believed to have been melted down into gold and silver. The Brazil authorities did all they could to apprehend the criminals and recover the trophy. But it was useless and the cup was lost.

Pickles, it seems, had departed from this world before his work was done.

Every week the Armchair Historian will mercilessly google, wikipedia and research the few books he has at home and regale you with wondrous stories of the ages and peoples gone by. Who knows? Some of it might even be true.

[Sidin Sunny Vadukut is an avid blogger and proud author of a book which is currently undergoing a severe quality control program. He wishes to make it clear that he does not internalize too much. He once walked eleven kilometers in pouring rain because of a flash bus strike and the next day ate eighteen idlis with surprisingly little coconut chutney. You can read more of his work at http://sidin.blogspot.com] 

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