The Fiver | Hankering after the golden age of Östers Idrottsförening

In today’s Fiver: Madrid, Fifa’s ethics-first era and betting on The Fiver

Nobody has retained Big Cup since Milan in 1990. This state of affairs is usually held up as evidence of how much harder it is to win Europe’s premier pot in the modern era. After all, you couldn’t triumph these days simply by beating Östers Idrottsförening, Argeș Pitești, Berliner Dynamo, a declining Ajax and a Hamburg side whose star striker was dreaming of his big-money move to Southampton, as Nottingham Forest did when they kept hold of old big ears in 1980. Mind you, to be scrupulously fair, Forest only had the opportunity to do that by winning a 42-game league in the first place, then their first Big Cup, all the while knowing that one slip would bring an abrupt and terminal halt to their almost-certainly-never-to-be-repeated adventure, as opposed to swanning around in the knowledge that whatever happens you’ll be guaranteed another go next year, and the one after that, and the one after that. But no, it was apparently a doddle in the old days. There’s no talking to some people, so let’s just go with that.

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