[commentator] Oh, what's going on here? Cantona's getting involved with supporters.
It's all got wildly out of hand.
-[interviewer] It's just a statement, yeah? -I've got a statement to make.
-And is that it? Can I ask you questions after that? -Yes, you can, yeah.
Is there a police statement to make about tonight's events involving Eric Cantona?
Only in as far as we have received two allegations of assault
from members of the public.
[reporter] Eric Cantona,
the darling of Manchester United, captain of France,
the players' own Player of the Year,
tonight stands accused
of placing a stain on the game of football.
If you want to be free,
I don't think you can accept the role of example
or something like this,
because it's too much pressure.
The Football Association has approved
controversial plans to set up a new super league.
[commentator] And he goes. Oh!
When Murdoch wrote the cheque, everyone said, "Poor old Rupert's lost it this time."
How big it was gonna be, I don't think anyone could have predicted.
I would love it if we beat them. Love it.
It's just all money. This club is one big theme park now.
[man] Footballers became sort of like rock stars.
I don't think anything prepares you for media attention at such a young age.
[Merson] I've got a choice in life now.
I either go back to the booze and the gambling and the drugs,
or I go the other way.
It's like a religion. It's something to believe in.
And it's Pallister, and it's in!
[Pallister] '92-'93, we won the first Premier League trophy. We'd done it.
[commentator] And that's the moment Old Trafford has been waiting for.
It was what you always imagined doing, really, when you won the title, was to lift that trophy.
-[stadium announcer] Gary Pallister! -[crowd cheers]
[Pallister] After that, we went out and won the title again the following year,
and that was because the shackles were off.
[narrator] By the start of the third Premier League season,
a new financial reality was dawning on English football.
This is Manchester pudding. Couldn't be better.
-[Alex Ferguson] Absolutely superb. -Thank you.
[narrator] Manchester United had broken the British transfer record
to sign Roy Keane for nearly ú4 million.
The country's richest club looked unstoppable.
United, in every sense, were the club.
You know, look at the size of the stadium, the fans, the quality of the players.
They were the gold standard.
If you went to Old Trafford
and you lost 1-0 or 2-0,
you felt like you'd had a result, as stupid as that sounds,
because, you know, they could take teams to the sword there
and you could get absolutely battered, because they just had phenomenal players.
[Parker] United had won it two on the bounce,
and Sir Alex Ferguson wasn't about just doing it once and living off of that.
[Pallister] You're trying to create a dynasty.
Alex Ferguson wanted to dominate English football.
[narrator] Thirty miles north, a less illustrious neighbour
had United in their sights.
Blackburn Rovers hadn't won a top-division title since before the First World War.
[Preugschat] I think in Blackburn, people belonged to the club
and the club belonged to the people,
and the town needed a lift.
They lost a lot of the mills and there was a lot of unemployment.
But I think there's always been football,
no matter what, and it lifts people.
So, Jack Walker taking over,
we were all very grateful that he'd bought the club.
Very grateful, and we knew that we were going to go places.
[reporter] Steel magnate Jack's money brought Blackburn out of Division 1,
but a man whose personal wealth is believed in excess of 300 million
articulates his motives in simple words.
We needed a stadium, we got a stadium.
We needed a squad, we're getting a squad. A bit to do yet.
I remember at the time that, you know,
I was sent up to Blackburn to do a piece about what it means to the town,
and what it meant to the town was absolutely huge.
Jack Walker wanted to put Blackburn on the map.
He rebuilt Ewood Park, in amongst all the terraced houses of Blackburn.
It looked like a spacecraft had arrived in the middle of the town,
and in a sense, it had.
Suddenly, there was this glamour that came with money.
They were able to buy in players.
[narrator] Jack Walker had already spent big since he took control of Blackburn in 1991.
He'd surprised everyone by luring legendary manager Kenny Dalglish to the club.
[Harman] I think the appointment of Kenny Dalglish as the manager of Blackburn
was one of the more remarkable moments of that period of the Premier League.
[Shearer] Kenny Dalglish was one of the biggest names in football at the time.
He had an aura about him. This absolute legend of a player.
He'd managed Liverpool, he'd won so many trophies, both as a player and as a manager,
and for him to be at Blackburn, everyone stood up and paid attention.
There was a lot of speculation in the media
about Blackburn having a new owner
and the new owner having a lot of money and gonna invest in it.
It just seemed a wee bit of a Cinderella story. I said, "May as well have a go."
[narrator] Walker had provided Dalglish with a massive war chest to sign rising stars
like Alan Shearer and Graeme Le Saux.
If Jack were gonna make this happen, he would have to invest in players.
He didn't just sign players, he signed quality players.
And he sold 'em all the same dream and they all got on board.
[Le Saux] Everything about it was optimistic.
There was a common goal within the Blackburn dressing room.
There was a common goal within the hierarchy of the club.
[narrator] Having spent ú20 million but still failing to win the title,
Jack Walker doubled down.
He smashed the British transfer record for the second time in two years.
The most expensive player in the history of British football has signed for Blackburn Rovers.
The Lancashire club has paid ú5 million for Norwich striker Chris Sutton.
It means he's worth eight times his weight in gold.
[commentator] The signing of Sutton adds another name to the list of expensive purchases
made by Kenny Dalglish for Blackburn.
[Dalglish] The thing about Blackburn spending money on players,
I think it upset a few people,
because it was another one coming to the fore,
and I don't think they liked that.
[commentator] There seems no end to the funds available to Dalglish,
and the arrival of Sutton emphasizes even further
Walker's desire to bring the championship to Blackburn.
Blackburn's ability to spend money on transfers,
massive money, money that we'd never even contemplated before,
transformed football to the point
where everybody said, "This has shifted up a gear.
If we wanna compete with Blackburn, we're not gonna be outspent.
We're a bigger club. We actually now have to do something about it."
To use the phrase "arms race" would be appropriate,
because that's what it became. "We'll spend this. We'll spend this."
[Preugschat] We were going into a different era of football with the Premier League
'cause that's when all the prices went up.
It was like going from an Asda to a Waitrose, weren't it?
[commentator] It may only be late October, but the pressure's already on
for the most successful club in England over the past couple of seasons.
Today, the meeting of the two clubs
who raced to the line for the Premiership title last season.
[narrator] This David-and-Goliath story
would begin in the first head-to-head of the season,
with Blackburn welcoming the reigning champions Manchester United
to their new stadium.
[commentator] It's one big test after another for Manchester United,
with Blackburn Rovers totally focused on proving they have what it takes
and give this town and its spectacular new stadium
a prize worthy of the huge investment now behind Blackburn Rovers Football Club.
[narrator] If Blackburn were to lose,
United would move ahead of them in the table.
[Sutton] I think the importance of the first head-to-head
is the psychological damage which we could inflict upon them.
Cantona...
For Manchester United, you look at the team that they had
and you look at the quality in each position, that was a huge goal for us.
You know, you're playing against the best team in the country.
[commentator] Le Saux takes.
Schmeichel's come a long way. Oh, and the punch...
goes to Warhurst!
-Goal! -[crowd cheering]
Hughes. Halftime is beckoning, but Lee Sharpe--
It's a penalty!
I can't believe that decision.
I cannot believe that decision!
The ball came off.
Oh, that's unbelievable!
[Cantona] When you play in a big club
against a smaller club, you have an advantage.
It's the history of the club.
It's a part of the psychological war, you know?
Which is very, very important.
[commentator] Oh!
If we can beat United,
the belief that that puts in us is huge.
[crowd chanting]
[commentator] It was a 3-2 win here eight days ago.
Oh, Le Saux for Hughes, and it's 3-2 against Blackburn.
Oh, I remember that now.
[commentator] ...and make absolutely sure for Manchester United.
Sharpe's with him. Kanchelskis.
Still. And still. 4-2!
[narrator] Blackburn's new ú26 million squad
had failed to land a blow on the reigning champions.
I think the best ones were at United and they couldn't buy them.
You know, so they could buy anybody,
but the best ones were at United, so we were the better team.
[narrator] Sky's coverage of this crucial head-to-head was watched
in homes and pubs across the country.
The Premier League was fast becoming must-see TV,
and with a growing audience, yet more money flowed into the game.
Football became an industry much more than it had been before,
and it was a huge part of the tapestry of the country by then.
Everybody was talking about the Premier League.
But I think football struggled to deal with that,
and by that I mean the figures that were becoming involved in football
were so far and away above anything that had been spoken of before.
It was moving away from the man on the terrace.
Too much driven by money, too little driven by sporting spirit.
That's the Labour leader Tony Blair's verdict on our football clubs.
[narrator] In four years, the cost of a Manchester United season ticket
had gone up by 70%.
Amongst the ordinary soccer supporters of this land,
there's a great fear that they're gonna be priced out of football,
and something has got to be done.
[chattering]
[narrator] Prices were rising, and a big chunk of the cash
was ending up in the players' pockets.
Eric Cantona, the joint top Premier League earner,
was said to be on ú10,000 a week.
Most of the time, it was the journalists who asked questions like this,
"Oh, do you think there is now too much money in football?"
But they are the one who made it, or the Sky Sports and everything.
They are the one who made the system.
[man] There was a moral judgment placed on how much money players were getting,
because we identified them as wealth,
and with wealth came assumptions of how they should behave.
[narrator] The widening divide between fans and players
and the growing media infatuation with the new stars
meant an even-brighter spotlight was being shone on their lives.
[commentator] And Le Saux!
[Le Saux] My own story was my background or the fact I was a bit different,
maybe I didn't conform with the stereotypes.
I turned up with my sort of student look, my little, you know, shoulder bag,
Guardiansticking out the top of it,
turned-up jeans, liberty patch on my-- in the rip, you know.
Thought I was a bit of a student. [laughs]
And walked into a dressing room
of younger players and senior players that had a very...
Uh, I suppose there was quite a stereotypical image of what a footballer should look like.
Rumours spread about me that I was gay.
And we played West Ham
and the West Ham fans started singing a song about me, a homophobic song.
I remember during the game thinking, "This is a problem.
This could be very difficult for me."
And, you know, the Daily Star had a headline about me
on the front page of their newspaper at some point,
when I first started seeing my now wife.
Front page headline the day before a big game that we played in
with "Homo Le Saux Not My Graeme"
on the front page of the newspaper.
And I laugh, 'cause it's just so--
I mean, it's just so out of date and offensive to everyone,
you know, that they felt that was acceptable, to write that headline.
But clearly it's there to set a conversation and to reinforce--
You know, it gave me even more unwanted attention.
Just a postscript to the Graeme Le Saux story, Hugh,
I see that Vinnie Jones of Wimbledon, writing in the Mirrortoday--
That sensitive creature? Yes, that's the fella.
He says that Le Saux has a nickname called "Tiny Tears," and he writes that--
"Chelsea players," he says, "would go to the Fox & Duck public house,
while Le Saux would strut into King's Road wine bars."
You see, the problem is that footballers just aren't allowed to be different, are they?
Even we read in The Suntoday that Le Saux is a Guardianreader, forgive him.
There was a period of time when you couldn't differentiate between sport and news,
and it got very messy.
The England and Arsenal footballer, Paul Merson, broke down in tears today,
as he told of his experiences in an addiction rehabilitation clinic.
He said it was the hardest thing he'd ever done.
[press agent] It's obviously a very difficult situation for Paul.
I can remember being called to a press conference
where Paul Merson broke down. He obviously couldn't cope.
I mean, the poor guy looked absolutely suicidal.
I was drinking heavy and I was gambling like a maniac,
and then I found cocaine and it just completely changed me,
changed the way I was.
The addiction-- you know, if you're an addictive person,
it becomes even more addictive. And one of the last things was,
I did play in a game and I went out that night and then I went to a bar after,
and I was-- I got a black cab from the bar to training in the morning,
and I was snorting in the back of the black cab,
and the bloke was going to me, "What are you doing, son?"
I feel myself dying, I really do.
You know, the thoughts are in my head. I didn't feel right in me,
and I went to see Ken Friar, and I said, "I'm struggling."
And they got this man in called Stephen Stevens from the Priory hospital,
and they said, "You've gotta come in to our treatment centre."
I've got a choice in life now. I either go back to the booze
and the gambling and the drugs or I go the other way,
and that's my objective for today.
I can only take it a day at a time, that's what I've been learnt.
Was that a news story of was that a football story? Well, it's partly both.
It did become tough to navigate your way through.
[Merson] Yeah, the press, they had to sell papers. It was a big thing then.
It was big news, you know. Someone's taking cocaine playing for Arsenal.
It was big. People were going, "Ban him for life."
I'll never forget that. You know, that was the panic. I was thinking--
You know, I didn't know I was an addict at the time.
I just thought I was greedy and weak and didn't care less.
I didn't know I had an illness at the time, so I was worried. I was worried.
I was thinking, you know, "If they take football away from me, what have I got?"
Let's go down and have a little look and see.
[narrator] Meanwhile, on the pitch, Blackburn were hitting a run of form.
...amazed, Richard. We'll deal with Blackburn first.
If there were any surprises formation-wise, it'll be--
We've talked about Blackburn so often. The back four of Berg, Pearce, Hendry and Le Saux.
[narrator] Jack Walker's ú26 million gamble was starting to pay off.
[commentator] Sutton gets it back. Tries! And scores.
I remember going to games just knowing we were gonna win.
[commentator] There's Shearer! Off the post. Finished off by Wilcox.
I haven't often felt so confident in the players who we had,
the way we were playing.
We are just going to beat you up.
[commentator] Shearer!
Every game we were winning, it was just magical.
That feeling that we're gonna win this, it's something within you.
It's like a religion. It's something to believe in.
[commentator] Interception by Le Saux.
[Le Saux] We were magnificent over Christmas,
and that gave us belief that we could mount a serious challenge.
[commentator] Hanging on to it until the moment's right. Now it may be.
It is because Shearer's there! And Shearer's scored.
We had momentum. We were looking forward to every game. We were in our, sort of, groove.
-[whistle blows] -[commentator] Le Saux is there,
and he takes it! Graeme Le Saux for Blackburn!
[Shearer] We all knew the system and we played it really well.
And then, I mean, we hit the front, top of the Premier League.
Well, there's a long way to go, we've only just passed the halfway mark now.
We're not even into January yet.
We'll carry on, we'll hopefully give it our best shot.
We're sitting at the top. We're there to be shot at. Who knows?
It felt like a very galvanized group,
and I think, again, that's something, for me,
that really stands out about that team during that period,
our ability to just focus on what our responsibilities were and what we were in control of.
[narrator] Three months after their last clash,
Blackburn were five points ahead of United in the league,
and the rivals were facing off again.
[commentator] A really big occasion at Old Trafford. The theatre of dreams.
And the two teams coming out, you can see the tension etched on the faces here.
Blackburn looking for their first championship since 1914,
Manchester United seeking their third championship in a row.
[Sutton] Going into the game at Old Trafford,
we were all focused on go there, win the game, put this title race to bed.
[commentator] Quick look up. It's Cantona!
And he's scored!
My job as a defender in playing against him was to stop him doing that,
but you realize that sometimes with players like that, you can't.
[commentator 1] Berg, Shearer coming in!
Off Sherwood! No.
[commentator 2] He's given a push against Alan Shearer, Martin.
[commentator 1] Well, you may never hear the last of this, from a Blackburn point of view.
Now this was the key moment, Andy.
[commentator 2] Well, I tell you, there was no more than an arm up there.
I certainly thought Shearer didn't do an awful lot wrong.
I mean, you couldn't make it up, really. They needed that result to stay in the race.
United move to within two points of Blackburn at the top.
Eric Cantona yet again is the United hero.
[McCarthy] I think Eric Cantona, he always struck me as something like a Roman emperor.
He would sit there and his chest would be puffed out and he would have that haughty gaze,
and it made the Premier League, the rest of the Premier League, and fans,
sit up in their seats and say, "Well, this is something different.
This is now what the Premier League could be."
[narrator] Manchester United's French goal scorer had become their talisman,
and the more success he had on the pitch,
the more attention he got off it.
You have more and more and more and more games on TV,
and more newspapers spoke about football.
You have maybe more pressure.
Eric had cameramen following him around, trying to get some kind of story on Eric.
That started happening more with footballers.
You feel like a prisoner of the others,
of what is expected from you.
I don't know what I expect from myself.
You know?
I don't know.
On the social side of things,
obviously people, fans knew that Eric had this reputation,
and people come out and they try and test you.
[Pallister] I was with him in a hotel
and there was people up in the mezzanine floor above him,
and we were sitting there having a drink. People were spitting on him.
You know what I mean, he confronted the guy who'd done it
and the guy was like, you know, "What you gonna do?" sort of thing.
It's stuff like that that gives you an insight into what he was dealing with.
Of course you have people who judge you,
and for me, in England, it was a bit like this, but I didn't know anything.
Just my feelings, my instinct.
[man] Whenever you're playing against Manchester United, it's certainly a fixture,
but we didn't really understand the magnitude of what happened
until probably the next day, when it was on the front page of every paper.
[Pallister] You try to wind up the best player in the team,
and Eric was the one player that, if you could get to,
you could disrupt the flow of Manchester United if you like.
Kick him, wind him up, get into his head, because they knew he could react.
[Shaw] You know, I was playing centre half with Chris Coleman.
In terms of anything special for them, I just think fingers crossed and pray
that we keep the score down to one or two and try and get through the game.
And people say, "Were you given a specific task for Cantona?
Did you man mark him?" this or that. No, not at all. No.
How can you man mark at Manchester United? There's just too many good players.
[Schmeichel] Crystal Palace were trying to wind players up,
and of course at Selhurst Park, in January 1995,
we saw something that was probably--
We'd never seen that before. Probably haven't seen that to that scale since.
[commentator] Cantona, tried to get on his way,
had a little kick at Shaw there out of frustration,
and the linesman had a very, very good view of it.
Now, temperatures rising, and out comes the red card.
There's the morning headline.
[Shaw] It was an innocuous trip. There's hardly anything there.
I never made anything about it, I have to say. Nothing at all.
And I quite like a bit of devilment in a player anyway. Eric had that arrogance.
It was just one of them things that happened-- a clash with Eric being sent off.
[commentator] I think the linesman and the referee, they had it spot-on there.
Eric Cantona was giving chase and Richard Shaw was chasing with him. Eric-- Oh, my.
[commentator 2] Oh, and Cantona has got involved with a fan in the front row!
The press box at Selhurst Park
is basically on the halfway line, but at the back.
And suddenly I'm looking down and you see a figure moving rapidly down.
And it's obvious he's saying something confrontational.
[narrator] Witnesses described fan Matthew Simmons attacking Cantona's nationality
and insulting his mother.
[Pallister] The lad came down and gave him, apparently, dog's abuse.
And he just thought, "No, you're not getting away with it."
[commentator] Oh, this is outrageous.
Cantona's attacked a fan!
[commentator 2] Oh, my goodness me! He has kicked--
He's punched a fan! Eric Cantona--
[commentator 1] He's punched a fan in the face!
You're just kinda taken aback by what you're seeing.
You see him kind of launch himself into the crowd, and you're like, "Wow."
-[commentator 2] A scissor kung fu kick on a fan! -He smacked him in the face!
[commentator 2] Manchester United fans are coming across!
I have never seen as disgraceful an incident as that!
[commentator 1] Norman Davies, the Manchester United kit man, trying to pull him away.
[Schmeichel] I'm looking at Norman Davies, our kit man at the time.
It's gone beyond the boiling point.
[Schmeichel] I can see Eric is very, very upset, very, very upset, and he--
Norman is having a hard time controlling him.
So that's when I helped him with, you know, walk him out, down to the tunnel,
and make sure that he gets to the dressing room.
I can't tell you how many times I've felt like doing it.
This time Eric was just provoked a little bit too much.
It is shocking. It shocked me at the time.
I was thinking, "Wow. I can't believe he's done that."
[commentator] Once more, Eric Cantona is the man
at the centre of a dramatic controversy.
[Peter Schmeichel] After the game,
it wasn't the greatest time I've had in a dressing room.
I remember quiet, I remember confusion.
No one really knows what's gonna happen next,
no one really knows exactly how to deal with this situation,
and just a really, really dead, quiet atmosphere in the dressing room.
I remember me looking at Eric, and I said, "Eric," you know, "what--"
And Ince sort of shouting-- I mean, not shouting, but just saying,
"Pete, shut up," you know, and that was kind of it.
When you have been sent off and you think there's an injustice,
you know, your mind's all over the place, and for that split second, he lost it.
We're all human beings, as much as we are professional footballers
and we get paid whatever people say we get paid and whatever you do get paid,
you can lose it like anybody else.
These reports will be fully investigated by a senior police officer,
from South Norwood Police Station, and then we will obviously--
What action we take next will depend on that investigation.
[interviewer] What was your version of the events which led up to the dismissal?
Um, nothing really, it's just handbags at 50 paces.
There's nothing malicious about it. I think we just turned round,
we ran into each other and I end up on the floor. Did he kick you?
I didn't really feel nothing, I think it's just a bit of a collision.
Obviously I can't say too much,
but next thing I knew, the red card came up and he was walking off.
Do you think you fouled him first? Not at all, not at all, no.
That's lovely. Thanks a lot. Thanks, Richard.
Sorry it was all about that and nothing else.
We hadn't seen anything like that before. I certainly hadn't.
And all of a sudden you think, "Wow," you know, "We're a part of that."
Should Eric Cantona be banned for life?
You might've expected that one. Should Eric Cantona be banned for life?
-Rosie Boycott? -Well, given that you're all a Liverpool crowd,
-I guess you probably all would say yes. -To me, it was just despicable,
and to set an example for young children and now trying to defend his conduct--
It's unprecedented for any professional footballer
to attack a member of the paying public.
Yes, he has got problems, but he shouldn't be a problem for the British game.
The press would've loved the moment that Cantona leapt up
and took out that Crystal Palace fan.
Because what Cantona did there was provide them with perfect content.
'Cause it didn't matter that he was the bad guy. It didn't matter.
He was still a guy involved in the drama of the Premier League.
And The Sun,full story.
Pages one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Virtually the entire paper was given over to Cantona.
It had fuming columnists talking about how he was a disgrace to football.
Played to every kind of thought about it.
[reporter] Eric Cantona, the darling of Manchester United,
captain of France, the players' own Player of the Year,
stands accused of placing a stain on the game of football.
[woman] I think it's the classic example
of a highly strung, rather overemotional Frenchman.
As part of his character, he has a volatility that he can't control.
I just think Eric Cantona's off his head.
I thought he should've walked off and went to the tunnel like any other player.
But obviously, someone said something to him and he couldn't control it.
[reporter] I gather you have a special reason to like Eric Cantona. Tell me why.
Well, one of many reasons is obviously because he's a great player.
But, I mean, I like him that much that on Monday my daughter was born,
Laura Jane, and her middle name is Cantona. Laura Jane Cantona Boyle.
And even now, I've got no regrets about calling her that.
Obviously, he's overreacted. But, I mean, he's human, isn't he? Or is he?
[older Boyle] It was a tabloid's dream.
The tabloid press is so xenophobic in lots of--
Down the years, you know, from French lorry drivers being on strike.
They love to have it, "Oh, they're doing this, they're doing that."
So Cantona was perfect for 'em.
United, we'd always been the biggest club and now we're the most successful club.
And also, we all know that the British tabloids
like nothing more than dragging people down.
Look, I've been getting stick all my football career from fans.
Some of it horrific, none of it justified.
I felt really sorry for him in some ways.
I felt that he-- You know, sorry for him that he'd let his self-control go to that extent.
But he lost control, lost his temper,
and the reaction was so extreme that I think everybody was just in shock at what had happened.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
I have a press statement from Manchester United Football Club.
"Manchester United has today suspended Eric Cantona from all first-team matches
for the remainder of the 1994/95 season.
In addition, the player has been fined
the maximum sum permissible under his contract."
[Pallister] When the club said, "Look, we're gonna suspend him,"
I think we thought, "Well, that's gonna be strong enough.
He's now not gonna be able to play his part in the title run.
And that's gonna hurt him and it's gonna hurt the club."
We kind of thought, "That'll be enough."
But no, they saw it as far more than that.
What happened last night was a stain on our game.
The Football Association has this evening
charged Eric Cantona of Manchester United and France
with misconduct that has brought the game into disrepute.
I think on many clubs, I would've been maybe sacked.
And on Manchester United, I was allowed to leave if I wanted to leave.
They always said that to me, "If you want to leave, you can leave."
And if you say that to me, I stay.
[reporters clamouring]
[reporter] United's fiery French international
faced the music today at an FA disciplinary hearing.
Whilst we are naturally disappointed that the football association
have felt it necessary to increase the suspension
which was promptly meted out by Manchester United,
the decision has been accepted in everyone's interests.
[Cantona] What was hard is not to play football.
I wasn't allowed to play a game, even a friendly game.
That was hard.
Eric Cantona has never sought to justify his actions,
nor to minimize their seriousness.
He deeply regrets what he has done.
He got punished for what he did.
And Manchester United just had to live with it,
and so did Cantona.
[narrator] With United missing their star,
Kenny Dalglish's Blackburn would never have a better chance
to claim the title.
In terms of losing Eric Cantona, it's a big, big deal.
I can't, you know, sit here and say it wasn't a bit deal
because he was such an influential player.
But we certainly weren't foolish enough to think
that that whole incident would decide whether Manchester United were still contenders or not.
All of a sudden, we were stealing their thunder.
[commentator] Oh, it takes a deflection! It's a goal!
Paul Warhurst.
Every game, we were winning.
But I remember feeling a bit shaky and thinking,
"Mmm, we might not do this."
[narrator] The pressure of being top
was beginning to take its toll on Blackburn.
[commentator] Inviting cross, and a bullet of a header.
We tired a little bit second half of the season.
We hadn't had players on the team who had been there and done it to settle us down.
Blackburn did get nervous.
We got back a number of points because the nerves did hit 'em.
We started to think about them rather than ourselves,
and then that impacted on a few of the results.
-[commentator] Deane's flicked it on! -[crowd cheering]
And Deane has done it at the death!
You just have to hope there is a miracle.
And we hope that Manchester City win.
-[crowd cheering] -[commentator] Curle. It's 1-1.
[Sutton] We were nine points clear, six games to go,
and then we really slipped up in a bad way.
[commentator] Hendry's header. R÷sler slides it in!
We lost at home to Manchester City, who were in a relegation battle.
And I think that that shocked us.
I really did think that we'd blown it at one point.
I now think that Blackburn can only throw the league away.
The Devon Loch quote, that got thrown in from Fergie.
"We can only hope for a Devon Loch now."
The horse that fell on the final fence at Grand National.
If you want to play a mind game, fine, it's no problem.
You know it's coming.
So if you don't know how to deal with it,
then yeah, you might have a problem.
[interviewer] Well, you've always said that you take nothing for granted.
Well, if you just look at it sensibly,
we're still five points in front, what is it, four games to go?
So I don't think we'd swap with anybody.
[Sutton] I think a lot of the confidence came from the manager.
And we often looked for him in times of adversity.
[Dalglish] I don't think there was any of them had ever won a league title before.
So it was important for them that I could pass on any experience I had for that.
And if that helped 'em, I was only doing my job.
Good evening. The Crystal Palace supporter kicked by Eric Cantona
launched an attack of his own today in a South London magistrates' court.
[narrator] The man who'd abused Eric Cantona, Matthew Simmons,
was now facing criminal charges for his involvement in the incident.
[reporter] Mr Simmons claims to have shouted,
"Off, off, off, go on, Cantona, have an early shower."
Mr David Paul QC said that this was an utter falsehood,
and he told the court that Mr Cantona's race, his sexual orientation
and the sexual orientation of his mother had been questioned
by Mr Simmons in words and gestures designed
to hurt as deeply as possible.
[narrator] Details were beginning to emerge
about Simmons' links with the National Front
and a previous conviction of attempted violent robbery.
[reporter] Matthew Simmons appeared under no obvious stress as he arrived in court.
All that changed after the magistrates told him
he'd been found guilty of provoking Cantona's assault on him.
His first target was prosecutor Jeffrey McCann,
who wanted him banned from all football grounds.
Simmons exploded with anger, jumped over the bench
and grabbed Mr McCann by the neck.
"This is a lie," he shouted.
"I'm innocent, I promise. I swear on the Bible."
As three police officers, and two court staff struggled to hold him down,
he fought his way across to journalists, calling them scum.
He then appeared to try and bite one of the officers,
who eventually managed to handcuff him and led him away.
No one has yet mentioned on this panel the bloke who deliberately left his seat,
wandered down the steps, in order, in the words of another fan,
"to call him every name under the sun."
There's an extraordinary phenomenon in football,
whereby the fan believes they own the players
and can say absolutely anything they like.
I have one regret.
That I didn't kick him even more than that.
I don't think you could be two-faced about Eric Cantona.
You couldn't pretend that what he had done wasn't out of order.
It was. Completely. But there was provocation.
A lot of the English fans were fuelled by right-wing bigotry.
They were driven by xenophobia
and a hatred of anything non-English.
Cantona was a symbol of that, unfortunately.
It sparked an awareness within football that he's gone a step too far,
but we can understand why he did that.
And I think what players realized-- Black, foreign, English--
"We know the level of abuse that we're receiving from the stands.
We're not gonna put up with that anymore."
[Ferdinand] If there was racial abuse,
it was seen as part and parcel of football.
I mean, as a kid I wasn't allowed to go to football.
My parents wouldn't let me go and watch football
because they knew I was gonna be racially abused.
They were worried for my safety, and rightly so.
If a Black player, for instance, makes a mistake, you say, "You Black bastard."
I don't think that's racism when it's said like that.
I think it's just a term of endearment, really.
I was called a few names by a coach, and he said--
And someone said something to him and he went, "No, he's gotta get used to that,
'cause he's gonna get it on the terraces. If he can't deal with it now--"
But that was, you know, back in the day. I had to get used to it,
because that's what I was gonna experience on the terraces.
Just depends what you define racism as.
If you mean, like, little comments like, "You Black cunt,"
and things like that, that don't mean nothing.
It's just, like, off the top of your tongue, isn't it?
Kind of the done thing to experience it.
That sounds really stupid, I know.
But it happened and we just accepted it happened,
because we just-- No one's stopping it.
[Ferdinand] For years I've seen bananas thrown onto the pitch at players.
Football was always an avenue where people could come en masse
and racially abuse the Black players that were playing at the time,
walk out the stadium and say to their mate, "Oh, see you next week."
And nothing was done about it.
You know, then all of a sudden, this guy jumps into the crowd
because he was called a French this, that and the other,
and then they decide that there's a problem.
[narrator] Despite Sky's repackaging of football,
the sinister side of the game had been hiding in plain sight.
-Is it okay to shout... -Racial abuse at me...
Just because I am on the football pitch?
[narrator] One of the league's biggest sponsors, Nike,
was quick to spot an opportunity,
and they launched an anti-racism campaign.
-Do you... -...see a Black man?
A Frenchman?
-Or a... -...footballer?
-Is it okay to shout... -Racial abuse at me...
Just because I am on the football pitch?
At the time, I was-- We were both sponsored by Nike,
and they wanted to do something about racism.
-Some people say... -We have to accept abuse as part of the game.
So this just goes to show-- that was '95--
how long we've been banging on about this same problem.
And we're now in 2021, and we're still talking about it.
Probably the situation's become even worse
in terms of the abuse that people are taking.
And that's why I don't wanna wear another T-shirt.
I don't wanna wear another badge.
I want action. I don't wanna keep gestures, gestures, gestures.
There's a gesture there, in 1995, and we're still making gestures.
[fans chanting]
[narrator] With Cantona's court hearing fast approaching,
the United faithful had already reached their verdict.
-¦ The King, the King, the King-¦
-¦ He's the leader Of our football team-¦
-¦ He's the greatest French Footballer that the world-- -¦
[Boyle] Amongst the hard-core fans who go week-in, week-out,
I would say Eric had unwavering support.
I might be wrong, but from the people in my circles
and everywhere around that, nobody was saying he should've done it.
But people thought, "We stick by each other here."
-¦ Eric is so cool-¦
[continues, indistinct]
[fans] Boo!
[reporter] "You are a high-profile figure looked up to by young people.
The only appropriate sentence is two weeks' imprisonment forthwith."
With those words, the Croydon Magistrate sentenced Eric Cantona
to two weeks in jail for his assault on a Crystal Palace supporter.
I was in the Magistrate's court and I remember the gasp
that went round when he was initially sent to prison for two weeks.
And the look on his face, he wasn't expecting that.
And then, of course, there was quickly, appeals were put in.
[Boyle] So we decided we'd go down South London, Croydon,
and a TV breakfast show at the time, they ended up asking us to come on the show.
They've taken a short diversion before they go to Croydon,
to sing outside Eric's trial this morning.
What's so great about Cantona?
He's unique, isn't he, you know what I mean?
Not just as a footballer, as a person. He's interesting.
We sang live on the TV show in the morning.
-¦ He's the greatest French footballer-¦
-Then we went to Croydon... -[singing continues]
...and we were outside the court, chanting our support.
[reporter] Cantona arrived at court this morning
knowing he'd either be free or in prison by tonight.
Fans who travelled from Manchester were there to support their hero.
Cantona's case didn't meet the specific requirements
laid down to warrant jailing him, he said.
A community service order was more appropriate for common assault,
and the court of appeal agreed.
I learned a lot about myself,
I learned a lot about the fans, the people at the club.
I learned a lot.
[Ferdinand] Let me say something now.
If that was a Black player, he'd have been in prison.
He'd have been arrested. Ain't no chance he would've got away with that.
-[interviewer 5] Did you think that at the time? -Yeah. 100%.
I ain't alone in thinking that if that was a Black player--
'cause I've known loads of Black players who've mentioned it since--
had that been a Black player, it would've been a very different outcome.
The Cantona incident at Selhurst Park was a very, very significant stepping stone
in the development of the Premier League.
Because it was the, sort of, first indicator that personality was everything.
And he knew, with that press conference, exactly what he was doing.
[reporter] The massed ranks of the press wanted to know just one thing:
"How did he feel?"
But his barbed reply left everyone bewildered.
When the seagulls...
follow the trawler,
it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.
Thank you very much.
[reporters clamouring]
The famous press conference with the trawlers and the sardines.
I mean, lovely stuff. I mean, just Eric being Eric.
I was there, I saw it.
I was literally-- and there he was.
And you don't get many of those in your career.
There's this maverick figure, who no one really knew.
We all thought we knew him, but we didn't really know him.
It's great also to have the situation like this, you know,
to learn a lot of things, you know.
Learn about yourself, learn about the other ones.
I want to put myself in certain kind of situations, to live the experience.
Yeah, I'm afraid about one thing. Emptiness.
[scoffs]
I hate emptiness.
Yeah.
[crowd cheering]
[narrator] In the final game of the season,
Blackburn needed to beat Liverpool at Anfield
to guarantee they'd win the title.
[presenter] Dalglish goes home to Anfield today,
knowing a win will secure the title for Blackburn for the first time in 81 years.
[narrator] Meanwhile, Manchester United travelled to West Ham.
If they won and Blackburn lost,
the trophy would remain at Old Trafford for the third year running.
We haven't had a finish like this for years.
The big question, where is the title going?
[cheering]
Is the title going back to Old Trafford
for a third successive year,
or is the 81-year wait at Ewood finally over?
Now, are United going to do it today, Dennis?
I think there's a great possibility that United could come here to West Ham and win.
It all depends, of course, what happens up at Anfield.
[narrator] Could Blackburn make history
and win the top division for the first time since 1914?
[commentator] Forty-one games down and one to go.
If they do it, there'll be no arguments.
Blackburn Rovers will deserve to be champions.
Going into the Liverpool game, it was still in our hands.
-[whistle blows] -[Le Saux] The Liverpool players were so distracted.
They were talking about, you know,
"Well, hope you win it and not Manchester United," 'cause of the rivalry.
But for us, it was really difficult, because we were nervous.
I just looked at them. Yeah, they looked a bit nervous.
Some of them might be thinking,
"We're never gonna get this close again, ever,
to winning a championship."
But they've gotta be understanding in themselves
as well, to say, "Well, how did we get here?"
[Preugschat] Yeah. We were in amongst all that lot.
We wanted to prove ourselves.
We were gonna be better than Manchester United.
Because they'd been sat up there on their pedestal for so long.
It's somebody coming along and knocking 'em off, isn't it, really?
All Liverpool needed to do was just give us this win, really.
But they were never gonna do that.
[Le Saux] You know, the season's built over the course of ten months,
and everything went down to this one game.
So it was like the world's longest knockout competition.
-[crowd cheering] -Where it was a dream start.
[commentator] Shearer goal for Blackburn Rovers!
[Shearer] Yeah, I remember thinking, "Just don't get too excited here,
because there's such a long way to go. You haven't won the title yet."
[crowd cheering]
Obviously we were happy, but you always know that if you score so early,
there's every chance they're gonna come back.
[Hendry] Really didn't know how to cope throughout the game at times
because you're always thinking of what's going on at Upton Park.
[crowd singing]
[commentator laughs] The West Ham fans are singing, "There's only one Alan Shearer."
Blackburn went 1-0 up,
and then we heard the first shouting from the fans.
We're kind of thinking, "Well, Liverpool aren't gonna turn up here."
And, unfortunately, we went behind.
-[commentator] Matty Holmes. Great cross, great goal! -[crowd cheering]
Sky, with all their broadcasting innovation,
had these wonderful split-screen moments.
[commentator] West Ham have taken the lead.
[White] This was the first time the Premier League on Sky
had had that classic last-day denouement.
This was really important content for them.
And it was showing that the drama was unmatchable.
[commentator] It's gonna take a superhuman effort to find two goals in the second half.
Neville sweeps in the free kick, and they've got one of them!
Brian McClair scores, and they're not giving up the title without a fight.
That intensity is there to get the goal that's gonna make your season.
So we were just piling forward.
-[crowd cheering] -[whistle blows]
[commentator] Manchester United have equalized.
We were getting updates, so we were aware of what we had to do.
But Liverpool go and score.
[commentator] The game so tight.
Oh! What did I tell you?
Bloody hell, 1-1. John Barnes.
Kenny looks mad. He's pissed off, isn't he?
And that's when you start... biting your nails.
[commentator] Kenna. It was a good ball from Jeff Kenna.
Alan Shearer's there! Oh, Alan Shearer!
I miss a big chance to put us in front.
[commentator] Would you believe it?
That Shearer's hopeless.
I don't know why I signed him.
It was such a difficult atmosphere.
[Shearer] And then David Batty giving the foul away.
[commentator] David Batty may be about to get himself booked here.
[Le Saux] Ninety minutes in, and Jamie Redknapp stepped up.
As soon as he hit it...
I just knew it was in.
And we're gobsmacked, all of us.
The fans, the players.
When that goal goes in, I just think,
"Oh no. That's it. We've blown it."
[narrator] Losing the game with just seconds to go,
Blackburn could only hope that United didn't sneak a winner and take the title.
[commentator] Cole!
It didn't go anything to plan. It couldn't have gone any worse for us.
And, for a Man United fan, it couldn't have gone any better for them.
[Sutton] It was out of our hands for--
I think it felt like an absolute eternity,
where you have indescribable feelings of sickness.
We'd got so close.
And then there's the fear of it, all of a sudden, being taken away.
We don't have a clue, to be fair, at this point,
because we don't know what's going on at Upton Park.
[commentator] A goal by Manchester United would bring them
the title at this stage, if this goes.
Cole's through! Oh, he's missed it!
That could've been the chance to win
Manchester United the title!
[Preugschat] There were still people still mourning.
And everybody started to go like that.
And then somebody on the radio had heard that it had finished down there.
[Le Saux] It started with our fans in the corner who heard it,
and then it moved up to the bench.
Then a guy just shouted, "It's finished."
[crowd roaring]
[Hendry] Kenny's face lights up, and that's when we knew we'd won.
Everyone's going mad on the touchline.
And we've now won the title, and we just want the game to end.
[commentator] Truth is stranger than fiction sometimes in sport.
They're losing this game and they're hugging each other in delight.
David Elleray calls a halt at Anfield.
It was a strange feeling, and it's each to their own,
but my biggest feeling was relief.
[Hendry] A total roller coaster.
You go from one extreme to the other within a second.
[Le Saux] You win the league, it's because you deserve it.
It's not about the last game or the last minute of the last game.
It's about everything that went before it.
It's a dream for everybody, right?
And beyond most people's expectations
that Blackburn would've been in a position like that.
They thoroughly deserved what they'd achieved.
Yeah!
[players cheering]
That's one of these times where you don't know what you're doing with yourself.
It's just a blur.
Who's that he's giving it to? "Here, have a swig of that."
[interviewer] How aware were you of what was going on at Upton Park?
We weren't. We just heard a big roar at the end there.
-[players cheering] -[interviewer] I think we're getting a soaking here.
[laughs] We didn't care. We just wanted to get the party started.
[Pallister] I can't tell you the disappointment and the hurt that is there
because a season's work has gone up in flames.
It's very hard to win a title.
When you're that close and you just don't quite get over the line,
I think it probably stings just that little bit more.
It's been a fantastic league race and all credit to Blackburn.
They've amassed 90 points,
which anyone getting that kind of points totally deserves the championship.
And I would like to congratulate Ken and his players
on their magnificent effort in the campaign,
and it's a good team to take the championship away from us.
[Le Saux] I handed Jack the trophy. I remember handing it to him.
He had tears in his eyes and you could see the joy and the pride that he had.
And to see that and be there in that moment with him
was really, really special.
[Schmeichel] I was quite impressed with Jack Walker.
When you use the expression "Put your money where your mouth is,"
I think that's what he did.
Being on the receiving end of that wasn't nice at the time, of course,
but I think he created something from his heart.
Without the contribution from him,
Blackburn wouldn't have been anywhere near that.
[Shearer] Little old Blackburn had entered the Premier League and won the Premier League,
and took on the might of Manchester United,
and it was just an unbelievable achievement for everyone.
All our hard work had paid off.
[Preugschat] It doesn't matter what happens now, our name went on that trophy.
It's there. We're going down in history.
It was just a good all-round completion. Mission accomplished. Tick box.
Yeah.
It felt like a new era, you know.
That we were gonna be up there forever, I suppose.
And my husband used to say-- He said,
"You'll never see this again. Never in your lifetime will you see this again."
And he was right.
When a player is missing for a few weeks, I think it can make the difference.
It was my fault.
-[interviewer] You thought that? -Yeah, yes.
I feel guilty because I did something that I don't regret as a thing,
but I regret it because we didn't win the league,
I think, because I was banned.
[McCarthy] Sir Alex Ferguson looked at it and said,
"We're Manchester United, by the way. Why are we in danger of being left behind
by Blackburn Rovers?"
And that's where you saw exponential growth
and an explosion in transfers and wages.
This changed football forever.
I'm on the bed with soccer's latest sex god. Yes.
Footballers became sort of like rock stars.
And most of us try to live up to that lifestyle.
Most were 19, 20 years of age and so wide-eyed.
I just wanted to be part of it.
Wherever we went, there was a barrage of photographers, ready.
I heard a knock on the door.
It was some newspaper, and they sold the story.
Tomorrow morning's front page in The Sunhas news
that Keith Gillespie of Newcastle
has apparently spent ú62,000 in a week at the bookies.
Keith was a very good player.
But he was a troubled young man.