19 European Cup (now the Champions League) medals. Nineteen! That’s how many the 22 man squad England took to the 1980 European Championships had won between them. Liverpool’s golden age in Europe was well underway, and Brian Clough had led Nottingham Forrest to two successive titles in Europe.

The front line was led by Hamburg’s double European footballer of the year winning striker Kevin Keegan. There were still remaining players left over from Leeds United’s famous title winning team. And Trevor Francis was the first £1m footballer.

So even though this was the first major Championships England had attended since Gordon Banks tummy upset, we had every reason to go into that tournament feeling fairly confident.

Unlike in the modern age though, England playing in the European Championships, was not front, or back page news. Thatcher had become British Prime Minister, and rather like the modern age, the economy was a shambles. Two Million unemployed, the worst recession since before the Second World War, and so on was filling up the front pages.

And the papers didn’t look to the football to try and get people’s minds off of the madness going on outside their door – a controversial Olympic games was already doing that. Britian had entered a team, despite Thatcher calling for a boycott on the games because of the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan – America had decided not to take a team to Leningrad.

The format for the European Championships that year was odd. Eight qualifiers were divided into two groups, the winners from each contested the final. England were drawn in with Spain, Belguim and the hosts, Italy.

Italy were two years away from winning a world cup, but were going through a typically controversial period, talismanic striker Paulo Rossi was suspended for two years, and 33 players (including squad members) were on trial in Rome for matchfixing.

Meanwhile for England, Don Revie had been replaced by the very nice Ron Greenwood. Further proof that we were robbed not having Brian Clough, Greenwood was possibly the nicest England manager we’ve ever had, he was lovely. He was so nice, he described the 22 man squad as equals, and declared they’d all get a game in the tournament. He even couldn’t decide between his two world-class keepers Ray Clemence and Peter Shilton, so he rotated the two. Both could have done a job for England, but they couldn’t both do a job for England.

Anyway England could look at the group and think that maybe that had a good chance of making the final. Unfortunatly the European Championships started pushing the Olympics off the back pages. For all the wrong reasons.

200 English and Italian hooligans clashed in the streets, making front page news all across Europe. The next day England played Belguim, in a game they should have been winning rather easily. England opened the scoring, but after Belguim equalised, the large Italian contingent started cheering, and the England fans charged them. The Italian police released tear-gas into the crowd, Ray Clemence whose turn it was to keep goal that day suddenly couldn’t see what he was doing.

The game stopped for five minutes while he recovered, and when the game kicked back off, England had a goal disallowed for offside. The game finished 1-1.

Obviously the result didn’t make the news, the teargassed yob’s did. And next England played Italy. The hosts had drawn 0-0 with Spain in the opener, so it was still anyone’s group.

This time the “Supporters” didn’t even wait for the game to start, a full hour before kick off there was fighting in the stadium. When the team finally made it out onto the pitch, they had other worries.

“We came out in our Admiral tracksuits” recalls Kenny Samson “Then the Italians, fantastically suntanned appeared in these ice-blue tracksuits…we felt we were 1-0 down already”.

Marco Tardelli, who would become rather famous for another late goal, headed in a goal to send England’s chances of making the final in tatters. Kevin Keegan repeatedly tried to score at the other end, but Dino Zoff was having a wildly successful game in the Italian goal, and kept everything at bay.

Keegan then took a post-match interview in which he mentioned the Italian match-fixing scandal. The quote was taken by the Italian press to insinuate that the ref had been bought, and Keegan spent his entire preperations for the Spain game besiged by press, untill eventually it was revealed that his quote was taken completely out of context.

Greenwood changed most of his XI for the Spain game, and 19 of the 22 ended up getting to play some part in the tournament. England won 2-1, but it wasn’t anywhere near enough to progress.

What if, the hooliginism hadn’t overshadowed the tournament? This is when the term “The English disease” was coined in relation to the problem, and the 1984 Euro’s, which England wanted, went to France instead. We had to wait untill 1996 for our turn.

What if, Keegan had found a way past Dino Zoff? What if that offside goal against Belguim had been given?

Well we had the team, and with their European Cup record, the experience, if not the international experience. But we would have played a decent German team in the final, and it would have been interesting, as all England/Germany games are.

We’d probably have lost on penalties wouldn’t we?

However, the reason he’s gone down in history is because he stepped into Gordon Banks shoes at the 1970 World Cup after the latter got food poisoning. The Chelsea keeper then had a game to forget, and England went crashing out of the World Cup. Of course, we’re still waiting for the chance to use the phrase “defending champions” again.

If anything, England went into the 1970 World Cup with a better team than they had won the World Cup with four years earlier. The England squad can be found on FIFA’s website, here. We particuarly look strong at the back, Banks one of the best ever keepers was our number one, with the well regarded Bonetti and European Cup winner Stepney his back up. That kind of depth is actually apparent all the way through the squad – Norman Hunter, Nobby Stiles, Jack Charlton, Emlyn Hughes, Peter Osgood and Jeff Astle were all quality players sat on England’s bench.

So we had a right to be confident. We opened our campaign with an efficent, though unspectacular win against Romania, thanks to a Geoff Hurst goal. We then played a very famous game against Brazil. One of the best sides ever assembled, England matched them all over the pitch, with Bobby Moore having the game of his life, and we might have salvaged a draw had Jeff Astle hit the net. In fact, Pelé told Bobby Moore after the match he would see him again in the final.

Had we got a draw with Brazil, it would have been very different. But that’s a what if for another day. A penalty against the Czech’s meant that we made it through the group despite the loss against Brazil, in second place.

History meanwhile, has got that German side all wrong when you go back and look at the facts. We’re often told that the Germans are always a solid, efficent kind of side, their best player was Franz Beckenbauer, a defender. However, this was actually a free flowing, free scoring German side – who looked troubled at the back. The German’s had scored ten goals in their group matches, but had conceeded four, and failed to keep a clean sheet.

So if someone could hold them out, it would be the team they would meet next. In a rematch of the 1966 final, Germany were to play England in the World Cup Quarter Final. If anyone was going to stop the free scoring Germans (led by Der Bomber, Gerd Muller – the fact that he’s Gary Lineker’s favourite ever player tells you all you need to know, well that and he had 7 of Germany’s ten goals) it was going to be Banks. Fresh from keeping out Pelé what could stop him?

So the England squad are sat around the night before the match. Annoyed that Bobby Moore had been accused of theft in an attempt to upset the side, and annoyed at the noise from outside the hotel, the lads go and get something to eat. Fate would strike.

The boys have been told to eat Fish Fingers as they are high in protein. Gordon Banks has a better idea and rummages around to find some sausages instead. He eats them, and promptly gets very sick indeed. With absolutely no notice, on the morning of the game, Peter Bonetti is thrown into the lions den, and has to face an absurdly in-form German strike force.

It does not go well. England went two nil up, and dominated early on, the goals came from Alan Mullary and 1966 hero Martin Peters. However, Bonetti, looking a bit shakey in goal, dived lamely over a Franz Beckenbauer strike to put the Germans back in. Seeler got the leveller after Bonetti was miles off his line, confusingly out of position.

An England-Germany match went to extra-time again. Alas, it was not like 1966, and a Gerd Muller (who else?) goal put the Germans in the semi final.

So lets rewind, and invoke the What if. What if, Banks had fish fingers with the rest of the boys, and didn’t come down with food poisoning the next morning?

Now I would hate to lay the blame entirely at Bonetti (I’m not, by the way, it must be a bit nerve-wracking to be told on the coach there that your playing a World Cup QF on such short notice), but watch the highlights, and tell me that either of the first two German goals goes in with Banks in goal (or indeed, a Peter Bonetti who’s expecting to play). They wouldn’t. England would have won.

Which would have set up a game with Italy in the semi-final. Far from their modern day reputations, it would have been England who would have looked to have ground out a result here. Banks, in the form of his life would have kept it tight at the back, while England nicked a goal and headed to that reunion with Pelé and Brazil in the final.

There’s no doubting the quality of that Brazil side. There is also no doubting how close we pushed them for a draw in the group. Who knows what would have happened in that final? It isn’t inconceivable that England would have won though, fired up and looking to make amends for the group stage.

Peter Bonetti, in this timeline, would go on to have a magnificent England career by the way. In the real timeline, he conceeded just one goal in his other six matches for England, which shows he really was a quality goalkeeper. After 1970, Banks would slow down in the England goal, and Bonetti would have been the ideal replacement, and, not dogged by memories of 1970, would be England’s number one for years, even keeping Peter Shilton out of the team in the latters early days – thus ensuring that now, in this alternate 2009, David Beckham is England’s leading caps-getter. Shilton went on to become an England legend, but his slightly later start meant he never amassed the 125 caps he has.

Think that I’ve taken the knock on effect too far? Well check this out, the world might have been even more different had Banks stuck to the Captain Birdseye.

So I thought, in what will hopefully become a long running and fruitful series, I’d take a look at what might have been had we only had a little bit of luck, a small moment had gone our way, and hopefully prove that at the end of the day winning a world cup is 90% fluke.

Look at our own World Cup win! The was-it-over-the-line question still hasn’t been answered properly, and had it not counted, it would have changed the game.

I should also say these posts aren’t intended to be a whinge and a moan, or even suggest that England deserved to win every world cup and Euro of all time, because we didn’t. Its just a bit of fun, and a fun look at the Butterfly effect. So on to the first one. Maradona and his Hand of God.

A moment so controversial, it seemed to spark a rivalry in an instant. Forget all that talk of the Faklands War and all that, the real reason England and Argentina have gotten to the point where they can’t look each other in the eye, is all down to Maradona not playing by the rules. Certainly its why Scotland love the Argies.

Lets be honest, we started slowly in 1986. A 1-0 defeat to Portugal left us a bit shocked and in trouble. We followed that up with a less than impressive 0-0 draw against Morocco. So two games down in the group, and we’re on one point, staring elimination in the face. Luckily we started playing in the third game, and a superb Gary Lineker hat-trick sent us through in second place.

A repeat result against Paraguay (3-0) put us through to the Quarter-Finals, where we would play an Argentina side who were being dragged kicking-and-screaming through the tournament by the demented genius of Diego Maradona. The Falklands War was four years ago, and Argentina would love to beat us. They still hadn’t forgiven us for the match in 1966 either.

We were starting to look more confident, and Peter Shilton was at his absolute best that day. Unfortunatly a hooked clearance from Steve Hodge (off point, but isn’t that the worst clearance you’ve ever seen? I mean really.) meant that Shilton would have to come off his line and punch the ball away. Maradona ran in, and punched the ball over his head.

Bobby Robson, sat on the sidelines, has said since that he was waiting for the moment when the linesman would flag, or the Ref whistle. But no-one did. None of the Argentina team celebrated at first, untill it became clear that actually, the goal was going to be given.

Now just for a second, lets imagine that, as Maradona must have expected, the goal was not given, and merely a free-kick to England was given. Its still 0-0, and Maradona doesn’t have the belief that everything is going to go his way. He doesn’t have the unshakable confidence to whatever the hell he likes.

He still picks the ball up on the halfway line, but his andrenline isn’t flowing quite the same, and the England defence is concentrating, not distracted by the atrocity of justice minutes before.

Instead of not bothering, Peter Reid sticks in a crunching tackle on Maradona, and leaves the Argentine flat on the deck. Maradona spends the rest of the game sulking with a slight limp. Gary Lineker, in absurdly good form, and at that point, the best out and out striker in the world, scores late on, this time its the winner. England are through 1-0.

Maradona never quite lives up to his legend on the international stage, and indeed with the world robbed of the “Goal of the Century“, later generations wonder what all the fuss was all about.

England, meanwhile, buyoyed from beating the overhyped Argies, dispatch easily a Belguim side which had only managed a draw against a Paraguay side England had beaten 3-0 earlier in the tournament. Lineker cemented his legend, with two more goals, and England were in the final.

Who else for England to face in the final but the Germans. Fate has a wit it would seem. I’m not saying that England would easily walk this one, but the sides look fairly evenly matched on paper (and indeed, it went to penalties when similar looking sides met four years later, but that another time). I don’t think it would be a stretch to say, an England team that hadn’t conceeded since the group stage, in buyont form, and boasting the tournaments top scorer by miles, would be able to beat a German side, knackered after beating the Platini inspired France four days earlier.

Gary Lineker would go down as one of the all-time greats, not just one of England’s greats, Terry Butcher would be held in nearly as high regard as Sir Bobby Moore, when Glenn Hoddle became England Manager before the 1998 World Cup, it would be as a World Cup Winner.

Funny how things turn out eh?