24th November 2007
The British (Isles) football fraternity is going
through one of its periodic bouts of intense self-analysis. The fact of the
matter is that the qualification phase of the European Championships tournament
has just come to a close, and none of the British
nations, nor the Republic of Ireland, will be involved in the finals, to be
played in Austria and Switzerland in the summer of next year. That is to say
that not (even) one of England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, nor the
Republic of Ireland have managed to be part of the 16-team tournament.
While the smaller home nations had mixed fortunes,
Scotland as usual falling at the last fence (OK, against the World Champions,
Italy), especially humbled are England who were hot favourites
in a weaker group that included the likes of Andorra and Macedonia, hardly
giants of the sport. Beaten 2-3 by Croatia at Wembley
(the ‘home of football’) was the last straw, and now the whole of the English footballing public (fuelled by the media) are speculating
where/how/why this ‘golden’ generation of English footballers (Rooney, Owen, Lampard,
Terry ... Beckham (!)) could have so failed. And who is to blame!
How can ‘the best league in the world’ have failed to
deliver such a basic requirement on the national stage.
Here are some of the metrics being pointed at - of the top 4 club sides in
England i.e. those who are expected to take the domestic titles, and go
furthest in the European Champions League (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool,
Manchester United), there are the following facts:
So, foreign influences being questioned once again.
You can catch up on the details of this debate in any of the many sports
websites and/or journals that deal with the vagaries of English football, but
my favourite story is of one England fan living in
Germany who phoned into one of the talk radio sports shows, stating he was
going to change his name to Jürgen and follow
Germany’s progress next year. The fact that one of the names in the hat for the
(now) vacant England manager’s job is a Jürgen (Klinsmann) can be no small coincidence (oder?).
Indeed, football’s coming home, but the game has
emigrated!