Euro 88 by Steven Scragg – Review

By Karl Hornsey
Steven Scragg has carved himself a nice little niche in recent years, authoring books on the fondly remembered days when the three original European club competitions seemed to somehow mean so much more than they do now, as well as his ode to the 1986 World Cup. Now added to that selection is this perfectly timed account of the 1988 European Championship, which took place in a much simpler and more understated fashion than the tournament about to get under way in Germany this week.
The finals were the penultimate ones in which just eight nations took part, allowing Scragg the opportunity to profile each of the countries in some depth, focusing on their immediate build-up to the tournament, their qualifying campaigns and, of course, detailed accounts of how they fared at Euro 88, which also happened to take place on German soil. Scragg clearly has fond memories of the period and, like myself, seems to long for a football past that compares little to the football present, but the late ‘80s is recent enough for many of the leading lights to be familiar these days, especially as some of the stars of the tournament have gone into management or punditry and become household names.
“Memories come flooding back”
Unlike the tournament four years prior, this one was televised in full, and the involvement of both England and the Republic of Ireland makes it that bit more memorable, even though neither side progressed to the knockout stage, with England suffering a dismal tournament and the Irish sowing the seeds of the relative success that was still to come. The memories, therefore, do come flooding back as Scragg brings them to life, but there will be a huge amount in this book that isn’t known, even to hardened fans of the game and the period in which it took place. This is a great companion to Aidan Williams’ Euro 84, but unlike that offering, Scragg groups together both the qualifying and the finals for each nation, rather than focusing on the one before the other, which can lead to some countries and matches being given much more attention than others.
Saving the best until last, literally, the author builds towards the semi-finals and final, keeping the USSR and Netherlands until the end, and this approach largely works well, although it can lead to some repetition. The Dutch wrote themselves into the history books with their victory over the Soviets in the final, but the really interesting stories here are the lesser-known ones and those that show what fine margins come into play in major tournaments. The USSR would have been worthy winners, but both finalists came close to missing out on even a place in the last four, while England’s defeat by the Netherlands, for example, has always seemed to me to be one of them being demolished and demoralised, as opposed to what actually happened, as Bobby Robson’s men hit the woodwork three times before succumbing. It’s that sort of detail from Scragg that brings the tournament wonderfully to life, and makes this a fascinating read.
‘Euro 88’ by Steven Scragg is published by Pitch Publishing