BUSBY BABES

6 February 1958. The Munich air disaster. Manchester United football team also nicknamed as Busy Babes were on board. 23 out of 44 had died.

When I was in Manchester last year, during the stadium tour and standing at the Old Trafford ‘s munich tunnel, I was disturbed listening to the detailed disaster. My eyes were teary looking at the commemorative plague and learnt about the team captain, Roger Byrne’s wife who was pregnant with their first child and only wanted to tell the husband about the good news upon his return.

Manchester United were trying to become the third club to win three successive English League titles; they were six points behind league leader with 14 games to go. They also held the Charity Shield and had just advanced into their second successive European Cup semi-final. The team had not been beaten for 11 matches. They won one league game after the crash, causing their title challenge to collapse and they fell to ninth place in the league. They did manage to reach the final of the FA Cup and even the semi-finals of the European Cup but lost on both occasions.

Matt Busby resumed managerial duties the next season and eventually built a second generation of Busby Babes and that ten years later won the European Cup with Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes were the only two crash survivors who lined up in that team.