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Abstract
In its participation in international competitions since the Second World War, the English football team has achieved little success, winning only one World Cup in 1966: an underperformance that is startling when compared with other major European football countries and, indeed, with other sports in England. This article explores the institutional factors in English football which have impeded success at the international level, identifying the distinctively decentralized regulatory culture in English football – and Britain more widely – as a central cause.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Mark Doidge and two anonymous referees for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
Notes
1. Kuper and Szymanzki claim that England have done adequately, given their population (Kuper and Szymanski Citation2010, 45). However, their assertion is based on figures that include friendly matches, thereby significantly inflating their performance. FIFA's own ranking system also includes qualifying and friendly matches, in which England often does well, and consequently England is surprisingly ranked third by FIFA. Yet, international tournaments, such as Olympic Medals, are the only serious currency of sporting success and, in these, England's performances have been poor.
2. It is interesting to consider the case of Andy Murray here as he shows some of the complexity of assessing English sporting performance. He has won the Olympic gold medal (competing for Team GB) and the 2012 US Open and is supported by many English tennis fans, but he is a Scotsman who left the UK tennis system to train in Spain.
3. Perhaps illustrating the more centrist nature of the Bundesliga, it includes 58 (21%) foreign players as opposed to the Premier League that includes 326 foreign players (65%).
4.http://www.thefa.com/∼/media/Files/PDF/TheFA/RespectGuideforLeagues.ashx/RespectGuideforLeagues.pdf
5.http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/nov/11/xabi-alonso-spain-england-interview
6. Ian Rush was, in fact, a Welshman but brought up in Liverpool and playing in the English system for his whole career, it seems to be plausible to claim that his experience might be taken as an indicative of his fellow English players.
7.http://freshairfootball.co.uk/2012/11/not-so-great-expectations/
8.http://www.thedaisycutter.co.uk/2012/04/fail-fail-and-fail-again-why-does-the-england-football-team-always-fail/