Scott Wilson Column: What the FA should do about the growing indifference to England

A couple of days later, I wrote the following in a column: “Increasingly, the England team has become the preserve of those based in London and the Home Counties, and while the Football Association’s chief financial officer might argue that’s okay because that’s where the bulk of the country’s money is, the national side ceases to be that at all if it is only accessible to those in a certain geographical area”.

Three years on, and it is clear that nothing has changed. Actually, that is not quite true. In the last three years, the process of emotional detachment from the England team has accelerated at a rapid pace.

Monday’s World Cup qualifier with Slovakia should have been quite an occasion. It was effectively a group decider, with England’s 2-1 victory all-but-guaranteeing their place at next summer’s finals in Russia.

All of England’s key performers were there, with Gareth Southgate able to pick from a fully-fit squad. To their credit, the FA had set prices at a reasonable level, with tickets in the family area starting at £20 for adults and £10 for children.

Yet when the game kicked off, it did so in front of more than 20,000 empty seats. Even more damningly, those who had chosen not to travel to Wembley seemed to be cloaked in complete indifference.

When I pointed out the low attendance on Twitter, the responses were damning. “The reason there’s a poor turnout is pure and simple – we don’t care about the national team,” said @Gazzaboro. “I gave up on England years ago,” said @safc_1982. “Nobody cares,” replied @Schweizermag.

Clearly, there are multiple explanations for the lack of interest. Some relate to international football in general and are not specific to England. The international calendar is overwhelmingly comprised of either meaningless friendlies or completely uncompetitive qualifiers, and as the profile and status of the Champions League and Europe’s leading domestic competitions has soared, so the international game has been pushed into the shadows. That is true all over the continent, as attendances elsewhere prove.

When it comes to England in particular, there is definitely a sense of the multiple failures of the past catching up with the national team.

Last summer’s capitulation at the hands of Iceland was the final straw for many, while the low-key performances that have characterised the current qualifying campaign have tested the patience of even those who kept the faith.

This is not a vintage England side, although it is a developing one with room for improvement in the future. For now though, England games can often be an unappealing watch.

Interest is likely to pique when the World Cup comes around next summer, and to a certain extent, the profile of the international game is always going to be governed by a four-year cycle.

Even so, the FA cannot ignore the apathetic reaction to the last few days. What can they do to start a process of reengagement? Easy. Stop playing all of England’s home games at Wembley, and start hosting regular matches up and down the country.

That happened when Wembley was being rebuilt, and helped spark a powerful reawakening of the bond between people here in the North-East (and also the North-West, South-West and East Anglia, where games were staged) and the England team.

Anyone who was at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light for the Euro qualifier with Turkey in 2003 will remember the spine-tingling atmosphere that helped carry Sven-Goran Eriksson’s team to a crucial 2-0 win, and England’s players also played at St James’ Park and the Riverside while Wembley was out of action.

They returned to Wearside last summer for a warm-up game with Australia ahead of the Euros, and there are plans to take the England team back onto the road for a couple of pre-World Cup matches next May and June. That is better than nothing, but it is not the same as staging competitive qualifiers outside London.

At the moment, trying to attend England matches at Wembley is a logistical nightmare for anyone living in the North-East. Games are taking place on Friday and Monday evenings – a FIFA decision that is admittedly out of the FA’s hands – and I know of supporters who follow the England team all over the world who have decided it is unfeasible to watch them at Wembley.

You either have to take a day or two off work and pay the extortionate hotel fees in central London, or negotiate a tortuous ten-hour round trip on motorways that seem to be constantly closed. On Monday night, both the M1 and A1 were shut for sizeable sections as I tried to drive back from Wembley. I made it back to bed at 4am in the morning – I have huge sympathy for any long-suffering supporter that was in the same position.

A generation of North-East children are growing up with little or no affiliation to their national side, and while switching games away from Wembley might be financially damaging to the FA as they continue to pay off the astronomical cost of rebuilding the national stadium, it is surely a price worth paying if it guarantees the future relevance of the England team.

And the prize for the most inept sporting body goes to...

DESPITE all of the above though, the FA have not been the most inept sporting body in the country this week. That prize goes to the ECB.

After last year’s farcical set of punishments levelled at Durham, there is only one day of international cricket at Emirates Riverside this summer – this month’s T20 international with the West Indies.

Durham’s biggest star, Ben Stokes, is only being rested for one day of international cricket this summer. Guess which one? That’s right. The one that’s been promoted for the last six months with his face plastered all over the advertising.

It is a ridiculous decision, and would cast the ECB in a bad enough light even if last season’s back story did not exist.

As it is, with Durham having been stripped of Test status, punished with a series of crippling points penalties and forced to adhere to a draconian salary cap, it is no wonder that Sir Ian Botham has been moved to question why the ECB continue to “kick Durham in the teeth”.

It feels unnecessarily vindictive, and while England coach Trevor Bayliss has attempted to defend the decision to rest Stokes, who has never played an international match at Chester-le-Street, it feels like another example of the ECB singling out Durham. Once again, it will be North-East sport fans who miss out as a consequence.