Why England lose at football

It is no accident that England can’t compete playing football internationally. Their recent exit from Euro 2012 had an inevitability about it. And even if we had survived the Italians, the Germans would have made sausages out of us.

But I am reluctant to blame the players. I spend my life talking to CEO’s about the problems they have with people. I stress their staff are rarely the problem; it is the system in which they operate that is invariably to blame. And then I look pointedly at them and say something like ‘you get the business you deserve’.

The problem is that if the system is wrong, its hard to extract high performance. And everyone knows that the FA is a tricksy organisation which is poorly led and managed.  So it is no surprise that England fail so miserably.

England football team have put in some wonderful performances since 1966. Mexico 1986 and Italia 1990 were remarkable; at Euro ’96 we also looked promising but we seem to have been in decline ever since.

So what’s at fault? It is no coincidence that funding for the Premier league started to rise dramatically in the late 1980’s and continued to rise sharply once the Premier League was established in 1991. Today the Premier League is the richest in the world but more importantly, their voice is the dominant one at the FA. Look at the make-up of the FA board and how decisions are taken? Look how many premier league chairman there are involved?  Look for the representation of the English, the supporters?

So the organisation which represents our national football team is more on the side of the Premier league which is, in many senses, competing with the national side. It’s not surprising then that the national team have suffered in proportion to the Premier league succeeding.

For me, the FA’s governance is the key issue. Whilst the board is run by the vested interests of the Premier League, the national side will never succeed. The key question is what will the FA do about it?

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