England national football team
The England national football team represents England in international football and is controlled by The Football Association, the governing body for football in England.[1][2] England are one of the two oldest national teams in football; alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872. England's home ground is Wembley Stadium, London, and the current team manager is Roy Hodgson.
Although part of the United Kingdom, England has always had a representative side that plays in major professional tournaments, though not in the Olympic Games, as the IOC has always recognised United Kingdom representative sides.
England contest the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship, which alternate biennially. England won the World Cup in 1966, when they hosted the finals, defeating West Germany 4–2 in extra time in the final. Their best performance since has been a semi-final appearance in 1990. England have never won the UEFA European Football Championship – their best performances being semi-final appearances at the 1968 and 1996 Championships, the latter of which they hosted.
Main article: History of the England national football team
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 they rejoined 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 the team's history.[4]
Their first ever defeat on home soil to a foreign team was a 0–2 loss to the Republic of Ireland, on 21 September 1949 at Goodison Park. A 6–3 loss in 1953 toHungary, was their second defeat by a foreign team at Wembley. 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 men from outer space".[5] In the 1954 FIFA World Cup, England reached the quarter-finals for the first time, and lost 4–2 to reigning champions Uruguay.
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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 FIFA World Cup was hosted in England and 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. In UEFA Euro 1968, the team reached the semi-finals for the first time, being eliminated by Yugoslavia.
England qualified for the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico as reigning champions, and reached the quarter-finals, where they 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 Ramsey's dismissal, and 1978 FIFA World Cups. Under Ron Greenwood, they managed to qualify for the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain (the first time competitively since 1962); despite not losing a game, they were eliminated in the second group stage.
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.[citation needed] He guided England to the quarter-finals of the 2002 FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro 2004, and the 2006 FIFA 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, to include UEFA Euro 2008. However, it was terminated by them at the 2006 FIFA World Cup's conclusion.
Steve McClaren was then appointed as head coach, and was sacked unanimously by The Football Association on 22 November 2007, after failing to get the team to Euro 2008. The following month, he was replaced by a second foreign manager, Italian Fabio Capello, whose experience included stints at Juventus and Real Madrid.
England won all but one of their qualifying games for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but at the tournament itself, England drew their opening two games; this led to questions about the team's spirit, tactics and ability to handle pressure.[7] They progressed to the next round, where they were beaten 4–1 by Germany, their heaviest defeat in an World Cup.
In February 2012, Capello resigned from his role as England manager, following a disagreement with the FA over their request to remove John Terry from team captaincy after accusations of racial abuse concerning the player.[8] Following this, there was media speculation that Harry Redknapp would take the job. However, on 1 May 2012, Roy Hodgson was announced as the new manager, just six weeks before UEFA Euro 2012.[9] England managed to finish top of their group, winning two and drawing one of their fixtures, but exited the Championships in the quarter-finals via a penalty shoot-out, this time to Italy.[10]
In the 2014 FIFA World Cup, England were eliminated at the group stage for the first time since the 1958 World Cup, and the first time at a major tournament since Euro 2000.[11] England's points total of one from three matches was its worst ever in the World Cup, obtaining one point from drawing against Costa Rica in their last match.[12] England qualified for UEFA Euro 2016, with 10 wins from 10 qualifying matches.[13]
Team image[edit]
Media coverage[edit]
All England matches are broadcast with full commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live. From the 2008–09 season until the 2017–18 season, England's home and away qualifiers, and friendlies both home and away are broadcast live on ITV (often with the exception of STV, the ITV affiliate in central and northern Scotland). 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 United Kingdom 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.[14]
Colours[edit]
England's traditional home colours are white shirts, navy blue shorts and white or black socks. The team has periodically worn an all-white kit.
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 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 Brazil'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.
Umbro first agreed to manufacture the kit in 1954 and since then has supplied most of the kits, the exceptions being from 1959-1965 with Bukta and 1974-1984 withAdmiral. Nike purchased Umbro in 2008 and took over as kit supplier in 2013 following their sale of the Umbro brand.[15]
Logo[edit]
The motif of the England national football team has three lions passant guardant, the emblem of King Richard I, who reigned from 1189 to 1199.[16] The lions, often blue, have had minor changes to colour and appearance.[17] Initially topped by a crown, this was removed in 1949 when the FA was given an official coat of arms by the College of Arms; this introduced ten Tudor roses, one for each of the regional branches of the FA.[18][19] Since 2003, England top their logo with a star to recognise their World Cup win in 1966; this was first embroidered onto the left sleeve of the home kit, and a year later was moved to its current position, first on the away shirt.[20]
Home stadium[edit]
Main article: England national football team home stadium
For the first fifty years of their existence, England played their home matches all around the country. They initially usedcricket grounds before later moving on to football clubs' stadiums. The original Empire Stadium was built in Wembley, London, 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. In October 2000, the stadium closed its doors, ending with a defeat.
This stadium was demolished during the period of 2002–2003, and work began to completely rebuild it. During this time, England played at a number of different venues across the country, though by the time of the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification, this had largely settled down to having Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium as the primary venue, with Newcastle United's St. James' Park used on occasions when Old Trafford was unavailable.
They returned to the new Wembley Stadium in March 2007. The stadium is now owned by the Football Association, via its subsidiary Wembley National Stadium Limited.
Coaching staff[edit]
| Manager |  Roy Hodgson |
| Assistant Manager | Ray Lewington |
| First Team Coach | Gary Neville |
| Goalkeeping Coach | Dave Watson |
| First-Team Doctor | Ian Beasley |
| Fitness Coach | Chris Neville |
| Masseur | Mark Sertori |
| Physiotherapist | Gary Lewin |
Current squad[edit]
The following players are in the provisional squad for UEFA Euro 2016, which is contesting friendly matches against Turkey on 22 May and Australia on 27 May 2016.[27]
Caps and goals updated as of 27 May 2016 after the match against Australia.
Results and fixtures
2015[edit]
| 27 March 2015Euro 2016 qualifying | England | 4–0 |  Lithuania | [show]London, England |
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| 7 June 2015Friendly | Republic of Ireland  | 0–0 | England | [show]Dublin, Ireland |
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| 14 June 2015Euro 2016 qualifying | Slovenia  | 2–3 | England | [show]Ljubljana, Slovenia |
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| 5 September 2015Euro 2016 qualifying | San Marino  | 0–6 | England | [show]Serravalle, San Marino |
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| 8 September 2015Euro 2016 qualifying | England | 2–0 |  Switzerland | [show]London, England |
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| 9 October 2015Euro 2016 qualifying | England | 2–0 |  Estonia | [show]London, England |
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| 12 October 2015Euro 2016 qualifying | Lithuania | 0–3 | England | [show]Vilnius, Lithuania |
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2016[edit]
| 29 March 2016Friendly | England | 1–2 |  Netherlands | [show]London, England |
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| 22 May 2016Friendly | England | 2–1 |  Turkey | [show]Manchester, England |
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| 27 May 2016Friendly | England | 2–1 |  Australia | [show]Sunderland, England |
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| 20 June 2016UEFA Euro 2016 Group B | Slovakia  | v | England | [show]Saint-Étienne, France |
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| 4 September 20162018 FIFA World Cup Qualification | Slovakia | v | England | [show]TBC, Slovakia |
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| 8 October 20162018 FIFA World Cup Qualification | England | v |  Malta | [show]London, England |
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| 11 October 20162018 FIFA World Cup Qualification | Slovenia | v | England | [show]TBC, Slovenia |
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| 11 November 20162018 FIFA World Cup Qualification | England | v |  Scotland | [show]London, England |
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2017[edit]
| 26 March 20172018 FIFA World Cup Qualification | England | v | Lithuania | [show]London, England |
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| 10 June 20172018 FIFA World Cup Qualification | Scotland | v | England | [show]Glasgow, Scotland |
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| 1 September 20172018 FIFA World Cup Qualification | Malta | v | England | [show]Ta' Qali, Malta |
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| 4 September 20172018 FIFA World Cup Qualification | England | v | Slovakia | [show]London, England |
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| 5 October 20172018 FIFA World Cup Qualification | England | v | Slovenia | [show]London, England |
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| 8 October 20172018 FIFA World Cup Qualification | Lithuania | v | England | [show]Vilnius, Lithuania |
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