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England national football team

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The England national football team represents England (not the whole United Kingdom) in international football competitions such as the World Cup and the European Championships. It is controlled by The Football Association, the governing body for football in England.

England
Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s)Three Lions
AssociationThe Football Association
Head coachSven-Göran Eriksson, 2001-
Most capsPeter Shilton (125)
Top scorerBobby Charlton (49)
First colours
Second colours
First international
Scotland 0 - 0 England
(Partick, Scotland; 30 November, 1872)
Biggest win
Ireland 0 - 13 England
(Belfast, Northern Ireland; 18 February, 1882)
Biggest defeat
Hungary 7 - 1 England
(Budapest, Hungary; 23 May, 1954)
World Cup
Appearances12 (first in 1950)
Best resultWinners, 1966
European Championship
Appearances7 (first in 1968)
Best resultThird, 1968, Semi-finals, 1996

Due to historical precedent, and continuing national sentiment among them, each of the four Home Nations of the United Kingdom possesses its own separate football association, domestic league and national team. Because the IOC does not accept regional representative teams, England, like the other three, do not compete in Olympic football.

England are by far the most successful of the Home Nations, having won the 1966 World Cup and the British Home Championship outright thirty-four times, as many as the other three nations have won outright altogether.

History

Early years

England played in the first ever international football match, against Scotland at Hamilton Crescent in Partick, Glasgow, Scotland on November 30, 1872. The result was 0-0; England had to wait until the following year to record their first win, 4-2, over Scotland at the Kennington Oval.

England would only play the other Home Nations (Scotland, Wales and what was then Ireland) for nearly 40 years - partly due to the dominance of the UK in international football, as well as the problems of arranging internationals in the days before air travel was commonplace. England first played Continental opposition in a 1908 tour of Central Europe, recording easy wins over Austria, Hungary and Bohemia. England's first defeat to a team outside the British Isles came in 1929, when they lost 4-3 to Spain in Madrid.

The FA had joined FIFA in 1906, but the relationship between FIFA and the British associations was fraught, and the British nations withdrew from FIFA in 1928, in a dispute over payments to amateur players. This meant that England did not enter the first three World Cups. However many in England declared the team unofficial "World Champions" after they defeated 1934 World Cup winners Italy in the "Battle of Highbury" in November 1934.

Post-war

After the Second World War, the FA started to modernise their approach; they rejoined FIFA in 1946, the same year they appointed the first dedicated team manager, Walter Winterbottom (before then, the team was picked by a committee). England's World Cup debut came in 1950; however, they suffered an infamous 1-0 loss to the United States and failed to get beyond the first group stage. England struggled in the 1954 and 1958 tournaments, and all the signs pointed to how far behind English football had fallen behind the rest of the world.

England's tactical inferiority was highlighted on November 25, 1953, when Hungary came to visit Wembley Stadium. Hungary, one of the best sides in the world and fielding legendary players such as Sándor Kocsis and Ferenc Puskás, outclassed the English 6-3 - this was England's first ever home loss to Continental opposition. In the return match in Budapest, Hungary won 7-1, which still stands as England's worst ever defeat.

By the 1960s English tactics and training had started to improve, and England turned in a respectable performance in the

 
Wikipedia has media related to 1962.

, losing in the quarter-finals to eventual winners Brazil. After Winterbottom retired in 1962, former captain Alf Ramsey was appointed; Ramsey boldly predicted that England would win the following tournament, which England were hosting.

1966 World Cup

File:1966 final bobby moore.jpg
Captain Bobby Moore with the Jules Rimet trophy

Ramsey's prediction came true, and the 1966 World Cup was England's finest moment. Captained by Bobby Moore, England's "Wingless Wonders" dispatched Argentina and then Portugal to set up a final with West Germany at Wembley. England won 4-2 after extra time, with three goals from Geoff Hurst and one from Martin Peters. The game popularized the British catchphrase "They think it's all over... it is now!", which were BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme's words as Hurst scored his third goal in the 120th minute.

Decline in the 1970s

England came third in the 1968 European Championships, and were one of the favourites to win the 1970 World Cup; however, they fell in the quarter-finals to West Germany 3-2, having been 2-0 up. West Germany also beat England 3-1 on aggregate in the quarter-finals of the 1972 European Championships. Worse was to come as England failed to qualify for the 1974 World Cup after only managing a 1-1 draw against Poland in a qualifier at Wembley, largely thanks to the heroics of Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski. In the aftermath of England's failure to reach the World Cup Finals, the FA sacked Sir Alf Ramsey. Of their 113 matches under Ramsey, England had won 69 and drawn 27. There was widespread distaste that, given his distinguished record, Ramsey had not been given the opportunity to resign.

After a brief period where Joe Mercer was caretaker manager of the side, the FA appointed Don Revie as Ramsey's permanent successor. He fared even worse than Ramsey, as England failed to qualify from the group stages of the 1976 European Championships; Revie resigned halfway through England's unsuccessful bid to qualify for the 1978 World Cup. At the same time the team were attracting an ever-growing hooligan element in their support, especially at their matches abroad - at the 1980 European Championships Italian police deployed tear gas during a group match with Belgium. England qualified for the 1982 World Cup but failed to progress from the second group stage despite not losing any of their matches, in another tournament marred by violence.

Revival under Robson

Although at the time he was widely derided by the press, Bobby Robson is now looked upon as one of England's more successful managers. He took England to the 1986 World Cup, where they were knocked out by eventual winners Argentina in the quarter finals, thanks to two goals from Diego Maradona - the first the infamous "Hand of God" goal, where Maradona punched the ball into the net, the second after a 50-yard dribble past five England players that is widely regarded as one of the finest goals in history. As a small consolation, Gary Lineker won the tournament's Golden Boot.

England's 1990 World Cup was their best since 1966; after a slow start in the group stage, England squeaked single-goal wins over Belgium and Cameroon in the knockout rounds, before being beaten on penalties by West Germany in the semi-finals, after drawing 1-1. The team's good performance, the relative lack of violence and the emergence of Paul Gascoigne - England's player of the tournament, who cried after being booked against West Germany (which would have ruled him out of the final had England won) - were all factors in the rehabilitation of football in British society in the 1990s.

Mixed 1990s

Robson's successor, Graham Taylor, was largely a failure - the team failed to win a game at (edit conflict × 92) and missed out on qualifying for the

 
Wikipedia has media related to 1994.

altogether; the team infamously went down 1-0 to minnows San Marino in a qualifying match after just eight seconds, one of the fastest international goals of all time, before recovering to win 7-1. Taylor was sacked in 1993 and replaced by Terry Venables, who oversaw a much improved performance at (edit conflict × 96). With the tournament hosted in England and it being the 30th anniversary of the 1966 World Cup victory, fans' expectations were high; however, after famous victories over Scotland and the Netherlands, and a rare penalty shoot-out win over Spain, England fans were treated to déjà vu as their side lost their semi-final on penalties to Germany after drawing 1-1. Venables stepped down after Euro 96; his successor Glenn Hoddle oversaw England's successful qualification for the

 
Wikipedia has media related to 1998.

, but the team were knocked on penalties again, this time to old enemies Argentina after David Beckham had been sent off. Hoddle resigned the following year after stating his controversial beliefs about the disabled in a newspaper interview. Former captain Kevin Keegan took over, only just managing to get England into Template:Ec2 (after a 2-1 playoff win over Scotland), where a lacklustre England failed to get beyond the group stage. Keegan resigned in September 2000, after England lost their very last match at the old Wembley Stadium, a World Cup qualifier against Germany.

The Eriksson era

In 2001, the Swede Sven-Göran Eriksson was appointed as Keegan's successor, becoming the first foreign national to manage England. Eriksson turned around the team's

 
Wikipedia has media related to 2002.

campaign with a 5-1 victory over Germany; England came from behind with goals from Emile Heskey, Steven Gerrard and a Michael Owen hat-trick. England ensured qualification after a tense final game against Greece; David Beckham scored from a free kick in the last seconds of the game to make the score 2-2 and put England top of their group on goal difference. In the finals in Japan and South Korea England beat Argentina 1-0 in the group stage and reached the quarter-finals before being beaten 2-1 by the eventual winners Brazil.

In Template:Ec2, England came top of their qualification group after drawing 0-0 away to Turkey in their final qualifier. In the finals, despite a last-minute loss to France in the group stage, England were favoured to do well, but were knocked out in yet another penalty shootout, this time to hosts Portugal after a 2-2 draw in the quarter-finals.

2005 has seen Eriksson receive hefty criticism from fans for his defensive strategies and alleged lack of passion. A 4-1 loss to Denmark in a friendly was followed by a humiliating 1-0 defeat to Northern Ireland in a

 
Wikipedia has media related to 2006.

qualifier, which compounded criticism. An unconvincing 1-0 victory over Austria did nothing to relieve the pressure. However, despite these criticisms England qualified for the World Cup finals with one match to spare, and travel to Germany as group winners following a 2-1 victory and a much improved performance against Poland.

In their first friendly match following qualification for the World Cup, England beat Argentina 3-2 in Geneva, Switzerland, in a game many have described as England's best performance in a very long time.

The Swede has also received a degree of criticism during his time in charge for experimenting with his teams excessively during friendly matches, sometimes changing the entire eleven at half-time before FIFA ruled that only a maximum of five substitutions would be allowed in such games from 2004. He also received criticism from some quarters of the English media for 'cheapening' the captaincy of the England team by allowing lower-profile players such as Emile Heskey and Philip Neville to lead the team after substitutions. However, these critics generally ignored or were not aware of the fact that only the player leading the team at kick-off is officially recorded as having captained England, so players inheriting the armband later in games were not 'England captains' in the official sense.

Famous Players (retired or retired from international football)

   

Current squad

Players who have recently been called up to England squads include:

Goalkeepers
Defenders
Midfielders
Strikers

Home stadium

For the first 50 years of its existence, the England team played its home matches at different venues all around the country; for the first few years it used cricket grounds, before later moving on to football clubs' stadiums. England played their first match at Wembley Stadium in 1924, the year after it was completed, against Scotland, but for the next 27 years would only use Wembley as a venue for Scotland matches; other opposition were still entertained at club grounds around the country.

In May 1951, Argentina became the first team other than Scotland to be entertained at Wembley, and by 1960 nearly all of England's home matches were being played there. Between 1966 and 1995, England did not play a single home match anywhere else.

England's last match at Wembley before its demolition and reconstruction was against Germany on October 7, 2000, a game which England lost 1-0. Since then the team has played at 14 different venues around the country, with Old Trafford having been the most often used. The FA have ruled that when the new Wembley is completed in mid-2006, England's travels will end, and the team will play all of their home matches there until at least 2036. The main reason for this is financial. The FA did not own the old Wembley stadium, but it does own the new one, and has taken on debts of hundreds of millions of pounds to pay for it. Thus it needs to maximise the revenue from England matches, and does not wish to share it with the owners of other grounds.

World Cup record

European Championship record

Distinguished players

Main article: List of England international footballers

As of November 12, 2005, the ten players with the most caps for England are:

# Name Career Caps Goals
1 Peter Shilton 1970-1990 125 0
2 Bobby Moore 1962-1973 108 2
3 Sir Bobby Charlton 1958-1970 106 49
4 Billy Wright 1946-1959 105 3
5 Bryan Robson 1980-1991 90 26
6 Kenny Sansom 1979-1988 86 1
7 David Beckham* 1996-now 86 16
8 Ray Wilkins 1976-1986 84 3
9 Gary Lineker 1984-1992 80 48
10 John Barnes 1983-1995 79 11

Members of the 1966 World Cup-winning team are in bold. * denotes a player still playing or available for selection.

For a longer list of players with 25 caps or more, see List of England international footballers.

Top England goalscorers

# Player England career Goals (Caps)
1 Sir Bobby Charlton 1958-70 49 (106)
2 Gary Lineker 1984-92 48 (80)
3 Jimmy Greaves 1959-67 44 (57)
4 Michael Owen* 1998-now 35 (75)
5 Tom Finney 1946-58 30 (76)
= Nat Lofthouse 1950-58 30 (33)
= Alan Shearer 1992-2000 30 (63)
8 Viv Woodward 1903-11 29 (23)
9 Steve Bloomer 1895-1907 28 (23)
10 David Platt 1989-96 27 (62)
11 Bryan Robson 1979-91 26 (90)
12 Sir Geoff Hurst 1966-72 24 (49)
13 Stan Mortensen 1947-53 23 (25)
14 Tommy Lawton 1938-48 22 (23)
15 Mick Channon 1972-77 21 (46)
= Kevin Keegan 1972-82 21 (63)
17 Martin Peters 1966-74 20 (77)
18 George Camsell 1929-36 18 (9)
= Dixie Dean 1927-32 18 (16)
= Johnny Haynes 1954-62 18 (56)
= Roger Hunt 1962-69 18 (34)

Members of the 1966 World Cup-winning team are in bold. * denotes a player still playing or available for selection.

England Captains

# Player England career Captain (Total Caps)
1 Billy Wright 1946-59 90 (105)
= Bobby Moore 1962-73 90 (108)
3 Bryan Robson 1980-91 65 (90)
4 David Beckham* 1998-Present 50 (86)
5 Alan Shearer 1992-2000 34 (63)
6 Kevin Keegan 1972-82 31 (63)
7 Emlyn Hughes 1969-80 23 (62)
8 Bob Crompton 1902-14 22 (41)
= Johnny Haynes 1954-1962 22 (56)
10 Eddie Hapgood 1933-39 21 (30)

Members of the 1966 World Cup-winning team are in bold. * denotes a player still playing or available for selection.

See Also List of England national football team captains

England managers

Manager England career Played Won Drawn Lost GF1 GA2 Win %
Sir Walter Winterbottom 1946-1962 139 78 33 28 383 196 56.11%
Sir Alf Ramsey 1963-1974 113 69 27 17 224 98 61.06%
Joe Mercer (caretaker) 1974 7 3 3 1 9 7 42.85%
Don Revie 1974-1977 29 14 8 7 49 25 48.27%
Ron Greenwood 1977-1982 55 33 12 10 93 40 59.99%
Sir Bobby Robson 1982-1990 95 47 30 18 151 60 49.47%
Graham Taylor 1990-1993 38 18 13 7 62 32 47.36%
Terry Venables 1993-1996 23 11 11 1 35 13 47.82%
Glenn Hoddle 1996-1999 28 17 6 5 42 13 60.71%
Howard Wilkinson (caretaker) 1999 1 0 0 1 0 2 0.00%
Kevin Keegan 1999-2000 18 7 7 4 26 15 38.88%
Howard Wilkinson (caretaker) 2000 1 0 1 0 0 0 0.00%
Peter Taylor (caretaker) 2000 1 0 0 1 0 1 0.00%
Sven-Göran Eriksson3 2001 - Present 59 34 15 10 111 57 57.63%

Notes

  1. GF = Goals for
  2. GA = Goals against
  3. Accurate up to and including 13th November 2005.

See also


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