It is difficult to imagine London and the rest of the EU having a friendly football match to mark the UK’s departure from the bloc.
Yet, nearly half a century ago, there was a game to toast Britain joining the European Economic Community (EEC), the predecessor to the European Union.
The match was played in 1973 at Wembley in London and was billed as the ‘3’ versus the ‘6’.
It saw three home nations plus Ireland and Denmark versus a team of six European countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, West Germany and France.
The six were the founding members of the EEC, while the three were the countries that joined the community on 1 January 1973.
The match ended in a 2-0 win for the home nations but to many observers at the time, the true winner was European unity.
Forty-seven years have passed and the UK is now leaving the bloc on January 31.
