The Day a Team Died: The Classic Eye-Witness Account of Munich

The Day a Team Died: The Classic Eye-Witness Account of Munich

Fifty years ago, on February 6th 1958, one of the greatest teams of English football was destroyed. A plane carrying the Busby Babes crashed as Manchester United were flying home from an European Cup tie in Belgrade. Eight of the Busby Babes died, Matt Busby was seriously injured while the journalist, Frank Taylor, was so seriously injured he was mistakenly thought to be dead but lived not only to read his own obituary but also to write this classic account of the Munich air disaster.

This Manchester United team is regarded as one of the finest ever to play together, and it is still held in such regard that its captain, Duncan Edwards, is one of the first inductees into the National Football Hall of Fame, as is Sir Matt Busby. The glamour and the potential of this team is summed up in their nickname, the Busby Babes, but it was a potential that the Munich air disaster destroyed.

The team of youthful stars, including Bobby Charlton, were unique in their playing as Sir Matt Busby moulded them into a team not seen until then in Europe. Frank Taylor was the only journalist on board the plane to survive and in The Day A Team Died he recalled the moment of the crash and its appalling aftermath.

He also describes the events leading up to the disaster, the flowering of this most youthful of teams, and the years after the disaster as the United team was re-built (including the young George Best) and went on to win the European Cup in 1968, a triumph that the disaster denied the Busby Babes. This is essential reading for all football fans; its eye-witness account and historic photographs make it one of the most compelling football books ever.