Bantams legend Campbell settled World Cup nerves with beer and burger

For City fans and other followers of lower-league sides, there is the weird scenario of carrying on their own domestic campaign as normal while the tournament rolls on.

A few teams in the bottom two tiers may be missing a name on international duty. For the rest, it’s business as usual.

It’s 40 years since the Bantams had direct representation in the “greatest football show on earth” - and even then, the player called up never took to the field.

Yet Bobby Campbell, being Bobby Campbell, still made a big impression even from his role as Northern Ireland squad member.

The late, great striker was the back-up striker in Spain 1982 as the Irish made their first appearance in a World Cup finals for 24 years.

Manager Billy Bingham was not a particular fan of Campbell’s “lifestyle” but brought him as support for Gerry Armstrong, Billy Hamilton and Manchester United’s Norman Whiteside.

The 25-year-old Campbell had only two caps at the time but had impressed the Northern Ireland boss with an assist on his debut in the home international against Scotland. That got him a place on the plane.

Bobby Campbell as City fans best remember him - celebrating a goal (Image: Newsquest)

It was some achievement considering that he had been banned for life from international football after crashing a barman’s car during some “high jinx” while representing the youth team at a tournament in Switzerland seven years earlier.

Campbell and team-mate Bertie McMinn were sent home in disgrace and barred from representing their country at all levels.

But after several attempts to overturn the decision, which included a petition by fans, the punishment was eventually lifted in 1981.

Campbell, though, was a frustrated spectator for the group stages as Armstrong made his career with the goal that sunk the home nation and took Northern Ireland through.

But all the players got paid the same whether they appeared or not - and his “laidback” presence in the crowd certainly helped to settle 17-year-old Whiteside’s nerves before the opening game against Yugoslavia in Zaragoza.

“It was hilarious,” said Whiteside, speaking to the Official United Podcast. “England had an arrangement where if you were in the team you got three points, two points if you’re sub and one if you’re in the stand.

“They’d tally up the points at the end of the tournament and the players’ money was divided by the points you got.

Norman Whiteside saw Bobby Campbell eating and drinking (Image: IrishFA.com)

“But with Northern Ireland we went ‘nah, 22 ways, I don’t care if you’re in the stand or captain, we’re dividing the money 22 ways.’

“So I came out in Zaragoza, first game, my debut. I'm stood, thumbs down by the side, singing the anthem as loud as I could and I look over Billy Bingham’s head.

“And I see Bobby Campbell standing there with a San Miguel and a hamburger and I’m thinking ‘we're getting the same here!’”

The City man was again left off the bench for the 2-2 draw with Austria in the second round - there was another group stage that year - but that all changed for the winner-takes-all clash with France.

Or it would have done if Campbell had not tweaked his groin during a training run on the morning of the match.

That was a massive blow for him - and his own army of supporters who had trekked to Madrid to watch.

In the biography, “They don't make them like him anymore”, Campbell revealed that a 30-strong band of the “Bobby Campbell fan club” had made the trip from Bordeaux - where an old friend from Huddersfield was now living.

Determined not to disappoint them, the injured Campbell flashed his team pass to officials to leave the dressing-room area and met up with the merry band in a neighbouring bar.

The late Bobby Campbell at the launch of his biography (Image: Newsquest)

After a couple of hours in the boozer, Campbell was watching the game from the stand among the fans.

“He was a rum turkey, Bobby, a folk hero at Bradford City but always in Billy’s bad books because he bent every rule,” laughed Whiteside in his own autobiography, Determined.

“He didn’t play in Spain and never added to his two caps. If you are ever wondering why Billy turned his back on such a prolific goal-scorer, it probably had something to do with Campbell’s parting shot as the plane hit the tarmac at Heathrow when we got back. ‘Hey, Billy’, he shouted as we taxied off the runway, ‘You can’t effing send me home now!’’’

Sit back and enjoy the first winter World Cup.

But something tells me you won't see any of the England squad chomping on a quarter-pounder and downing a pint in the crowd.