Random tales from the 1966 tournament that have absolutely nothing to do with Azerbaijani linesmen, Kenneth Wolstenholme or Pickles the Dog
1. The branding for the 1966 Football World Championship for the Jules Rimet Trophy was all over the shop. But at least Fifa were trying. The 1966 finals was the first to be blessed with a mascot, a small lion wearing a union jack shirt walking along with its eyes narrowed to the point of being totally shut. A myopic nationalist, who’d have thought it. Willie was the creation of the freelance artist Reg Hoye, who had first considered “a little man in a bowler hat” and “a man in a cloth cap” but wished to steer clear of class issues. “I don’t think the result’s pompous,” he insisted, “it’s just to show that we’re not as clapped out as some people think we are.” Hoye was paid a flat fee for his work while the FA creamed off all the profits from the various tat bearing Willie’s grinning boat. “The enormous success of Willie has not made Mr Hoye bitter,” reported the Guardian. “Only a little unhappy.”
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