In fact 1969 was a year of Cold War politics, demonstrations and even armed conflict triggered by events on the field of play.

In football, qualification for the 1970 World Cup was the focus. Sixteen teams were to contest the finals but holders England were given an automatic place and Mexico also qualified automatically as host nation, which meant only 14 other places for the rest of the world.

Qualification in the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football region threw together Honduras and El Salvador. There had been ill feeling between the two nations for years.

Honduras won the first match and El Salvador the return. After this, Honduras broke off diplomatic relations.

It was decided that a play-off match be played on neutral ground and El Salvador won 3-2 in Mexico City.

The matches had heightened tension between the two nations. Within a few weeks El Salvador launched an invasion. President Fidel Sanchez Hernandez called it "a crusade for human dignity".

His Honduran counterpart Oswaldo Lopez Arellano urged his people to resist "a war of conquest by the innately treacherous Salvadoreans".

Honduran planes bombed an oil refinery and attacked the airport. "Our Air Force dominates the skies over both countries," said a Honduran communiqué.

The conflict became known as "the football war" and even prompted the Pope to intervene.

Radio stations in both countries were so pre-occupied with the war that neither announced the Apollo 11 moon landing.

The Organisation of American States eventually brokered a peace agreement. In October, El Salvador beat Haiti in the final stages of qualification to book their place at Mexico ‘70 where they lost all three matches.

After a boycott in 1966 the Confederation of African Football was granted direct qualification for the first time. Morocco qualified and performed creditably but there was no place for some of the big hitters in world football.

"This is our eternal problem - whether to organise the finals purely on merit or take in continental considerations," said FIFA Secretary Helmut Kaser.

Spain, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Argentina all failed to qualify.

Brazil did qualify in 1969 but Pele’s but greatest moment that year came not in the yellow shirt of Brazil but in the white of Santos.

He scored the 1000^th goal of his career from the penalty spot in a match against Vasco da Gama at the Maracana. As his team mates lined up on the halfway line after the kick, Pele was engulfed by hundreds of photographers and radio reporters demanding instant reaction. The match eventually resumed after some nine minutes.

In the US, the showpiece American football "Super Bowl" was only three years old, but it had already become the hottest ticket in town. In 1969 it featured Joe Namath, star quarter-back of the New York Jets, underdogs for the big match against Baltimore Colts.

"I think we’ve got a heck of a shot of winning, we’ll beat anybody in the world, I think we are going to win next Sunday," he told reporters and famously responded to a heckler by insisting that "the Jets will win, I guarantee it".

Inspired by Namath, the Jets won the match 16-7. Namath himself was named most valuable player and earned the nickname "Broadway Joe".

If Namath’s reputation was forged in the heat of Florida, another star had her breakthrough year on the ice in 1969. Irina Rodnina, an 18-year-old student partnered Alexei Ulanov to victory at the European Figure Skating Championships in Garmisch Partenkirchen, ending the dominance of Ludmila and Oleg Protopopov. 

Rodnina and Ulanov went on to claim gold at World Championships in Colorado Springs a few weeks later.

Skating writer Howard Bass predicted "they looked set for a long reign as they outpaced the deposed masters with superbly timed flying camels and a spectacular double twist lift".

Bass was correct. Rodnina dominated European World and Olympic competition, first with Ulanov and later Alexander Zaitsev.

It was a big post Olympic year in athletics. In those days there was no distinctive World Championships in the sport but a match between Europe and the Western Hemisphere (Americas) took place in the Neckar Stadium in Stuttgart. 

There was a sprint double for John Carlos of the United States but Welshman Lynn Davies, Olympic long champion in 1964, beat his successor, American Bob Beamon. West Germany’s Gerd Hennige won the men’s 400 metres hurdles and Heidi Rosendahl won a close women’s long jump to delight the home crowds.

The European Athletics Championships came around and were held in Athens. In 1969, Greece was ruled by a military Government and some believed that attending the event would give propaganda to the regime.

Accommodation for the teams was under the flight path of the nearby airport.

"The windows of my room shook with noise, imagine how it will be for athletes before a major championships," said Romania’s discus champion Lia Manoliu when she visited in June.

These were to be the first major championships to feature the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) as a separate team.

Middle distance runner Jurgen May had represented East Germany in the previous European Championships but had defected in 1967 and was now selected by West Germany. He complained that his records and name were erased in East German record books after his flight. "I want to win just so I can see if they will have to print my name again as champion of Europe," he said.

Unfortunately for him, International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) regulations included a three-year residential qualification before switching nations.

The East Germans lodged an appeal to stop May competing and the IAAF agreed.

In the meantime, West German athletes voted by a majority of 51 to 10 to withdraw from the championships if May was not allowed to join them. In the end West German athletes took part only in the relays and the East Germans went home with more gold than anyone else. They dominated international athletics until the Berlin wall fell twenty years later, largely as a result of the state-led doping programme.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) met for their annual Session in Warsaw. Every member at the time was male but the IOC appointed Monique Berlioux to take charge of the Lausanne headquarters as director of press and public relations. She said the IOC was "a gentlemen’s club" but wielded considerable influence for the next decade. 

IOC President Avery Brundage turned 80 in 1969. A fierce supporter of "amateurism", he remained as uncompromising and intransigent as ever at the IOC Session.

‘’The Games assemble amateurs of all nations in fair and equal competition. The Games are organised by amateurs for amateurs," he told IOC members.

"Times are changed they say. Competitors must be paid, Olympic rules are out of date as they lead to hypocrisy and cheating. This is like saying the operation of banks leads to bank robberies.’’

He locked horns with skiing bosses in a dispute over what he saw as increasing commercialisation. It was an ongoing dispute which would not be resolved until Brundage retired from the IOC Presidency.

After a decade of political posturing agreement was reached for North Korea to take part in future Olympics.

"At future Games, this team will be designated DPR Korea. There is no change in the designation of the [South] Korean team. This solution has been agreed by both sides in an Olympic spirit to allow free competition following negotiations with President Avery Brundage," the announcement read.

The problem of South Africa was more difficult to solve, although they had not taken part in an Olympics since 1960.

There was a proposal to expel the South African Olympic Committee (SANOC). This was postponed until the 1970 Session in Amsterdam, partly because it emerged "SANOC had never received official notice that this point was to be discussed" and that "they did not have sufficient time to prepare a defence".

The South Africans had not yet been expelled fully from international sport but the end was nigh. In November 1969, the Springbok Rugby team embarked on a tour of the United Kingdom.

"We hope to make friends," said team manager Corrie Bornman, but the anti-Apartheid movement were waiting with a welcome which was anything but friendly.

The venue of their opening match against Oxford University was kept secret until the eve of the match. The ground chosen was Twickenham.

"In spite of short notice we intend to make a strong protest. Today marks the beginning of our fight against the racialist Springbok team." said Peter Hain, a student who was leader of the stop the tour campaign. Spectators were permitted in only one stand but as South Africa’s Piet Visagie kicked the first points of the tour, protesters chanted "Sieg Heil".

The second half was delayed as demonstrators broke through the police cauldron and were ejected by police. Protests were to escalate at later matches.

"With increasing security on the game itself, the Springboks can expect direct action protests to follow their every movement," said Hain.

At one match, the Springbok bus was even briefly hijacked by a protester masquerading as the official driver.

‘’What is going to happen next’’ asked tour manager Bornman.’’ The demonstrators seem now to have lost their peaceful intentions.’’

There were protest marches where participants included former England test cricketer David Sheppard, then Bishop of Woolwich.

The Test matches against all four home unions did go ahead, but the protesters did get their way when a cricket tour by the South African team, planned for the following summer was cancelled.