The Story Of How Wolves STARTED The CHAMPIONS LEAGUE!!!

long-term subscribers of the channel may remember that last season I had said that my Uncle Jeff had unfortunately passed away now he was a massive wolver Hampton wanders fan and a few months before he passed away he told me a story and that story is one that I want to share with you guys today and that is the story of how wolver Hampton Wanderers in a sense created the Champions League the champions league is the creme DEA Creme of Club football and a competition that every player dreams of winning in their career only the elite few managed to get their hands on the trophy with even some of the finest players the sport has ever seen never managing to win it during their careers for a team to get their hands on this trophy it's a statement unless you're Real Madrid then it's just routine but for the players and fans it means everything with winning the competition a symbol of being crowned the greatest team in Europe it's a tournament that's given us some of the greatest nights in footballing history moments like Chelsea's heroics at the new camp in the semi-finals followed by the underdog Victory against Bayern in the final Liverpool's legendary comeback against AC Milan from 3-0 down at halim in Istanbul Porto's Champions League win against all the odds under Jose Mourinho as well as some of the most iconic goals we've ever seen what about that deep r on brilliant it's a competition for the best of the best in Europe and one that we all recognize as such but this story takes us all the way back to the very thought of a competition that would bring us so much magic now this story takes place in the 1950s so we're going to have to cast our minds back a bit the Molly new stadium behind me was one of the first stadiums in the country to have flood lights so as a result of this wolver Hampton wanders being one of the best teams in the country in fact wolver Hampton wanders had actually won the Premier League or as it was known back then division one title only the season before and meanwhile over in Budapest you had another European giant going by the name of Budapest honved who had as myle Jeff would describing one of the greatest players of all time and I think that's pretty hard to dispute in puscas fing puscas is well known of course for his time at Real Madrid where he won three Champions League titles with the club after it was formed but prior to his 8-year stim with Los Blancos puscas made 350 appearances for Budapest honved scoring 358 goals in 11 years in his time in Hungary today he is one of only seven players to have averaged over a goal a game in 1954 he was part of a honved side who had just won their fourth league title in six years under the stewardship of jeno kmer and playing alongside future Barcelona Stars Zan sbor and sandor coxis wolves has previously mentioned the reigning champions of England at this time after their first ever division one title was secured under the guidance of their legendary manager Stan Cullis their team boasted the likes of England Captain Billy Wright as well as Dennis wilshaw Johnny Hancock and Roy swinbourne the latter three of which all registered over 20 goals during that title winning season so with both teams at the peak of their powers nationally decisions were made to test this dominance further so what wolves decided to do was to arrange a series of friendlies in which they called the flood light friendlies of course being one of the first stadiums to actually have flood lights in the country and these friendlies were shown on the BBC in these games they took on European teams in an attempt to essentially just show off their new stadium show off their new flood lights and take on some European teams which didn't really happen at this point honved on the other hand decided to go and take on the Americas so we're talking South American teams we're talking possibly Actually I don't even know if American teams were going then I have to do my research on that but both clubs independently went about their way to organize some friendlies and between the 10 games that these two sides played only one game was lost and it was honved who actually lost that game with their floodlit friendlies scheduled over the course of the Autumn and Christmas period of the 1954 season wolves first hosted West Brom in the charity Shield ending in a 44 draw and seeing the trophy share between the bitter Rivals for only the second time in the competition's history as well as beating South Africa 3-1 and Celtic 2-n the year before following the West Brom draw wolves earned a 3-1 win against Racing Club of Buenos SZ as well as a 10-n hammering of makabi Tel Aviv and a 4-n thrashing of spartac Moscow the only side who avoided defeat and wolv series of friendlies was first Vienna who played out a nil nil draw these friendlies had seen foreign football capture the Curiosity of journalists and football fans alike from Intrigue in their pre-match Walmart UPS to the reaction of their backro staff and the whole concept seemed alien ped's friendlies however were less publicized and couldn't be found anywhere online so for that piece of information you'll just have to trust that Uncle Jeff knew what he was on about now after these games have been played it was put forward to both clubs about the possibility of playing a friendly between both sides to see who was the best club in the world and that's exactly what they did right in the mall and you behind me once again the game was shown live on the BBC as well as in front of 55,000 Spectators wolver Hampton Wanderers took on Budapest HED in an attempt to see who was the best club in Europe on December the 13th 1954 the stage was set the best team in Europe had made the trip to face the best team in England and with Hungary having twice beaten England at International level including the infamous 63 match of the century at Wembley the stakes for this game reached far beyond Club level upon their arrival Hon's team were treated like celebrities being hounded for autographs and their talented Squad then becoming household names just 14 minutes into the match and honved were 2-n up with coxis and fem maos giving the visitors a comfortable lead by halim but during this break a dirty tactic was used by Wolves to muddy the molu pitch as they pulled water across the playing surface to make it boggy and more difficult for the honved players to execute their quick passing play as a result hd's passes became more disrupted with the ball repeatedly suck in the mud giving wolves a away back into the game in the 49th minute Johnny hanock pulled a goal back for wolves from the penalty spot and with 15 minutes to go Roy snor headed home to find an equalizer sending the Wolves fans into raptures it took swim born just 2 minutes to find his second of the night and put wolves into a 3-2 lead and when the fulltime whistle went the floodlit molu could be heard for miles it was the Birmingham Gazette publishing the headline wolves champions of the world the next day that sparked the debate of whether or not this was English arrogance or if a fairer method could be used to determine a European Champion French journalist Gabrielle Hano published an article in Le that read before we declare that wolver Hampton are invincible let them go to mosow and Budapest and there are other internationally renowned clubs Milan and Real Madrid to name but two a club World Championship or at least a European one larger more meaningful and more prestigious than the M Tropa cup and more original than a competition for national teams should be launched and thus the ball was rolling just half a year later at the start of the 1955 56 season the first edition of the European Cup began with neither wolver Hampton Wanderers or honed involved furthermore neither side has ever won European football's most coveted trophy but it is without a doubt that the drama and the excitement that spawned from that night at the Molen is one that has set the tone for all of those glorious years that followed so from two goals down to eventually turn it round and Win It 32 the friendly that dubbed wolves are champions of Europe is unfortunately the only time that any wolves fan would have ever heard heard that said about their Club because despite playing in European competitions even as recently as 2020 with the Europa League where they reached the quarter finals wolves have never won any European silverware but what they do have is some bragging rights over arguably winning the first ever champions league is it somewhat similar to like when West Ham fans say that they're the team that won the World Cup back in 1966 maybe a little bit but it is without question an intriguing bit of trivia and one that I certainly found interesting to research so much so that I thought it's worth sharing in with you guys but ladies and gentlemen if you have enjoyed please let me know down in the comments and if you've got any quirky interesting stories similar to the one that we've covered today let me know but for now I will see you guys in the next one thank you so much for watching as always that one's for you Uncle Jeff see you guys in the next one take care peace and love [Music] oh