\u201cJust reading a book about Christmas No 1s,\u201d begins Paul Savage. \u201cThe section about Wham!\u2019s Last Christmas says Andrew Ridgeley was watching football at George Michael\u2019s parents on a Sunday, when George got the melody and wandered off to record it upstairs. Greatness obviously awaited but I want to know: which match was it? It\u2019s 1984, a Sunday and presumably on terrestrial TV. Was the second half worth Ridgeley not getting involved in the recording?\u201d<\/p>\n
Last Christmas by Wham! didn\u2019t become a Christmas No 1 until 2023<\/a>, having been kept off top spot by Band Aid\u2019s Do They Know It\u2019s Christmas in 1984. As Paul mentioned, George Michael wrote the song in his childhood bedroom while his parents and Andrew Ridgeley watched football on TV downstairs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were killing time on a Sunday,\u201d said Ridgeley later. \u201cIt was winter, early 1984. The Big Match was on, which was the only live football on TV in those days. Neither of us were really watching it. I was more interested in football than he was and his attention was clearly elsewhere.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had a four-track tape recorder in his bedroom and suddenly jumped and ran upstairs. Not long afterwards, he came down and said, \u2018You\u2019ve got to have a listen to this.\u2019 It was a remarkable moment. And it\u2019s such a remarkable song. So perfect at evoking and conveying the atmosphere of Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n George Michael later said he wrote the song in February 1984. Assuming the football was live, as Ridgeley suggests, we\u2019re pretty sure the match in question was on ITV on Sunday 12 February 1984, with the evocative kick-off time of 2.35pm: Luton 0-5 Manchester United in the old Division One. That was the only live Sunday game in February 1984. You can watch the whole match \u2013 and the full four-and-a-half-minute buildup on ITV \u2013 here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Maybe George got bored during a goalless first 36 minutes. Bryan Robson and Norman Whiteside scored before half-time, then United added three more in the last 12 minutes: Robson, Frank Stapleton and Whiteside were the scorers.<\/p>\n Which European champions were top at Christmas?<\/p>\n \u201cArsenal are top of the Premier League and many people\u2019s favourites to win the Champions League,\u201d begins Scott McManus. \u201cIs there a correlation between the two? How often are the eventual European champions top of their domestic league at Christmas?\u201d<\/p>\n Either Arsenal or Manchester City will be top of the Premier League on 25 December. But as both teams have found out in recent years, that doesn\u2019t necessarily inform success in Europe \u2013 or, in Arsenal\u2019s case, even domestically. They were top of the league at Christmas in 2022-23 and 2023-24 before being overtaken by City.<\/p>\n There have been 70 European Cup or Champions League winners since the competition began in 1955-56. Of those, 30 were top of their domestic league at Christmas. There\u2019s a full list below, but the English sides were Manchester United (1967-68) and Liverpool (1980-81, 1983-84 and 2018-19). On two of those three occasions, Liverpool were the best team in Europe but not in England: Aston Villa (1980-81) and Manchester City (2018-19) went on to win the title.<\/p>\n J\u00fcrgen Klopp celebrates with Jordan Henderson after winning the Champions League in 2019. Photograph: Laurence Griffiths\/Getty Images<\/p>\n 1956-57 Real Madrid<\/p>\n 1957-58 Real Madrid<\/p>\n 1958-59 Real Madrid<\/p>\n 1959-60 Real Madrid<\/p>\n 1960-61 Benfica<\/p>\n 1966-67 Celtic<\/p>\n 1967-68 Manchester United<\/p>\n 1971-72 Ajax<\/p>\n 1973-74 Bayern Munich<\/p>\n 1980-81 Liverpool<\/p>\n 1982-83 Hamburg<\/p>\n 1983-84 Liverpool<\/p>\n 1985-86 Steaua Bucharest<\/p>\n 1986-87 FC Porto<\/p>\n 1987-88 PSV Eindhoven<\/p>\n 1990-91 Red Star Belgrade<\/p>\n 1993-94 Milan<\/p>\n 1994-95 Ajax<\/p>\n 2002-03 Milan<\/p>\n 2003-04 Porto<\/p>\n 2005-06 Barcelona<\/p>\n 2008-09 Barcelona<\/p>\n 2009-10 Inter<\/p>\n 2010-11 Barcelona<\/p>\n 2012-13 Bayern Munich<\/p>\n 2016-17 Real Madrid<\/p>\n 2018-19 Liverpool<\/p>\n 2021-22 Real Madrid<\/p>\n 2023-24 Real Madrid<\/p>\n 2024-25 Paris Saint-Germain<\/p>\n In some ways, it is more interesting to look at the teams who had dismal starts to the season yet went on to become champions of Europe. The star-studded Bayern Munich side that won three successive European Cups between 1974 and 1976 were often a shambles in the Bundesliga. They were 14th at Christmas in 1974-75, eventually finishing 10th. They were also 10th on Christmas Day the following season \u2013 but Bayern rallied to finish third and, more importantly, beat Saint-\u00c9tienne in the European Cup final.<\/p>\n Real Madrid were also a mid-table mess in 1999-2000. At one stage, between September and early December, they won only one out of 13 league games, a slump that reached a spectacular nadir with a 5-1 home defeat by Zaragoza. They started to stir either side of Christmas and reached a devastating springtime peak under Vicente del Bosque.<\/p>\n Nottingham Forest were 13th on Christmas Day 1979, five months before retaining the European Cup. And in 1981-82, the reigning English champions Aston Villa were slumming it down in 17th place, with Swansea City top of the table. But they had managed to negotiate the early rounds of the European Cup, beating Dynamo Berlin on away goals.<\/p>\n The Division One table on Christmas Day 1981. Photograph: 11v11.co.uk<\/p>\n When the competition resumed in March, Villa overcame Dynamo Kyiv, Anderlecht and Bayern Munich, all without conceding a goal. The champions of Europe eventually finished 11th in the old Division One.<\/p>\n Christmas archive<\/p>\n \u201cWhen was the last time football matches in Britain were played on Christmas Day?\u201d asked Kevin Liepins in 2005.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not as far back as you might think, Kevin. As David Ross\u2019s website scottishleague<\/a> points out, in Scotland, the last scheduled round of league fixtures was for Saturday 25 December, 1976. However, a combination of reluctance to play and poor weather reduced the card. No Scottish top division matches were played, and these were shifted to Friday 24th, Sunday 26th and Monday 27th.<\/p>\n Of the two games that were played on Christmas Day itself, Clydebank and St Mirren drew 2-2 in a top-of-the-table First Division clash and Alloa beat Cowdenbeath 2-1 at home in the Second Division. In addition, Dundee\u2019s official history lists them as winning 1-0 away to Montrose on Christmas Day \u2013 but another source suggests that this match was in fact played on Monday 27th.<\/p>\n The last time a full set of Christmas Day fixtures was played in Scotland was in 1971. Celtic beat Hearts 3-2 at home, Dundee United beat Dunfermline by the same score at Tannadice, and Kilmarnock overcame Morton 4-2 at Rugby Park. Other results that day were: Airdrie 1-1 Clyde, East Fife 1-1 Motherwell, Falkirk 0-3 Aberdeen, Hibs 0-1 Rangers, Partick 0-1 Ayr, and St Johnstone 0-0 Dundee.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the last games played on Christmas Day in England were in 1959, when Blackburn beat Blackpool 1-0 at home in the old First Division and Coventry beat Wrexham 5-3 in the third.<\/p>\n [Brentford also made plans to play Wimbledon on Christmas Day 1983, but the game was eventually moved to Christmas Eve<\/a>.]<\/p>\n Fans arrive at the newly-opened Hawthorns Halt station for the match against Birmingham on Christmas Day 1931. Photograph: Colorsport\/RexMore Christmas archive<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do footballers get each other at Christmas?\u201d wondered Kris K in 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n New socks, smellies, book tokens, the usual stuff we reckon, Chris. In 1998, though, Newcastle United\u2019s players took Christmas as an opportunity to tell the other members of the squad what they really thought of them. The Italian full-back Alessandro Pistone was given a sheep\u2019s heart, as a sign of his perceived lack of commitment.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure it was a joke,\u201d he told the Sunday Times in 1999. \u201cThe others had some really funny presents too: Temuri Ketsbaia [who is bald] got a hairbrush and Duncan Ferguson a prison shirt [Ferguson had served a three-month jail sentence in 1995 after his head-butt on Raith Rovers\u2019 Jock McStay].\u201d<\/p>\n Explore our previous Christmas specials in the Knowledge archive<\/a>, including: Which football teams appear in the Bible?<\/a> What happens when football\u2019s Christmas parties turn bad?<\/a> And who were the first team to use the Christmas tree formation?<\/a><\/p>\n