HibeeJibee Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 In June 1966... shortly before that World Cup where no-one seems to remember who won... Stirling Albion set-out on a World Tour. On Wednesday 15th June they played AEK Athens, the Greek Cup winners and the Balkan Cup finalists, and lost 2-0. On Saturday 18th June they played a Tehran Select XI in Iran infront of 35,000 and won 1-0. On Friday 24th June they met an All-Japan XI (presumably a select of Japanese league players - i.e. including foreigners?), and won 3-1. They concluded the trip on Sunday 26th June, beating the Japan national team 4-2 in Tokyo. According to the statistical pamphlet 'Stirling Albion FC - 1945-1988' the tour was initiated upon the invitation of the Japanese FA - and Albion were "the first British football team to play in Japan, and the event is commemorated with a plaque inside Tokyo's Olympic Stadium" where "Stirling played infront of huge crowds". I'd never heard of this trip before, which was quite audacious for a club of Albion's size, and very successful considering their opponents (1966 is fairly far into the 'modern era'). Is this event well-known among Albion fans? Anyone got further details? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drs Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Very well known. The Albion were allegedly a replacement for Sheffield Wednesday who had to pull out and so the Japanese selected another team starting with S to visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
latapythelegend Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Probably took a better away support back then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivo den Bieman Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 a small knot of red-and white-scarved loons bellowing "GETITRIGHTUPYE" and making the appropriate gestures after their victory in Tokyo over the Japanese national side? The mind boggles. (very interesting story, mind. A wee bit like Cowden's German tour of the early 1930s mentioned in Ron Ferguson's book) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnash Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Very well known. The Albion were allegedly a replacement for Sheffield Wednesday who had to pull out and so the Japanese selected another team starting with S to visit. Yes, we were in the top flight at the time (in much bigger league of course), so the Japanese probably thought we'd be a similar standard. Given that we actually beat their national team, it's probably just as well Wednesday couldn't make it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnash Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Probably took a better away support back then! Yeah apparently we took 3000 supporters to every game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murdo1 Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Attached are photos of the programme and tickets from the two games in the Japan leg of the Bino's World Tour from my own Japanese football memorabilia collection :-) The programme covered both games in Japan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruoninga Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Attached are photos of the programme and tickets from the two games in the Japan leg of the Bino's World Tour from my own Japanese football memorabilia collection :-) The programme covered both games in Japan. Unlucky that the program actually speaks about a Japanese-English encounter... https://translate.google.nl/#ja/en/日英 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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