Euro1988 was held in West Germany and was a pivotal, chastening moment in my football fan career. It was the eighth European Football championship, although in truth it was only from 1980 onwards that the competition really took on the feel of a tournament when it expanded from the previous four teams to become an eight-team two-group format.
Tournament no-hopers Holland
That’s right, at the time only eight countries could compete in the final tournament, meaning a mere seven countries were even able to qualify for the final stage, alongside West Germany, who qualified automatically as hosts of the event. The holders, France, for example, failed to qualify, while the final eight consisted of Denmark, England, Italy, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland (in their first appearance), Spain and the USSR.
Euro 88 was a rare occurrence for a major football tournament, a modern-day one at least, being completed without a single player being sent off, any knockout matches going into extra time or penalties and having at least one goal scored in every match. England played their part in this, of course, mainly thanks to ensuring that the opposition scored against them in every game, but they might not even have made it to the tournament for more than one reason.
Firstly, as with the 1986 World Cup, there were some protests about England’s participation in the tournament, owing to the role of English fans in the Heysel Stadium Disaster three years earlier. In fact, Yugoslavia, who were famously denied their place in Euro 92 as the war-torn country fell apart, might have been given a place in the 1988 version, as happened to Denmark four years later, had there been significant violence when England played in Switzerland two weeks before the tournament. It’s astonishing to think now that, even after Euro 88, there was serious talk of England being thrown out of the World Cup for 1990.
Secondly, and also related to Yugoslavia, England had one hell of a tough final group fixture against the Yugoslavs. Although England had gone through all the other group games without even conceding a goal, they still needed a draw away against what were a pretty decent team. I remember this match vividly; it was a bloody cold and rainy day and I arrived home from school to unexpectedly find the England match being televised at something like four in the afternoon. Those were the days. What happened next was little short of amazing.
At the time I was young enough to really believe that England had suddenly become genuinely good. I wasn’t the only one, of course, as England were immediately installed as pre-tournament favourites. YouTube commenter RobinCarmody sums it up fairly well:
‘This was one of England’s many false dawns – needing a draw in front of a highly (ahem) partisan crowd, they went 4-0 up in 24 minutes, and the hype began – hype built on a fluke. The following summer revealed brutally how isolated English football had become.’
At the tournament England took an absolute caning in all three games, including an unprecedented loss to Ireland. There were mitigating circumstances, though, as MCBhangramuffin indicates:
‘The main reason we played so badly at Euro 88 was that Barnes, Beardo and Waddle were knackered after long seasons with Liverpool and Tottenham, and Lineker had jaundice. English football went backwards during the Heysel ban though.’
This was definitely a case of the phenomenon known as ‘great result masquerading as great performance.’
Increasingly middle-aged and increasingly disillusioned by modern football, I want to share with you how good football used to be before it was ruined by money. 
