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Last game I went to was funnily enough just over 4 years ago against Poland, also a world cup qualifier. I've been an England member for 15 or so years I reckon and never before have I been able to still get family tickets on the morning of the match (If the trains weren't so expensive I reckon me and laddo would have headed down tonight as its 30 quid for two tickets)
What has happened to that team?
On the other hand I now even find myself wondering whether to bother tuning in tonight. A few years ago it would have been a certainty and possibly a pub visit to watch the game if we weren't actually going. Sorry times for the big "national team" it would seem.
Last England game I saw live was v France at Wembley after the Paris terror attacks.
But after that it was the usual desultory tournament showing and haven’t seen a single qualifier game.
I am constantly amazed that anyone watches the game anymore.
I went to the NFL at Wembley on Sunday. There wasn't an empty seat in the stadium. People would rather watch the Miami Dolphins than the national football team. I don't blame them either.
I’d rather watch netball.
curto80 - Member
I went to the NFL at Wembley on Sunday. There wasn't an empty seat in the stadium. People would rather watch the Miami Dolphins than the national football team
Or is it just that they had one chance to watch American football live and took it, more than enough football to go around and it's on a weekday evening.
Not sure you're right about that. There are more NFL games in London this year than competitive England games. They've been playing NFL here for 10 years and sold out pretty much every game. Could well be a London franchise in the next few years.
And probably 50 premier league games, heaps of champions league etc.
The qualifying rounds are a joke.
There are far too many teams involved. With a significant number who would compete at a semi-pro level if club sides.
England tend to be unbeaten in qualification and then are a joke at the tournaments. Tells you all you need to know. The expansion of the World Cup finals is going to make the whole thing a farce.
FIFA needs tearing up and starting again.
There already is a London NFL team.
Mike probably has it there’s a novelty factor still for watching NFL.
I don't think it's 'England' that's a problem/broken, for me i think it's Football that's broken. From a personal perspective it's a combination of money, cheating, transfers, superpowers and just the way the spirit of the game has gone in the last 10-15 years.
I wear a Liverpool FC tattoo on my arm with pride, but these days, at times i struggle to find the enthusiasm to watch it with the same levels of passion i had.
The "novelty factor" of NFL is that it's more entertaining than watching the England football team, that's the point.
NFL is probably more family friendly, and more suited to the x factor generation, ie bugger all happens in anything more than 10 second burst, then there's some music, or lassies with pompoms.
Pretty good viewing for those that aren't really into sport. Like pretty much every other US sport. Maybe with the exception of basketball.
curto80 - Member
The "novelty factor" of NFL is that it's more entertaining than watching the England football team, that's the point.
My experience of NFL was close to paint drying, grey paint at that. Not seen England in a while but can they be that bad?
at times i struggle to find the enthusiasm to watch it with the same levels of passion i had.
And I pretty much think that's where I am with England. I followed them all over when they went "on tour" whilst Wembley was being built, even catching a friendly in derby, which at the time was a like a dream come true watching them (and sir beckham) in my home town.
As for the qualifiers if they're such a "joke" why do we struggle against these teams, the days of turning the San Marino type teams over ten-nil seems a very distant memory.
I think people are losing the eternal optimism, and have come to realize, "were" not very good at football.
And as the op mentioned, with train fares and other costs, it's still not a cheap night.
I don't even bother watching on TV, I do look the result up though.
Maybe they should have carried on moving England games around the country rather than expecting Londoners to fill the stadium on a week day evening.
I also think that playing at Wembley isn't special anymore.
The old ground was hardly used so when a game was played there it felt like an event - the venue itself used to draw people in just to say they had been.
The new Wembley feels like any other new sports stadium - bland and corporate.
Listening to that bloody shite mariachi band would do my nut in. 90 minutes of the Great Escape and Championship quality football.
Are you sure this isn't just a failure of marketing? Until wrightyson posted this thread, I'd no idea I might be in a position to go to a game tonight. I've assumed tickets for competitive games were oversubscribed and would be hoovered up by the official supporters club members and corporate packages. Assuming £30 a (cheap) ticket and 90,000 capacity, that's a £2.7M product to flog. Maybe I'm not the target market, but I've not seen it advertised to the public, making it clear they are on general sale and at decent prices. I'm sure there are a good few 10s of thousands of occasionals like me who might go, and at least the same number of tourists in London who'd be happy to go.
Almost without exception, England qualification games consist of 60 minutes of struggling to do anything against semi-pro teams, often postmen etc. Then, when superior fitness of the England professionals kicks in, they score 5 and makes the game look like a whitewash.
It's unlikely England will ever win anything again - I'm glad I'm Welsh, at least our boys actually try and play with their hearts. The Euro's meant so much to our nation.
Are you sure this isn't just a failure of marketing?
Perhaps so, I got the email yesterday and read it this morning pre this post.
Tickets are now available and at 20 quid for an adult and 10 quid for a child it's a very competitive price to go and watch *world class* football.
If I was in that London tonight id certainly be going, but as I said a last minute ticket on the train for both of us is just shy of a 100 quid plus tube passes and the dreaded fear of missing the last train home...
I don't think it's 'England' that's a problem/broken, for me i think it's Football that's broken. From a personal perspective it's a combination of money, cheating, transfers, superpowers and just the way the spirit of the game has gone in the last 10-15 years.
^^^ This ^^^^
These days I can't stand football,you just can't get away from it.Not just the coverage in the media,but listening to the radio & some no mark local DJ starts banging on about how their team is playing,there's no getting away from it.I can't remember the last time I watched a match even though it's on the big screen in the pub every weekend.The last England game I had any interest in watching was v Scotland back in Euro 96 & I only watched that as I was working for a Scottish firm at the time.
weeksy - Member
I don't think it's 'England' that's a problem/broken, for me i think it's Football that's broken. From a global perspective it's a combination of money, cheating, transfers, superpowers and just the way the spirit of the game has gone in the last 25 years
Plus, over commercialism, outrageous ticket prices, racism, thuggery, violence, and further point the team (national) rarely play together so don’t gel like a Premiership squad and the game is boring, the almost weekly and constant change in managers makes a mockery of the whole “we support xxxx in his decision making” only to be booted or hounded out by the media a week later. Also, the attitude of the players being almost God like is appalling.
It’s not a “national” game or sport, it’s a pantomime played out in the media.
And I think finally folks realise it’s pointless attending or watching TBH.
What all those up there said. I used to watch as much as I could but about 5 years ago just lost interest. When I was a kid a match on TV was special, the along came Sky and co with matches all over the place. I think I've already watched my lifetimes allocation of football.
The last time I watched the national team was the South Africa world cup and I decided that if a bunch of self important, pampered multi-millionaires couldn't be bothered then neither could I.
It’s not a “national” game or sport, it’s a pantomime played out in the media.
Very much this. Used to be a fan but I can't stand the game now. So much bullshit and bollocks spouted as every tiny aspect of the game is over analysed by so-called "experts".
Don't get me started on the little darlings needing resting or getting burnt out due to training 4 times a week and playing twice a week absolute tops.
Like many above, I used to watch every England game live on tv and was aware weeks / months in advance exactly when and where the games were being played. I only realised yesterday that the game was being played tonight. I think in my case its purely saturation. Club and international games are shown so much now that it's hard to get excited about it.
In the last century I followed a team and England, couldn't name a player in either now. Dropping it as an interest was right up there with stopping smoking as life enhancing changes go.
Even as an old bloke I would just rather do something than pay to watch someone else do something.
racism, thuggery, violence,
I think you will find that is called banter.
i don't even have a t.v.
The qualifying rounds are a joke.There are far too many teams involved. With a significant number who would compete at a semi-pro level if club sides.
England tend to be unbeaten in qualification and then are a joke at the tournaments. Tells you all you need to know. The expansion of the World Cup finals is going to make the whole thing a farce.
I think this sums it up best. We are expected to easily win this group, so not many competitive games. Its usually 90mins of trying to break down a well organised defensive team, which has all been seen so many times before, its not very interesting anymore. Added to that, the most recent England failures at the major tournaments and the fans appetite has been blunted!
There are no games in qualifying worth watching now. In the past you'd end up in a group with Germany or Italy and you'd have at least 2 games to get excited about.
Add to that England just not being very good. Then it's hardly surprising attendance is down.
Saying all that, I wouldn't be surprised if the attendance was still one of the highest across this round of qualifiers.
Talking to a couple of mates last night on the phone who are England fans and normally all meet at the pub, they say that the group England are in its pretty uncompetitive.
There is a lot more interest in Wales Ireland game.
I am constantly amazed that anyone watches the game anymore.
+1.
over commercialism, outrageous ticket prices, racism, thuggery, violence, and further point the team (national) rarely play together so don’t gel like a Premiership squad and the game is boring, the almost weekly and constant change in managers makes a mockery of the whole “we support xxxx in his decision making” only to be booted or hounded out by the media a week later. Also, the attitude of the players being almost God like is appalling.
+1
I've got no interest in it at all. I try really hard to give my daughters an experience of as many different sporting events as possible, but can't bring myself to pay out for football tickets.
Looking at the way our 'fans' behaved at that recent tournament in France, I want nothing to do with it.
I was done with England after watching their pathetic, simpering capitulation in South Africa, and haven't even bothered to watch them since. Why would you? It's always the same. I can skim read the match report the next day and pick out the usual words - dull, lacklustre, uninspiring, laboured etc etc
Life really is too short to watch Engerland games. The idea of paying good money to watch that crap is frankly ridiculous. I'll rather go and spend the money on watching some premiership game. I'd imagine you'd see a higher standard of football at most Championship grounds, possibly even Villa or Blackburn 😯
Before they appointed Southgate (seriously... Gareth Southgate?) Glen Hoddle had a rant on Five Live about the whole FA being completely dysfunctional, totally unfit for purpose, and until they addressed that, then they could appoint Pep Guardiola as manager and they still wouldn't get past the group stage. He was bang on IMHO
I also hate the 'culture' around our national squad. Its a bell-end magnet. An Engerland game at Wembley is the only time I've ever heard racist chanting, from a gang of your archetypal Engerland thugs that it seems to attract
Our national squad and everything around it is a sorry mess. If everyone votes with their feet, doesn't bother going, or even watching it on telly, then perhaps they'll actually have to address the underlying problems
Glen Hoddle had a rant on Five Live about the whole FA being completely dysfunctional, totally unfit for purpose, and until they adressed that, then they could appoint Pep Guardiola as manager and they still wouldn't get past the group stage. He was bang on IMHO
Did he include how fit for purpose it was when they hired him and his faith healer?
From Gary Neville's book:
One of the masseurs told me Glenn had asked the staff to walk around the pitch anti-clockwise during the game against Argentina to create positive energy. Sadly, it didn't do us much good.
Hoddle himself was a symptom of that dysfunction.
I also think the International game in general has become more about not losing that going out and winning.....we've certainly forgotten how to go out and win games! 🙁
Not saying we don't win games, but we try and ensure that not losing is the main prerequisite. Doesn't make for exciting or entertaining games. Its not just England either, the smaller teams play for a point and hope for a breakaway or set piece goal which effectively stifles the game.
So far I haven't watched a single game live but just the 1min reports on the news....which is quite enough!
Glen Hoddle
Really? Sounds more like something Chris Waddle would have said.
Did he include how fit for purpose it was when they hired him and his faith healer?
The irony wasn't lost on me either. That's the point. When you're being called out by Glen Hoddle? And he's right?! 😯
You just have to look at the utterly incompetent way they handled the Englands women's team management farce a couple of weeks ago. Ludicrous!
A choice tonight between watching England or an mtb ride with a couple of pints after.
Difficult decision to make.!
Difficult decision to make.!
Combine the two. Have the pints first, then push your bike around your local loop for 70 minutes, reach the top of your favourite steep descent, remove your brake pads, and go for it!
All the sensations of watching Engerland, plus biking!
A choice between watching England and doing almost anything else does not a difficult decision make.
You've all got old and you've all found perspective. Embrace it. There's very little spectator sport I don't get twitchy watching now thinking I could be using this time to ride my bike.
i'm actually going to the match tonight 😆
Birthday present from Mrs Doris. Maybe Eng vs Slovenia in a WC qualifier isn't the most thrilling prospect, but it's the first time I've been to an England match, and the first time at Wembley since Shrewsbury Town made it to the final of the Auto Windscreens Trophy in 1996 😀
I don't know what she paid for the tickets but i hope she doesn't see that they seem to be going cheap now 😮
I've given up expecting England to do anything useful in a tournament - in fact I can pinpoint the moment. October 2001, the 93rd minute of England vs Greece. We're 2-1 down, Beckham crosses his fingers, wallops in one last desperate free kick, the pub goes wild. We had snatched a draw against Greece in injury time and yet the next day all the papers were full of headlines like BIG HERO MAN GOAL.
I realised that if we were celebrating a draw against the (then) 57th ranked team in the world like that, the odds probably weren't great for the actual world cup.
But then there's always hope, right? I was reading that we're probably gonna line up tonight with Rashford, Kane and Sterling upfront. What football fan could read that without thinking, in some distant part of their brain, "actually, that could be really really fun to watch"?
We're surely not just gonna lump it up to Kane all night and watch the Ox run down cul-de-sacs for no apparent reason. It's actually going to be good.
Isn't it?
What football fan could read that without thinking, in some distant part of their brain, "actually, that could be really really fun to watch"?
I've been through that stage. The excitement of having Lampard/Gerrard/Beckham/Rooney (in his pomp)/Owen in the same team, then watching them pass sideways and fail to score against mediocre opposition.
I'd have a little wager on a 1-1 or 2-2 draw tonight whilst at the ground if I were you. Slovenia need the points to have any chance, I've a feeling they may come out all or nothing and everybody likes to turn England over at home....
Think I'll put a load of random bets on. Final score 1-1 (courtesy of an Engerland defensive howler), then maybe how many time Sterling spoons it into row Z (double figures), how many balls aimed at Kane are over-hit aimlessly, bouncing harmlessly out for a goal kick, Kane to limp off with a hamstring injury halfway through the second half, and will be out for 3 months, that type of (standard Engerland) thing....
Anyone think TV has killed the Game?
All the talk of ludicrous sums of money being paid by TV companies to stream the live game.. do you think thats turned a lot of folk off?
F'rinstance.. the Sky/BBC wars a few years ago whereby £m's being touted as a 4/5 year streaming deal with the FA.. and the Grass Roots teams falling by the wayside as they train players for them to be snapped up by the bigger teams who reap more money, disproportionately more money than the lower leagues...
Its supply and demand in its truest sense, but is the demand there and if so how does someone measure it?
Quite what goes on in the England Women's Football setup is quite beyond my simple brain, didn't the coach recently get booted out for some infringements or other and for us to find out the guy had the same attitude and infringements in previous roles?
Who, dear Lord, makes these appointments and quite how the decision making process is formed is astonishingly lax...
Are the FA really just a bunch of Jaguar drivers dribbling onto their M&S check shirts?
Are the FA really just a bunch of Jaguar drivers dribbling onto their M&S check shirts?
Yep. As long as they get their freebie VIP tickets for themselves and their family, everything else is unimportant.
All the people moaning about Premiership clubs being ruthlessly run as money-making businesses... this is the alternative
Final score 1-1 (courtesy of an Engerland defensive howler),
Sounds about right.
Slovenia to score earlyish (15mins). England to play with no urgency and few chances until the 70th minute, when a wingback will be taken off and an extra forward put on. Turns out the wingback was actually our best player. However, Raheem to 'make an intelligent run between the centrebacks' in 82nd minute, fall over someone's leg and win a penalty. Slovenia hit post in 89th minute.
Slovenia to score earlyish (15mins). England to play with no urgency and few chances until the 70th minute, when a wingback will be taken off and an extra forward put on. Turns out the wingback was actually our best player. However, Raheem to 'make an intelligent run between the centrebacks' in 82nd minute, fall over someone's leg and win a penalty. Slovenia hit post in 89th minute.
There's a Ladbrooks next door - I'm going to see what odds i can get on this...
There's a Ladbrooks next door - I'm going to see what odds i can get on this...
Evens?
What's that you say? A 6-1 victory, driven by a scintillating display of pace, creativity and incisive finishing from our unstoppable young attack? Splendid, splendid. I'll enjoy that with my £7 pint of Carling later 😀
Incidentally, I have paid £30 for parking this evening. can anyone beat that for value?
English qualifying campaigns are totally pointless. Every time they are top seeds with minimal competition and are pretty much guaranteed to qualify. It's a bit like celtic in the Scottish Premier league.
The big difference however is that whilst celtic have no competition, at least the fans have a trophy to cheer at the end of the season.
All England 'win' is the biennial opportunity to fail miserably as soon as they play anyone remotely useful. The qualifiers are pretty much pointless.
Incidentally, I have paid £30 for parking this evening. can anyone beat that for value?
That's excellent value, and you can enhance it further by not leaving your car for the duration of the match.
I've just had a look and a draw is 4/1
1-1 is 9/1
0-0 is 11/1
Got to be worth a few quid on those odds 🙂
Mrs Binners is usually better at this than me. I should ask her. She correctly predicted Engerland losing 2-1 to Iceland. Paid for a couple of good nights out, did the winnings off that one 😀
90 minutes of the Great Escape
they need banning from the stadium, its awful, id rather listen to a vuvuzela
at least theres usually a story (2-14 excluded, just dire)
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Thuggery?.
Surely Cricket is what you're after or a bit of gratuitous violence?..... 😆
[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/41512371 ]Thug[/url]
Hey I was first to shout the 1-1 but I think you'll be better off with the 2-2. May even get up to 15's on that? But that will of course require us to score twice...
There was a time when we'd all be predicting a 3-0 win, but all optimism has been slowly and painfully extracted from our bodies and I suppose predicting a draw is at least better than a loss! 😥
When I was younger I may have gone to the pub with mates to watch it, when I was a bit older than that I may have watched it on telly. Now, I'm barely aware of the England games as they are happening.
Footy was never really my game, but I think that people have been put off of England games - especially attending in person - over a number of year by a number of factors.
Increasing ticket prices.
Decreasing quality of performances and 'brand' of football - oh no, don't pass forwards, we might lose the ball, better to pass back, laterally or just hoof it into the box.
Decreasing commitment of players - at the end of the day it is not England who pay them £50k+ per week.
The sheer amount of cheating that goes on.
That's obviously all my opinion, of course. 😉
I reckon England should create a royal Brexit tournament in which Prince Harry gets to choose a selection of Commonwealth countries for England to beat every four years.
With an oversized trophy and the guarantee of triumph, it would be a great way to avoid ever having to be reminded that England is just another country.
right, well I'm off.
You lot won't be laughing when Kane scores a hat-trick of bicycle kicks.
Enjoy doris. The atmosphere at my last game (poland) was pretty full on. It was very much like being at an away game on the walk from the tube. Poland in full voice and out chanting us and numbering at times by easily 3 to 1. Have a good one!
Life really is too short to watch Engerland games.
This.
a hat-trick of bicycle kicks.
You won't even be able to say that after 90 minutes of watching [s]paint dry[/s] England.
Of course, I could be wrong and this could be the solitary 3-0 win which allows the English media to crown the team as 'world beaters' and 'among the favourites to lift the World Cup'.
Hope you have a good evening, Doris. Watch out for the Slovenian Ultras.
Thinking of Mexico 86, Italia 90 or Euro 96, you got the feeling that the team was giving it a really good go and could get behind them. I can't remember the last time I thought England likely to do more than spineless capitulation. I gave up watching them altogether after the Euro debacle last year - watching Wales was way more fun.
I've had bets on a draw (0--0 or 1-1) with Rashford as the only England player to score
Kane has the weight of expectation/kiss of death on him from the press and fans, which often goes hand-in-hand with a season ending injury.
I couldn't get odds on 'will you lose the will to live while watching this match?' 😀
loved watching England in the past , one of the highlights of my life was being in Munich with my dad in 2001 to see us beat Germany 5-1 , the genuine excitement of Rooney in Portugal ripping teams apart .
But now i feel like im stuck in some never ending loop of watching a bunch of turgid qualifiers and a sense of dread about tournaments ending with listening to the now traditional Chris waddle rant on radio 5 .
With regards the seats at wembley , its a pain in the arse to get to even if you live in the south east let alone anywhere else in the country . Get the team out round the country , better atmospheres maybe lifting the team to put in watchable performances at best , at worst at least more people will get the chance to watch England live .
The big problem is that in general international football is pretty dull and the best teams hardly play each other. Look at the last Euros, Portugal won it by playing super negative football and hardly won a match in normal time all tournament. The Greece Euros win was even worse. People are fed up with it, then combined with England being rank average and it's no surprise no one wants to go.
At Wembley stadium in a week or so Spurs play Real Madrid, now which match would you rather blow your money on that or England?
agreed, was great to watchthe genuine excitement of Rooney in Portugal ripping teams apart
and very, very much thisGet the team out round the country
What did John Cleese say - [i]It's not the despair, I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand[/i] (think he's a Spurs fan). It's easy to ignore England these days.moonsaballoon - Memberloved watching England in the past , one of the highlights of my life was being in Munich with my dad in 2001 to see us beat Germany 5-1 , the genuine excitement of Rooney in Portugal ripping teams apart .
But now i feel like im stuck in some never ending loop of watching a bunch of turgid qualifiers and a sense of dread about tournaments ending with listening to the now traditional Chris waddle rant on radio 5 .
The Eriksson years were aggravating to watch as the players were actually good - just lacked the mental fortitude that differentiates a QF from a SF / finals side. A serious coach would have made that difference, in hindsight.
Currently sat in the dirty sex pool with a Stella putting a few bets on. How many stereotypes have I just ticked!!!!
Pizza to be cooked and then settle down to huge disappointment. C'mon Engerland prove me wrong.
It looks like i'm the only person on here who's actually looking forward to to watching it.
Wrightyson getting ready for kick off....
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🙂
😉
Whilst i'm spending the time productively, racing digital avatars on an imaginary island.
As soon as the game came on ITV tonight there was a collective groan and the TV went off.
Now if it was an England Rugby Union international that would be a different story 🙂