England national football team

The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872. Although most national football teams represent a sovereign state, England is one of the United Kingdom's Home Nations, meaning that it is permitted by FIFA statutes to maintain its own national side that competes in all major professional tournaments,^[2] with the exception of the Olympic Games. England's home ground is Wembley Stadium in London and their head coach is Fabio Capello.

England are one of eight national teams to have won the FIFA World Cup, which they did in 1966 when they hosted the finals. They defeated West Germany 4–2 in extra time in the final. Since then, their best performance at a World Cup was a fourth place finish in 1990. They reached the semi-finals of the UEFA European Championship in 1968 and 1996. They were the most successful of the Home Nations in the British Home Championship with 54 wins (including 20 shared wins) before the competition was suspended in 1984.

The traditional rivals of England are Scotland and Wales; the England and Scotland football rivalry began when they became opponents in the representative matches of the 1870s. As regular fixtures against Scotland came to an end in the late 1980s with the last traditional fixture against Wales being in 1984, they have met Scotland and Wales in full competition rarely over the last 25 years. Rivalries with other national teams have become more prominent. Matches against Argentina and Germany have produced particularly eventful encounters.

History

The England national football team is the joint oldest in the world; it was formed at the same time as Scotland. A representative match between England and Scotland was played on 5 March 1870, having been organised by the Football Association. A return fixture was organised by representatives of Scottish football teams on 30 November 1872. This match, played at Hamilton Crescent in Scotland, is viewed as the first official international football match because the two teams were independently selected and operated, rather than being the work of a single football association.^[3] Over the next forty years, England played exclusively with the other three Home Nations—Scotland, Wales and Ireland—in the British Home Championship.

To begin with, England had no permanent home stadium. They joined FIFA in 1906 and played their first ever games against countries other than the Home Nations on a tour of Central Europe in 1908. Wembley Stadium was opened in 1923 and became their home ground. The relationship between England and FIFA became strained and this resulted in their departure from FIFA in 1928, before rejoining in 1946. As a result, they did not compete in a World Cup until 1950, in which they were beaten in a 1–0 defeat by the United States, failing to get past the first round in one of the most embarrassing defeats in team history.^[4] Their first ever defeat on home soil to a non-UK team was a 0–2 loss to the Republic of Ireland on 21 September 1949 at Goodison Park. A 6–3 loss in 1953 to Hungary, was their first ever defeat at Wembley by a team from outside of the British Isles. In the return match in Budapest, Hungary won 7–1. This still stands as England's worst ever defeat. After the game, a bewildered Syd Owen said, "it was like playing people from outer space".^[5]

In the 1954 World Cup, two goals by Ivor Broadis saw him become the first England player to score two goals in a game at the World Cup finals. He beat Nat Lofthouse by 30 minutes when both scored 2 each in a thrilling 4–4 draw against Belgium. After reaching the quarterfinals for the first time, England lost 4–2 to Uruguay.

Although Walter Winterbottom was appointed as England's first ever full time manager in 1946, the team was still picked by a committee until Alf Ramsey took over in 1963. The 1966 World Cup was hosted in England and Alf Ramsey guided England to victory with a 4–2 win against West Germany after extra time in the final, during which Geoff Hurst famously scored a hat-trick. England qualified for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico as reigning cup holders. They reached the quarter-finals but were knocked out by West Germany. England had been 2–0 up but were eventually beaten 3–2 after extra time. They failed in qualification for the 1974, leading to Alf Ramsey's dismissal, and 1978 World Cups. Under Ron Greenwood they managed to qualify for the 1982 World Cup in Spain (the first time competitively since 1962), but were eliminated from a second qualifying round comprising further group matches without losing a game all tournament. The team under Bobby Robson fared better as England reached the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup, losing 2–1 to Argentina in a game made famous by two goals by Maradona for very contrasting reasons, before losing every match at the Euro 88 tournament. They next went on to achieve their second best result in the 1990 World Cup by finishing fourth – losing again to West Germany in a semi-final finishing 1–1 after extra time, then 3–4 in England's first penalty shoot-out.

The 1990s saw four England managers, each in the role for a relatively brief period. Graham Taylor was Robson's successor, but left after England failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup. At Euro 96, held in England, Terry Venables led England to their best performance at a European Championship, reaching the semifinals. He resigned following investigations into his financial activities and his successor, Glenn Hoddle, similarly left the job for non-footballing reasons after just one international tournament — the 1998 World Cup — in which England were eliminated in the second round again by Argentina and again on penalties (after a 2–2 draw). Following Hoddle's departure, Kevin Keegan took England to Euro 2000, but performances were disappointing and he resigned shortly afterwards.

Sven-Göran Eriksson took charge of the team between 2001 and 2006 and was the first non-English manager of England. Despite controversial press coverage of his personal life, Eriksson was consistently popular with the majority of fans. He guided England to the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup and 2006 World Cup. He lost only five competitive matches during his tenure and England rose to a No.4 world ranking under his guidance. His contract was extended by the Football Association by two years, however it was terminated by them at the 2006 World Cup's conclusion.

Steve McClaren was appointed as head coach. His reign yielded little success, with England failing to qualify for Euro 2008. McClaren was sacked unanimously by The Football Association on 22 November 2007 after only 16 months in charge. This made him the shortest-lasting full time England manager since the inauguration of the post in 1946. He was replaced on 14 December 2007 by the former Real Madrid and AC Milan manager Fabio Capello. Capello took charge of his first game on 6 February 2008 against Switzerland, in which England won 2–1. Under Capello, England won all but one of their qualifying games for the 2010 World Cup. A 5–1 victory over Croatia at Wembley ensured the team qualified for the final tournament with two games to spare, a feat that had never been achieved before.

At the 2010 World Cup itself England drew their opening two games leading to questions about the team's spirit, tactics and ability to handle pressure.^[6] They progressed to the next round, where they were beaten 4–1 by Germany, their heaviest defeat in a World Cup. Gary Neville said the England team lacked skill and strength in depth.^[7]

Home stadium

For the first 50 years of their existence, England played their home matches all around the country. They initially used cricket grounds before later moving on to football clubs' stadiums. The original Empire Stadium was built in Wembley, located in Brent, London, and was constructed for the British Empire Exhibition. England played their first match at the stadium in 1924 against Scotland and for the next 27 years Wembley was used as a venue for matches against Scotland only. The stadium later became known simply as Wembley Stadium and it became England's permanent home stadium during the 1950s. This stadium was demolished in 2001 and work began to completely rebuild it. During this time, England played at a number of different venues across the country. They returned to the new Wembley Stadium in 2007. The stadium is now owned by the Football Association via its subsidiary Wembley National Stadium Limited.

Media coverage

All England matches are broadcast with full commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live. From the 2008–09 season to the 2011–12 season, England's home qualifiers and friendlies both home and away are being shown live on ITV. Away qualifiers are shown on Sky Sports. England's away qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup were shown on Setanta Sports until that company's collapse. As a result of Setanta Sports's demise, England's World Cup qualifier in Ukraine on 10 October 2009 was shown in the UK on a pay-per-view basis via the internet only. This one-off event was the first time an England game had been screened in such a way. The number of subscribers, paying between £4.99 and £11.99 each, was estimated at between 250,000 and 300,000 and the total number of viewers at around 500,000.^[8]

In Australia, England home games and selected away games are broadcast by Setanta Sports Australia.

Colours

England's traditional home colours are white shirts, navy blue shorts and white socks. The team has periodically worn an all white kit. Umbro and Admiral have been the main designer of the England kits.

Although England's first away kits were blue, England's traditional away colours are red shirts, white shorts and red socks. In 1996, England's away kit was changed to grey shirts, shorts and socks. This kit was only worn three times, including against Germany in the semi final of Euro 96 but the deviation from the traditional red was unpopular with supporters and the England away kit remained red until 2011, when a navy blue away kit was introduced. The away kit is also sometimes worn during home matches, when a new edition has been released in order to promote it.

England have occasionally had a third kit. At the 1970 World Cup England wore a third kit with pale blue shirts, shorts and socks against Czechoslovakia. They had a kit similar to Sweden's, with yellow shirts, yellow socks and blue shorts which they wore in the summer of 1973. For the World Cup in 1986 England had a third kit of pale blue, imitating that worn in Mexico sixteen years before and England retained pale blue third kits until 1992, but they were rarely used.

Charity support

England players donate all their pay for international matches to charity causes via the Team England Footballers Charity, which in 2009 was raising awareness about bowel cancer.^[9]

Coaching staff

Squad

Current squad

The following players have been named in the squad for the friendly matches against Spain on 12 November and Sweden on 15 November 2011.^[10] Players who have withdrawn from this squad are excluded. Caps and goals updated as of 15 November 2011.