England V France

[PAH]

I'd check the make up of Team GB by the way...

I'd say Chris Hoy has won a significant portion of gold medals for the GB team on his own, before even checking the nationalities of the others.

Source

[shaunbhoy]

I know, what with all them finals they win, or make, or even qualify for, or even get seeded for qualification.

Football is all about money these days.
If the bigger nations qualify, then it is more bums on seats, and more wonga for the organisers to pass to each other in brown envelopes.
It is a much more financially lucrative prospect to have an underachieving England team turning up with tens of thousands of (usually drunken) fans, than it might be for any overachieving team with a couple of thousand fans.
It has always been in the interests of whoever organises the seedings to ensure as many large nations qualify as possible.
To that end, if you consistently place someone like England in the same Group as Poland, Wales, and Moldova and the likes, even allowing for a couple of mediocre performances, they will still have enough strength in depth to qualify.
Had England been placed in any of Scotland's last few qualifying groups then they might well have struggled to qualify too.
The truth is that at the moment, Scotland are performing like a team that has only a limited pool of talent to choose from. That is because we currently only HAVE a limited pool of talent to choose from.
But until England stop basing what constitutes success on simply doing better than Scotland, they will never realise their potential as a major player on the world stage. Which frankly they should be.

[Zoiderman]

I'd say Chris Hoy has won a significant portion of gold medals for the GB team on his own, before even checking the nationalities of the others.

Source

What, in its history? Wow, what a hero.

[Doggy Styles]

But until England stop basing what constitutes success on simply doing better than Scotland...

They don't.

Unfortunately, Scotland rarely registers with England fans or players these days. That's a big fall from the day Scotland became "Unofficial World Champions", the last era when they truly did compete at a decent level.

[Zoiderman]

Football is all about money these days.
If the bigger nations qualify, then it is more bums on seats, and more wonga for the organisers to pass to each other in brown envelopes.
It is a much more financially lucrative prospect to have an underachieving England team turning up with tens of thousands of (usually drunken) fans, than it might be for any overachieving team with a couple of thousand fans.
It has always been in the interests of whoever organises the seedings to ensure as many large nations qualify as possible.
To that end, if you consistently place someone like England in the same Group as Poland, Wales, and Moldova and the likes, even allowing for a couple of mediocre performances, they will still have enough strength in depth to qualify.
Had England been placed in any of Scotland's last few qualifying groups then they might well have struggled to qualify too.
The truth is that at the moment, Scotland are performing like a team that has only a limited pool of talent to choose from. That is because we currently only HAVE a limited pool of talent to choose from.
But until England stop basing what constitutes success on simply doing better than Scotland, they will never realise their potential as a major player on the world stage. Which frankly they should be.

You typed a lot, but all it says is 'yes, we are tulip, because we have a tulip system, and tulip players', but we're only maginally more tulip than you, which makes us better than you'.

No, sorry, you're just tulip, and always have been; dressing it up is not only stupid, it's myopic. If I remember rightly, Not too many people live in Ireland too, and there's **** all money in their game.

Plus, that's just footbal, which, with the greatest of wishes, means nothing to me. I didn't play as kid, I don't watch it much now, and don't really even have an affiliation to a team.

[PAH]

England's national football team underachieves because the league don't take it seriously, never have done and never will do, and the FA are clowns. The same players have won several European trophies at club level so they can't be too bad, and England have tried over a dozen managers of all types with the same results.

I'd say that points more towards the players than anything else.

The Scots have every right to laugh at that, despite their own side sinking to become permanent also-rans in the third-ranking teams department.

Same has happened to Wales, yet they've had several players in recent times that chose Wales over England.

[shaunbhoy]

They don't.

They do on here!!

Unfortunately, England rarely registers with England fans or players these days.

FTFY

[Zoiderman]

I'd say that points more towards the players than anything else.



Same has happened to Wales, yet they've had several players in recent times that chose Wales over England.

Bet they're happy with that....

[Doggy Styles]

Getting back to rugby, not many people live in New Zealand either, and there's **** all money in their game. True of Wales as well, come to that.

[Zoiderman]

Getting back to rugby, not many people live in New Zealand either, and there's **** all money in their game. True of Wales as well, come to that.

Don't use fact and logic with him...