Before I start, let me emphasise that I support the England football team, and was as upset as anyone else when we got knocked out of the World Cup. If nothing else, I’m biased toward the teams I love on both national and club levels: Liverpool above all. But I can’t help feeling there’s something wrong with the way we play our football. It’s not only dirty, it’s ugly. We play inelegant football.
I’ve been watching football since I was seven: I started late. I only support Liverpool because my uncle studied at the university there. But before I’d seen anything other than terrestrial TV, I thought English football was the best in the world; we were stylish, cool and had the best players - everything.
Then we got Sky, and my life changed forever. And I don’t exaggerate. (Sky also introduced me to the winter cricket tours I’d missed until then.) I realised, with shame and embarrassment, that La Liga was more fun to watch. Even the rubbish teams seemed to play nicer football, and I realised I preferred to watch a more fluid game than the average Premiership war zone: Bolton, take a bow. I realise now that even my beloved Liverpool don’t really play the “beautiful” game I don’t care of course: they’re my team. But I can’t say we’re pretty.
Watching this year’s World Cup confirmed all my fears. If I were a neutral, and given the choice between watching England, or watching a team like Brazil or Italy, I’d pick the other team any day of the week, and twice on Sundays. Do you actually remember any of England’s matches in the last World Cup? I don’t, I just know we played scrappily in the group games and scrappily thereafter. Compare that to the semi-final between Italy and Germany, easily the best 118 minute stalemate I’ve ever seen. That game had pace, skill, passing, players with the ability to look up and find a team-mate, and excitement. A bunch of aliens would not think that the England-Portugal and Germany-Italy were games of the same sport.
My moan’s over, but I’d like to make one constructive point. As a young person who used to watch football for inspiration, it would have been nice to see the cameras focusing on someone as small as Lionel Messi (5’4) playing well, instead of endless highlights of Roy Keane (5’11) hurting someone.
So, it’s time to vote off the weakest link, or in this case the worst offender in the ugly football stakes: Bolton Wanderers, your time is up.
About this team
This article was written by Fayyaz Muneer, 17, and edited by Ella Parry-Davies, 17. It was published on the Reach for the Sky website.
