England Retro Football Shirts

The first ever international football matches were organised by CW Alcock between England and Scotland at the Oval. There were five matches played between 1870-72 with England winning three with the other two finishing as draws. For nearly fourty years, England only played Scotland, Wales and Ireland due to problems of arranging games abroad. Their first football outside of the UK was in a tour of Central Europe as they recorded victories over Austria, Hungary and Bohemia in 1908. However, due to the British nations withdrawing from FIFA in 1928, England did not compete in the first three World Cups in 1930, 1934 and 1938. Instead, they just competed in friendlies until the Second World War intervened.

In 1946 after the Second World War, Walter Winterbottom was appointed as the first dedicated team manager. England entered the 1950 World Cup but failed to get past the group stage. The tournament is remembered for England’s infamous 1-0 defeat to the USA. A year before the next World Cup, England’s inferiorities were shown as they lost 6-3 at home to a world class Hungary side. They did manage to get the quarter finals of the 1954 World Cup but lost 4-2 to Uruguay. The 1958 tournament was overshadowed by the Munich Air crash which claimed the lifes of several of England’s best players including Duncan Edwards. They exited the tournament in the first round after losing a play off match against the USSR following the two teams positioned equal in the group stage. However, fortunes were slowly rising with a number of young players, including Jimmy Greaves, coming through. Once again, England exited the World Cup at the quarter final stage against eventual winners Brazil. Walter Winterbottom eventually retired after the tournament and former captain Alf Ramsey took charge ahead of the World Cup being held in England.

Ramsey led the country into their own hosted 1966 World Cup with high expectations. After a fairly unremarkable group stage, Geoff Hurst and Bobby Charlton were the stand out players in the knock out stages as England progressed to the final against West Germany. Despite calls for Jimmy Greaves to start ahead of Hurst in the final, Ramsey chose to stick with Hurst and he rewarded him with a stunning hat-trick after extra time which prompted the famous commentary line: “They think it’s all over……..it is now.” before Bobby Moore lifted the trophy for the one and only time in England’s history to date.

The rest of the Alf Ramsey era was shrouded in near misses. The team finished 3rd at the first European Championships that England competed in with a defeat to Yuogslavia in the semi finals. The 1970 World Cup was heavily expected to end in an England vs Brazil battle in the final after Brazil beat the reigning champions 1-0 in the group stage. However, England came up against West Germany in the quarter finals where they were eliminated. Alan Mullery and Martin Peters put England 2-0 up but a three goal fightback from the Germans which saw stand in goalkeeper Peter Bonetti heavily criticised put England out of the tournament.

Following failed qualification campaigns for Euro 72 and the 74 World Cup, Alf Ramsey was sacked and replaced by Don Revie. However, Revie failed to qualify for Euro 76 and largely contributed to a failed 78 World Cup qualification campaign to complete a miserable decade for the national team. Revie resigned soon after with his reputation in tatters and the FA rejected an approach from Brian Clough in favour of Ron Greenwood. Greenwood was unable to rescue the 78 World Cup qualification bid but did manage to qualify for Euro 80 where they failed to progress beyond the group stages. The country qualified for the 1982 World Cup and won all three games in the group. However, two draws in the second round saw them miss out on the semi finals once again behind West Germany. Greenwood resigned soon after.

Bobby Robson was appointed as the new manager and although he was widely criticised at the time, he is now looked upon as one of England’s more successful managers. A failed qualification bid for Euro 1984 was followed with a quarter final appearance at the 1986 World Cup where they were eliminated by the famous Diego Maradona “hand of god” goal. An impressive qualification campaign for Euro 88 was wasted when they performed ineptly at the tournament and lost all of their group games. However, the 1990 World Cup was the closest England have come to winning the tournament since 1966. The team managed to reach the semi finals after some close matches including a 3-2 victory over Cameroon. However, West Germany were once again in waiting and after a 1-1 draw, the match went to penalties where Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle were the unfortunate players to miss from the spot. Robson had announced before the tournament that he would be leaving afterwards and he goes down in folklore as one of the most loved England managers.

Robson’s successor Graham Taylor suffered a torid time in the press after a disappointing reign. The country qualified for Euro 92 but failed to win any of their group games after a number of baffling decisions from Taylor. They failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in an embarassing campaign which also saw them go 1-0 down to San Marino after 10 seconds. Terry Venables was appointed as manager and oversaw England’s Euro 1996 home tournament. It was to be Venables’ only contribution to the England hotseat as the country agonisingly lost to Germany again on penalties in the semi finals. Glenn Hoddle was made the manager for the 1998 World Cup and originally caused public outrage by leaving Paul Gascoigne out of his squad. Hoddle’s team performed well originally at the tournament but were eliminated on penalties to Argentina after an entertaining 2-2 draw. Kevin Keegan was appointed midway through the Euro 2000 qualification campaign after Hoddle was sacked for some inappropriate remarks. Keegan narrowly qualified for the tournament and they exited the group stage with defeats to Romania and Portugal despite leading both matches. Keegan resigned after a 1-0 World Cup 2002 qualification defeat to Germany in the final game at the old Wembley.

Sven Goran Eriksson became the first foreign coach to manage England and the appointment was met with many critics. However, Eriksson turned England’s qualifying campaign around including a 5-1 win in Germany. The team reached the quarter finals of the tournament despite never reaching their full potential but lost 2-1 against Brazil in a game remembered for Ronaldinho’s free kick from out wide which sailed over the head of experienced goalkeeper David Seamen. The Euro 2004 tournament saw England hit form with Wayne Rooney emerging as an international talent. However, an injury to Rooney in the quarter finals hit England’s hopes and they lost on penalties to hosts Portugal. The 2006 World Cup was Eriksson’s last in charge and once again the team exited at the quarter final stage on penalties. Once again it was Brazil who continued England’s record of never winning a penalty shoot out at the World Cup. Steve Mclaren was made the new manager but he failed to qualify for Euro 2008 and was sacked soon after with public criticism being one of the main reasons. Fabio Capello is the current manager of the England team and they are currently on the verge of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.