On This DayGazza and the ‘Dentist’s Chair’: England’s infamous 1996 trip to Hong Kong – SCMP archive
On this day 30 years ago, a football match between England and a Hong Kong select team side ended in a wild night out in Causeway Bay
Thirty years ago, England’s national football team played a friendly match in Hong Kong as part of their preparations for Euro 96. The match itself was an uneventful 1-0 victory for England over a Hong Kong Golden Select XI. What happened after the match entered English football folklore for the behaviour of the players in the bars of Hong Kong and on a Cathay Pacific flight back to London. Here’s how the SCMP covered those stories in 1996.
Night before Gazza & Co’s riotous flight
by John Flint
This article was first published on May 31, 1996
Just 24 hours before England soccer star Paul Gascoigne allegedly let loose on Flight CX251, he was having a ripping time in a Hong Kong bar ... tearing teammates’ shirts off and downing Flaming Lamborghinis.
Gascoigne, in hot water over claims he wrecked two video screens with karate kicks on the flight back to London, was in the thick of the action when some of the players hit The Jump bar, Causeway Bay.
He and several other players left topless after a night of merriment and cocktails.