“Just reading a book about Christmas No 1s,” begins Paul Savage. “The section about Wham!’s Last Christmas says Andrew Ridgeley was watching football at George Michael’s 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’s 1984, a Sunday and presumably on terrestrial TV. Was the second half worth Ridgeley not getting involved in the recording?”
Last Christmas by Wham! didn’t become a Christmas No 1 until 2023, having been kept off top spot by Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s 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.
“We were killing time on a Sunday,” said Ridgeley later. “It 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.
“He had a four-track tape recorder in his bedroom and suddenly jumped and ran upstairs. Not long afterwards, he came down and said, ‘You’ve got to have a listen to this.’ It was a remarkable moment. And it’s such a remarkable song. So perfect at evoking and conveying the atmosphere of Christmas.”
George Michael later said he wrote the song in February 1984. Assuming the football was live, as Ridgeley suggests, we’re 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 – and the full four-and-a-half-minute buildup on ITV – here.
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.
Which European champions were top at Christmas?
“Arsenal are top of the Premier League and many people’s favourites to win the Champions League,” begins Scott McManus. “Is there a correlation between the two? How often are the eventual European champions top of their domestic league at Christmas?”
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’t necessarily inform success in Europe – or, in Arsenal’s case, even domestically. They were top of the league at Christmas in 2022-23 and 2023-24 before being overtaken by City.
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’s 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.
1956-57 Real Madrid
1957-58 Real Madrid
1958-59 Real Madrid
1959-60 Real Madrid
1960-61 Benfica
1966-67 Celtic
1967-68 Manchester United
1971-72 Ajax
1973-74 Bayern Munich
1980-81 Liverpool
1982-83 Hamburg
1983-84 Liverpool
1985-86 Steaua Bucharest
1986-87 FC Porto
1987-88 PSV Eindhoven
1990-91 Red Star Belgrade
1993-94 Milan
1994-95 Ajax
2002-03 Milan
2003-04 Porto
2005-06 Barcelona
2008-09 Barcelona
2009-10 Inter
2010-11 Barcelona
2012-13 Bayern Munich
2016-17 Real Madrid
2018-19 Liverpool
2021-22 Real Madrid
2023-24 Real Madrid
2024-25 Paris Saint-Germain
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 – but Bayern rallied to finish third and, more importantly, beat Saint-Étienne in the European Cup final.
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.
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.
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.
Christmas archive
“When was the last time football matches in Britain were played on Christmas Day?” asked Kevin Liepins in 2005.
It’s not as far back as you might think, Kevin. As David Ross’s website scottishleague 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.
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’s official history lists them as winning 1-0 away to Montrose on Christmas Day – but another source suggests that this match was in fact played on Monday 27th.
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.
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.
[Brentford also made plans to play Wimbledon on Christmas Day 1983, but the game was eventually moved to Christmas Eve.]
More Christmas archive
“What do footballers get each other at Christmas?” wondered Kris K in 2015.
New socks, smellies, book tokens, the usual stuff we reckon, Chris. In 1998, though, Newcastle United’s 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’s heart, as a sign of his perceived lack of commitment.
“I’m sure it was a joke,” he told the Sunday Times in 1999. “The 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’ Jock McStay].”
Explore our previous Christmas specials in the Knowledge archive, including: Which football teams appear in the Bible? What happens when football’s Christmas parties turn bad? And who were the first team to use the Christmas tree formation?
Can you help?
“Sunderland’s win over Newcastle means that, after 157 games, their rivalry is all square: 54 wins each and 49 draws,” notes Michael Butler. “Can any longstanding fixture beat that?”
“We are familiar with teams being administratively relegated or promoted during the close season, either directly or because of accumulated points deductions or what you will, but I wondered: has any professional club been promoted or relegated while the season has been in progress, and just carried on playing but in a higher or lower division? If so, what were the circumstances?” asks Justin Horton.
“Which goal was the last in the English top flight that wasn’t caught on camera? And which was the first goal caught on film?” asks Tom Solan.
“After St Mirren beat Celtic in the Scottish League Cup, I wondered where it actually is,” writes Dan J. “The answer is (as everyone bar me knew) Paisley, right next to Glasgow airport. Which got me wondering, which team is closest to an airport. I reckon Glentoran, next to Belfast City, and Eastleigh, virtually in Southampton airport, are in with a shout. And Charlton if you are happy to swim part of the way. Any closer ones?”
“A few days ago in Serie A, Lazio scored a late winner (in the 82nd minute) against Parma despite having two players sent off earlier in the game. I wonder if any team has scored a goal (or maybe more) while playing with eight men and with three players receiving red cards before that?” asks Bogdan Kotarlic.
Mail us with your questions and answers
• The Knowledge is taking a break for Christmas but will be back on 7 January
