Euro 2024 Route: German soil fertile Orange soil (1)

(West) Germany has hosted a major tournament three times before (Euro 1988, World Cup 1974, and World Cup 2006). On all occasions, the Dutch national team participated and achieved great success. German soil is fertile ground for the Dutch footballers. Expectations are high for Euro 2024. In recent weeks, the media (newspapers, TV, and online) have focused primarily on the successes of the 1974 World Cup (50 years ago). This blog features the philately of the 1974 World Cup.

The last two editions of football stamps

 

 

1974 World Cup in West Germany

General The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth edition of an international football competition between the national men's teams of countries affiliated with FIFA. West Germany (and West Berlin) served as host of the championship's finals, as decided by FIFA on July 6, 1966, during a congress in London. 99 countries participated in the qualifying tournament, of which 92 actually took part. The draw for the World Cup finals was held on Saturday, January 5, 1974, in Frankfurt am Main (West Germany). In 1974, a second round consisting of group matches was played for the first time, rather than quarter-finals and semi-finals as in previous editions. The advantage of this was that twice as many matches would have to be played between the first round and the finals. A potential disadvantage could be that teams might adopt a defensive and risk-averse approach. This proved not to be the case at this tournament. The new format was retained at the 1978 World Cup; in 1982, the number of participating countries was expanded to 24, making a different format necessary.   Final The 1974 FIFA World Cup final was the 10th edition of the football match played as part of the FIFA World Cup. The match took place on Sunday afternoon, July 7, 1974, between the Netherlands and West Germany. The final was played at the Olympiastadion in Munich. Everyone knows the images and the result of the final between the Netherlands and West Germany: 1–2. West Germany's right-back at the time, Berti Vogts, stated in 1997 that the penalty awarded to West Germany was unjustified. However, he remains the only member of the team willing to comment on the matter. Brazilian João Havelange (former FIFA president from 1974 to 1998) claimed in 2008, without substantiation, that match-fixing occurred in the 1966 and 1974 World Cups to ensure England and West Germany would become champions.  

Dutch editions 1974

This issue, better known as the football stamp (1974), was issued simultaneously with the tennis stamp as part of the sports series. See my earlier blog 125 years KNLTB (1899) about the tennis stamp. The Netherlands just barely qualified for the final round, which was organized by our neighboring country, the Federal Republic of Germany (= West Germany). Given the great interest in this sporting event, the PTT issued a special stamp. This stamp was designed by Jan Boterman (1943).

Jan Boterman has depicted the game of football by showing the black and white match ball before it is played, lying by one of the white marking lines on the grass pitch. He has symbolically indicated the colorful atmosphere in a stadium during the match by the strip of color at the edge of the field. The whole is therefore a 'cool' record of an exciting sporting event. Through this choice, the game of football is depicted in its essence, rather than through an illustration of one of the thousand and one possible game situations. The image is left to the imagination of the user of the stamp. The exact photographic representation of the ball on the field offers a very realistic starting point for this. Is the ball on or off the field? [/ One_half] [one_half_last]         During the 1974 World Cup, the PTT had become too eager. According to the newspaper De Tijd, production had already begun on 7,5 million stamps bearing the inscription Holland World Champion 1974. Before the final, 100.000 copies had already been printed, which were therefore immediately destroyed. Some sources speak of a million stamps that were already ready at that time. A gigantic financial disaster, therefore.   Source used: Dutch stamps 1974 (backgrounds, design, emission data, etc.). If you want to read even more about the 1974 World Cup, read Auke Kok's standard work, *Wij waren de besten* (We Were the Best). A breathtaking account of a 'Black Sunday' that is etched in our collective memory. 'The 1974 World Cup. The Dutch national team surprises friend and foe with daring and successful attacking play – until everything goes wrong on that Black Sunday of July 7: the team is stopped in the final in an almost immoral manner by West Germany,' writes Auke Kok in his book *1974. Wij waren de besten*. Of course: the 1974 Dutch national football team was very strong, but moreover, a typical symbol of the Netherlands of those days. Relaxed, progressive, self-confident, even arrogant. It didn't care about anything and thought it knew it all. Was that why we went down so hard?

 

<strong> More info: </strong>

UEFA EURO 2024: https://www.uefa.com/euro2024/ KNVB Our Orange: https://www.onsoranje.nl/ Previous Route Euro 2024 blogs: https://www.postzegelblog.nl/tag/route-euro-2024/ Previous EURO2020 blogs: https://www.postzegelblog.nl/tag/euro2020/ The Orange Feeling of '74 (NOS, five episodes of feel-good program, June 10-14, 2024): https://npo.nl/start/serie/nos-het-oranjegevoel-van-74/seizoen-24/nos-het-wk-van-74_1