FA Cup 2022-23

The sad story of Albert Johanneson, the first black FA Cup finalist..

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“As young, football-crazy lads growing up in Chapeltown, Leeds, in the early 70s, Albert Johanneson was a name we were all familiar with. He had been an inspiration for the next generation of footballing talent in the city” – Brian Deane

There’s currently an excellent documentary available on BBC iPlayer. Nature’s Fire. It’s the story of Bill Shankly’s career and it’s compelling viewing.

Shankly’s first real achievement at Liverpool was winning the FA Cup, which he managed in 1965. The opponents that day were Leeds United and the documentary contains footage of the two teams walking out at Wembley.

There’s Ron Yeats at the head of the Liverpool line. There’s Bobby Collins, Don Revie’s attack dog, striding out opposite him. There’s Ian St John, Billy Bremner, Jack Charlton.

In the middle of the Leeds line, lithe and handsome, is Albert Johanneson. It was a landmark day for Liverpool and Shankly. But also for English football. Johanneson was about to become the first black player to take part in an FA Cup Final.

It wasn’t a classic. In what looked a damp but muggy day at Wembley, the teams slogged their way through 90 scoreless minutes and eventually into extra time. The short British Pathé film of the final does it few favours, either, consisting almost solely of strange, slow-motion footage of Gary Sprake catching routine crosses and making simple saves.

Johanneson barely features at all. He’s there at the beginning and he can be seen on the fringes of the play a few times, trying to influence a game that would ultimately pass him by.

Liverpool would win in extra time. Roger Hunt had opened the scoring, nodding home from close range with Sprake stranded. Billy Bremner would equalise, thumping brilliantly past Tommy Lawrence from the edge of the box. But, three minutes from the end, St. John struck, beating Sprake with another header in the 117th minute.

Freezing the footage at the right moment, there’s the hint of a smile on Johanneson’s face during the walk to the pitch. Given what he was experiencing, it’s a baffling expression which can be interpreted in all sorts of different ways.

“When we walked out, all I could hear was a cacophony of Zulu-like noises coming from the terraces. It was dreadful, I could barely hear myself think for those screams. I wanted to run back down the tunnel.”

What Johanneson truly felt in those moments is lost to time, but the horror of what he experienced to get there is – sadly – easier to comprehend. Actually understanding the true emotional legacy of the naked bigotry to which he was exposed, however, is far harder.

There are enough anecdotes to have an educated guess, though.

Dwell, for instance, on the title of Clyde Best’s autobiography: The Acid Test. Best was another pioneer. He was Bermudian and Johanneson was South African, but their experiences of the English footballing landscape were – sadly – likely very similar.

In the prologue of his book, Best remembers receiving a letter in the week before a league game in which the sender threatened to throw acid in his face the next time he emerged from the players’ tunnel at Upton Park. And that was in 1970. Nine years after Johanneson had first played for Leeds.

One of Duncan Hamilton’s childhood memories, recounted in The Footballer Who Could Fly, is of filling a sticker album for the 1967-68 season. In researching his book, he recalled leafing back through it, across the 22 different teams and 330 players. Johanneson’s was the only black face he saw. One, in an entire league.

Deep wounds
Reading about him now, one of the common observations seems to be that Johanneson met the abuse he received with great strength. He, like Best, was determined to remain impervious. That his memory of those moments before the 1965 final remained so vivid, however, suggests those afternoons left very deep wounds.

In 2015, to mark its 50th anniversary, The Guardian’s Ian McCourt remembered the 1965 final. He wrote about how, in the minutes prior to leaving the dressing-room, Johanneson had been throwing up in the Wembley bathrooms and had asked Revie to drop him for the game.

McCourt went further back, too, describing Johanneson’s childhood in South Africa and the range of racial abuse he suffered in a country that had by that point descended into apartheid’s darkness.

He was someone who endured a great deal even before he arrived in England. When he did make his debut for Leeds, in a 2-2 draw against Swansea, after the match finished he didn’t know whether he was allowed to bathe with his white team-mates. That certainly describes where he had come from and, unfortunately, what he felt his place in the world to be.

Johanneson had a friendly face. He had soft features and kind eyes, and it’s hard to reconcile the pictures of him with his fate. Or, at least, it’s horrible to have to do so.

He left Elland Road in 1970, released by Revie, and would join York City before slipping into retirement two years later at just 32.

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The worst possible ending
Accounts of his career’s decline vary. It would, like his life, be slowly lost to a spiral of depression, alcoholism and innuendo.

There’s no consensus for why drink took hold of him, but former team-mates speculate that First Division life was too much for him, that he was an excellent Second Division player who struggled with the crowds, the expectations and the pressure found at the level above.

Whether that began his descent to destitution is hard to say, but it seems hopelessly reductive not to factor his life’s experiences into the tragedy.

And it would become a tragedy. Johanneson drifted away from his former team-mates in retirement, becoming a virtual recluse. Several have since insisted that they tried to bring him back into their network but found him unreachable or reluctant to engage.

Were it not for a chance encounter with George Best in the very early 1990s, when Best happened upon a dishevelled Johanneson in Leeds city centre and took him out to supper at a local hotel, the world might have forgotten about him entirely.

As it was, Best’s charity inadvertently served to highlight Johanneson’s plight. In a harbinger of his own later life, the encounter between them brought only mocking headlines from the tabloids and a final taunt for someone who was already desperately fragile, who was very isolated, and who would end his life desperately alone.

When he died from heart failure in September 1995, his body had lain undiscovered in his council flat for nearly a week. He was just 55 years old.


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Origins of a rivalry
Man City v Man Utd (15:00 BST)

In the beginning, there was no City or United.

The latter began its life as humble Newton Heath LYR in 1878, formed by the Carriage and Wagon department of the area's Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot. Funded by the LYR, their early games were against other rail companies and saw them wear the green and yellow colours that modern United fans now use as a protest symbol against the current Glazer ownership.

Two years later the club that would become City was formed in equally low-key fashion as St Mark's, by the church of the same name in West Gorton. Its aim was to provide recreational activity for young men in a time of high unemployment and social ills such as alcoholism and 'scuttling' - semi-organised fights involving street gangs.

Just two of a multitude of sides in the Manchester area at that time, there was no special significance or spite to encounters between them in those early days - the first of which came on 12th November 1881 and saw Newton Heath claim a 3-0 victory.

United's Era

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For close to three decades either side of the millennium, United painted Manchester red.

In 31 of the 32 seasons from 1980 to 2012, they finished above City in the league ladder, suffering just two derby defeats in that time - 1-0 in 1981 and 5-1 in 1989, both coming at Maine Road. The latter of those two games is one our two fans remember well, but understandably for different reasons.

"It was a freak result, really," says Nigel Rothband, who hosts The Man City Show podcast. "Our FA Youth Cup-winning side of '86 had come through with Steve Redmond, Paul Lake and Ian Brightwell and so on and it was just one of those moments where you can think ‘that was good’ – a joyous moment in time.

"It was a moment to have some bragging rights in the city and with your friends who are Stretford fans."

Jay Motty from the Stretford Paddock YouTube fan channel adds: "My first derby memory is of that 5-1 hiding at Maine Road. Most of my mates at school were United fans, but there were a few who supported City. They gave us a bit of stick and it was horrible.

"The only goal I can remember from that day was Mark Hughes' volley, as you can imagine. But the derby was very kind to us after that for a long time."

It certainly was. United would remain unbeaten against City for the next 13 years.

City's era

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Since the appointment of Guardiola as manager, City have become the dominant force in English football.

In seven seasons at the club, the Spaniard has delivered the Premier League title in five of them, the League Cup in four and one FA Cup.

They have had challengers in that time, most notably Liverpool, but it has often taken previously unseen points tallies for sides to cling to City's coattails.

As City blossomed, United wilted.

In general, the reds have remained competitive in the top-flight during Guardiola's time in England, never finishing outside the top six and twice finishing second to their local rivals, albeit never really threatening them.

Such was United's perceived inability to properly challenge, the second-place finish in 2017-18 - a massive 19 points behind City - was labelled by then manager Jose Mourinho as "one of my greatest achievements".

There have been some United victories in recent seasons, such as a 2-1 away win and 2-0 home victory in 2019-20 to give them a first double over City in a decade. They also beat them 2-1 at home this season, coming from behind late on to secure victory.

One man went to mow...
Man City v Man Utd (15.00 BST)

This was the scene earlier on the Wembley pitch, as the ground staff make their final preparations.

This is the first of three pre-match mows today. One vertical (with the yellow string keeping them straight) then two horizontal afterwards to create those lovely pitch patters.

Our man on the ground also informs us that the electric mowers are incredibly quiet, which must be a relief for the ground staff and their hearing.

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Get Involved - The Fans Views

DSSBrooks: City are overwhelming favourites to win today and also to go on and complete the treble. They’ve assembled the best squad in Premier League history and they will seal an emphatic treble. Has it been as exciting as United’s 98/99 season? Absolutely not.

Steve: I’m a neutral and that usually means I root for the underdog, but I love watching City play, and they deserve it. Come on you blues!

RE: DSSBrooks - City's season isn't as exciting as United's 98/99 season because it hasn't finished. United played a borings/easy cup final in 99 and fluked the CL after being battered for 85 minutes by Bayern. For City, making a big comeback to win the league, beating United in the final of the cup, and beating the likes of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich on the way to winning the CL would be incredible...Chris, Manchester (Wembley bound)

Can I see United winning today, I'm optimistic but in reality City will do it, Haaland will get a hat trick today I guarantee it, I'm supporting United today as my partner is a United fan, but deep down I don't have the heart to tell them City are going to win...Jack

The real questions are, is this Manchester United's biggest game since Fergie's departure and if City win the treble is that the official changing of the guard? Personally don't see United allowing this today, they will find a way to win 1-0....Aaron, Cwmbran. (United Fan)



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Man arrested at Wembley over '97' football shirt..

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A man has been arrested during the FA Cup final at Wembley after concerns about a football shirt slogan.

A photo of the back of a man wearing the number 97 and the words "not enough" on a white shirt was shared widely on Twitter.

Some Twitter users said it referred to the Hillsborough Disaster when 97 Liverpool fans died as a result of a crush in 1989 at Hillsborough Stadium.

Police said a man had been arrested on suspicion of a public order offence.

The Metropolitan Police tweeted that he had been taken into custody.

The force confirmed to the BBC that the arrest was solely due to the shirt worn by the football fan but would not confirm that it was because of its alleged reference to the disaster.

Sharing a tweet by a Liverpool FC fan account called the Kop Watch, the Met's events Twitter account said: "We are aware of this and have worked proactively with officials at @wembleystadium to identify the individual.

"He has been arrested on suspicion of a public order offence and taken into custody."

The force tweeted at the end of the match, which Manchester City won 2-1 against Manchester United.

Officers also said they were investigating after an object was thrown towards the pitch during the first half of the game.

The Met tweeted that it was working with stadium officials and reviewing CCTV footage.