George Hamilton

if i've got a former player beside me i am there is no way i'm going to trump his knowledge of what is actually happening i may have an idea but i always tried to couch what i would say in terms that would complement what the co-commentator might be about to say but i would never have gone down the line of telling ray houghton that that's what he should have done

to invite Ray to come back and say, you're an idiot, you know, because that's basically what it's about.

That's why you're there.

You're there because you have a facility to do different class, different class, different class.

And he's there or she's there to add what they know from having been down there facing the different class.

So what value is the commentator's notion?

And we're back to the, for goodness sake, shut up.

What's your memories of 86 then in general?

Well, 86 was a funny one because Tim O'Connor was by now the head of sport and he was out in Mexico with the commentary teams kind of

moving between them because we were based a bit like 78 in location so i was given mexico city and steven alkin was given guadalajara and i had a producer max mulvihill steven was producing not commentating but he was with jimmy mcgee in guadalajara so uh tim was with max mulvihill and myself in mexico and we were doing the rounds of the matches and eventually two weeks three weeks in uh tim thought i better go and see how the lads are getting on in guadalajara

And he got to Guadalajara and he did his recce and he came back and he said, this is absolutely ridiculous.

We're down here in the smog.

You can't sunbathe after midday because the sun's no longer visible.

They're up there in Spanish colonial style with a swimming pool and a wonderful hotel.

I'm switching you about.

And he brought Jimmy and Stephen to Mexico and sent Max and me to Guadalajara.

And he was right.

It was absolutely sensational, this Hacienda of a place that they were staying in.

But what that meant, I was able to do a match in Guadalajara that, for me, was one of the best World Cup matches I've ever had the privilege to commentate on.

It was France against Italy.