England National Football Team

General information

The English national football team represents England in international association football and is controlled by The Football Association, the governing body for football in England. Although most national teams worldwide represent a sovereign state, the four home nations which form the United Kingdom are each represented separately in international tournaments. His nickname is The Three Lions.

England is one of seven 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. England share with France the record of having one World Cup victory. Since then England's best performance at a World Cup was reaching the semi-finals in 1990, losing to West Germany on penalties. Nevertheless, they remain a prominent team on the global stage, rarely dropping outside of the top ten rankings of both FIFA and Elo. England also 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.

Traditionally, England's greatest rivals have been Scotland, who were their opponents in the first-ever international football match in 1870. Since regular fixtures against Scotland came to an end in the late 1980s, other rivalries have become more prominent. Matches with Argentina and Germany have produced particularly eventful encounters. England's home ground is Wembley Stadium in London.

History

The England national football team is the joint oldest in the world, formed at the same time as Scotland. A representative match between England and Scotland was played on the 5th 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, at Hamilton Crescent in Scotland, is viewed as the first official international as the two teams were independently selected and operated, rather than being the work of a single football association, as the previous 1870 match had been. Over the next forty years, England played exclusively with the other three "Home Nations" - Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The games were made competitive with the British Home Championship from 1883 to 1984.

Before Wembley, London was opened, England had no permanent home ground. England joined FIFA in 1906, playing its first ever game outside the British Isles in 1908. However, the relationship between the two was strained, resulting in the British nations' departure from FIFA in 1928, before rejoining in 1946. As a result, England did not compete in a World Cup until 1950, in which they were beaten in a 1–0 defeat against the United States, failing to get past the first round.

England's first ever defeat on home soil to a non-UK team was a 0–2 loss to Ireland on 21 September 1949 at Goodison Park, Liverpool. A 6–3 loss in 1953 to Hungary was England's first ever defeat to a non-UK team at Wembley. In the return match in Budapest, Hungary won 7–1, which still stands as England's worst ever defeat. Ivor Broadis scored the England goal. After the game bewildered England centre half Syd Owen said, “It was like playing people from outer space”.

In the 1954 World Cup two goals by Broadis saw him become the first England player to score two goals in a game at the World Cup finals. Broadis beat Nat Lofthouse by 30 minutes when both scored 2 each in the thrilling 4–4 draw against Belgium. In reaching the quarter finals for the first time England lost 4–2 being eliminated by Uruguay. Only once have England progressed beyond the World Cup quarter finals away from home.

Although Walter Winterbottom was appointed as the first ever full time manager in 1946, the team was still picked by a committee until Alf Ramsey took over in 1963. Under Ramsey, England experienced its greatest ever success, winning the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final against West Germany 4–2 after extra time. Geoff Hurst famously scored a hat-trick in the final. The 1966 World Cup was also held in England. Though England lost again to the Auld Enemy Scotland only a year later with a famous 3–2 for the Scots at Wembley. England qualified for the 1970 FIFA 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. For the 1974 and 1978 World Cups, England failed to qualify. In 1982, England under Ron Greenwood qualified for 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain after a 12-year absence and were eliminated from the second round without losing a match. The team under Bobby Robson fared better as England reached the quarter finals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup and finished fourth in the tournament four years later. This is the only time England have progressed beyond the World Cup quarter finals away from home.

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 its best performance at a European Championship, reaching the semi-final. He left 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. 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 and England enjoyed some success with top qualifying place in two World Cup tournaments and Euro 2004, losing only five competitive matches during his tenure and rising to a (joint) record FIFA No.4 world ranking for the English national team during the 2006 World Cup under his guidance. Eriksson's contract was extended by The FA by two years to include Euro 2008 prior to being terminated by them at the conclusion of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Steve McClaren was appointed as the head coach following the 2006 World Cup. The reign was marked with little success, with England failing to qualify for the 2008 European Championships. McClaren left on 22 November 2007, after only 16 months in charge and making him the shortest tenured full time England manager ever 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. The Italian is the second foreign manager to coach England, after Eriksson, and took charge of his first game on 6 February 2008 against Switzerland. England won 2–1. England have enjoyed more success under Capello, having won all but one of their qualifying games for the 2010 World Cup. A 5-1 victory over Croatia at Wembley Stadium ensured the team qualified for the final tournament with two games to spare, a feat that has never been achieved before.

Home stadium

For the first 50 years of its existence, England played its home matches 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 against Scotland, but for the next 27 years used Wembley as a venue for Scotland matches only.

The Wembley Stadium is a stadium in Wembley, located in the London Borough of Brent in London, England. It is owned by The Football Association (FA) via its subsidiary Wembley National Stadium Limited, and its primary use is for home games of the England national football team, and the main English domestic football finals.

Media coverage

From the 2008–09 season to the 2011–12 season, England's home qualifiers and away friendlies will be shown live on ITV. Away qualifiers and home friendlies were shown live on Setanta Sports until the company went into administration in June 2009. Currently, no broadcaster has been chosen to take over these games, along with the FA Cup, with the FA looking for a replacement. As a result of the demise of Setanta, England's World Cup qualifier in Ukraine on 10 October 2009 was shown in Britain 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.

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

All matches are broadcast with full commentary on BBC Radio Five Live.

Colours

England's traditional home colours are white shirts, navy blue shorts and white socks. Since 2001, the team has periodically worn white shorts during home matches. The traditional England away colours are red shirts, white shorts and red socks, although England did not need an away kit until they played against a non-British side. From 1945 to 1952, England wore a blue away kit. In 1996 England's away kit was changed to grey shirts, shorts and socks. This kit was worn against Bulgaria, Germany and Georgia but the deviation from traditional red was unpopular with supporters and since then the England away kit has remained red. Periodically, the red kit is worn during home matches.

On 28 March 2009, England debuted a new Umbro retro inspired all white home kit, in the 4–0 friendly victory over Slovakia at Wembley. The new kit replaces the traditional navy blue shorts with white shorts.

Third kit

England have occasionally had a third kit as well. At the 1970 World Cup England wore a third kit with light blue shirt, shorts and socks against Czechoslovakia.

They had a strip similar to Brazil's kit, with a yellow shirt and blue shorts in 1973, worn against Czechoslovakia, Poland and Italy.

Between 1986 and 1992 England had pale blue third kits which were rarely worn by the England National Team.

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup record										FIFA World Cup Qualification record							Manager(s)
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D *	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1930	Did not enter									–	–	–	–	–	–
1934										–	–	–	–	–	–
1938										–	–	–	–	–	–
1950	First Group stage	8th	3	1	0	2	2	2		3	3	0	0	14	3		Winterbottom
1954	Quarter-final	6th	3	1	1	1	8	8		3	3	0	0	11	4		Winterbottom
1958	Group stage	11th	4	0	3	1	4	5		4	3	1	0	15	5		Winterbottom
1962	Quarter-final	8th	4	1	1	2	5	6		4	3	1	0	16	2		Winterbottom
1966	Champions	1st	6	5	1	0	11	3		–	–	–	–	–	–		Ramsey
1970	Quarter-final	8th	4	2	0	2	4	4		–	–	–	–	–	–		Ramsey
1974	Did not qualify									4	1	2	1	3	4		Ramsey
1978										6	5	0	1	15	4		Revie
1982	Second Group stage	6th	5	3	2	0	6	1		8	4	1	3	13	8		Greenwood
1986	Quarter-final	8th	5	2	1	2	7	3		8	4	4	0	21	2		Robson
1990	Fourth place	4th	7	3	3	1	8	6		6	3	3	0	10	2		Robson
1994	Did not qualify									10	5	3	2	26	9		Taylor
1998	Round of 16	9th	4	2	1	1	7	4		8	6	1	1	15	2		Hoddle
2002	Quarter-final	6th	5	2	2	1	6	3		8	5	2	1	16	6		Keegan, Wilkinson, Eriksson[10]
2006	Quarter-final	7th	5	3	2	0	6	2		10	8	1	1	17	5		Eriksson
2010	Round of 16	13th	4	1	2	1	3	5		10	9	0	1	34	6		Capello
2014	To be determined
2018
2022
Total	1 Title	13/19	59	26	19	14	77	52		92	62	19	11	226	60

UEFA European Championship

UEFA European Championship record									Manager(s)
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1960	Did not enter
1964	Did not qualify								Winterbottom, Ramsey
1968	Third Place	3rd	2	1	0	1	2	1	Ramsey
1972	Did not qualify								Ramsey
1976	Did not qualify								Revie
1980	Group Stage	5th	3	1	1	1	3	3	Greenwood
1984	Did not qualify								Robson
1988	Group Stage	8th	3	0	0	3	2	7	Robson
1992	Group Stage	7th	3	0	2	1	1	2	Taylor
1996	Semi-final	3rd	5	2	3	0	8	3	Venables
2000	Group Stage	11th	3	1	0	2	5	6	Hoddle, Keegan
2004	Quarter-final	5th	4	2	1	1	10	6	Eriksson
2008	Did not qualify								McClaren
2012	Qualified (final position TBD)								Capello, Hodgson
2016	To be determined
Total	Best: Third Place	7/13	23	7	7	9	31	28

Minour Tournaments

 

 

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1964 Taça de Nações	Group stage	3rd	3	0	1	2	2	7
1976 U.S.A. Bicentennial Cup Tournament	Group stage	2nd	3	2	0	1	6	4
1985 Rous Cup	One match	2nd	1	0	0	1	0	1
1985 Ciudad de México Cup Tournament	Group stage	3rd	2	0	0	2	1	3
1985 Azteca 2000 Tournament	Group stage	2nd	2	1	0	1	3	1
1986 Rous Cup	Winners, one match	1st	1	1	0	0	2	1
1987 Rous Cup	Group stage	2nd	2	0	2	0	1	1
1988 Rous Cup	Winners, group stage	1st	2	1	1	0	2	1
1989 Rous Cup	Winners, group stage	1st	2	1	1	0	2	0
1991 England Challenge Cup	Winners, group stage	1st	2	1	1	0	5	3
1993 U.S. Cup	Group stage	4th	3	0	1	2	2	5
1995 Umbro Cup	Group stage	2nd	3	1	1	1	6	7
1997 Tournoi de France	Winners, group stage	1st	3	2	0	1	3	1
1998 King Hassan II International Cup Tournament	Group stage	2nd	2	1	1	0	1	0
2004 FA Summer Tournament	Winners, group stage	1st	2	1	1	0	7	2
Total		6 titles	55	25	17	13	74	47

All time record

As of 29 February 2012

 

Opponents	Played	Won	Drawn*	Lost	GF	GA	GD	% Won
Total	897	512	216	172	2000	904	+1096	57%
Albania	4	4	0	0	12	1	+11	100%
Algeria	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0%
Andorra	4	4	0	0	16	0	+16	100%
Argentina	14	6	5	2	21	15	+6	43%
Australia	6	3	2	1	6	5	+1	50%
Austria	18	10	4	4	58	27	+31	56%
Azerbaijan	2	2	0	0	3	0	+3	100%
Belarus	2	2	0	0	6	1	+5	100%
Belgium	20	14	5	1	69	25	+44	70%
Brazil	23	3	9	11	19	31	−12	13%
Bulgaria	10	6	4	0	16	2	+14	60%
CIS	1	0	1	0	2	2	0	0%
Cameroon	4	3	1	0	9	4	+5	75%
Canada	1	1	0	0	1	0	+1	100%
Chile	5	2	2	1	4	3	+1	40%
China PR	1	1	0	0	3	0	+3	100%
Colombia	5	3	2	0	10	3	+7	60%
Croatia	7	4	1	2	18	10	+8	57%
Cyprus	2	2	0	0	6	0	+6	100%
Czech Republic	2	1	1	0	4	2	+2	50%
Czechoslovakia	12	7	3	2	25	15	+10	58%
Denmark	18	11	4	3	35	19	+16	61%
Ecuador	2	2	0	0	3	0	+3	100%
Egypt	3	3	0	0	8	1	+7	100%
Estonia	2	2	0	0	6	0	+6	100%
Finland	11	9	2	0	36	7	+29	82%
France	28	16	4	8	66	35	+31	57%
Georgia	2	2	0	0	4	0	+4	100%
East Germany	4	3	1	0	7	3	+4	75%
Germany	28	12	5	11	48	38	+10	43%
Ghana	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	0%
Greece	9	7	2	0	23	3	+20	78%
Hungary	22	15	2	5	56	30	+26	68%
Iceland	2	1	1	0	7	2	+5	50%
Northern Ireland/Ireland	98	75	16	7	323	81	+242	77%
Republic of Ireland	14	5	6	2	19	13	+7	36%
Israel	4	2	2	0	5	1	+4	50%
Italy	22	7	6	9	28	26	+2	32%
Jamaica	1	1	0	0	6	0	+6	100%
Japan	3	2	1	0	5	3	+2	75%
Kazakhstan	2	2	0	0	9	1	+8	100%
South Korea	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	0%
Kuwait	1	1	0	0	1	0	+1	100%
Liechtenstein	2	2	0	0	4	0	+4	100%
Luxembourg	9	9	0	0	47	3	+44	100%
Macedonia	4	2	2	0	5	3	+2	50%
Malaysia	1	1	0	0	4	2	+2	100%
Malta	3	3	0	0	8	1	+7	100%
Mexico	9	6	1	2	23	4	+19	67%
Moldova	2	2	0	0	7	0	+7	100%
Montenegro	2	0	2	0	2	2	0	0%
Morocco	2	1	1	0	1	0	+1	50%
Netherlands	19	5	9	5	28	24	+3	26%
New Zealand	2	2	0	0	3	0	+3	100%
Nigeria	2	1	1	0	1	0	+1	50%
Norway	10	5	3	2	26	7	+19	50%
Paraguay	3	3	0	0	8	0	+8	100%
Peru	2	1	0	1	5	4	+1	50%
Poland	17	10	6	1	27	10	+17	59%
Portugal	22	9	10	3	45	25	+20	41%
Europe XI	2	1	1	0	7	4	+3	50%
World XI	1	1	0	0	2	1	+1	100%
Romania	11	2	6	3	10	10	0	18%
Russia	2	1	0	1	4	2	+2	50%
San Marino	2	2	0	0	13	1	+12	100%
Saudi Arabia	2	0	2	0	1	1	0	0%
Scotland	110	45	24	41	192	169	+23	41%
Serbia and Montenegro	1	1	0	0	2	1	+1	100%
Slovakia	3	3	0	0	8	2	+6	100%
Slovenia	2	2	0	0	3	1	+2	100%
South Africa	2	2	0	0	4	2	+2	100%
Spain	23	12	3	8	39	24	+15	52%
Sweden	22	7	9	6	33	26	+7	29%
Switzerland	22	14	5	3	52	19	+33	64%
Trinidad and Tobago	2	2	0	0	5	0	+5	100%
Tunisia	2	1	1	0	3	1	+2	50%
Turkey	10	8	2	0	31	0	+31	80%
United States	10	7	1	2	36	9	+27	70%
Soviet Union	11	5	3	3	19	13	+6	45%
Ukraine	4	3	0	1	7	2	+5	75%
Uruguay	10	3	3	4	10	13	−3	30%
Wales	101	66	21	14	245	90	+155	65%
Yugoslavia	14	5	5	4	23	20	+3	36%

 

Honours

Major Honours

 

• FIFA World Cup

 

Winners (1): 1966

Fourth place (1): 1990

 

• UEFA European Football Championship

 

Third place (1): 1968

Semi-Final (1): 1996

 

Regional Honours

 

• British Home Championship

 

Winners (54): (Including 20 shared)

Runners-up (24): (Including 7 shared)

Third place (6):

 

Others

 

• Tournament of France

 

Winners (1): 1997

 

• Hassan II Trophy

 

Runners-up (1): 1998

Player history

Most capped players

#	Name	Career	Caps	Goals
1	Peter Shilton	1970–1990	125	0
2	David Beckham	1996–	115	17
3	Bobby Moore	1962–1973	108	2
4	Bobby Charlton	1958–1970	106	49
5	Billy Wright	1946–1959	105	3
6	Ashley Cole	2001–	93	0
7	Bryan Robson	1980–1991	90	26
	Frank Lampard	1999–	90	23
	Steven Gerrard	2000–	90	19
10	Michael Owen	1998–	89	40

Top goal scorers

 

#	Name	Career	Goals (caps)	Goals per game
1	Bobby Charlton	1958–1970	49 (106)	0.4623
2	Gary Lineker	1984–1992	48 (80)	0.6000
3	Jimmy Greaves	1959–1967	44 (57)	0.7719
4	Michael Owen	1998–	40 (89)	0.4494
5	Tom Finney	1946–1958	30 (76)	0.3947
	Nat Lofthouse	1950–1958	30 (33)	0.9091
	Alan Shearer	1992–2000	30 (63)	0.4762
8	Vivian Woodward	1903–1911	29 (23)	1.2609
9	Steve Bloomer	1895–1907	28 (23)	1.2174
	Wayne Rooney	2003–	28 (73)	0.3835

Managers

 

Manager	England career	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Win %
Walter Winterbottom	1946–1962	139	78	33	28	56.1
Sir Alf Ramsey	1963–1974	113	69	27	17	61.1
Joe Mercer	1974	7	3	3	1	42.9
Don Revie	1974–1977	29	14	8	7	48.3
Ron Greenwood	1977–1982	55	33	12	10	60.0
Bobby Robson	1982–1990	95	47	30	18	49.5
Graham Taylor	1990–1993	38	18	13	7	47.4
Terry Venables	1994–1996	23	11	11	1	47.8
Glenn Hoddle	1996–1999	28	17	6	5	60.7
Howard Wilkinson	1999–2000	2	0	1	1	0.0
Kevin Keegan	1999–2000	18	7	7	4	38.9
Peter Taylor	2000	1	0	0	1	0.0
Sven-Göran Eriksson	2001–2006	67	40	17	10	59.7
Steve McClaren	2006–2007	18	9	4	5	50.0
Fabio_Capello" title="Fabio Capello">Fabio Capello	2008–2012	42	28	8	6	66.7
Stuart_Pearce" title=" Stuart Pearce"> Stuart Pearce	2012	1	0	0	1	0.0
Roy_Hodgson" title=" Roy Hodgson"> Roy Hodgson	2012-	0	0	0	0	—