FA chairman Greg Dyke launched this year's 50th anniversary of England's World Cup triumph by hoisting aloft the Jules Rimet trophy and insisting the Three Lions will soon reclaim their crown.
Four of England's 1966 heroes Sir Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters, Gordon Banks and George Cohen gathered at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington in the same room where the tournament's draw was made 50 years ago on Wednesday.
The hotel was also the venue for the team's celebratory dinner the night they beat West Germany in the final.
As well as the actual replica trophy used at the time, there was an original World Cup Willie -- the tournament mascot -- on show on Tuesday, as Dyke proclaimed the future can be bright for England's current crop.