The World Cup brings together the best national
teams and players from across the globe, encourages
interaction between different cultures, aims
to create long-term legacies, and occasionally
creates a huge upset on the pitch.
The 1966 tournament in England was the highpoint
in English football and made household names
of Geoff Hurst and Bobby Moore. Yet, in the
North East town of Middlesbrough, a bunch
of ‘mystery men’ from controversial qualifiers
North Korea became equally renowned, none
more so than Pak Doo Ik, whose goal against
football giants Italy brought about the greatest
shock in World Cup history.
His strike at Middlesbrough’s Ayresome Park
stadium sent the Azzurri tumbling of the tournament,
secured the Asian minnows a quarter-final
berth and cemented a friendship between North
Korea’s footballers and the local football
faithful that has endured into the twenty-first
century against a backdrop of challenging
diplomatic relations and international political
fallout.
The North Korean’s victory that stunned
the football world was all the more remarkable
given their unorthodox route to the Finals
in England. For the 1966 tournament FIFA allocated
only one qualification place to all nations
from the Africa, Asia and Oceania associations.
The Confederation of Africa Football - also
riled at FIFA’s placing of the pariah state
of South Africa in Asian qualification because
of the political sensitivities in the continent
(although subsequently disqualified) - boycotted
the tournament.
Withdrawal by South Korea as a result of logistics,
concerns that participation by their footballers
in the qualifiers would prohibit the individual
players from competing in the 1968 Olympic
Games, or, more cynically, in fear of defeat
by their northern neighbours - meant it was
left to Australia and North Korean to contest
the sole qualification spot. A two-legged
play-off held in neutral Cambodia brought
a 9-2 aggregate win for the Asian minnows,
including a stunning 6-1 win in the opening
encounter.
The Koreans’ victory, just over a decade
after the Korean War, posed a diplomatic headache
for a UK government that did not recognise
the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
(DPRK). As revealed by the research of Professor
Martin Polley, the Foreign Office were in
fact exploring options to prevent the Koreans
from participating in the World Cup. In their
ground-breaking Foundations of Managing Sporting
Events: Organizing the 1966 FIFA World Cup,
business historians Dr Alex Gillett and Dr
Kevin Tennent’s have described North Korea’s
qualification as having made‘ interaction
between football and international diplomacy
unavoidable’. Ultimately, this interaction
brought compromise, including an agreement
to refer to DPRK as ‘North Korea’ and
even excluding the flag from a commemorative
World Cup stamp.
In Middlesbrough, the prospect of seeing the
North Koreans – who were drawn to play all
their Group 4 games at the town’s Ayresome
Park - generated little enthusiasm locally,
an apathy evident in the stadium attracting
the lowest attendances of the tournament.
Yet there was a curiosity about the Koreans
on Teesside, with early signs of bonds between
the new ‘home team’ and locals evident
in young supporters’ attendance of their
training sessions and the local press chronicling
the Koreans’ tournament preparations.
Even Alderman Jack Boothby, Mayor of Middlesbrough,
promised the Koreans support, declaring that
‘You wear the same colours as Middlesbrough,
we will shout for you’.
In the opening match at Ayresome Park, those
who did turn out witnessed echoes of recently
relegated Middlesbrough. The new ‘home team’
suffered a 3-0 defeat to the USSR and were
bullied by their more physical opponents.
North Korea’s prospects of progression,
or even recording any points, looked even
more bleak in their next match, as they fell
behind to an early Chilane penalty – a goal
greeted with silence from the Boro faithful.
However, only minutes from elimination, the
Koreans sent the crowd into raptures with
a late equaliser from Pak Seung Jin (Zin).
The local newspaper, the Evening Gazette’s
journalist Cliff Mitchell, captured the emotions
of the moment:
When the equaliser came, some electric strip
lighting in the Press refreshment room up
in the stand at Ayresome Park was brought
down by the stamping of a crowd that has well
and truly ‘adopted’ the Asians…the Koreans,
obviously heartened by the fact that they
were cheered every time they were on the ball,
attacked with tremendous enthusiasm…
North Korea were given little hope in their
final group match against Italy, one of the
pre-tournament favourites and a world football
force, but this did not deter the majority
of the Middlesbrough crowd, who drowned out
the noise of some 3,000 Italian supporters
at Ayresome Park. In the days before substitutions
at the World Cup, Italy were reduced to ten
men due to an injury to Bulgarelli and the
North Koreans took full advantage minutes
before half time with a Pak Doo Ik strike.
Despite an Italian onslaught, the underdogs
held on. The final whistle was greeted with
‘uproar’ and BBC commentator Frank Bough
exclaimed ‘this stadium has never had support
like this for years and years’.
The North Koreans declared ‘our success
is due to the support given by the citizens
of Middlesbrough and because our players fought
for the fatherland’.  The Soviet’s defeat
of Chile the following night confirmed the
Koreans progress and 3,000 Boro fans headed
to Goodison Park to support their new heroes.
The Koreans took a 3-0 lead over Eusebio’s
Portugal in the quarter final before eventually
going out 5-3, bringing to an end the first
chapter of the Middlesbrough-North Korean
love affair.
The connection was in hiatus until the early
twenty-first century, when The Game of Their
Lives documentary by Dan Gordon and Nick Bonner,
which explored the story of 1966, reignited
the Boro-Pyongyang flame. Filmed in late 2001
after the North Korean government granted
unprecedented interview access to the former
players and permissions to film in North Korea,
the rediscovery of the international connection
led to Gordon and Bonner pursuing proposals
to bring the North Korean heroes back to Teesside.
The idea gained the support of leading figures,
including local MP Frank Cook, the Ambassador
of the Republic of South Korea, and Middlesbrough
FC Chairman Steve Gibson who told Gordon:
The story of the North Korean’s heroics
in the 1966 World Cup is the stuff of legends
up here in Middlesbrough. They are still
warmly remembered and I am thrilled that,
through your programme, their remarkable tale
will now reach a wider audience.  Please
pass on our best wishes to the players and
the people that you will meet on your trip.
Supported by financial and in-kind backing
from numerous quarters including Middlesbrough
Council and Middlesbrough FC, the 1966 World
Cup heroes made a glorious return to Teesside
in October 2002.
The Game of Their Lives was screened at the
town’s cinema and the town was decorated
to mark the occasion. With the North Korean
flag flying above Middlesbrough Town Hall,
the Speaker of Middlesbrough, Ken Hall, hosted
a civic reception for the Koreans just as
Mayor Boothby had done 36 years previously,
whilst there was also a celebration dinner
held at the Riverside Stadium, Ayresome Park’s
successor.
At Boro’s home game against Leeds United,
the Koreans received a hero’s welcome on
the pitch and the Middlesbrough fanzine Fly
Me To the Moon even produced a ‘DPRK Special’,
its centrefold featured a letter from the
footballers of 1966 to the citizens of Middlesbrough
declaring:
The cheering voices of the citizens of Middlesbrough
[from 1966] remain fresh still in our memory…we
can clearly remember the people of Middlesbrough
who had warmly welcomed us, enthusiastically
supported us during our game against Italy
and even followed us up to Liverpool…we
are looking forward to seeing you in the stadium
with warm and friendly feelings of 36 years
ago.
