George Graham and Just for Safekeeping

A former Double winning midfield player with Arsenal in 1970/71, “Stroller” George Graham took his first managerial post at Millwall before returning to his first footballing love at Highbury in 1986 as manager replacing Don Howe. His former amiable charm had been replaced with a dour disciplinarian stance and his silky skills on the ball of his playing days were left far behind as he dragged an underachieving Arsenal side to the League title in 1989 as well as another league title and the European Cup Winners Cup over the next few years with his own brand of dull defensive football. “1-0 to the Arsenal” wasn’t a mickey take but more often than not the final score of their matches as Graham stifled and outwitted their opponents into submission.

It was off the field matters, ironically brought to the public’s attention by Graham’s old enemies at White Hart Lane and the Sugar-Venables court case, that were to be his undoing at Arsenal though in the form of a Norwegian football agent and the sum of ?285000. The agent, Rune Hauge, paid George Graham the money as a bung in the transfer of Danish international John Jensen to Arsenal in 1994 and after a Premier League inquiry found Graham guilty of not acting in the club’s best interests he was sacked in 1995, claiming until the end that he always intended to give the money back to Arsenal Football Club.

George Graham was banned from football for a year but was forgiven his crimes and went on to manage Leeds United on completing his ban before doing the unthinkable and becoming Tottenham Hotpsur manager in 1998 where he led them to a Worthington Cup victory the following year.

Paolo Rossi - Italy’s Prodigal Son

Italy’s 1982 World Cup winning golden boy and tournament top scorer almost didn’t make the Finals at all after serving out two years of a ban imposed for alledgedly accepting a bribe in a match between Perugia, where he was on loan , and Avellino in 1980. Despite having scored two goals in the game, Rossi was given a three year suspension which was eventually reduced to two years after the player continually protested his innocence of the charges.

While suspended, Juventus snapped up his registration for a bargain ?500,000 and when his suspension ended on April 29th 1982, Rossi was immediately given a recall to the Italian national squad for the World Cup in Spain by coach Enzo Bearzot. After four games and no goals in the tournament Rossi and Bearzot found themselves under immense pressure but the coach persevered and was rewarded with a Paolo Rossi hat-trick which took Italy into the semi-finals, beating the great Brazil side of Zico, Socrates and Junior 3-2.

Rossi went on to score both goals in the 2-0 semi-final victory over Poland and the first in Italy’s eventual 3-1 victory over West Germany in the final making him the top scorer in the 1982 World Cup. Quite a turnaround for a man who was viewed as a pariah only a couple of months before.

The Trials and Tribulations of Being Diego Maradona

Born in 1960 in Villa Fiorito, Argentina, Diego Armando Maradona went on to almost singlehandedly (excuse the pun) lead his country to one World Cup Final victory in 1986 and then back to the Final four years later where they were beaten by West Germany. As well as leading unfashionable Napoli to two Italian League titles and breaking the world record transfer fee when he joined Barcelona in 1982, MAradona went on to become regarded as perhaps the greatest footballer who ever played the game.

With such great talent on the pitch came a similar talent for attracting trouble to himself off it. His sublime second goal aginst England in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico is often overlooked seeing as it followed his infamous “Hand of God” opener where Maradona blatantly punched the ball past Peter Shilton in the England goal and helped Argentina to a 2-1 victory on their way to winning the tournament.

A 15 month suspension from football in 1992 for cocaine use (an addiction he suffered with for many years) led to his departure from his beloved Napoli and two years later he was sent home from the 1994 World Cup in the USA having tested positive in a drugs test for ephedrine doping. Diego claimed that he has been given the backing of FIFA to take the drug for weight loss purposes so that the World Cup wouldn’t lose appeal without him in it only to see them renege on their promise and have him sent home in further disgrace. This claim has obviously been vigorously denied by FIFA.

Scandal continues to follow him in Naples where he was embroiled in an illegitimate child row where he refused DNA tests to ascertain paternity and further questions were asked about his friendships with members of the Naples mafia.

Whether it’s opening fire on waiting journalists with an airgun or gaining copious amounts of weight and then having radical gastric bypass surgery to lose it again or having a heart attack following a cocaine overdose, Diego Maradona maintains his position as one of world football’s most brilliant and troubled enigmas.

Bernard Tapie and l’OM

French businessman, politician and sometime actor and TV host, Bernard Tapie was president of Olympique de Marseille between 1986 and 1994 when he helped lead them to the French League title and the European Cup. The glory surrounding these wins was short lived as it transpired that in 1993 Tapie had attempted to fix a match between Marseille and Valenciennes in the hope of resting his best players for more important matches.

Olympique de Marseille were subsequently stripped of their French league title but not the European Cup and were forcibly relegated to the French second division the following season for further financial irregularities which were blamed on Bernard Tapie.

In 1994, Tapie was put under criminal investigation for complicity of corruption and subornation of witnesses and in 1995 was sentenced by the Court of Appeal of Douai to 2 years jail time, including 8 non suspended, and 3 years of deprivation of his civic rights.

He actually served 6 months in prison in 1997 and was also later prosecuted for tax fraud.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 15th, 2005 at 2:38 pm and is filed under General Football Articles. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.