On This Day: Gone but never forgotten! The Munich air disaster occurred in 1958

Hi all, welcome to All Football's On This Day! Let's find out what happened today (February 6th) in football history. If you have more stories and news that happened on this day in history, please post them in the comment area and share them with AFers!

6 February 1958 - The Munich Air Disaster

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On 6 February 1958, an airplane containing Manchester United's players and staff crashed in Munich, killing 23 passengers. The fatalities included eight United players and three staff members, as well as two crew members and eight journalists.

United were returning home from a 3-3 draw with Red Star Belgrade in the European Cup when their plane stopped in Munich to refuel. As the flight crew prepared to take off, they were twice forced to cancel the departure due to engine trouble. Meanwhile, heavy snow caused slush to build up at the end of the runway. During the third attempt, the plane committed to take-off, reaching a speed at which it was no longer possible to stop safely. But it hit the slush at the end of the runway, which dropped the plane's speed below the level needed to get airborne.

Unable to stop, the plane crashed through a fence and broke apart, with portions of the fuselage hitting a house, a tree, and a fuel shed, causing the latter to explode. Twenty passengers died instantly, while Captain James Thain and United goalkeeper Harry Gregg both helped clear survivors from the flaming wreckage--Gregg literally dragged teammates Bobby Charlton and Dennis Viollet to safety by their belts.

Reporter Frank Swift died on the way to the hospital, while co-pilot Kenneth Rayment passed away after three weeks in intensive care. United's star wing half, Duncan Edwards--who had finished third in voting for 1957 European Footballer of the Year--died after two weeks in the hospital. United Manager Matt Busby's injuries were so bad that he received last rites while in the hospital, but he survived and returned the lead the team again the next season.

The club came close to folding after the devastation of Munich, but Busby managed to rebuild the team and led them to the European title 10 years later. Two members of that title-winning team, Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes, were survivors of the Munich crash.

On This Day in 1999 - Solskjaer Made History

On 6 February 1999, Norwegian international Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored four goals in the last 11 minutes as United emphasised the gulf in class between top and bottom.

Solskjaer became the first player in Premier League history to score FOUR goals as a substitute during this game. 

He scored in 80', 88', 90' and 91'. His first was a simple tap-in and three more goals followed as Forest's defence fell apart. What a player (What a manager, too)!

He just loves making history!

On This Day in 1999 - The Day Van Gaal almost sent Xavi to AC Milan

There were no bad intentions when Louis van Gaal sent a 19-year-old Xavi Hernandez back to Barcelona B on February 6, 1999.Pep Guardiola had returned from injury and the Dutch coach wanted the youngster to keep accumulating minutes, which would not have been easy in the first team.

Xavi had broken through at the club in 1998/99 and although he had played a game for the B team, he had 14 first team appearances and been praised for his performances, even scoring a rare header against Valladolid."

Van Gaal told me this week that I had no place in the first team and I'm here to play," Xavi said that week.

"That [the B team] is better than sitting on the bench or in the stands and I'm not afraid of playing at Barcelona B.

"If it's like that, that's how it is."

Adriano Galliani and Milan were in love with the idea of signing the Spaniard and offered him a villa, 250 million pesetas, a five-year contract, a job for his father and promised him first team minutes that he couldn't have at Barcelona.

His father was open to the move, but his mother was not interested in even considering it.

"If anyone is a bigger Barcelona fan than me then it's my mother," Xavi once said.

"He probably had to leave to grow, but I didn't see it clearly," joked his mother.

"That's why I threatened my husband with a divorce."

On This Day in 2007 - The Titanic Started In Liverpool, Too

On 6 February 2007, Tom Hicks and George Gillett started their short and tempestuous reign as Liverpool's owners.

The pair already had a porfolio of sports teams in hockey and baseball, with Hicks owning the Dallas Stars and the Texas Rangers baseball team, while Gillett owned the Montreal Candiens. They joined forces to acquire Liverpool, paying £5,000 per share for a total of £174.1 million (additional club debt of £44.8 million pushed the overall valuation of the club to £218.9 million). They also pledged to invest significant additional funds.

The deal, however, was leveraged and saddled the club with substantial debt, drawing the ire of the club's supporters. The two co-chairmen soon fell out with each other and Hicks also participated in public spats with manager Rafa Benítez and chief executive Rick Parry. Even though Liverpool continued to challenge for the title, including finishing as runners-up to Manchester United in 2009, Hicks and Gillett were constantly under pressure from supporters and the media.

The pressure mounted in the 2009-10 season, which ended with Liverpool in seventh, the first time they had fallen out of the league's top four since 2005. Their tenure came to an end in October of 2010, when, over Hicks's protests, the club's board of directors voted to sell the club to New England Sports Ventures for around £300 million.

Hicks filed suit against the club, claiming that the deal was far lower than it should have been, but lost. Speaking about Hicks and Gillett in a 2013 interview, Parry said "We all wish passionately that they hadn't owned the club."

On This Day in 1965 - He Brought A Lot Of Experience To The Team

On 6 February 1965, Sir Stanley Matthews made the last of his 704 English league appearances. He was 50 years old.

A talented outside right forward known equally for his sportsmanship and dedication to fitness, Matthews played in England for an incredible 30 seasons. He spent the first 11 of them with Stoke City, joining the Potters in 1931 when they were in the Second Division and helping lead them to promotion in 1933. In 1947, at the age of 32, he moved to Blackpool for a fee of £11,500.

There, partnered with centre forward Stan Mortensen, he advanced to the 1948 FA Cup Final, but lost. After finishing as runners-up again in 1951, they finally claimed the Cup in 1953 with a dramatic 4-3 win over Bolton in a match that has been dubbed "the Matthews Final" (even though Mortensen scored three of Blackpool's goals).

In 1961, the then-46-year-old Matthews returned to Stoke, who had fallen back into the Second Division in his absence. He again helped them earn promotion in 1963, making 31 appearances that year. But age began to take its toll at last and he was reduced to 9 appearances in 1963-64 and had not played at all in the 1964-65 season until called upon for the match against Fulham on 6 February.

He took the field at 50 years old--the oldest player to appear in the English top flight--and lifted Stoke to a 3-1 victory. It was his only appearance of the season, after which he became the manager of Maltese side Hibernians.

On This Day in 1996 - The Wizard Of Kansas City

On 6 February 1996, Kansas City acquired the rights to former Everton and Portsmouth winger Preki, who went on to become the club's career leader in goals and assists.

The 32-year old Yugoslav-born American international, whose full name is Predrag Radosavljević, had played for a number of different clubs, including Red Star Belgrade and three different American indoor soccer teams, before joining Kansas City for the first MLS season. Despite a mid-table finish, they managed to reach the conference finals in the playoffs, while Preki shined as their star, scoring a team-high 18 goals that year.

He was the league MVP the following year, leading Kansas City to the top of the Western Conference table while individually finishing as the league's scoring champion (based on a combination of goals and assists in which the former were worth two points and the latter one). In 2000, the team finished with the best regular-season record and won the the MLS Cup.

After spending the 2001 season with Miami, he returned to Kansas City in 2002 and the next year was again the scoring champion and league MVP. (He rejoined Kansas City in a supplemental draft after Miami folded, but only after every other team in the league declined to sign him).

He retired from playing after the 2005 season, but moved quickly into management, joining Chivas USA as an assistant in 2006 and taking full rein of the club in 2007. Chivas won the conference that year, leading to Preki being named the MLS Coach of the Year. By 2009, however, the club was struggling, which led to his departure and a brief but unsuccessful spell in charge of Toronto in 2010, the same year he was inducted into the US Soccer Hall of Fame.