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Euro 1976: Referee defeats Oranje

May 20th, 2008 | By: Jan | 13 Comments »

The British referee Clive Thomas has admitted – after 32 years – that due to his failures Oranje didn’t win the 1976 EC. Thomas had a crucial role in the semi finals Oranje lost 2-1 against Czechoslovakia.

World Champions West Germany, Czechoslovakia, host Yugoslavia and Holland – favorites for the title – were qualified for the EC semi finals.

Oranje played the Czechs. The pitch was dreadful. It had rained for three days. The Czechs played it rough. After a couple of horrible tackles on Johan Cruyff in particular, the match derailed. Ref Thomas didn’t act and allowed the players to “sort it out”.

After Cruyff was fouled again, Johan Neeskens decided to play judge and jury and took revenge. Thomas decided to give the Barca bull a red card. Later on, again JC was assaulted after which the Czechs scored their second goal. Willem van Hanegem refused to kick off and wanted a word with the ref. The referee decided to give De Kromme a red card as well.

Oranje couldn’t cope with nine players and lost the game. Holland played for the third spot against the host-country and won the consolations game.

After 32 years, referee Thomas is invited to a Dutch sports program and sees the match again on tv. He is flabbergasted with what he sees now and almost in shock when he realizes how he affected the game, by not stopping the play after the horrible tackle on our Number 14. In that counter-attack, the Czechs score. Thomas litteraly said: “I have to apologize to Holland. That was my mistake. A mistake that cost Oranje the title.”

The best penalty ever! The Panenka. Clarence, are you paying attention??

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Comments

By Lerkot | May 21st, 2008 at 1:42 am

A bit off topic… but Everton had a £2.4m bid rejected for Ferrie Bodde… I think we could count with him in the national team in a couple of years.

By goose | May 21st, 2008 at 3:57 am

@Lerkot; hes from DenHaag btw., nice little player

@Jan; isnt ‘ andere tijden sport’ a great programm?? next week it will be the EC96 and ‘ de kabel’ ..should be interesting

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | May 21st, 2008 at 4:23 am

I actually couldn’t find the program this item was in. Thanks for that .
I suppose they showed flashes of the game? That would be awesome. I’ll check uitzending gemist. Is it “andere tijden sport”?

Posted from Australia

By goose | May 21st, 2008 at 5:49 am

@Jan; the whole programm was about that one game… for me it was great cause i knew NOTHING on the EC76…

here it is;

http://www.uitzendinggemist.nl/index.php/search?serID=224&md5=ff9d54194bd489407f8b81ac39dad70f&sq=andere+tijden+sport

or just surch on ‘ andere tijden sport’

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By Caleb | May 21st, 2008 at 10:48 am

The youtube clip is down… what is it about?

Wow, I didn’t know anything about EC 76 before this… sounds like a tradgedy, another tradgedy for that golden generation.

Posted from Canada

By goose | May 21st, 2008 at 12:59 pm

btw Jan; best penalty ever? nahhhh;

heres our master:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gi98iEziKQ

btw; the Panenka one was extra special cause it was scored on such a big occassion

Posted from Netherlands

By tjeerd | May 21st, 2008 at 2:17 pm

Were getting the CL final here in Canada in high def. a ESPN feed via TSN.
1-0 Man, Rinaldo on a header. now min 32.

By Lerkot | May 21st, 2008 at 3:33 pm

Hmm guys, anyone know something about this game?

http://www.voetbalstats.nl/nedxi/563.html

By Jan | May 21st, 2008 at 7:17 pm

Yeah I do. I saw it. Was a fantastic match, with a lot of open attacking football from both sides. Belgium wasn’t too shabby in that game.

I believe it was some sort of memorial match or a friendly kick off for the Euro2000 game. Something like that. I also remember that Rijkaard hadn’t lost a game with Oranje and we got close that match until we equalized and Frankie held on to his record streak. It was an entertaining night and both coaches supposedly told their boys to “go out there and have some fun”.

Posted from Australia

By Caleb | May 22nd, 2008 at 10:15 am

goose – I love that penalty from Cruijff. I want to try that in a game, but I’m worried that the dumbass refs here in Canada would think it was illegal for some reason.

Posted from Canada

By goose | May 22nd, 2008 at 12:02 pm

@Caleb; you can…nothing illegal about it…Pires and Henry tried it some years ago but they failed, here the tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMJr3xo8-AU

the other thing to realise is that it is gonna piss off your opponants, they will think you want to humiliate them

if you do have a go, please inform me!

@lerkot; yah, i remember, think it was just a friendly right before 5-5..i seem to remember not a lot of defensive things going on! haha

Posted from Netherlands

By Caleb | May 22nd, 2008 at 3:50 pm

@Goose – Yeah, I know it’s legal (and I remember when Henry fluffed it a few years back, haha), but what I’m worried about is whether the refs here know if it’s legal… they are not exactly ‘top class’ referees…
For sure, if I try it I’ll post it here.

Posted from Canada

By Jan | May 22nd, 2008 at 8:33 pm

http://www.uitzendinggemist.nl/index.php/aflevering?aflID=7056266&md5=66f74d0eec7a2ad043a23fdc831f8475

This is the link with the actual tv program on this EC. Press the orange button in the left bottom corner and watch the program. It’s mostly in Dutch, but Clive Thomas talks in English of course. And the flashes of the game are great. You can see the huge tackel on JC, the offender waving to the ref (please no yellow), but the ref doesn’t do anything and the counter from that situation means the 2-1 for the Czechs. Van Hanegem is then red carded for not wanting to kick off. Tremendous stuff.

Posted from Australia

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