'It created an image': how Brian Stein's England call-up boosted anti-apartheid struggle

On 7 February 1968, a former boxer – known as ‘Boston Tababy’ in his fighting days – and his family arrived at Cape Town’s docks to board the ship that would take them to their new lives. Isaiah Stein had been hounded by the police for his political activities with the fledgling ANC movement in his homeland and finally decided it was time to get out.

“We were all very excited,” recalls Edwin Stein, the eldest of three brothers born in South Africa who would go on to play professional football in England. “There were some other families that we knew who were going to Canada and others who were coming with us to the UK. It was all very organised because they knew we needed to get out of the country to try and create some pressure through the international community.”

In London, Isaiah soon became involved in the sporting boycott campaigns of the late 1960s and early 70s, becoming a key member of the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SANROC), which was based in London. They ensured South Africa was removed from the Olympic movement in 1970 and Stein would later represent SANROC at meetings with the United Nations’ Special Committee Against Apartheid, the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa and International Sports Federations, also attending the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.

“Isaiah was much more astute politically than the others, who were mainly sports exiles,” says Sam Ramsamy, who went on to become chairman of SANROC and met Stein in 1972. “He was very good to me and we became very good friends.”

Leading figures in the boycott movement like Ramsamy were regular visitors to the family home as Edwin, Brian and Mark grew up. Dennis Brutus, who had met Ramsamy in a chance encounter on a ship sailing from Madeira to London, was the driving force in establishing SANROC as a powerful organisation that eventually ensured South Africa’s almost complete sporting isolation. It was the work of activists like Stein, whom Edwin later remembered would attempt to disrupt rugby matches using any means possible.

“My dad used to take us to Twickenham. Moles,” he says with a smirk. “He slung the moles over the wall and went in there. If you put moles anywhere there is grass, then they dig. It was to show us all what he did and the reason why all this was happening. It was simple but so effective. I found out recently that my dad had organised terrorist cells. No one knew who was in the group because it was all so secretive. His main aim was to disrupt the sporting landscape as much as he could.”

Almost 26 years to the day since they had left Cape Town, Brian Stein made history by becoming the first black African-born player to represent England’s senior side in a friendly against Michel Platini’s France. It capped a remarkable rise from non-league football to the international stage in just over six years. Having started out at local club Edgware Town, Edwin – a speedy right-winger – and Brian both joined Luton in November 1977.

“Harry Haslam was the manager at the time, with David Pleat in charge of the reserves,” recalls Edwin. “He was very influential in our football careers. He and Graham Taylor both came to watch us at Edgware and wanted to sign both of us. David persuaded us that Luton was the best option and Brian made his debut within a month of going there. He went from the Athenian League to the Second Division in one big step.”

Brian and Mark Stein



Brian Stein, left, celebrates Luton’s victory over Arsenal in the 1988 Littlewoods Cup final with his brother Mark. Photograph: S&G and Barratts/EMPICS Sport

While the Football Association made a mistake at the start of the 1978/79 season by accidentally publishing his surname as ‘Steyn’, Brian thrived under the tutelage of Pleat when he succeeded Haslam as manager, moving him from the wing to a more central role. But his elder brother’s stay was already over, with Edwin moving to Dagenham and then on to Barnet in 1982, beginning a long association with the club based in the leafy suburbs of north London.

“I was at Luton for about seven months but left because I wasn’t getting a game. David tried to stop me but I wanted to go and earn some money. There were one or two other clubs who wanted to sign me but they wouldn’t let me go so I just left to go and play non-league. I got myself a job working for the Liberal Party in the mailroom. Then I got involved in collecting all the information from all the constituencies. It was a big coincidence because I met [former anti-apartheid campaigner and MP] Peter Hain when I was working there. He knew about my dad.”

Brian’s goals helped Luton achieve promotion to the First Division as champions in 1982, beating Taylor’s Watford by eight points. The following season, he announced himself in the big time with two goals at Anfield in a thrilling 3-3 draw with Liverpool but ended up being out for several weeks after breaking his foot against Watford. Stein famously returned for the last game of the season that saw Luton needing victory over Manchester City to survive. He supplied the cross for future Atlético Madrid manager Raddy Antic to score the crucial winning goal, prompting Pleat’s hilarious jig across the Kenilworth Road turf. But while his father continued to risk his life in his quest to end apartheid in his homeland, Isaiah warned Brian to concentrate on his football career rather than risk taking a public stand in aid of the cause.

“I advised him at the time that getting involved in activities like that would make his form suffer,” says Ramsamy, who eventually led South Africa’s readmittance to the IOC in 1992 under the new Rainbow flag. “To us, Brian was more important playing top-class football because that created an image for us. He had come from a suppressed society and this was not happening to all black South Africans. That was important. He demonstrated that by playing so we did not want him to get involved in the political arena. I personally mentioned that to Brian.”

The anti-apartheid movement had grown from strength to strength in the early 1980s as global pressure grew on South Africa’s ruling National Party to abandon its racist policies. Yet with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher having described the ANC as “a typical terrorist organisation” and being fiercely opposed to imposing sanctions against the apartheid regime as late as 1987, Ramsamy remembers the importance of the younger Stein’s role in enlisting some of the other high-profile black players of the day.

“Brian was very good because he helped get other footballers involved,” he adds. “Chris Hughton came to have a chat with us and since then I got to know him very well. I also got to know Garth Crooks and John Fashanu at that stage. They were very sympathetic to what I was doing because it also related to what was happening in the UK at the time. The UK still isn’t a totally non-racist country. They were important in doing their bit for the anti-apartheid struggle by being at the top of their game.”

On 20 September 1983, Brian Stein made history when he became the first African-born player to represent England’s Under-21 side in a friendly against Denmark at Carrow Road. Playing alongside former Luton strike partner Paul Walsh, he scored twice in a 4-3 win and followed that up with another goal in a 2-0 victory over Hungary a month later.

His performances for club and country could not fail to attract the attention of England manager Bobby Robson, who was already clinging on to his job after failing to qualify for the European Championships and had become desperate to find new talent for his ageing squad. Stein was selected to face France at the Parc des Princes in Paris on 10 February 1984 on another historic night for African football. Except it didn’t quite go as planned.

Once again, he was partnered with Walsh but struggled against the team who would go on to become European champions a few months later. Stein was described as “lacking the pace to succeed as a striker at the top level” by the Daily Mirror’s Frank McGhee after Platini scored twice in the second half to record a 2-0 win. Yet the significance of his appearance had not gone unnoticed at SANROC, where his first cap was hailed as evidence that black Africans could be accepted into English culture.

“What Brian was doing was part of our overall campaign, although the flag was shrouded,” admits Ramsamy. “Everyone knew that he was a black South African and the opportunity Luton gave him wasn’t available to black South Africans in South Africa. That was very important. They were all born in South Africa and the only reason they became UK citizens was because of political circumstances. That was good because there is no way Brian would have played at that level in South Africa. They would have been part of the system that saw people just get swept under a carpet.”

Undeterred by his disappointing full debut, Stein returned to the Under-21 squad for the second leg of their European Championship semi-final against Italy and played in the 1-0 defeat that ensured they went through to face Spain in the final on aggregate. But, for whatever reason, the game against Italy in Florence in May 1984 was to be the last international appearance of his career as he was not selected in the side which won the tournament for the first time.

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Over the next few years, Pleat’s largely homegrown Luton team served notice of their rapid progress by coming within minutes of reaching the FA Cup final in 1985, losing in the semi-final against Everton after extra time. They finished ninth in 1986, prompting Pleat’s departure for Tottenham in the summer but Stein remained loyal to Luton despite interest from several bigger clubs.

He was rewarded when new manager Ray Harford guided them to seventh place in his first season before they finally made it to Wembley in the Littlewoods Cup in 1988 after beating fierce rivals Oxford United in the semi-finals. Nobody had given Luton a chance of overcoming George Graham’s Arsenal in their first major final but Brian’s winning goal – instigated by his younger brother and with his parents watching on proudly from the stands – capped the most famous day in the club’s history.

“It was the only game my mother ever went to,” admits Edwin. “Brian scored twice. She wanted us to enjoy it.”

Made in Africa: The History of African Players in English Football, by Ed Aarons, was published by Arena Sport on 1 June 2020. To order a copy click here.

source: theguardian.com