England lives in an illusion and they have taken us on their slumber with them!
Last night England was ejected out of the FIFA world cup 2010 in their worst defeat ever at the finals. As is expected, pundits are falling over each other to break down for us laymen the reasons for this latest debacle from the ever chest thumping but good for nothing three lions and their army of fans. As the experts are busy outdoing themselves, this is a layman’s take on things:
There is this tired argument that England is among the world’s football powers, which just needs to be re-examined. I suspect that this fallacy has been mainly perpetuated by the English media and their fans. However, sober minded people need to ask themselves, what has England done in the last 40 years that warrants them to be mentioned in the same breath with countries like Brazil, Germany, Argentina or Italy? As far as I know, all they have done since their controversial win of the 1966 World Cup over the Germans is reach the semi finals of this competition. And before you applaud them for that achievement, please note that other countries like South Korea and Uruguay who are usually referred to as minnows have also gone that far in the last 40 yrs.
The second argument, I have heard being lavishly touted around is that they have the strongest league in the English Premier League. This is another distortion that is being promoted by their media and we have all believed in it. I suppose the best way to determine the strength of the European Leagues is to examine the number of times a club from that league has ended up champions of the European Champions League (ECL). I have reviewed the last 19 seasons (1992-2010) since the English Premier league was established and discovered that a club from that league has only won the ECL 3 times way behind clubs from Spain’s La Liga (6 times) and Italy’s Serie A (4 times).
I am afraid this team does not deserve to be mentioned among the great ‘footbaling nations’. The English are living in an illusion and we should resist the temptation to join them in their slumber.
There is this tired argument that England is among the world’s football powers, which just needs to be re-examined. I suspect that this fallacy has been mainly perpetuated by the English media and their fans. However, sober minded people need to ask themselves, what has England done in the last 40 years that warrants them to be mentioned in the same breath with countries like Brazil, Germany, Argentina or Italy? As far as I know, all they have done since their controversial win of the 1966 World Cup over the Germans is reach the semi finals of this competition. And before you applaud them for that achievement, please note that other countries like South Korea and Uruguay who are usually referred to as minnows have also gone that far in the last 40 yrs.
The second argument, I have heard being lavishly touted around is that they have the strongest league in the English Premier League. This is another distortion that is being promoted by their media and we have all believed in it. I suppose the best way to determine the strength of the European Leagues is to examine the number of times a club from that league has ended up champions of the European Champions League (ECL). I have reviewed the last 19 seasons (1992-2010) since the English Premier league was established and discovered that a club from that league has only won the ECL 3 times way behind clubs from Spain’s La Liga (6 times) and Italy’s Serie A (4 times).
I am afraid this team does not deserve to be mentioned among the great ‘footbaling nations’. The English are living in an illusion and we should resist the temptation to join them in their slumber.
Comments