Tag Archives: Germany

Maine Road To Berlin

I am not going to pretend that English football teams making tours of Continental countries do not have a very pleasant time, but at the same time these tours are not picnics.  You are there to play serious football, and you have to go about it in the ordinary businesslike way.”  Sam Barkas, City Captain, 27th May 1937

As Sam Barkas hinted, sometimes end of season football tours are not the fun experience a lot of fans think. Sometimes the tour takes on a whole different meaning.  This is certainly true for the May 1937 tour to Germany.

The Blues, as Champions of England, were invited to play a series of high profile matches across Germany and its neighbouring States.  Although this was a major honour for City it has to be stressed that the whole concept of the tour, as far as Germany’s Nazi rulers were concerned, was to promote Germany’s sporting prowess against the best England could offer.  

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Read more of this content when you subscribe today. It costs £3 per month or £20 per year and you then have full access to all items posted in the archive for as long as you subscribe.

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England beat Germany in European Championship Final

Aware of when England beat Germany in the final of a European tournament in 1957? No, well here’s the story of when they did…

The match saw the pioneering women’s team, Manchester Corinthians, play as England. They won 4-0 in the final of a European championship in 1957, played in Berlin. This game, like so many others when the Corinthians played as England, are not officially recognised as internationals unfortunately, but no one should underestimate the achievements of the Manchester women who took part. At the time they occurred these were full-blooded affairs with some moments caught on film.

For an article I wrote some time ago on the Germany game follow this link:

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/manchester-corinthians-england-women-germany-17205385

Pioneering Mancunian Women

You can find out more about the Corinthians here:

European Tours

These days pre-season tours are an expected part of a football club’s activities but that’s not always been the case. Pre-1939 it was highly unusual for English teams to travel for friendlies before a season, but some clubs did enjoy post-season tours. The idea was that a trip to mainland Europe was a reward for first team players after an arduous season. Here for subscribers to my site is a brief overview of some of Manchester City’s European tour firsts.

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