This is an extract from Shattered Dreams, Sliding Doors: The Republic of Ireland’s 1982 World Cup Qualifying Campaign by Paul Little. Out now by Pitch Publishing.
The Republic of Ireland have lost matches before. But perhaps none stings like this one. Erwin Vandenbergh goes to shake Raul Fernandes Nazaré’s hand. And then Dave Langan arrives. And then Mick Walsh. And then Liam Brady. The pain and anger spill out. There are no Irish handshakes for Raul Fernandes Nazaré. There is disgust instead. And disgust is voiced. Mick Walsh translates Liam Brady’s choice words into Portuguese and the Juve man delivers those choice words in no uncertain terms. The anger is palpable. The anger is understandable.
Eoin Hand is furious after the final whistle and berates referee Raul Fernandes Nazaré on the Heysel Stadium pitch. Eoin Hand is furious as he meets the press after the game and berates Raul Fernandes Nazaré once more. The press wonder what he said to the Portuguese official after the game. Eoin Hand says that first he asked Raul Fernandes Nazaré if he could speak English. When the ref nodded in the affirmative, Eoin Hand told him that he was the manager of the Republic of Ireland football team and that he thought he was a disgrace and a cheat. Eoin Hand can think of no reason for Frank Stapleton’s goal to be disallowed. Any neutral in the stadium would agree that his players deserved to get something out of this game.
Eoin Hand says he believes it’s more than a coincidence that this sort of thing keeps happening to the Republic of Ireland and that he, his team and the FAI are sick and tired of having the dirty done to them.
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Eoin Hand’s players are also furious and upset. Gerry Daly tells the press that he’s completely disillusioned. All the planning and the work counts for nothing when you come up against officials like those who oversaw the Brussels game, he laments. A dejected Tony Grealish says that no one should talk about the luck of the Irish any more after that game. He adds that it’s been a long time since he’s been reduced to tears after a game of football but he was on Wednesday night. Michael Robinson reveals similar frustration, tears flowing, he says, for the first time ever after a match.
Dave Langan is incensed. It’s hard enough to beat 11 men away from home, he complains, but when that becomes 14, with the ref and the linesmen, then it makes a mockery of football at international level. The unfortunate Frank Stapleton tells the Irish media that, while playing with Liam Brady at Arsenal, he scored many goals like the one that was chalked off. Frank Stapleton believes the referee got himself in a muddle, was badly positioned for the free kick, didn’t see the goal properly and then chickened out under the pressure.
Sheffield Wednesday manager Jack Charlton was also at the game. He was in Brussels scouting one of the Belgian players. The well-worked set-piece goal was as good as anything he’d seen this season, he says. Neither the referee nor the linesman indicated a foul when Stapleton put the ball in the net, Jack Charlton notes, so he can only assume that the referee panicked.
The Irish media are angry and sympathetic the day after the game. ‘Rage Greets Belgian Farce’ and ‘Heartbreaking’ are the headlines in the Evening Press. ‘Robbed Again’ laments the Irish Press. The Irish Independent goes with ‘A Real Sickener’, while The Irish Times headlines its front page with ‘Cruel Disappointment in the Brussels Rain’. For the Belgian press, there’s a sense of relief, admitting that it wasn’t a good night for any Belgian with a weak heart. There is praise for Eoin Hand’s team, with La Derniere Heure reporting that the Irish kept Belgian supporters in terror until the very last second.
Belgian manager Guy Thys is delighted with the result, if not the performance. And he is especially impressed by the midfield work of Irish trio Liam Brady, Tony Grealish and Gerry Daly. For him, though, Brady, in particular, stood out. He was often magnificent, Guy Thys tells the assembled press.
The compliments are generous. The compliments are correct. But they offer scant consolation for Eoin Hand’s Republic of Ireland.
But a night of sorrow, anger and disgust for the players on the pitch and the staff on the bench was also a night of disgrace for some amongst the record travelling support. After the incidents in Ostend and on a ferry the previous night, there was worse to report, both during and after the game. Sadly, the Irish Press and Evening Herald record on Thursday that a section of the Irish crowd were involved in fighting on the broad expanses of the Heysel Stadium terraces. And, unfortunately, the bad behaviour continued afterwards in the city centre. Four Irish people were arrested in the stadium for assaulting Belgian supporters. A further 12 were arrested in Brussels after repeated clashes with locals. There were also reports of damage to hotel rooms in which some supporters stayed.
The Evening Herald report focuses on the actions of approximately 100 fans who chanted anti-British slogans throughout the game and seemed to be at the centre of much of the trouble. A hotelier in Ostend tells the paper that the Irish are the worst tourists they’ve ever seen in the city. A police spokesman in Brussels is similarly unimpressed. Belgium have had enough of the Irish soccer fans, he states, but rather than bring them to court, the Belgian authorities will tell them to vacate the country immediately.
Ignominy on top of heartache. A wretched night in Brussels in every conceivable way.
