31 Dec 1994: John Jensen scores — and a chant is born: “I was there when Jensen scored.” Arsenal still lose 3–1 to QPR, but the goal becomes folklore. From Jensen to Mascherano’s first Barça goal after 319 games, Tony Hibbert’s “If Hibbert scores, we riot,” and Jimmy Glass’s keeper goal that saves Carlisle — plus “back in the day” icons like Santos Iriarte’s World Cup-final strike in 1930 and Friaça’s opener in the 1950 Maracanazo.
Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
30 Dec 2000: The Copa João Havelange final turns into chaos. After a 1–1 first leg, Vasco vs São Caetano at São Januário is halted around 23 minutes when a barrier collapses and scores are injured (reports vary roughly 150–160; no fatalities reported). The national title can’t end like that — so a third match is staged at the Maracanã on 18 Jan 2001, where Vasco win 3-1 to claim the championship. A story about football culture, infrastructure, and risk.
Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
29 Dec 2022: Pelé passes at 82 — and football loses its most famous life. We trace the human story behind the myth: poverty to Santos, the only player to win three World Cups (1958/62/70), the reality behind the goal numbers, and how he helped globalize the game through tours, the New York Cosmos, and public life beyond the pitch. A tribute to football’s greatest ambassador.
Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
28 Dec 1958: In Cairo, reigning African champions Egypt defeat West Germany 2–1 in a friendly that still reads like a shock. We set the tour context (pre-Bundesliga era, travel strain, and an age without normal substitutions), look at Germany’s squad mix (including 1954 world champions Rahn and Morlock), then relive the match: El-Fanağily’s penalty, Morlock’s reply, and Saleh Selim’s winner — and why Egypt still cherish the result.
Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
27 Dec 1949: A substitute bank holiday, a full Football League programme — and an all-time crowd record. Across 44 league matches in four divisions, 1,272,155 fans turn up: the biggest one-day aggregate attendance in English league history. We explain the post-war boom, terraces and holiday scheduling, then drop into the day’s human snapshots — including Brentford fans flying to Hull during a rail strike — and why this record still stands.
Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
26 Dec 1963: Boxing Day in England turns surreal — 10 First Division matches produce 66 goals. We relive every fixture (Fulham 10–1 Ipswich, West Ham 2–8 Blackburn, Burnley 6–1 Man United, WBA 4–4 Spurs, Liverpool 6–1 Stoke…), then ask why: winter pitches, holiday fatigue, travel — and one key rule-era fact people forget: no substitutes. Plus: what happened in the return fixtures two days later.
Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
25 Dec 1875: On the East Meadows, Hearts beat Hibs 1–0 in the first recorded Edinburgh derby — football in a public park, before leagues and professionalism. We set 1870s Scotland’s role in shaping the game, introduce the two clubs and the city’s identity split, relive the quirky first match detail (Hearts starting short-handed), then zoom out across 150 years: trophies, Europe, the derby record, and why this rivalry is one of football’s great long stories.
Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
24 Dec 2010: On Christmas Eve, Inter appoint Leonardo — ex-AC Milan player and ex-Milan coach — in one of football’s great “impossible moves.” We trace his Milan arc (including the derby humiliation), why Inter made the call, and how it ends with Coppa Italia glory in 2011. Then we zoom out to other rivalry crossings: Figo, Laudrup, Sol Campbell, Mo Johnston—and why “betrayal transfers” never really fade.
Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
23 Dec 2023: At Craven Cottage, Rebecca Welch becomes the first woman to referee a Premier League match. We tell her story through the ranks — EFL, FA Cup, World Cup — and then zoom out to the system behind it: FA/PGMOL development pathways, UEFA referee development, and FIFA’s “quality-first” shift that put women officials into the men’s World Cup. Plus other barrier-breakers: Fearn, Steinhaus, Frappart, García.
Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
22 Dec 1912: Austria win 3–1 in Genoa in Hugo Meisl’s first match as national-team manager. We relive the game, then step into Meisl’s Vienna: coffee-house football, the Danubian style, professionalism in 1924, and the competitions he helped build (including Mitropa, as in E0013). Finally: Sindelar, the Wunderteam, and Austria’s 1934 World Cup run — and what modern football inherited from Meisl’s ideas.
Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
21 Dec 1983: Spain need to beat Malta by 11 goals to reach Euro 84. At half-time in Seville it’s only 3–1… and yet it finishes 12–1. We set the Group 7 maths, walk through the second-half avalanche and the later Maltese allegations, then zoom out to other nights of “just the right score” – Argentina Peru 1978, the Disgrace of Gijón, Denmark–Sweden’s “biscotto”, Barbados Grenada and the Tiger Cup – and how football has tried to protect itself.
Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
20 Dec 1956: at Heysel in Brussels, Honvéd draw 3–3 with Athletic Bilbao and go out of the European Cup – in what becomes the last great appearance of the legendary Honvéd/Mighty Magyars core. We rewind through Hungary’s Golden Team, the coffee-house culture and Mitropa Cup, the 1956 uprising and why this “home” leg was moved from Budapest, then follow the tie and the exodus that sent Puskás, Kocsis & co. into exile – and opened a new chapter for Hungarian football.
Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
19 Dec 2003: in Arequipa, Cienciano of Cusco beat River Plate 1-0 in the second leg of the Copa Sudamericana final to win 4–3 on aggregate and give Peru its first international club trophy. We trace the club’s provincial roots, their run past Santos, Atlético Nacional and River, what the win meant for Cusco and Peruvian football – and whether it changed anything in CONMEBOL’s balance of power.
Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
18 Dec 1956: L’Équipe reveals the very first Ballon d’Or – and 41 year-old Stanley Matthews finishes just ahead of Alfredo Di Stéfano and Raymond Kopa. We follow Gabriel Hanot from the European Cup to creating the award, explain why Matthews won, and tell the story of how he actually received the trophy live via BBC link-up – then trace how the Ballon d’Or evolved from a European newspaper poll into a global spectacle in a team sport.
Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
17 Dec 2015: seven months after winning the Premier League, José Mourinho is sacked by Chelsea with the champions 16th and one point above the relegation zone. We rewind to the “little horse” title win, a flawed pre season, the Eva Carneiro affair, Hazard, tactics and that “betrayal” rant at Leicester – then ask how rare it is to fire a champion coach mid-defense, and what this moment meant for Chelsea and for the Special One.
Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
16 Dec 1990: a skinny 19-year-old Pep Guardiola makes his La Liga debut for Barcelona against Cádiz, anchoring Johan Cruyff’s emerging Dream Team as the pivot in midfield. We trace Pep’s journey from Santpedor and La Masia to that first start at Camp Nou, then follow the thread through Cruyff, Sacchi, Van Gaal, Lillo and Bielsa to Barça, Bayern and Man City – and how his ideas reshaped modern tactics.
Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
15 Dec 1995: the European Court of Justice rules in favor of Jean Marc Bosman, striking down transfer fees for out-of-contract players moving within the EU and banning EU-player quotas in club competitions. We rewind to retain-and-transfer and maximum wage, follow Bosman’s blocked move from RFC Liège to Dunkerque, unpack the judgment, then trace its impact: Bosman moves, rising wages, longer contracts, homegrown rules, Kolpak, Webster – and a protagonist who never cashed in on the revolution his name created.Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
14 Dec 1941: at the Estadio Centenario, Nacional beat Peñarol 6-0 in the clásico to complete a perfect league season – 20 wins from 20 – on the same day their reserves had already won 4–0, giving rise to the legend of the “10–0 day.” We tell the story of La Máquina Blanca: the 32-game winning streak, the 1939–43 Quinquenio de Oro, the 6–0 itself, and where it sits in the Nacional–Peñarol rivalry – from wartime Uruguay to Libertadores and Intercontinental Cups.Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
13 Dec 1954: under the Molineux floodlights, Wolves beat Budapest Honvéd 3–2 after trailing 0–2 at half-time. We put this legendary friendly in context: England’s insular years, the 6–3 & 7–1 Hungary hammerings, floodlights and finances, and why the Daily Mail calling Wolves “Champions of the World” enraged Europe. From Puskás, Kocsis and Billy Wright to Gabriel Hanot and the birth of the European Cup – plus what happened to Wolves and the Mighty Magyars after 1956.Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com
12 Dec 2001: in Prague, Josef “Pepi” Bican passes, aged 88 – a man who may have scored more official goals than anyone in football history. We follow him from a poor Vienna childhood to Rapid, Austria’s Wunderteam and then Slavia Prague; through wartime leagues, ridiculous scoring runs and political refusals; and into the modern debate over 800+ goals, goals-per-game ratios and why such a prolific scorer stayed relatively unknown outside Central Europe.
Tips/corrections: otd@17lawsguy.com