A view on the media and public reaction to Euro '96 in Bulgaria. Mark McQuinn and Boris Petrov report
If ever a country needed a break, in terms of football success, it was Bulgaria at Euro ’96. The run up to the finals saw the country in a state of economic collapse with over 100 banks folding, 65 major industries being closed and people having to queue for hours each days to buy bread, as the government had exported most of the country’s wheat supply to bring in hard currency.
Graham McColl looks back at Euro '96, yet another tournament in which a Scotland team tantalized supporters with qualification only to miss out at the death
Scotland’s performances at the finals of international football tournaments in the 1990s have become so predictable that they could almost be written into FIFA’s and UEFA’s rules.
Simon Kuper and Rutger Slagter explain why the upheaval in the Dutch squad following Euro '96 may not be quite what it seemed
“Kabel” is the new word in Dutch football. The kabel (cabal in English) people are talking about has four members, all of them black Dutchmen: Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert and Michael Reiziger. Winston Bogarde also wants to be in the kabel, but he can’t because he’s too old, not good enough at football, and wears too much jewellry.
James Taylor watched Euro'96 in Prague, where local fans had plenty of oppertunities to toast the players health
Golden boys get silver was the newspaper headline as the Czech team arrived back to a crowd of 50,000 in Prague’s Old Town Square. How different from the beginning of June when most people were writing them off as no-hopers, lucky even to be on the map. A poor performance in the first game against the Germans did nothing to dispel this. Local papers concentrated instead on the Czech fans, who were surprised by the friendliness of the police and insisted on having their pictures taken with all the police horses Manchester could muster.
Germany's victory at Euro '96 produced an unforseen reaction among some of those watching it at home, as Uli Hesse-Lichtenberger reports
I knew he was going to miss. The set-up was too perfect for him not to miss: An evening at Wembley with the tournament on the line. He had had one of his half-baked games, had received a yellow card that would bar him from the final – and the he was the captain. Perfect. There was no question Möller would live up to his image of the underachieving genius cracking under pressure.