Letter to Danbury Mint (2001)

In 2001, a letter was written to Danbury Mint (the collectibles & memorabilia company) thanking them for their offer to provide a Gold Medal memorabilia piece to celebrate and commemorate Englands 5-1 victory over Germany in an International football (soccer) match.

The offer was not taken up and the letter went to great lengths to explain why.
The letter was also sent to like other like-minded individuals, friends, associates, sports fans, etc. and eventually found it's way across the globe from Hong Kong to California.
Not exactly world famous, but famous around the world nonetheless.
   
The letter was addressed and sent to Danbury Mint, but wasn't addressed at Danbury Mint - the concept of the Danbury Mint commemorative medals was certainly reviewed but the letter itself was really aimed at all the media 'experts', tabloid pundits, sporting journalists and jingoistic pontificators who make responses such as this necessary in the first place.
It was also aimed at the BBC and/ or BBC Sport who should be providing impartial or at least balanced news commentaries, and certainly should be prioritising the real news over the sporting/ trivial.

But what kicked this particular game off was the fact Danbury Mint directed their England Medal Offer to those on their mailing lists who had probably purchased collectables from the company before.
Fair enough. But the problem was they aimed this marketing mail-shot to those they felt were "like-minded sports fans" and would therefore be genuinely interested or only to keen to purchase.
And they clearly believed their "like-minded sports fans" included Scotland...    



25th September, 2001

F.A.O. Robert Olswang
Danbury Mint
Cox lane,
Chessington,
Surrey.
 
Dear Mr. Olswang
 
OFFER OF COMMEMORATIVE MEDAL (YOUR FLYER, RECEIVED 24/09/01)
 
I thank you for the kind offer which would enable me to pay out twenty five pounds plus postage to own a commemorative medal relating to a football game, which England won.

Please note however, I will not be pursuing said offer, which will I feel would be the likely response from quite a number of football fans ‘north of the border’, should they ever be made aware of it.
In fact if a poll were taken to establish the approximate number of sales up here, I would suggest that minting the medals would put you at a serious loss.

September 1st 2001.  Oh yes, the game in Germany, where England did indeed play superbly, bolstered by the correct attitude and a tactically astute manager. They beat a poor German team in a game which:
Did not earn automatic qualification to the World Cup;
Did not automatically put Germany out of the World Cup Qualifiers;
Did not lead to any trophy, medal or championship being won.

I therefore find myself at a loss to explain why you would wish to create a medal for such a game, as it surely cannot be because you simply hammered Germany on their own turf in a game of footy.
Do you lose that often to them in bigger games that it warrants this sort of media exposure?
Actually, now that I think of it…

However I seem to recall a particular victory against (then West) Germany in 1966, which thankfully the BBC, sorry EBC (English Broadcasting Corporation) continue to show/ repeat/ highlight whenever there is the slightest excuse, in case we forget. Surely that merits more of a ‘memory’ item?
All credit to England, they played well throughout, and although not the first or last team to benefit from being hosts, they did have the bonus of being the first team to win with the inclusion of a two-goal hat trick, and that in itself deserves a medal…

Maybe presenting this medal to those who deserve it would be a better idea:
Geoff Hurst, scorer of previously mentioned record setting hat trick;
John Motsom, the English football commentator who can bring up the topic of 1966 in any commentary or subject you care to mention, and usually does;
Jimmy Hill (a favourite up here), t.v. pundit and football 'expert' who wishes it was still 1966;
Bobby Charlton, ex-England International who played in the 1966 Final and one of the many who believes it should be 1966 every four years.
Or Sven Goran Eriksson, the England Coach who, as you correctly point out, was the architect of England’s recent successes.

Considering the flak the English F. A. received for having the nerve to go outside the green and pleasant lands to find somebody not perceived as “a turnip” (and the initial tabloid disgust), it’s a miracle he bothered to stick it out, and/ or say yes in the first place.
But here he is, the darling of the English International Soccer world.

It still seems incredulous that a foreigner had to be chosen, when you consider that within the English Premier League - "the greatest league in the world" I'm reliably informed - there are a number of highly rated and successful managers of fine meat and potato’s stock:
Messrs Ferguson, Houllier, O’Leary, Wenger… no, wait... Scottish, French, Irish (born in London though - does that help?), and French again. Bugger. Sorry.

And from our own point of view, I don’t recall any thoughts of medals, commemorative memorabilia etc. for our own boys when they came back from Germany in 1974 as the only undefeated team, nor the consecutive World Cup appearances which started that same tournament (something our illustrious neighbours’ didn’t manage).
Or for Archie Gemmil’s goal in 1978 against Holland, still regarded by many World Cup experts and aficionado’s around the globe as one of the best W.C. goals ever.
And of course, the little matter of Wembley 1967 when the current World Cup holders were… well, let’s just say were beaten, and leave it at that.

Since 1966, England have won the same major honours as Scotland at International level, i.e. none.
However we know our limitations, and though passionate and dedicated don’t take ourselves too seriously, and at this moment are a poor side in need of solid guidance. I for one wish the names were in fact McOwen, MacGerrard, etc.

In conclusion, I find the offer and the item itself quite sad as it is, after all, ‘only a game’.
I can think of many in New York for example that would be better served with medals - in fact the date 11th September 2001 is the only day we should remember in the ninth month of that year.

But I apologise for digressing - I was discussing football, which is a trivial matter in comparison to 9-11 and I therefore leave you with these thoughts:
The reason the Scots (and a lot of our Celtic brethren in Wales and Ireland) love to watch England playing football - in the hope they get gubbed - is a long story for another time. It can however be summed up nicely with two genuine comments...

During the last European Championships, a sporting radio show had conducted interviews with various fans in Britain and were asking the question why the Scots would usually shout for whoever England happened to be playing.
One answer - “I sat down to watch the first England game, with no real bias, until Des Lynam came on with his  ‘Hi, Des here, the Championships may have already started, but tonight they kick-off for real"… ’click’, off went the television and I went out to cut the grass.”

Another one which featured on a documentary was “I’m sorry, but even if England are playing the Invading Alien Martian Spiders in a pre-season friendly, I’m shouting for the guys with eight legs…”

There are other great moments of course – The 'Hand of God' goal by Diego Maradonna in 1986 for one (interesting amongst all the cries of ‘we were robbed’ and ‘cheat!’ the second goal where he ran round the entire England team twice including a stop for a pie and a pint before slipping it into the old pokey is handily forgotten).

So, did I mention no thanks on the medal thing?
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Ross Muir