It started with a World Cup trip and a few hundred dollars. For four young England fans in 1986, it turned into a life in America.
Gary Allen, Stuart Bates, David Arnold and Garry Hardwicke were among a group of friends who travelled 5,000 miles to follow England at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, then decided not to go back to the UK.
The childhood friends, aged between 20 and 23 at the time, had recently lost their jobs and headed off with little more than bags on their backs and a few hundred dollars. Hardwicke even told his partner he was only going out to get a carton of milk, then did not return home for the next 12 years.
They called themselves The Disco Firm. Most were Wolves fans from Stourbridge and Lye in Worcestershire, apart from Arnold, who was from Solihull and supported Birmingham City.
The group travelled to Monterrey and Acapulco and watched every England game before the team went out to Argentina in the match marked by Diego Maradona’s Hand of God goal.
Now the friends are set to reunite 40 years later at this summer’s tournament in America, when they watch England play Croatia in Dallas on June 17.
Allen, now 63 and living in Atlanta, said: “In 1986, Margaret Thatcher was in power, a few of us had lost our jobs, so we planned to go to the World Cup in Mexico.
“We thought it would be the ultimate cool thing to go to a World Cup on the other side of the world.
“It was one big adventure and we had never done anything like it before — we just thought why not.
“I had about $625 saved up before I lost my job.
“There was a big group of us who traveled down to Gatwick and we flew into Houston and San Antonio where we caught buses into Mexico.
“We watched every England game and it was some experience. I feel privileged to have been in the stadium to watch one of the greatest goals of all time — but then came that handball.
“Even in the stadium it was clear, every person in the stadium could see what Maradona had done — apart from the referee.”
After England were knocked out, the group stayed in South Padre and found work in restaurants.
Allen said: “The locals had never seen anything like us, we were on the liquor every night.
“We even pretended at one point we were the England squad — Batsey was Peter Shilton and ended up having a good night with a girl.
“That was until she turned up a few weeks later at the restaurant he was working at with her husband and kids.
“When it came to tipping she said something like ‘he has already had his tip’ and the husband went off in a huff.
“We had to get jobs and the opportunities were better there than back home, so it was a no-brainer really.
“My parents just thought fair play as I was trying to make a go of it elsewhere.
“Another time we met some soldiers who were over from Belize — we went back to their barracks with them and spent a few days there.
“It was just a crazy time.
“Everyone stayed and went on to make lives for themselves here.
“We have got together at reunions over the years but this time there’s a massive group of guys coming over from the U.K. too and we’re all meeting for an England game.
“I usually only meet Arnie for those occasions so it should be pretty special.”
The men are now the subject of a documentary, Lost Down Mexico Way. Its stars are referred to by their nicknames: Adder, for Allen, Rabbithead, for Hardwicke, Batesy, for Bates, Arnie, for Arnold, and their American friend Texas Steve, Steve Dawson.
Allen said: “I had this story in my head for way over 10 years and it needed sharing.
“When I teamed up with production company Eight Engines they loved it from the get-go and said it was one of the best guys’ adventures they could share.
“Thousands have viewed the documentary since its release and it’s becoming very popular with soccer fans around the country.
“Some of the comments tell you how ‘real’ it is and how it’s a time capsule of soccer.”
Bates, 63, who lives in Houston and is a father of four, said: “Stourbridge in the ’80s was tough, I had been working on a building site at the time and a lot of the guys had lost their jobs.
“We were watching Duran Duran videos filmed in Rio and Bowie filming in Australia and I knew I just wanted to travel.
“When the chance came, I just thought why not even though we knew nothing about Mexico as there wasn’t the internet.
“This was just on the cusp of still being the old days.
“We had the time of our lives and my family understood why I stayed out there — there were better prospects in America at the time.
“The guys I met are like brothers to me, we’re all just family and have always stayed in touch.
“I love England and I love the Black Country but this one little slice of adventure in our lives turned into new lives for us.”
After 1986, Allen built a company in the sewage and drain equipment industry that turned over $20 million a year before he retired last year. Bates built a career in the auto industry in Houston. Arnold stayed in Mexico and became head of a school in Monterrey, where he still lives. Hardwicke, who later worked as a painter in Atlanta and moved to Florida, died two years ago.
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