David Tindall explains how Yorkshire took on a continental feel for Euro '96
Leeds was a happy host city during Euro ’96. With official banners adorning every lamppost, a gigantic football outside the town hall and the flags of the four competing nations flying outside the Queen’s Hotel in the city centre, it wasn’t hard to realize that something unique was happening.
Harry Pearson saw France come to Newcastle (well, Northumberland).
“Can you believe this?” David Thompson, headmaster of Haydon Bridge High School is saying. He has a mobile phone in one trouser pocket and a walkie-talkie in the other. The walkie-talkie occasionally bursts into life with a noise like a 60-a-day smoker waking up after a heavy session. When it does, David Thompson ignores it. It is not his walkie-talkie. He has been given it to look after by one of the Euro security men who are currently scouring the back of the cricket pavilion for Arab terrorists.
David Wangerin explains why Euro '96 at Villa Park was a dazzling experience in the stands as much as on the pitch
It was fun, it was interesting, and it was orange. Dutch orange. What Birmingham’s inhabitants are likely to remember most vividly about their city’s participation in Euro ’96 is the number of visitors who came to town wearing tangerine. If not a replica kit (from any era), then a T-shirt, or overalls, or a big hat, or spray-painted clogs. The Dutch must have the most conspicuous fans on earth.
Graham Ennis explains why Liverpool enjoyed playing host to fans at Euro '96
Euro ’96 comes to Liverpool, and the city, despite its reputation as the surly capital of the Northern Hemisphere, made a real effort. The streetlights were decorated, the VE Day bunting unfurled and re-hung, the price of beer was adjusted, even the litter bins were emptied. Our reward was, undoubtedly, three of the best games of the entire tournament.
Rob Chapman reports on how Manchester responded to Euro fever
Pre-tournament whinging gets under way in earnest with the Germans deciding that the grass at their Cheshire training complex is too “knobbly” and has glass in it. The jessies. Don’t they know that sprinkling glass in the goal mouth is part of the keeper’s rite of passage round these parts?