England National Football Team

The English national football team represents England in international 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" making up the United Kingdom are each represented separately in most international tournaments.

England won the FIFA World Cup in 1966, when they hosted the event, and reached the semi-final in 1990. However, they are the least successful past World Champions, having only been in 2 top-four finishes - a wide margin from the other 6 champions (Brazil, Italy, Germany, Argentina, Uruguay and France have been to at least 4). England also reached the semi-final of the UEFA European Championship in 1968 and 1996 and 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 discontinued in 1984.

Traditionally, England's greatest rivals have been Scotland, who were their opponents in the first-ever international football match in 1872. 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.

The England national football team is the oldest in the world, alongside Scotland. England played their first international match against Scotland, and at Scotland's invitation, at Hamilton Crescent in Scotland on 30 November 1872. 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 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 were 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. A 6-3 loss in 1953 to Hungary was England's first ever defeat to a non-British team at Wembley.

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, which was the best performance in the World Cup since 1966.

Graham Taylor's short reign as Robson's successor ended after his England failed to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, but then the 1996 European Championships were held in England, and under new coach Terry Venables the team had its best performance at a European Championship, reaching the semi-final. The England team of the 1990s and 2000s has been consistently in football's top twenty countries, but hasn't progressed beyond the quarter finals of any international tournament apart from Italia 90 and Euro 96. Sven-Göran Eriksson took charge of the team between 2001 and 2006 and was the first non-English manager of England.

Steve McClaren was appointed as the head coach following the 2006 World Cup. The reign was marked with failure to qualify for the 2008 European Championships. McClaren was sacked 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 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, when England beat Switzerland in a friendly.

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 only used Wembley as a venue for Scotland matches.

In May 1951, Argentina became the first team other than Scotland to be played at Wembley, and by 1960, nearly all of England's home matches were being played there. Between 1966 and 1995, England did not play a single home match anywhere else.

England's last match at the old Wembley was against Germany on 7 October 2000, a game which England lost 1-0. Since then the team has played at 14 venues around the country, with Old Trafford having been the most used. The FA have ruled that England will play all of their home matches at the new Wembley until at least 2036. The main reason for this is financial. The FA did not own the old Wembley Stadium, but it does own the new one, and has taken on debts of hundreds of millions of pounds to pay for it. Thus it needs to maximise the revenue from England matches, and does not wish to share it with the owners of other grounds.

The new Wembley held its first international game in March 2007, when England U21s played Italy U21s in front of 55,700 people. The match was drawn 3-3, with David Bentley scoring the first goal in an England shirt at the new stadium. Italian striker Giampaolo Pazzini scored the first goal, after just 29 seconds, as well completing the first Wembley hat-trick in the 68th minute

For the first 65 years of competition, England footballers' shirts contained no identifying names or numbers. Numbers were first worn in 1922 in a match against Scotland in Birmingham. They quickly became associated with a certain position, so to describe someone as 'England's number 9' would be to describe a player as the best choice for centre forward. This terminology continues today, and the team has kept to the tradition of numbering players from 1 to 11 (12 upwards for substitutes), outside of major tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup or the UEFA European Football Championship, where permanent squad numbers are required.

Numbers are traditionally associated with a certain position, but there are no set rules. Furthermore, established players will tend to use the same number whenever they play.

The first time that England wore names on their jerseys was at EURO 92 in Sweden. They have since worn player names on their jerseys at every major tournament. However, it was nine more years before names were worn outside major tournaments. This was due to the fact that England would issue new numbers (and therefore new jerseys) for every game. Outside the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Football Championship, England first wore player names for the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifying match on 6 October 2001 against Greece at Old Trafford, Manchester. With new technology, player names can now be affixed to the jerseys as late as the day of the match, although occasionally with the odd error, such as when Peter Crouch wore 21 (his squad number) on the front of his shirt and shorts, and 12 (erroneously) on his back for a game against Uruguay in early 2006.