Is International Football Losing it's appeal....

..or is it just me?

A good friend of mine rang me last night about going down his local to watch today's England qualifier and my reply was: What time is it on? I didn't even know! I kindly declined his offer and told him I'd watch it at home. He then asked why I never bother leaving the house to watch England anymore and I bluntly told him that my zest for our national team is on the verge of dying. Am I alone in this?

There was a time when I would batter the living hell out of my overdraft to get myself down a good old free house and support my nation. I remember knocking over a whole table of drinks when "we" scored against.....Macedonia! Which was proceeded by the dearest round of my life! But you get my point.

The feeling I used to get down there when England played just isn't there anymore and I don't know the exact reason why. At last years World Cup a work mate of mine invited me to his garden party to watch the England-USA match which was attended by about 20 people. Within five minutes of the final whistle being blown the place was like a funeral yet I was smiling my backside off because I won 50 quid on both teams scoring. I'm wondering when and why this change has occurred.

Is it the players themselves? Players like John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Wayne Rooney...Players that we wrap the "world class" banner around without a second thought yet players that have never really delivered, when it has mattered, at international level. Players that just appear so damn smug. Players that declare their love for the national team but leave us in doubt as to whether they really do. Dare I say it players that are paid so much that why should we believe they really do care. Players that failed us at Euro 2004 and are still turning out and failing today.

My mother is Scottish. My Nan, who sadly passed away during my teenage years, was the greatest lady I have ever known. She never tired of telling me that one day I would turn tartan! Maybe this is the day. Which makes me wonder what all the Scottish fans think of their team? There are alot of good knowledgeable Scottish posters on here and it would be interesting to hear your thoughts guys. I would suspect you get more reward seeing the underdog defying the odds than an England fan seeing his team putting three goals past a there-to-be-beat Switzerland team.

There was always an expectation level with England and in a way there still is only I expect us to qualify for a major tournament, scrape through the group and then play our best match of the event in the quarter final only to get beat on penalties. Are we really under achievers or have we just about reached our level? We try not to be delusional but we are deluded.

I hope I am not alone in feeling like this but as I have said the zest has gone. The Freek needs a good dose of football-fan viagra!

Thanks Guys.

I don't think you're alone in not valuing International football as high anymore.

I think it's because it's becoming increasingly obvious that the players themselves don't care about England, it's more about image as they need to be seen to want to play for their country so people will buy the stuff they are advertising. It is the clubs that pay them the big bucks to play, and although we'd like to think differently, the language most footballers speak in now is money. It's hard to feel passionate about a side which you know doesn't really care.

I don't actually know when this change occurred, I think I lost interest even before the World Cup in 2006, and the major international tournament I have enjoyed the most was Euro 2008 as I could watch it as a neutral, and I enjoyed the World Cup more after England were knocked out. I don't even think it's a dissapointment thing, not many of us genuinly believed the hype before the world cup that we had a genuine chance of winning, so I don't think it's the fact we got knocked out that was dissapointing.

It could be that England play a load of games which never seem to mean anything? We play teams like Andorra and Kazahkstan, it's hard to really feel like these matches mean anything.

It lost it's appeal many years ago.

I don't think it helps when Uefa, Fifa and the FA start messing about with the schedules, moving games to Fridays and keep changing the kick off times.

I also think it would be better if Fifa introduced the rule that you can only play for the country you are born in (unless there are exceptional circumstances) and stop the likes of Republic of Ireland and Germany stealing players from Northern Ireland and Poland respectively.

sportsville wrote:I also think it would be better if Fifa introduced the rule that you can only play for the country you are born in (unless there are exceptional circumstances) and stop the likes of Republic of Ireland and Germany stealing players from Northern Ireland and Poland respectively.

Also Germany like to steal Brazil (Cacau), Spain (Mario Gomez), Turkey(Ozil & Khedira), Serbia(Marin), USA(Jones) and Ghana (Boateng) players.

There was always an expectation level with England and in a way there still is only I expect us to qualify for a major tournament, scrape through the group and then play our best match of the event in the quarter final only to get beat on penalties. Are we really under achievers or have we just about reached our level? We try not to be delusional but we are deluded.
This quote from Freekshow says it all England look good in qualifying get to finals then get beat, lets face it England are not world class they fit quite nicely into the also rans bracket at times difficult to beat but very beatable.
If England were world class more semi final and final appearences would be registered, correct me if I'm wrong the last time a semi final appearence was Italy 90.
I rarely watch England play these days I hope that they do well but know it will all end in tears

sportsville wrote:I don't think it helps when Uefa, Fifa and the FA start messing about with the schedules, moving games to Fridays and keep changing the kick off times.

I also think it would be better if Fifa introduced the rule that you can only play for the country you are born in (unless there are exceptional circumstances) and stop the likes of Republic of Ireland and Germany stealing players from Northern Ireland and Poland respectively.

France wouldn't have fared well in 98 with this being the case then!

I couldn't give a Monkey about International Football anymore, many things contribute to this but the main one being the way FIFA have restructured qualifying so it makes it near on impossible for Scotland or R.O.I to get back to the majors so they can 'spread the name of Football' and get every other no hoper a place

Sportsville the Republic never steal players from N.I at all, if you're born in N.I you're born with dual Nationality, Ireland are the exceptional circumstance you talk about

imo there there are to many freindlys and meaningless games.are they still expanding the euros to 24 teams or so if they do it will become a joke.

It'll be the only way countries like Scotland and others who have been shafted by FIFA will get to a major tournament

as much as i would love to see scotland qualify for a major tournament now im adult.if your not good enough to qualify you shoudnt be there.are they expanding it or did i imagine that?

While I agree that if you're good enough you qualify, the ranking system aswell as the split of other countries has made it near on impossible to qualify outright, I think the Euros have been expanded, im glad!