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Daily Mail
27-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
The Great Euro Robbery: Fifty years on from the 1975 European Cup final, Leeds supporters are still convinced they were robbed by Bayern Munich, writes MATT BARLOW
One game survives like no other in Leeds United legend. One game that seldom fails to stir the emotions inside Elland Road. And that game is half a century old tomorrow. 'I don't think you forget it,' says Joe Jordan, who is among those who featured in it. 'To reach a European Cup final doesn't happen often and many years have passed by and a lot of the players are, sadly, not with us any more, but I don't think you can ever forget it. 'You look back and try to analyse, but the result is there. We lost the game and that was a huge disappointment for me, for everyone in the dressing room and for all the Leeds fans. 'It was a game we should have won, basically, and we didn't. There were certain circumstances, but the facts are we didn't win the game and that's it, that's all you can say, that's football.' This the European Cup final of 1975, Leeds v Bayern Munich in Paris, the last hurrah for the great team built by Don Revie at the end of their tumultuous first season without him. Bayern won 2-0, the second of their mid-1970s hat-trick of European titles, but that is only half the story. 'The legacy of that game, the failure of that team to win the European Cup they deserved, the feelings of injustice and the subsequent UEFA punishments are among the reasons Leeds is still such a big club,' says Rocco Dean, author of The Sons of Revie. 'I was brought up with those stories and the feeling of a team robbed and that feeling has generated the passion you still get inside Elland Road. That's the legacy. 'Fans still sing 'Champions of Europe' every week and it's not something that will go away. It's not just about the European Cup final because it does run a lot deeper. It's the whole story of that era and it's amazing how it led to that crescendo. 'It was one last chance for Leeds to cement themselves into history as champions of Europe and it was taken from them, we think unfairly.' Michel Kitabdjian, the French referee who died five years ago at the age of 89, was at the heart of the controversy after failing to give a penalty for a foul by Franz Beckenbauer on Allan Clarke and ruling out a Peter Lorimer goal. Confusion descended after the Lorimer goal, a volley from outside the penalty area, as the officials seemed to signal a goal and then change their minds after Beckenbauer spoke to the assistant referee. Only then did they rule Billy Bremner offside. 'It has lived on because it was so blatant,' says Frank Gray, who played at left back. 'Everyone who sees the footage thinks, 'Why wasn't that a penalty and why wasn't that goal given?' 'If VAR had been around then, they would have gone in our favour, but on the night the referee made a couple of bad decisions. It was not his best game, put it that way.' A contest dominated by Leeds until that point took a twist. Franz Roth scored on the break and Gerd Muller snatched the second as Leeds piled forward. 'I felt bad for some of the older players,' admits Gray. 'I was only 20 at the time, I knew for me there might be other chances and I was lucky enough to play in another final and win it with Nottingham Forest against Hamburg. But for the likes of Billy Bremner, Johnny Giles, Norman Hunter and my brother Eddie, we all knew realistically this would be their last chance to win the big one. 'They had done so much for the club and that would have been the pinnacle, something they probably deserved. It would have been an incredible moment and I genuinely did feel sorry for them.' Dean's book centres on the 10 top-flight seasons under Revie and pitches them in the ranks of football's great but under- appreciated sides. 'They were certainly underrated,' says Dean. 'Nobody talks about Leeds as one of the great English teams and that would have been different had they won that final. 'In those 10 years under Revie, they lost only three times to Manchester United with the Holy Trinity of George Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law. If you weight all the results to three points for a win, they averaged 1.95 points a game from 1965 to 1974, the same as Liverpool for the 10 years from 1976 to 1985. 'Liverpool won seven league titles and four European Cups. Leeds won two league titles. Forest won the European Cup twice, but Leeds dominated for 10 years. They were the favourites for everything ever year and went hard after every trophy, only to be largely forgotten.' Revie had become England manager and the 1974-75 season started with the infamous 44 days under Brian Clough. Jimmy Armfield stepped in, persuaded by his friend Revie to leave Bolton to calm the Leeds storm. By the final whistle in the Parc des Princes, however, even Armfield, revered as one of the gentlemen of English football, found his diplomacy tested. 'I'd never seen my dad so angry after a match,' says Duncan Armfield, one of his sons. 'He was good at accepting defeat. He loved the game and if he was beaten by a a better team there would be no malice. Like when he didn't play in the 1966 World Cup final, he said it was far better that we won. 'Dad was fuming. He took his piddly little medal and threw it on the floor. He knew something wasn't right and for me to see him like that, I knew something was wrong. He was more upset for the fans and the players. 'He had pulled them back up the league and they had played brilliantly to beat Johan Cruyff's Barcelona in the semi-finals. Leeds were the best team in Europe. They felt cheated and that feeling of disappointment lasted a long time.' Armfield's medal was recovered from the dressing-room floor and there are plans for it to go on display as part of his collection in the National Football Museum. Travelling Leeds fans did not take the result well. They started to break up the stadium and throw seats after Bayern scored, and rioted into the night. Leeds legend Bobby Collins was caught up in the fighting outside the ground and beaten up. There is another perspective on it all. Bjorn Andersson was 23 and only 10 months into his career at Bayern Munich when a sickening challenge by Terry Yorath left him writhing in pain in the fourth minute. Uli Hoeness, later president of Bayern but then their centre forward, described it as the worst tackle he had seen and the grainy footage supports his case. Had there been VAR, Leeds would certainly have played most of the final with 10 men. 'Everything in my knee was destroyed,' Andersson tells Mail Sport from his home in Sweden. 'There were a lot of emotions. Walking out of the tunnel, I can remember the Leeds players talking tough and aggressively. 'I was not afraid, but I had a feeling they were angry and that this might be their way of getting up for the game. 'Our tactical plan was for me to play against Billy Bremner and keep him out of the game. After two minutes, I get an elbow in my eye from Billy. It took a minute or so before I could see normally again and then Terry Yorath came flying into my knee and my European Cup final crashed. It was a big, big, big injury.' Andersson was carried off and didn't make the medal ceremony, never receiving one. He took painkillers to get through the post-match banquet and went directly to hospital in Munich, staying there for four weeks. He spent eight weeks in plaster. His surgeon told him he would never play again. 'That was difficult to hear,' says Andersson. 'I can remember thinking there was no reason to live. Football was everything for me.' Nobody visited from Bayern other than Hoeness, who had also been injured in the final and was regularly at the same hospital. The club even withheld more than half of Andersson's win bonus as he only played four minutes. Andersson did play again. He made the bench for the 1976 European Cup final against Saint-Etienne, when Bayern completed the hat-trick, and played in the Intercontinental Cup final of 1976 against Cruzeiro of Brazil, before accepting he would never be the same player again. He returned to Sweden, where he became a teacher and played part-time before working in youth development and education with the Swedish FA, nurturing young players like Fredrik Ljungberg. Now he has two artificial knees and holds no malice. 'When you are 73 and you can walk and laugh and enjoy life, you cannot look back on the bad things,' he says. 'I've read Terry Yorath has regret about my injury, but I was never angry with him. That would not help anybody. It was a hot thing for me at the time. I was on the way to becoming a very good player and was normal after that. 'It's no problem to speak about it, but I don't remember anything about the game that happened after my injury. They said Leeds were the best team on the day, but I don't know about that.' Leeds flew home to a rapturous reception, tens of thousands of fans lining the streets, but it would never be the same again. Giles left for West Brom that summer. Bremner and Hunter left a year later for Hull and Bristol City respectively. Bayern tried to buy Jordan. Leeds refused to let him go, but the trend was set. The break-up of the team was reinforced by a ban from European competitions for the rioting, reduced on appeal to two years. 'We could have replaced those great players with equally top-class players if we had won the European Cup,' says Gray. 'We could have gone on. It could have been a different story.'
New York Times
02-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Elland Road redevelopment: When will work start? When will it finish? Seats in each stand?
Leeds United's plans to increase the capacity of Elland Road up to 56,500 are beginning to take shape. The newly promoted Championship side, who will be returning to the Premier League in 2025-26, were given the green light by Leeds City Council to add nearly 20,000 seats to Elland Road. The Athletic has seen the planned outline — which will be submitted as a hybrid planning application for Leeds' Elland Road redevelopment — and can reveal that work is set to begin in September. Although the club were given planning permission to increase Elland Road to a capacity of up to 56,500 people, the document clarifies that the maximum capacity will be 53,000. This means, upon completion, that Leeds United will be able to host more supporters than Everton's new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock (52,888) and Newcastle United's St James' Park (52,305). KSS, the architects overseeing the Elland Road development, were behind the Main Stand expansion at Anfield, Liverpool's stadium, as well as Leicester City's state-of-the-art training facility. The Athletic has analysed their expansion plans, of which the North Stand is currently at an outline stage, and has broken down what you need to know… On April 23, Leeds City Council approved two key recommendations to ensure the expansion plans can become a reality. The first recommendation they signed off on will see them negotiate the sale of the council-owned land behind Elland Road's Don Revie (North) and John Charles (West) stands. This means Leeds United can now buy the land from the council at a price that is independently valued and one that will reflect the going market price. The second recommendation approved by the council will see them enter into a memorandum of understanding (MoU), a non-binding agreement between two or more parties, to collaborate with the Lowy Family Group (LFG), the club's development partner. This agreement between the council and LFG enables them to work together on a regeneration strategy for the council-owned land around Elland Road, which includes the park and ride next to Fullerton Park, Lowfields Road and the car parks on either side of Wesley Street. This is where Leeds United may seek full planning permission for one part of the Elland Road redevelopment, while outlining planning permission for another part of the same site under the same application. The plan is for Leeds to do this, seeking full planning permission for the West Stand and outlining their plans for the North Stand, with a detailed design to be submitted at a later date. They are common when it comes to major developments as it enables work to begin sooner on one phase of the site before the final plans for the other part of the site are known. The plans for the West Stand are set to see it expanded from 8,000 to 17,750, while the North Stand — if they settle on the plans detailed in their outline — is due to be increased from 10,401 to 15,300. The proposed reconstruction of the West Stand will see it extend into Fullerton Car Park and is going to include, as the expansion plans document states, a 'broader range of facilities and experiences for both matchday and non-matchday use'. As part of the plans, phase one will see the construction of new tiers, a new roof and internal spaces before the north-west corner is demolished, with the erection of a new facade at the same time. Advertisement The builders will then demolish and fit out the West and South-West corners, along with the construction of the roof, before works are carried out to the retained lower tier of the West Stand and the North-West corner. The document notes that it 'will be similar in scale to the existing East Stand', which has an existing capacity of 14,900, and it will have three tiers. Advanced site works are set to begin in September, but the West Stand construction is not expected to begin until May 2026 and is due to last until the fourth quarter of 2028. The construction plans for the North Stand are yet to be finalised and are still in an outline stage, which means how they appear in their plans is not what it may look like once the redevelopment has been completed. The hybrid planning application notes that the North Stand forms phase two of the redevelopment plans and is due to run in parallel with the West Stand construction, although it will not be completed until two years after the West Stand. As part of the hybrid plans, which are not final, the North Stand will retain its lower tier, as well as see a new upper tier constructed along with internal spaces. The plans highlight that the full renovation will not be ready until the fourth quarter (October to December) of 2030, which is when the North Stand is due to open. This is, of course, dependent on the eventual final design of the North Stand. A phased approach for both stands is being adopted to ensure Elland Road can continue to operate with minimal disruption and no loss of seating capacity during the redevelopment. As with many stadium redevelopments, you can expect there to be new hospitality areas — and Elland Road is no different. Early renderings suggest they will offer a wider range of food and drink than currently available in Elland Road. The plan is to also create a 'diverse range of spaces and experiences' that will 'encourage early arrivals and extended stays', while also creating the opportunity for the facilities to be used on non-matchdays. Leeds United are exploring the possibility of also making improvements to the South Stand, which could result in an increase in general admission. These plans, however, do not appear in the outline. A consultation process for the South Stand has begun, with the club seeking feedback from supporters. Advertisement The plans also suggests that the redevelopment will ensure Elland Road is 'capable of hosting tournaments for sustained growth', pointing to the potential of international matches for both the men's and women's England teams. Other events include FIFA and UEFA tournaments, international Rugby League fixtures, boxing matches, concerts and festivals. A social and economic section in the document notes that '120 to 205 new permanent jobs' at the club and its foundation will be created as a result of the redevelopment, while it is predicted two million visitors will attend Elland Road every year, up from 1.4million. The overall gross value added estimate predicts between £22million to £29m ($29.3m to $38.6m) as a result of direct economic benefits, indirect tourism benefits and indirect supply chain and induced benefits.
New York Times
23-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Leeds United's Elland Road expansion takes step forward as two recommendations get council approval
Plans to increase Elland Road's capacity up to 56,500 seats have taken a step forward for Leeds United after two key recommendations were approved by the council. The first recommendation agreed to negotiate the sale of council-owned land behind the stadium's Don Revie and John Charles stands to the club for the purpose of stadium expansion. United would, in theory, buy the land from the council at an independently valued rate that reflects the wider market. Advertisement The second recommendation agrees to negotiate and enter into a memorandum of understanding (MoU), a non-binding agreement between two or more parties that outlines their shared understanding and intentions to collaborate with Lowy Family Group (LFG), United's development partner. This agreement between the council and LFG would see them work together on a regeneration strategy for the council-owned land around Elland Road. These parcels of land include the park and ride adjacent to Fullerton Park, Lowfields Road and the car parks on either side of Wesley Street. The recommendations were approved at a meeting of Leeds City Council's executive board on April 23, moving the process of Elland Road expansion forward. Council documents indicate 'detailed legal agreements for the sale of land will be completed prior to any works starting on council land in the 2025 calendar year and the detailed legal agreement for the MoU with LFG will be completed later in spring 2025.' Elland Road will play host to Premier League football next season after Leeds secured their return to the top flight on Monday following Sheffield United's defeat to Burnley. A promotion parade in Leeds is being planned and public notices have appeared in the city which indicate it will take place on Monday, May 5, two days after the final game of the season against Plymouth Argyle. While the finer details are still being ironed out, the event will take place whether United finish first or second in the Championship. The club hopes, if it does miss out on the title, this parade can still be a celebration of what was lost in 2020's title win. ()
Telegraph
21-04-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
How ‘emotional' Leeds crashed through the doors of Premier League promotion
Judicious supporters will have started laying in yellow, white and blue bunting as soon as Liverpool consolidated their runaway Premier League lead around Christmas. On each of the last three occasions that Leeds United have been promoted to the top flight, under Don Revie in 1964, Howard Wilkinson in 1990 and Marcelo Bielsa in 2020, Liverpool have won the title. Coincidence it may be but now that it has happened for a fourth time, fans will hope that they will never have to rely on such profitable synchronicity again. An ownership consortium with more resources than any in the club's febrile history can, with shrewd investment in facilities and personnel, give them a better chance of establishing a foothold in the top division than five years ago, when the old board's dependence on Bielsa's disruptive ingenuity fractured and they riffled through one incongruous appointment and one flimsy signing after another. Such optimism was a devalued currency last summer after Leeds' timid defeat by Southampton in the Championship play-off final. Following on from their stumble in the last six games of the season, when registering four of 18 possible points cost them automatic promotion, a begrudging acceptance that disposals had to be made to comply with profitability and sustainability rules curdled as it became clear exactly who would be going. Crysencio Summerville's departure after a 20-goal season was inevitable but selling 18-year-old Archie Gray and then Georginio Rutter, the perennially sunny forward, were harder to stomach. The ceilings for the latter two were so high that it seemed like Leeds were selling their future for sustenance, tomorrow's jam sacrificed for today's gruel. Combined with other sales, though, the £140 million they recouped, more than any club in Europe, restored sanity to their finances. A series of prudent if modest signings took time to puncture the agitation over the loss of Gray and Rutter, but reflecting more soberly now it is plain that Leeds have pulled off a paradox: last season they had better players; this year they have a better team. Fundamental to that has been Daniel Farke, who has now secured three promotions to the Premier League in his four full Championship seasons at Norwich and Elland Road, and even in the year his alchemy malfunctioned, Leeds still accrued 90 points. Now they stand on the threshold of their highest points total in a season, most wins and clean sheets. It is noteworthy that unlike his predecessors, he insisted on 'manager' as his job title. In that role, especially in an age where anyone with executive authority is more or less mute, he has been unimpeachable. His leadership of a club he has consistently called 'emotional' (when 'neurotic' would be more accurate) has navigated Leeds through the release-clause exodus following relegation, last year's late collapse, yet another Wembley disappointment, more summer upheaval and a second spring wobble when top of the league. His effectiveness as a head coach has been criticised – tactical rigidity, clockwork substitutions, excessive caution, failure to rotate and dogmatic loyalty to certain players, as if he had swallowed the old 'form is temporary, class is permanent' deceit whole. But it is hard to imagine anyone else handling such a tricky assignment and the scrutiny it brings with such patience and good grace. It took them a while to get going and only a week after they hit the top of the table towards the end of November, Leeds succumbed to their third 1-0 defeat of the season, this one at Blackburn. Last season Leicester and Ipswich were almost out of sight by the time Leeds started to click in late autumn, but in 2024-25 they dealt with the loss to injury of their two starting central midfielders, the captain Ethan Ampadu and Ilia Gruev, by maintaining the two-points per game average that Farke maintained would propel them up. Sheffield United, Burnley and Sunderland were always within their grasp. The manager can take credit for that, fashioning a makeshift partnership of Joe Rothwell and Ao Tanaka, neither conventional holding players. Farke used their strengths in different ways, Rothwell in driving forward, breaking the lines like few others in the division, and Tanaka, a revelation and bargain at £3.5 million from Fortuna Düsseldorf, an absolute beast in duels. Truly a wolf in sheep's clothing, because it is Tanaka's passing and the quality of his four goals that initially catch the eye, but the astuteness of his positioning, his nose for an interception and raw-boned crispness in the tackle that triggers the transitions from defence to attack that allows Leeds to exploit the pace and stamina of their full-backs and wingers. Opposition coaches have likened the experience of defending against Jayden Bogle and Daniel James bombing down the right and Junior Firpo and Manor Solomon on the left to facing a front six. James has scored 12 goals, Solomon nine while Bogle has chipped in with six and Firpo four, a testament to their ability to time their runs to finish – what Ron Atkinson used to call 'arrives' – and also flood into inside-forward spaces to form triangles with the widest man and either Brenden Aaronson or 19-goal Joel Piroe, the four-goal hero in the 6-0 demolition Stoke. It is why, as well as their goals, Solomon has 10 assists, there are nine apiece for Firpo and James and five for Bogle who, in the words of the writer Paul Rogerson, has become 'the Cafu of the Championship'. But the journey to the promised land did not have to be as unsettling as this. The points lost from winning positions against Sunderland, Hull and Swansea would have already given them a commanding lead and every one was the result of goalkeeping errors. While Illan Meslier once demonstrated the potential to be a great keeper, technical flaws and confidence issues, exacerbated by understandable uncertainty between him and his defence, have crept in alarmingly over three seasons. All the quality he has with his feet ultimately cannot compensate for dropping routine crosses when unchallenged at the feet of strikers or completely missing an aimless ball forward in the final seconds at the Stadium of Light. Firpo, who thought he had scored the winner only to be credited with an own-goal equaliser on Wearside, looked lacerated. One of the worst goalkeeping errors you'll see this season from Illan Meslier 😖 Watch our @EFL Highlights show on ITV4 tonight at 9pm ⏰ — ITV Football (@itvfootball) October 5, 2024 Joe Rodon, when three points turned into one via Meslier's handling at Hull and once more against Swansea, looked disembowelled. Farke persisted with him and did nothing in the January transfer window, making it as much a question of his competence as Meslier's, until the crowd's mutinous mood at the end of the draw with Swansea made his retention impossible. Karl Darlow's routine proficiency in the last five games has anaesthetised a collective anxiety. It could have been less bumpy too but for the frankly baroque ineptitude of some officials. Fairly tight offsides being misjudged have cost Leeds four goals in the last two months, three of them remarkably chalked off by the same linesman. At least they would have merely gilded the lily of victories even if they would have preserved a few fingernails. But the assault on James by Portsmouth's Matt Ritchie in the penalty area deemed negligible by Robert Jones could have prevented their sole loss in five months if properly punished. That defeat at Fratton Park was the second game in a run of four draws and a defeat in six matches, triggering the ubiquitous distribution on social media of that old meme from Twin Peaks featuring 'the Giant' whispering chillingly to special agent Dale Cooper: 'It is happening again.' All, of course, accompanied by gleeful choruses from opposing fans of 'Leeds are falling apart again'. This time they didn't, by virtue of Farke's confidence in his process, the belated switching of goalkeepers and some morale-restoring defensive grit from Rodon. Farke and Wilkinson similarities The hair of the Wales centre-half, who joined for £10 million from Tottenham in July after spending last season at Leeds on loan, gives him the air of someone being hazed by a swarm of bees. At times he plays with a barely suppressed fury teetering on the edge of a strop, but after a restless couple of years he has found a home at Elland Road and the crowd has taken to him. As Sunderland's young team ran out of guile and gas, a three-horse race for the two automatic places developed. Burnley, the Scrooge and Marley of the Championship, building up clean sheets like sandbags to fortify their bid, have proved irrepressible, earning Scott Parker and his £2,500 anorak a third promotion to match Farke's record. In the end it was Sheffield United who cracked. Having kept winning without convincing, they avoided racking up the draws that tend to kill you in this league until their functional performances caught up with them and they lost three times in a week to open the door for Leeds. Farke's team have crashed through it, giving their supporters some genuine moments of communal joy in the late victory over Sunderland, when holding on to three points against Preston which put their fate back in their own hands and Easter Monday's annihilation of Stoke. All the while Farke has stressed that his 'pragmatical' approach, his 'game-by-game' level-headedness and 'staying cool and composed' at crunch time would prevail. In that regard, he reminds us of Wilkinson, the last manager to take Leeds into the top flight in front of a crowd, a spree that was denied Bielsa by the pandemic. Wilkinson would go on to finish fourth in his first season back and capture the title in 1992, a prospect rendered impossible for Farke since the Premier League became the playground of billionaires rather than millionaires. The German lasting a season up there in this era of Dark Fruits-driven hysteria will require all his serenity, immaculate recruitment and a dose of better luck. It will, in his idiosyncratic words, be 'unbelievable hard'. But all that can wait as Leeds revel in their biggest party for 33 years.
