OLYMPIC GAMES

COLIN ALLAN LOOKS BACK AT GREAT BRITAIN'S BID TO QUALIFY FOR MELBOURNE 1956, AND THEIR FORTUNES WHEN THEY TRAVELLED DOWN UNDER

- Colin Allan

WHAT a reception the team got in Bulgaria's capital Sofia! It was October 1955 and vast crowds lined the streets to welcome the visitors. Huge banners carried photographs of their guests' leading players. This was the first time a side from Britain had ventured beyond the Iron Curtain to Bulgaria. The roughly half a million onlookers were anxious to get a glimpse of these British footballers.

But this unprecedented welcome was not for England or Scotland's national teams or a leading British club side; it was for Great Britain's amateur footballers.

Great Britain had been drawn against Bulgaria in the qualifying round of the 1956 Olympic football tournament. To say it was something of a challenge for the visitors would be quite an understatement.

Bulgaria, like all the communist eastern bloc countries, had a different concept of 'amateurism' to the British. The Bulgarian players were all drafted into the country's armed forces where they were given all the time, facilities and training required to produce a formidable team.

They were 'professional' in all but name. In contrast, the British players had to juggle their football commitments with full-time jobs.

This Bulgarian team could give England's top club sides difficult matches. They had only just lost to Russia by a single goal.

Captain Bob Hardisty and his British team were astounded by the facilities afforded to them at Sofia's Levty Stadium. For the 1950s, it was quite an eyeopener.

Their dressing room floors were carpeted and each player's name was on his individual locker. The room was full of flowers, boxes of cigarettes and bowls of fruit. The hosts' cordiality continued as the teams took to the pitch. After the national anthems had been played, each British player was given a bouquet of flowers from traditionally-dressed schoolgirls.