England Football Squad Disadvantaged

Well, Euro 2012 just kicked off, literally.  Poland are playing Greece really well, but something about modern football has been itching at me, England... We never do overly well... And I have a theory why... Apart from our players being tired, injury rich and over paid (and hence rather lazy in places).  But everyone else on the pitch speaks English...

They can hear our shouting the plays, they can understand everything our team is doing...

Look at the Poles... I very much doubt many, if any, of the Greeks playing speak Polish.  And vice versa, I doubt any of the Poles speak Greek... The two teams play their way, and can communicate without any fear of the opposition intercepting the information and gaining an advantage.

This could perhaps be seen, back in the 60's when England played so well, English was not very common in post-war Germany, maybe more so than twenty years before, but certainly German TV was German, German Media was German, the lingua fraca was not yet English.

With the invasion of American TV in the 70's, shows like Miami Five O, Dallas and then the flood of American TV in the 80's the English game suffered, as the language homogenised so did reading the intent of English football players.

Mix into this slide that most the decent players around the world make their pilgrimage to play in the birth place of football, working in the Premier and whatever leagues of English football, and so further pick up the language and the rhythm of the English style of play, is it any surprise that the England football squad find it hard to out perform the opposition.

We'll see how this goes, with our first game on Monday, against France.  English is not wholly ruling the roost in France, despite the entente cordial the Queen herself still turns to speak French to their dignitaries, not theirs speaking English to us.  But many of the good French players play in England, or have played recently in English clubs.  So this can only benefit them.

I'll always support England, but I can't help but make this observation.