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The principal competitions in England are the FA Premier League, the Football League, the FA Cup, and the Football League Cup (both cup competitions are knockout events).
The Premier League was formed in 1993 and comprises 20 teams. The Football League is made up of three divisions with promotion and relegation between them. Promotion and relegation also exists between the First Division of the Football League and the Premier League (which has the stronger teams). Various companies have sponsored the Football League including Barclays Bank and Endsleigh Insurance.
The FA Cup is annually contested by all members of the Premier and Football Leagues and also by many amateur and semi-professional teams. It is organised on a knockout basis with the final game being staged at Wembley Stadium, London in May. The League Cup was instituted in the 1960-1961 season, but it was not until the 1969-1970 season that all 92 Football League clubs took part. All finals up to 1966 were played on a two-leg "home and away" basis but since then they have been played as a single match at Wembley Stadium.
England's National-Team
The game of football originated in England and having taught the game to the rest of the World, the English have had a great deal of trouble learning anything from the modern football powers. The first time a foreign idea was taken on board by the English national team was the sudden selection of a sweeper against the Netherlands in the 1990 World Cup. For a while this permeated into the English league but was soon dropped and English football has only begun to change since the advent of the Premier League and the associated influx of foreign playing talent. So, where did it all go wrong?
The first hint that the national side was not all that it should be came in the 1950 World Cup (the first that England had entered) with an embarrassing 1-0 defeat by the USA but the point was finally forced home with 2 games against Hungary. November 25 1953 saw England not only beaten at Wembley for the first time but destroyed by the `magnificent Magyars` who ran out 6-3 winners. 6 months later, England played Hungary again in Budapest and lost 7-1. Clearly, something had to be done and England manager, Walter Winterbottom, the first visionary in the English game set out to do just that. Over a number of years, he persuaded the FA to allow him to select the team instead of a panel of FA bigwigs whilst persuading the players that listening and playing to his tactical ideas would produce better results than just going onto the pitch and playing how they pleased.
Within 13 years, the England team had come a long way and July 1966 saw Winterbottom`s successor, Alf Ramsey lead his England team out onto the sacred Wembley turf for the World Cup final against West Germany. A pulsating match finished 2-2 after 90 minutes before Geoff Hurst`s controversial goal gave the trophy to England (Hurst also scoring a late fourth to complete his hat-trick).
Two years later, England had their most successful European Championships to date. The team qualified for the last 8 by topping a group containing the other home nations before playing Spain in a two legged quarter final. England won the first game at Wembley 1-0 before going to Madrid a month later and winning 2-1. England joined Italy, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union in Italy for the semi final round but lost 1-0 to Yugoslavia. Three days later, they picked themselves up and beat the Soviet Union 2-0 in Rome to take third place.
The English team that went to Mexico for the 1970 World Cup is thought to be the best of modern times with players like Banks, Moore and Charlton at the peak of their powers. Certainly, Pele was worried by England`s presence in the same group as Brazil as he felt that the English were the only nation who could stop the Brazilians from taking their third World Cup. England opened their campaign with a 1-0 victory over Romania before they took on Brazil. This match was probably Bobby Moore`s finest hour but his performance will always be overshadowed by Gordon Banks` astonishing save from Pele. The result could have hinged on this but Jeff Astle missed a sitter and Jairzinho hit the winner.
A victory over Czechoslovakia put England into a quarter final against their old rivals West Germany. Gordon Banks was taken ill and replaced by Peter Bonetti but it didn`t matter as England coasted into a two goal lead. With 20 minutes left, Ramsey replaced Charlton and the rest is history. The Germans pulled the score back to 2-2 before scoring an extra time winner. The Germans again proved the thorn in England`s side in 1972 as they knocked them out of the European Championships but things were about to get worse. The 1974 World Cup qualifying tournament found England underestimating their opponents and paying for it. Admittedly, the crucial match against Poland did see England dominate but the Polish goalkeeper, Jan Tomaszewski (famously derided as a clown by Brian Clough) saved nearly everything and by the time England finally scored, Poland had taken the lead after a mistake from Norman Hunter.
Alf Ramsey departed to be replaced by Don Revie. The national side went rapidly downhill as the players failed to respond to Revie`s methods and this led to a second successive failure to qualify for the World Cup finals. Ron Greenwood took over with the nation clamouring for Brian Clough and Greenwood`s first task was to qualify for the newly expanded European Championships.
England sailed through a tough looking group containing Bulgaria, Denmark and the two Irish teams. On June 12 1980, England kicked off in their first major finals for 10 years against Belgium in Turin. However, the match was marred by crowd trouble and the game finished 1-1. Hosts Italy were the next opponents in a game England had to win. They lost 1-0 and a 2-1 victory over Spain three days later was academic.
Qualification for the 1982 World Cup finals looked impossible in September 1981 as England's Fans listened in horror to the words `Maggie Thatcher, your boys took one hell of a beating` uttered by a Norwegian commentator. England had lost 2-1 in Oslo to a team thought to be one of the whipping boys of international football. However, luck was on our side and two months later Hungary were beaten 1-0 at Wembley to seal qualification. The finals themselves were a bizarre affair as England went out unbeaten. France were the first victims losing 3-1 with Bryan Robson scoring the quickest ever goal in World Cup finals. Czechoslovakia and Kuwait were also beaten and England`s reward for topping this group was a group containing West Germany and Spain. Both games finished 0-0 and the Germans progressed.
The English tabloids always had a lot to say about the national side but the reign of Bobby Robson from 1982-1990 saw them really come to the fore despite the fact that this was arguably England`s most successful period since the days of Ramsey. The 1986 World Cup finals started badly with a 1-0 defeat against Portugal and a goalless draw with Morocco. England had to beat Poland to progress and a superb hat-trick from Lineker took them through to play Paraguay who were swiftly despatched 3-0. Argentina were the quarter final opponents and after a close first half, the South Americans took the lead with Maradona`s handballed goal. Soon afterwards, Maradona scored again (a goal recently voted the best ever by English television viewers) before Lineker got a late consolation.
The English tabloids decided that the 1988 European Championships were ours for the taking which was rather bizarre after their reactions to goalless draws in Turkey and Israel. England`s group contained Ireland, the Soviet Union and the latest Dutch maestros. The crucial game would be against the Dutch but things went wrong in the first game as Ireland ran out 1-0 winners. The match against the Netherlands was a classic and a virtuoso performance from Marco van Basten who destroyed a young Tony Adams was the difference between the teams, 3-1 the final result. England also lost 3-1 to the Soviet Union.
The 1990 World Cup finals again saw England begin slowly with a 1-1 draw against Ireland but on the day of the match against the Netherlands, the newspapers were full of talk of a new system to combat the Dutch. This turned out to be the sweeper system and it worked a dream with England well on top for large periods of the game and `scoring` late in the match with an indirect free kick from Stuart Pearce. The `goal` was disallowed as noone else touched the ball. Egypt were despatched 1-0 in the final game and England now had to face Belgium in the second round. The Belgians struck the post twice during the game whilst England had a John Barnes goal disallowed and with the game approaching 120 minutes, it looked like a penalty shootout would be required. However, Gascoigne then floated a free kick into the penalty area and David Platt swivelled and volleyed the ball into the net. 1-0 to England and into the quarter finals.
The quarter final was another nerve shattering match against Cameroon. David Platt gave England an early lead but deep into the second half, Cameroon led 2-1 before they gave away two penalties which Lineker calmly slotted away. So, for the first time since 1966, England had reached a World Cup semi final and would meet Germany. This match was arguably the best of the entire tournament as two well matched teams fought out a fascinating battle. The Germans drew first blood with a wickedly deflected free kick early in the second half but England hit back with a typical Lineker goal. The game went into extra time and both teams hit the post before the nightmare of penalties. Germany scored all of theirs whilst Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle missed.
So, Bobby Robson had gone to PSV but England had a new manager in Graham Taylor and a great opportunity to build on the semi final appearance. Things went well to begin with although dropping Gascoigne seemed a bizarre decision. England qualified for the 1992 European Championships from a tough group and there was a lot of optimism that England would perform well in Sweden. 0-0 draws against Denmark and France were followed by a 2-1 defeat against the hosts (the following day The Sun called Taylor, `Turnip` for the first time). England were out and now had to concentrate on a tough World Cup qualifying campaign.
They were in a group with Holland, Poland, Norway and San Marino. Two qualifed and the nation were optimistic, not realising that Norway had become a dangerous team. The opening qualifying match soon made the English stand up and take notice of this Norwegian danger as what looked like being a comfortable victory at Wembley was turned into an ignominious draw when Norway scored a superb equaliser from 25 yards. San Marino were duly thrashed at Wembley in the next game before the big one - the Dutch at Wembley. The game began superbly with England playing their best match under Taylor and swiftly taking a two goal lead.
However, Bergkamp pulled one back before half-time with a supremely confident finish and late in the second half, Walker pulled Overmars down to give away a penalty. The gift was despatched and the nightmare continued. Due to English reluctance to schedule qualifying matches at the beginning of the season, two tricky trips to Norway and Poland were to come at the end of the season. In the first of these, Poland should have hammered us but failed to take advantage of our defensive frailty and allowed substitute Ian Wright to score a late equaliser.
Three days later, Taylor employed a bizarre wing back system which was fated not to work right from the beginning. Ferdinand looked a lonely figure up front and another Walker mistake in the first half gave the Norwegians the lead. There was no improvement in the second half and Norway ripped England to shreds scoring a second goal which came straight from the Taylor handbook of direct play. This left three games to play and to have any chance, England would have to win the lot. The first was a crucial test against Poland at Wembley but England blew them away with a good performance, running out 3-0 victors. It was the next match which all feared and the lead up to the match in Rotterdam was full of Amsterdam bars being destroyed by English fans and running battles in the streets outside. The match itself was pulsating with England striking both posts and Platt being blatantly fouled by Koeman on the edge of the penalty area when clean through. Even the Dutch will admit that Koeman should have been sent off but he remained on the field to score from a twice taken free kick which Seaman was totally out of position for. The second goal from Bergkamp just rubbed it in.
England were down and out but had saved their lowest point for the last game away to San Marino - recognised at the time as the worst team in Europe. San Marino scored straight from the kick off after a woeful back pass by Stuart Pearce to score the quickest international goal ever. Taylor was out and the man who everyone believed would be the nation`s saviour, Terry Venables was in.
Venables began with a 1-0 victory over Denmark in March 1994 and with England hosting Euro `96, this sort of friendly match would make up England`s fixtures over the following two years. This period was used as a testing ground by the new manager for both formations and new players. A more continental style of football gradually began to develop through these internationals and players like Le Saux and Anderton looked very impressive in their England debuts. Scoring goals seemed to be a problem though and the big hope in this department, Alan Shearer failed to score at all from the Autumn of 1994 until Euro 96 itself.
Most of these friendlies said very little about how good England actually were as many teams came to Wembley looking very lacklustre and uninterested. An away match in Norway in the autumn of 1995 was particularly frustrating as the Norwegians packed their whole team behind the ball and England failed to break them down in 90 minutes, one of the most boring 0-0 draws ever witnessed being the result.
The lead up to Euro `96 itself found the press in particurlarly critical mood after a 1-0 victory over a Hong Kong select team made up of ageing European professionals but this was surely just a warm up match of no significance - surely the tabloids could wait until the competition proper to spout their unhelpful views.
June 8 1996 was the day which opened the European Championships with a match between England and Switzerland - a rampant English team tore into the Swiss in the first half with Shearer scoring a well deserved goal (his first for over 18 months) and Gascoigne running around like a man possessed. However, the defence were caught out on a couple of occasions and the worrying signs of this were borne out when the Swiss equalised in the second half before nearly winning in the dying seconds - a poor second half performance by the England team was bound to be pounced on by the press but little did we know who their target would be.
Paul Gascoigne had performed excellently in the first half of the match but was pilloried remorselessly by the press over the following week - this was an attitude far removed from the English public, most of whom seemed to feel that Gazza was the crucial player. Jimmy Hill added his name to the Gazza attackers when at half-time in the Scotland match, he suggested that Gascoigne should be substituted. This looked ridiculous when Gazza fashioned a quite superb second goal to seal victory after Shearer had given England the lead and McAllister had missed a penalty for the Scots.
A draw was now enough to progress and three days later, a packed Wembley expected the usual close encounter between England and Holland - what they got was the most impressive England performance in 25 years and near elimination for the Dutch. A 4-1 victory was as comfortable as it sounds; Gascoigne and Sheringham ripped the Dutch defence to shreds while Shearer scored a quite superb goal. Only a late consolation by Kluivert saved the Dutch from elimination and the anthem `Football`s Coming Home` was claimed by the crowd as their own.
So, England were in the quarter finals where they would meet Spain. The tabloids had now moved from criticising the national team to insulting the opposing nation and Spain was disgracefully derided in The Sun as the birthplace of syphilis and a nation where all the women had moustaches. This sort of journalism is a disgrace and it unsurprisingly fired the Spanish team up to their finest performance in the competition. They had two goals disallowed for offside (one of which looked a good goal) and after 120 minutes, had to face a penalty shoot out. Hierro and Nadal missed, Wembley celebrated by singing `Football`s Coming Home` over and over.
The semi final was against England's old rivals, Germany and two days beforehand, the Daily Mirror produced an issue full of war imagery - this was another disgraceful act although they were rumoured to be planning a leaflet drop on Berlin which would have been supremely offensive. This sort of tabloid excess has hopefully now ended.
England v Germany was the match of the tournament; Shearer scored early but an equaliser soon followed. The game was end to end but neither side could quite score the winner so extra time followed. England attacked from the outset and should have won when Anderton hit the post from close range. Gascoigne also missed a cross by inches whilst Germany scored a goal disallowed for pushing. Penalties again and both teams converted their first five. Gareth Southgate stepped up and saw his effort saved before Andy Moeller thumped in the winning spot kick. It was 1990 all over again.
So, three months on, England look in better shape than they have in years - a tough World Cup qualification group will be a good test for new boss, Glenn Hoddle who has already shown his forward thinking by selecting young David Beckham and a 3-0 away win over Moldova has laid the foundations for our attempt on the 1998 World Cup in France.
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