Why England Never Win Football Tournaments
Although they created the beautiful game the English national team always seem to fall short in big tournaments even though they have the talent to win them
“I don’t like Cricket!”
Goes the song sang by 10cc.
But even if you don’t like the sport, it is still claimed to be England’s national game.
And all of the countries that dominate the game are former colonies of the British Empire.
India was under the rule from 1858 to 1947 and dominates the game often. In 1841, New Zealand became a then became a British colony. Their neighbors Australia were colonized well before them in 1788. Pakistan too was in the colony until it became independent in 1947. Whereas, South Africa became independent of the British Empire in 1961.
But although all of these nations have become leading lights in cricket, the game is still not the most popular in the world.
Instead, it’s another sport that England created that has dominated the world of sport and spread so much class and culture throughout the planet.
And that sport is football.
Known as soccer by many, the sport has knitted the world together and transcended religions and politics. Although most countries have their national soccer team and competed in some shape or form for their place at the World Cup every four years, the club game is just if not more popular around the world.
And it’s many of the English clubs that are supported not only in the cities that they represent but in far-flung places in the world too.
Liverpool has fans all over the world with huge fan bases in Arabia and in countries like Brazil, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Thailand, and the USA. And Manchester United too has fans all over the world with over 140 million supporters in every continent on the planet.
Then there are more recent superpowers of the English game like Arsenal, Chelsea, and Manchester City. All of them have big bases internally and are rising in popularity annually.
The reality is everyone loves the English club game.
But even though the English may have invented the game they are not the only country that has dominated the international fandom of teams. Spain, Brazil, Germany, and several other countries too have powerful support bases of their clubs internationally as well.
The Spanish club giants of Real Madrid and Barcelona are followed all over the world and the pressure the players are under by the Spanish media is much worse than the British media and the expectation they put their footballers under.
Brazil has Flamengo, Palmerias, Internacional, and Grémio. While Germany has Bayern Munich and Borrussia Dortmund.
Despite England having created games that are so adored worldwide that have connected billions of people internationally, the odd thing is they are not too successful at their game themselves.
Since the World Cup began in 1930 and the European Championship’s started thirty years later, England has only won one tournament that being the 1966 World Cup when they beat West Germany 4–2.
So why have they not been successful?
In my memory which goes back over forty years now, it’s because they haven’t shown enough hunger and desire when representing their countries at major tournaments.
Don’t get me wrong some of my favorite footballers are English and I follow English club teams and have witnessed them win European and World competitions with class but they’ve struggled to win as a collective nation over my lifetime.
As many of the club teams have many foreign players from overseas who’ve improved the culture of the clubs and made the club teams better than even their national team. And many of the foreign players over the years have come from harder times than those of players on the English national team.
Take Luis Suárez who was one of the greatest Liverpool strikers who not only lit up the English club game but achieved just as much acclaim when he went to play with Barcelona in the Spanish league. Suárez had 7 brothers and lived in poverty when he was a child.
Another player who represented Manchester United was Eric Cantona. Although born in France, Cantona was brought up in poverty as well.
Arsenal’s Dennis Bergkamp who hailed from Holland transformed the challenging London club into undefeated Premier League champions yet he was also from a working-class background.
Manchester City’s Sergio Agüero was born into poverty also like his mother and his father struggled to survive when he was born.
Didier Drogba drove Chelsea to Premier League championships yet grew up in so much poverty that he suffered from malnutrition.
All of these players are examples of those coming from disadvantaged upbringings outside of England. And all of them left their homeland to represent teams and places they were not from and lived in a land that in many instances they had to learn the language, make new friends in, and get to know the people.
That too would have been a challenge they overcome to become great.
Although England has created beautiful sports their native players have not been challenged enough in their upbringing and not felt that deep desire to succeed at the highest international level.
They need a passion that is more than reaching the height of the club game but a love for the game that’s deeper than having a big income weekly but instead drives their country on to victories.
Maybe that’s why passion is so special in sport and why truly great players make their international teams demand love and a deep hunger as well.
After all, even the song that 10cc sang was just ordinary until they followed it with vocal passion in their chorus that was completed with:
“I don’t like cricket…I love it!”
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