News about Ray Wilson

Sir Geoff Hurst has spoken of the 'extreme sadness' he feels when he sees a picture of England's 1966 World Cup winners - with the hat-trick hero now the only surviving member. Hurst famously scored three as Sir Alf Ramsey's side beat West Germany 4-2 at Wembley to win the national men's team's only major trophy 58 years ago. The death of Sir Bobby Charlton at the age of 86 last October following a battle with dementia left Hurst - who spent the bulk of his career at West Ham - as the only remaining hero of 1966.

IAN HERBERT: In the sea of flowers now laid at the front of Old Trafford, Manchester City is hardly noticeable. In honor of Sir Bobby Charlton, shirts of Liverpool, Everton, and Burnley have been embroidered. West Ham, Cardiff, and Barnsley are among those represented. However, there's almost nothing that contributes to the belief that old blue/red divides are no longer present this week, and that United's loss is the city of Manchester's loss. That's what stored up bitterness can do, and Manchester United has unquestionably been subjected to some from Manchester United in recent years. During the team's early stages of the club's transformation from upstarts to dominant Manchester forces, a few of those on their staff had the misfortune to cross Sir Alex Ferguson's path behind the scenes when the teams met. Ferguson was positively dissatisfied with City in the early Abu Dhabi period, and he made them aware of it. But is it too much to ask that City's fans make a positive showof respect to the memory of Sir Bobby when the teams meet on Sunday?

Sir Bobby Charlton's death at the age of 86 leaves only one surviving member of England's 1966 World Cup final triumph over Germany. Sir Geoff Hurst, the team's longest player from the side that famously defeated West Germany 4-2 after extra time at Wembley, is now the only living player from the team. Sir Bobby's family reported his death on Saturday.

Despite being sick, the 1966 World Cup winner bravely posed for snaps as he obtained his coronavirus vaccine in 2021. Sir Bobby, who was dressed in a white shirt and red jacket as he held an NHS leaflet about the jabs. It came a year after his wife Norma announced that the footballer had been diagnosed with the illness, which also claimed the lives of his brother Jack in 2020. Lady Norma, Suzanne and Andrea, and his grandchildren are the England and Manchester United players.

MATT BARLOW: As he ducks through the door, Mick Lyons imitates the Everton legend. A regal presence with a warm smile, solid handshake, and the club emblem on his rain jacket was absorbed in tales of how he fell in love with the club. On matchdays, he and his brother Joseph would ride the 44D bus to make sure they were outside Goodison Park when the gates opened so they could dash to the old scoreboard. 'We'd be in there dead early, and we'd run to sit in the old box where they changed the scores,' Lyons says. We'd watch the game from there.' They were crowned 1963-63 in the league. Alex Young, a great player.'

CHIEF SPORTS WRITER: I stayed there for a while, admiring a print of Sir Geoff's iconic photograph on July 30, 1966, with his left leg extended in front of him and the ball soaring toward the West Germany net, one of the finest sports action photographs ever shot, CHIEF SPORTS. It was England's fourth goal in the World Cup Final and Hurst's third. The BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme was quoted somewhere in the stands as 'They think it's all over,' and "it is now". Sir Geoff is one of the few links to a fading world, a link to a period of glorious past that we may never fully understand. Only he and the great Sir Bobby Charlton from the Boys of 66 remain, and the team is regarded as the youth that gave England its best sporting moment nearly 60 years ago. One of the lessons we can learn from the Gary Lineker affair, which the BBC should have heeded, is that there is a strong link between the sporting heroes of yesteryear and the fans. It's impossible to break the unity and near-unanimity of football's support for Lineker, not a World Cup champion but one of our best ever goalscorers, was another reminder of the affection in which we hold the game's icons.

In a new initiative that aims to minimize instances of brain injury in the game, footballers under the age of 12 will be suspended if they intentionally head the ball to stop a goal. The FA has issued the new rules to grassroots teams aged six to 12, which will penalize players that head the ball more severely depending on how much the game is affected by the action. The rules state that if a player deliberately heads the ball, an indirect free kick will be awarded to the opposing team, but if the offense hinders a goal, the player will be dismissed. The pilot scheme is intended to discourage youth from participating in training and matches for the remainder of the 2022/23 season. The scheme, which has been criticized by grassroots coaches as a'mess,' comes after research has linked the continuing advancement of a football with neurodegenerative disease, which has caused some ex-players to die from. Referees will issue a red or yellow card in order to enforce the new rules.