Aberdeen '83: Once In A Lifetime | BBC Scotland

As Aberdeen Football Club celebrates the 40th anniversary of winning the European Cup Winners' Cup, former team members and manager Sir Alex Ferguson recall how they achieved glory in Gothenburg.

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[gimpygunner]

I’m surprised there are no comments yet. Aye, Aberdeen we’re some outfit early 1980s. As a Rangers fan & young laddie from Glasgow, I even had the Aberdeen European Cup Winners Cup football top which was a very sought after item I recall. Scotland did produce cracking players then.🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿💪

[davidgevans]

The GREATEST manager thats ever lived!!

[TheDorics]

Alex, a man with points to prove who proved them 👌🫶🏻👍🙌🏻

[davidmountford]

people always say who's the best manger pep or sir Alex and they forget what he did with Aberdeen the man is an absolute legend the best ever you will never convince me otherwise ❤

[paulrussell]

Call me when Pep can take a team like Aberdeen to European, League, and Domestic Cup success

[robertgavin]

Awesome atmosphere at Pittodrie this weekend

[DerekGoltman]

Now living in Canada and proud to say I was there watching a miracle ❤

[RodneyjLennie]

Fantastic team it was come on you reds 👏

[scottw.]

Incredible days, and an incredible team. We would've taken on and been confident of beating any team in World football at that time. This is the greatest achievement of any Scottish team. Celtic and Rangers are Goliaths of Scottish football, qualified for Europe far more often than not and have failed miserably time after time. Those two should've been expecting to win European trophies, particularly in the 60's and 70's. Aberdeen were and are a wee provincial team, a proud, solid history, but like the majority of teams in Scotland, not many trophies to shout about. This side defeated the greatest name in German football and went on to hammer the greatest name in World football in the space of a couple of months. There can't be any debate about it. This is Scotlands crowning glory on the continent, bar none.

[IndieVolken]

heart still misses a beat watching that ball hit the net 40 years later ; was only at super cup 2nd leg v Hamburg ; felt a bit 'charity shield' in comparison - still a stars a star

[redmustangredmustang]

This is insane that Real Madrid LAST lose in a European Cup final is THIS in 1983!!

[gregorcameron]

I get that the game has changed since the 80s however this is why SAF is the goat for me - as he has proved it at a club that he had almost no money and resources to win, if Pep and Klopp are better managers, then why dont they go and manage a club that has no money and try and win league titles and a European trophy or two?

[frozen]

What he did in Aberdeen is impossible to replicate in modern times. Too much money involved now.

[redmustangredmustang]

Just remember, he took a mid-level team that only won the league once and won the league three times.

[ronniepickering]

Asking as a fan who wasn’t alive in 1983, was the cup winners cup equivalent to what the champions league or was it more like today’s Europa league? Either way, a great achievement by Aberdeen and the legendary sir Alex

[stephenlaing]

I don't agree. For a start, I was born after the Lisbon lions won the European cup but every Celtic supporter is rightly proud of that achievement. Same with Aberdeen. The majority of aberdeen supporters will have been born after 1983 but does that mean they shouldn't be proud of that achievement? Of course not. It's not a case of crowing about anything. Also, I think you're doing Aberdeen a disservice calling them a ' wee provincial team'. Certainly in the late 70s and well into the 80s, they were major players in Scottish and European football. Thanks of course to the appointment of the great Alex Ferguson as manager. He spent a few years building that team into what they would finally become. I for one even as a celtic fan, would welcome back those days when there was a genuine challenge to the Glasgow giants domestically. It would be for the overall benefit of the Scottish game. However as everybody says nowadays, it is what it is.
Also, Aberdeen is a football city and was long before the oil boom which only started from the mid 70s onward. They won the league in 1959 (I think) and before that participated in the 1937 Scottish cup final where the world club record attendance of 147000 still stands to this day. Even at Pittodrie, aberdeen regularly had attendances of between 30000 and 40000. Where is the new generation of fans?
An example for you: Borussia Moenchengladbach and Bayer Leverkusen are considered provincial clubs within the Bundesliga yet have also enjoyed considerable domestic and European success. So being a provincial club is not necessarily a barrier to success.
Now to your point about lack of European trophies for celtic and rangers. I agree. However that's not the whole story. This is where the anti Scottish football stance of Uefa and certain officials comes in to play. In 1974, celtic played atletico Madrid in the semi finals of the European cup. Atletico had 3 players sent off and kicked celtic all over the park. Look at videos of the match on you tube. They should have been thrown out of the competition and celtic would have been in the final against Bayern Munich and we'll never know what the outcome would've been but I'd have fancied our chances. We also reached the final in 1970 where a late extra time goal by feyenoord won them the cup ( even Celtic fans would concede that Feyenoord deserved the win though) . In 1985 Celtic beat Rapid Vienna 4-3 on aggregate but Uefa made the second leg null and void because somebody threw a bottle on to the pitch (it didn't hit anybody) and they said the match had to be replayed. We lost the replay 1-0 at Old Trafford. ( Uefa stipulated the replay must be played at least 100 miles from Parkhead). Imagine if every match had to be replayed after something is chucked on to the pitch? Jesus.
Also, had the original result stood, we would have had Dynamo Moscow and Dynamo Berlin in the next 2 rounds ( eminently winnable games if you ask me) to then play Everton in the final. What a game that would have been! 50/50 as to who'd have prevailed I'd say.
I was in Seville in 2003 when we were cheated out of the Uefa cup by Jose Mourinho's play acting Porto side. We had Porto fans coming up to us apologising after the game for the unjust outcome. Even they knew we had been cheated.
Further evidence of anti Scottish bias within Uefa: the great Dundee United side of the early to mid 80s reached the semi final of the European cup in 1983. They beat Roma 2-0 in the first leg at Tannadice before some properly corrupt refereeing decision saw Roma awarded a ropey penalty along with some other nonsensical decisions ensured that Roma won 3-0. The referee has since admitted he was bought off by Roma officials. Dundee United would've played Liverpool in the final. Again, what a game potentially. Disgraceful situation. Any of the big European clubs would have had that situation sorted and Roma either thrown out and the tie awarded to them.
You see this corruption even today if you look at the European campaigns of celtic and aberdeen especially, some really suspect refereeing decisions went against against both clubs. I'm not saying either club would have went on to win the thing but it's hard enough to win in Europe these days without the referee being against you as well.
Aberdeen did go on to win the Super Cup that year but as a previous post highlighted, it's a bit like the Charity Shield, still counts as a trophy but best in Europe? Not so sure. A one off tie by the winners of the European cup and the cup winners cup is one thing but Aberdeen didn't win the European cup and that is Europe's premier club competition and still is. (Champions league now of course).Now, returning to Aberdeen triumph in 1983: yes significant achievements indeed but it's worth remembering that Real Madrid were a sad reflection in 1983 compared to the storied teams of the past. In fact, Real had not won anything in Europe since 1965/66!
I think the win against Bayern was a better result but even Bayern hadn't won a European trophy since 1976, the European cup win against St. Etienne.
Compare that with Celtic's European cup win. Inter Milan had won the trophy in 2 of the previous 3 seasons. They were strong favourites to win it again but celtic played them off the park and deservedly won 2-1.
My final point: several sports magazines or sports channels have drawn up lists of Britain's greatest teams. Celtic's 1967 team is always right up there. I seldom see Aberdeen on them ( although I think they should be on the list, just not as high up as the Lisbon lions)
The latest one I saw was drawn up by 4-4-2 magazine where it was the greatest 30 football teams of all time. Celtic 66-74 were in 13th place(I think they should have been higher but then I would say that) Aberdeen were not on the list at all.
To paraphrase yourself, it's not up for debate.

[IndieVolken]

all this pish that still gets brought up about lisbon lions - 4 rounds versus pretty average teams - Euro cup was in its infancy - yes good win versus Milan in final but thats it

[CME]

Scotlands most successful team in Europe
Last Scottish team to win a European trophy
And the only Scottish team with 2 European trophies

The famous Aberdeen FC.

Stand Free ❤