England national football team/import

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 are one of the more successful footballing teams, being one of only seven countries to ever win the FIFA World Cup, which they did in 1966 when they hosted the finals. They defeated West Germany 4-2 in extra time in 1966 to win their first, and only, World Cup title. However, they have never since made it past the semi-finals. 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-final 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 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.

History
The England national football team is the joint oldest in the world, formed at the same time as 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 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 September 21, 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.

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. Despite controversial press coverage of his personal life, England enjoyed considerable success in the 2006 World Cup under his guidance, and was rated the 6th best team in the world.

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 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. Since then Capello has also managed England in games against France, USA and Trinidad & Tobago. England lost 1-0 to France, won 2-0 against the USA and 3-0 against T&T. His next game is against the Czech Republic.

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 only used Wembley as a venue for Scotland matches.

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
England home matches (both qualifiers and friendlies) are shown live on BBC One. Live coverage of away matches is sold by the host team (ie. England's opposition who are at home) for both qualifiers and friendlies, although it tends be either the BBC or Sky Sports that purchases the rights to these matches.

From the 2008/09 season, England's home qualifiers will be shown live on ITV with away qualifiers and home friendlies being shown live on Setanta Sports. Away friendlies will again be sold by the home team. In Australia, Setanta Sports will broadcast all of England's home internationals from August 2008.

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

Colours
England's traditional home colours are white shirts, navy shorts and white socks.

The traditional England away colour is red, 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.

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.

Most recent squad
Players in the 22-man squad for the most recent match against Trinidad and Tobago

Recent callups
The following players have also been called up to the England squad within the last twelve months:

Previous squads

 * FIFA World Cup squads:
 * 1950 FIFA World Cup squad
 * 1954 FIFA World Cup squad
 * 1958 FIFA World Cup squad
 * 1962 FIFA World Cup squad
 * 1966 FIFA World Cup squad
 * 1970 FIFA World Cup squad
 * 1982 FIFA World Cup squad
 * 1986 FIFA World Cup squad
 * 1990 FIFA World Cup squad
 * 1998 FIFA World Cup squad
 * 2002 FIFA World Cup squad
 * 2006 FIFA World Cup squad


 * UEFA European Football Championship squads:
 * UEFA Euro 1968 squad
 * UEFA Euro 1980 squad
 * UEFA Euro 1988 squad
 * UEFA Euro 1992 squad
 * UEFA Euro 1996 squad
 * UEFA Euro 2000 squad
 * UEFA Euro 2004 squad

FIFA World Cup record

 * *Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

European Championship record

 * *Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.
 * **Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Minor tournaments

 * *Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

Notable past players

 * Tony Adams 1987-2000
 * Darren Anderton 1994-2001
 * Viv Anderson 1978-1988
 * Jimmy Armfield 1959-1966
 * Alan Ball 1965-1975
 * Gordon Banks 1963-1972
 * John Barnes 1983-1995
 * Cliff Bastin 1931-1938
 * Peter Beardsley 1986-1996
 * Colin Bell 1968-1975
 * Steve Bloomer 1895-1907
 * Eric Brook 1929-1939
 * Trevor Brooking 1974-1982
 * Terry Butcher 1980-1990
 * Nicky Butt 1997-2004
 * Raich Carter 1934-1947
 * Mick Channon 1972-1977
 * Bobby Charlton 1958-1970
 * Jack Charlton 1965-1970
 * Allan Clarke 1970-1976
 * Ray Clemence 1972-1983
 * George Cohen 1964-1967
 * Terry Cooper 1969-1975
 * Steve Coppell 1976-1983
 * Tony Currie 1972-1979
 * Dixie Dean 1927-1932
 * Jimmy Dickinson 1949-1956
 * Duncan Edwards 1955-1957


 * Tom Finney 1946-1958
 * Ron Flowers 1955-1966
 * Bill Foulkes 1954
 * William Foulke 1897
 * Trevor Francis 1977-1986
 * Paul Gascoigne 1988-1998
 * Jimmy Greaves 1959-1967
 * Eddie Hapgood 1933-1939
 * Sam Hardy 1907-1920
 * Johnny Haynes 1954-1962
 * Glenn Hoddle 1979-1988
 * Emlyn Hughes 1969-1980
 * Roger Hunt 1962-1969
 * Norman Hunter 1961-1976
 * Geoff Hurst 1966-1972
 * Paul Ince 1992-2000
 * Kevin Keegan 1972-1982
 * Tommy Lawton 1938-1948
 * Gary Lineker 1984-1992
 * Nat Lofthouse 1950-1958
 * Paul Madeley 1971-1977
 * Paul Mariner 1977-1984
 * Stanley Matthews 1934-1957
 * Bobby Moore 1962-1973
 * Stan Mortensen 1947-1953
 * Jimmy Mullen 1947-1954
 * Phil Neal 1976-1983
 * Gary Pallister 1988-1996
 * Stuart Pearce 1987-1999
 * Martin Peters 1966-1974


 * David Platt 1989-1996
 * Alf Ramsey 1948-1953
 * Bryan Robson 1980-1991
 * Bobby Robson 1957-1962
 * Kenny Sansom 1979-1988
 * Paul Scholes 1997-2004
 * David Seaman 1988-2002
 * Alan Shearer 1992-2000
 * Teddy Sheringham 1993-2002
 * Peter Shilton 1970-1990
 * Ron Springett 1959-1966
 * Gareth Southgate 1995-2004
 * Trevor Steven 1985-1992
 * Gary Stevens 1985-1992
 * Nobby Stiles 1965-1970
 * Frank Swift 1946-1949
 * Phil Thompson 1976-1982
 * Chris Waddle 1985-1991
 * Des Walker 1988-1993
 * Dave Watson 1974-1982
 * Ray Wilkins 1976-1986
 * Ray Wilson 1960-1968
 * Tony Woodcock 1978-1986
 * Chris Woods 1985-1993
 * Vivian Woodward 1903-1911
 * Billy Wright 1946-1959
 * Ian Wright 1991-1998
 * Mark Wright 1984-1996

Most capped players
As of 02 June 2008, the players with the most caps for England are:

England fans' Player of the Year

 * 2003 - David Beckham
 * 2004 - Frank Lampard
 * 2005 - Frank Lampard
 * 2006 - Owen Hargreaves
 * 2007 - Steven Gerrard