Who’s really to blame for England’s 46 years of football failure?
With England achieving so many sporting successes in rugby, cricket, sailing and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, why is it failing at football? 2012 is the 46th year of failure for the English national football team, a sporting event created in England.
Latest research by Anthony King, Why England Fails, published in Sport in Society further investigates this with the aim of providing at least some sociological explanation for failure looking at five key factors: the FA, managers, media, players, and the Fans.
Are the FA solely to blame with their questionable decisions for managers, or for their outlook of football being a business?
What influence does the media have? With the British press and media becoming more pronounced and arguably more aggressive, such as the cases of Ryan Giggs, Swede 2 Turnip 1, Achtung Surrender, and honey traps, does this undermine the side’s performance?
What about the players themselves? Anthony King argues that the English football team lacks players of sufficient ability to be internationally successful, which has been a consistent problem. If the FA academies encourage education could this make a difference? And what about the children selected to join these academies, the training they receive between 6 and 12 is critical so should their mind-set be skill over the need to win with parents supporting this methodology and stop being hostile and aggressive on the side-lines?
Anthony’s research concludes that while all factors are involved and need to be changed, England succeeds at other sporting events and not football due to the organization and the issue of scale. The sports which England are successful at are smaller scale.
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