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“A branch factory in occupied Czechoslovakia ensured that the troops pushing eastward, brutalizing and murdering, burning entire villages to the ground, could do so with radiant teeth,” Dunthorne writes, combining ironic detachment with horror.

At the time he also made public statements against perceived attempts to force diversity into games, saying his upbringing in communist Czechoslovakia had made him an opponent of "censorship in the name of good intentions".

Macpherson remembered watching Law play for the first time in 1961 for Scotland against Czechoslovakia and said his eyes were "glazed over by this man's brilliance".

Early the following year, the leaders of the newly independent Eastern European countries visited No 10 - including Vaclav Havel of Czechoslovakia, who added his trademark little heart.

It was the year of my birth, 1978, when Anderson walked out for England against Czechoslovakia at Wembley, taking his place in history.