After winning the league title, Nottingham Forest’s manager Brian Clough spent a major part of the winning money on buying the forward Trevor Francis from Birmingham City. The move was a success and Francis became Britain’s first £1 million footballer. At that time, the UEFA player registration rules stated the waiting period of ‘3 months’ before he could play for European football. The first game after three-months was the 1979 European Cup final against Malmö FF. And, what a debut it turned out to be – Trevor Francis went on to score the only goal of the finals to clinch Nottingham Forest’s first European Cup title.
