The Southampton Spygate scandal has brought football espionage back into the spotlight. Many describe espionage as the world’s 2nd oldest profession, & is nothing new in football. Hence, here’s story of the Scotland Spygate, from playing West Germany at Mexico 86.
Background
At the 1982 World Cup in Spain, Gordon Strachan then of Aberdeen was Scotland’s most dangerous player. At the Mexico World Cup in 1986, Strachan (now of Manchester United), was again Scotland’s best player in their group opener v Denmark. Next, Scotland faced West Germany. The Germans were managed by that icon of global football, ex-World Cup winning captain, Franz Beckenbauer. Beckenbauer’s assistant was none other than future Scotland boss, the 1 & only Berti Vogts.
Mexico 86 Scotland Spygate
Craig Brown was part of Alex Ferguson’s coaching staff at Mexico 86. This is what ‘Broon’ in 2003 told The Independent.
“We had to play Germany in the second game, and Beckenbauer sent Berti to spy on our training, to see whether Strachan was fit or not. But Fergie had made the training private and Berti couldn’t get in. Berti showed great initiative. He had a German team jersey on, and saw these guys pulling barrels of Coca-Cola into the stadium, so he swapped his jersey for the Coca-Cola man’s overalls, wheeled a barrel in, watched the whole session, and went back and told Beckenbauer that Strachan was fit. I still call Berti the Coca-Cola man. He likes it, I think.”
The Germans were subjected to none of the repercussions currently potentially impacting Ross Stewart and Southampton.
And ironically…
Ironically, in 2002 Vogts succeeded Brown as Scotland boss. Regrettably though, Vogts became the 1st Scotland boss since Tommy Docherty 30 years prior, not to manage Scotland at a major tournament finals. Excluding 3 caretaker bosses, Vogts was the 1st of 6 successive Scotland managers not to do so. Subsequently, Gordon Strachan became another. Eventually, current boss Steve Clarke broke that sequence of non-success.
