The secret history
October 14, 2011 by dermot · Leave a Comment
When Jesus ‘Chus’ Pereda, a goalscorer in Spain’s 1964 European Nations Cup final win, passed away recently at the age of 73, I wasn’t surprised by the wave of sympathy and nostalgia in Spain, with fond remembrances from former colleagues, older journalists and current national coach Vicente del Bosque. More of a shock though, were the recollections of a 40 year conspiracy of silence which followed the tournament win.
It looked an interesting story, mixing sporting glory and political intrigue, i.e. perfect material for my weekly Football Ramble blog, so I did a bit more digging around and found out that Chus had been edited out of the official film of the Spanish winning goal…
“The footage had been put together in a way which, depending on your point of view, was either a technical error or politically motivated. Most people were none the wiser, and those who did know kept their mouths shut even after fascist dictator Francisco Franco died in 1975, in keeping with the ‘pact of forgetting’ agreed when democracy was established in Spain. Spanish TV showed the doctored action right up until 2008, when Canal Plus show Fiebre Maldini found the actual footage in a Dutch TV archive.”
The fullstory (or at least an honestly put together version of it) is through here on the Ramble site.
