Alternative History

[BillyStubbsTears]

Just stumbled in this gem.

http://www.alternatehistory.com/Discussion/showpost.php?p=8463812&postcount=192

"Argentina, FIFA World Cup '78

Sweden and playing Brazil and are tied at 1-1, in the last minute Brazil win a corner and Zico heads it in...but Welsh referee Clive Thomas disallows the goal as he'd blown for full time whilst the ball was in flight

Brazil finish second in their group behind Austria and play Peru, Argentina and Poland in the second round...after beating Poland and Peru, they see Argentina win a suspicious game 6-0 against Peru and proceed to the final

Argentina win the world cup and the hated military Junta remains in power a few more years...4 years later in an attempt to prolong its power, it invades the British owned Falklands islands...

FIFA support Thomas' decision publicly but in private he's told it was a big mistake and he doesn't referee a world cup game again

BUT WHAT IF Thomas sees sense and allows the play to finish before blowing full time?

Zico jumps with delight as he scores a dramatic last moment winner - Brazil win 2-1 and win their group joining West Germany, Netherlands and Italy in the second round

After beating the Netherlands in their opening 2nd round game, Brazil ease into the final with a draw against the Germans ans a 2-1 win over Italy and face Argentina int he final...Zico is unstoppable and with Nelinho's and Dirceu's long range goals, beat Argentina 5-1 in the final

After the mourning is over, the Argentine people focus their anger on their hated government and despite the brutal tactics of the Argentine army, the Junta falls and a democratic government is elected in elections supervised by the USA. President Jimmy Carter is the first to congratulate the new Argentine President as the Casa Rosada

With US support, Argentina's economy begins to recover after years of neglect and those two little islands in the S.Atlantic, whilst not forgotten, are never targeted for military action

Meanwhile in the UK in 1982, the first female British PM is hugely unpopular with public support at less than 25%...after holding on until the last possible moment, the Conservative party is roundly defeated by Michael Foot's Labour party in the May 1984 general election

Britain scraps her nuclear weapons force and the BAOR is pulled out of Germany
The Royal Navy is reduced to a fleet of fishery protection vessels and the flagship HMS Endurance

The poll tax is never implemented

British telecom and a host of nationalized industries like coal, steel, railways and airports remain in the public domain

The miner's strike of 1983-84 never happens and Arthur Scargill accepts a life peerage in 1992"


For those of you too young to remember, THIS is the event that sealed the fate of Cadeby Pit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0JFuWqwFg4

[moses]

I think there is a few George Osbourse style 'leaps of faith' there...

[The Red Baron]

Blimey- talk about stretching counterfactuals to the limit- and beyond! 

However, despite the handicap of a narcissistic Welsh referee, I really don't think that Brazil side had a World Cup in them, Zico notwithstanding. I saw them at Wembley in the spring of 78. A team of scufflers who kicked lumps out of England. In a competitive match with a half-decent referee they'd have been lucky to finish the game with nine men.

Although there was something very fishy about that 6-0 win for Argentina over Peru (wasn't the Peruvian goalie of Argentine descent?) and they were helped by some dubious refereeing in the Final, the Argies had a decent side. The likes of Luque, Kempes, Passarella and Ossie Ardiles. I think they might have had too much for Brazil anyway.

Anyway, forget "Clive the Book" and his amateur dramatics. Just imagine what Scotland might have achieved at that World Cup had they considered it expedient to include a goalkeeper in their squad! 

[Dutch Uncle]

Unfortunately Billy you have missed one very important event:

In February 1985, with Soviet Premier Konstantin Chernenko in rapidly worsening health, opportunists in the Soviet Military, with the tacit support of hard-line factions of the Politburo who wished to block the more liberal Gorbachov from succeeding Chernenko, rapidly mobilised forces in the Warsaw Pact satellite countries of East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. With Western Governments and NATO having little time to respond, the Soviet Forces lead a surprise Warsaw Pact attack into the NATO Central Region with Armoured Ground Forces supported by air strikes against NATO Airbases and key air defence installations, and with huge artillery, helicopter and fixed-wing ground attack aircraft providing close support to the ground forces. In the absence of BAOR and RAF Germany the Soviet ground attacks made rapid penetrations into Germany, threatening to extend into the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the channel ports. The US, seeing the rapidly declining hopelessness of the conventional military situation, as a desperate and kneejerk measure, launched tactical nuclear strikes against military installations in East Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia. Unfortunately the chaos and instability within the Politburo led to a full strategic nuclear response from the Soviets resulting in the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) scenario long feared if there were insufficient conventional forces in Central Europe to deter a conventional attack…………

I have long thought Clive Thomas has never received the recognition he deserves for saving the world from nuclear destruction………………………