Express & Star

International incidents nothing new for Wolves and Aston Villa

As international breaks go, the current World Cup qualifiers have proved more eventful off the pitch than on it for some West Midlands footballers.

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While England ground their way to a perfunctory 4-0 win over Andorra on Sunday, far more serious issues were playing out across the globe.

Wolves defender Romain Saiss, captain of Morocco, was trapped in a hotel in Guinea with the African nation in the throes of a military coup.

Unsurprisingly, the game was postponed and the Morocco squad flown out of the country, with manager Vahid Halilhodzic reporting “gunshots... nearby all day”.

Meanwhile, Raul Jimenez became the centre of a row between his national side Mexico and Wolves after he was refused permission to fly out for their qualifiers.

And Villa’s Argentina duo Emiliano Martinez and Emiliano Buendia are now kicking their heels in Croatia after been flown out of Brazil amid allegations they misled authorities over Covid entry regulations ahead of their World Cup qualifier in Sao Paolo. Their sojourn to the Balkans allows them to return to Villa without the need to quarantine, meaning they should miss only one game for the claret and blues.

It’s been an incident-packed few days for sure – but supporters who know their history will know both clubs have been involved in some even more serious international incidents of their own.

Not least in 1938, when both clubs’ histories show they stood proud in the face of one of football’s most infamous incidents – when England players were ordered to give the Nazi salute in Berlin ahead of a game against Germany.

A few England players refused, the most famous of whom was Wolves legend Stan Cullis.

His response to being told England must make the salute was restricted to three simple words: “Count me out.”

They did. Cullis was dropped for fear of further inflaming tensions with Adolf Hitler’s Germany.

The story is famous but perhaps a lesser known tale came just a day later in the same stadium, this time when Villa lined up against a Germany XI, which then included internationals from the recently annexed Austria.

They were also ordered to give the Nazi salute.

To a man they refused.

Eric Houghton, a Villa great who like Cullis would go on to manage the club he had played for so magnificently, was one of the Villa team to stand their ground.

Villa won 3-2 but their refusal to salute was fiercely criticised in the German press as a lack of respect.

A second game followed a few days later and the side were ordered to salute by the British and German governments. This time they reluctantly agreed – but quickly added their own special ‘salute’

As inside forward Houghton recalled in Rogan Taylor’s book Kicking and Screaming: “Our manager, Jimmy Hogan, said: ‘They’ll expect you to perform the Nazi salute’.

“The FA fella in charge of the England team had come to our manager and said ‘We’ve had a chat about it and we think it would be better if your players gave the Nazi salute to be really friendly.’

“We had a meeting about this and George Cummings and Alec Massie and the Scots lads said ‘There’s no way we’re giving the Nazi salute’ so we didn’t give it!

“It did leave a bit of a nasty taste in the mouth for them, us refusing to give the Nazi salute. The next time they said we’d got to give the Nazi salute.

“At the next game both teams gave the Nazi salute.

“But we went to the centre of the field and gave them the two-finger salute and they cheered like mad. They thought it was all right.

“They didn’t know what the two fingers meant.”