England &The European ChampionshipsYou are here: Football England > Football Articles > England & the Euro Championships (A Story of Dishonour, Disgrace and Shambles) If you are sitting at home cursing the present squad of England footballers for spoiling your summer by failing to make it to the current European Championship finals you might want to take a quick look back at our previous efforts in this competition. By doing so you will quickly find out that it is not only our present day heroes who need to hang their heads in shame where this competition is concerned. In fact history teaches us that there are no Englishmen who can reflect with satisfaction on their efforts in the European Championships and, unlike the World Cup, there are no reasonable claims of heroic failure or bad luck to comfort our disappointments. This simply is a story of dishonour, disgrace and shambles. Let's start at the beginning. 1960 At it's inception the competition was called something like The European Cup of Nations and England maintained a proud tradition of turning their noses up at anything invented by Johnny Foreigner. We didn't enter FIFA when it started, we didn't enter the first three World Cups, we didn't enter the first European Cup so we certainly weren't entering this bloody thing before we had to. With England not bothering Russia defeated Yugoslavia in France to become the first winners of the trophy. Dishonour Rating: 8 1964 Hooray, we're up and running and we quickly find out exactly what this competiton has in store for us. The first round is a straight two legged knock out and we're up against France. Not to give the competition ideas above its' station we play our home leg at Hillsborough rather than Wembley and include four debutants; Hellawell, Crowe, Charnley and Hinton. They didn't win many more caps but apparently did go on to form a formidable firm of solicitors. France score an early goal but England equalise from a generously awarded penalty. For the second leg England actually selected some players people had heard of but still found themselves three goals down at half time. Enter new manager Alf Ramsey. Newly appointed but not yet officially in charge of affairs Ramsey enters the dressing room to tell the players they are doing well and can still win. Typically deluded from Ramsey but the players, obviously just as daft, apparently believe him and go out to reduce the arrears by two. Enter hapless goalkeeper Ron Springett who immediately gifts the French another two goals and our first assault on the European Nations Cup is officially over. Spain go on to lift the trophy after defeating the defending champions Russia on home soil. Dishonour Rating: 5 1968 Right, now we're Champions of the World so the rest of Europe had better watch out. Qualifying groups are introduced for the first time and the British Home Championships of 1966 and 1967 are designated as one of the groups by UEFA. Despite managing only a draw and a defeat against the Scots we go through and then beat Spain home and away in the two legged quarter final. This is more like it, we must be getting the hang of this thing now, mustn't we? Not quite, Ramsey takes a 22 man squad to Italy for the semi finals and final but only selects one striker for the game against Yugoslavia, preferring Norman Hunter to Geoff Hurst. Not surprisingly the game is a dour, violent, unpleasant affair and England end up losing by the only goal. To make matters worse Alan Mullery becomes the first man ever to be sent off while playing for England. Hurst returns for the 3rd place play off and Russia are beaten 2-0 but this seems an unsatisfactory effort from the World Cup holders. Italy, the hosts, need a replay before seeing off the Slavs and claiming the trophy. Dishonour Rating: 9 1972 We're no longer World Champs but we're good enough to see off Greece, Switzerland and Malta in our tougher than teak qualifying group. This brings us face to face with West Germany, who have just ended our reign as World Champs, in the quarter finals and there is much talk of revenge and serious repercussions for The Hun for their inpertinence. For the first leg at Wembley Alf Ramsey decides to go into the game without a stopper centre half or a ball winning midfielder. Gunther Netzer runs the show, Gert Muller scores his obligatory goal and Bobby Moore makes a heinous mistake on a truly black night for English football. Faced with a two goal deficit in the away leg Ramsey picks a stopper centre half and two ball winning midfielders and then takes one of his two strikers off and replaces him with a defender after twenty minutes. Result? A goalless draw and a sharp exit. Germany go on to win the trophy in Belgium with a 3-0 victory over Russia in the final. Dishonour Rating: 6 1976 Ramsey's gone and Don Revie's in charge as England start a new era in spectacular fashion with a magnificent 3-0 victory over Czechoslovakia at Wembley. Mike Channon and Colin Bell with two grab the goals and there are excellent debuts by the Queens Park Rangers pair of Gerry Francis and Dave Thomas. Watch out Europe, here we come. Not quite. Two draws with Portugal and defeat in Czechoslovakia see us crash out as the Revie era quickly turns sour. The Czech's, meanwhile, go from strength to strength and end up winning the thing after beating West Germany in a penalty shootout in the final in Yugoslavia. Yes, you did read that correctly, the Germans lost in a penalty shootout. Dishonour Rating: 7 1980 Qualifying's not too bad as we see off Denmark, Bulgaria and both the Ireland's but things quickly turn messy when we turn up in Italy for the finals. "Butch" Wilkins lobs us ahead in our first game against the unfancied Belgians but they promptly equalise and then our fans decide to do a bit of rioting which leaves goalkeeper Ray Clemence in tears, it was either that or the tear gas used by the police to restore order. Despite having a keeper with streaming eyes we hold on for a draw but then lose by the only goal to the hosts, Italy. Ray Kennedy slaps one sweet left footer against an upright but an unsatisfactory night is summed up when Marco Tardelli, detailed to man mark Kevin Keegan, pops up with the only goal. Jesus. Despite beating Spain in our last game we're out while Belgium make it all the way to the final where they lose narrowly to West Bloody Germany. Dishonour Rating: 8 1984 We're in the same group as Denmark once again and they give us an almighty scare in the first group game before we come home from Copenhagen with a 2-2 draw thanks to a brace from Trevor Francis. The lessons aren't heeded and an Allan Simonsen penalty gives the Danes a famous win at Wembley in the return and we are out. A dismal goalless draw at home to Greece also doesn't help though. The finals are a splendid affair with the host nation France defeating Spain 2-0 to lift the cup. Dishonour Rating: 7 1988 No problems qualifying this time as Northern Ireland, Turkey and Yugoslavia are sent packing and we head to Germany for the finals in high hopes. Haven't we learnt by now? From the moment Ray Houghton lobs a shitty header past us early on in the first game against Freaking Eire this competition becomes a disaster. An onslaught on the Irish goal produces nothing but a years' worth of frustration and then we lose to the Dutch despite a pretty decent showing. Unfortunately Lineker's ill and can't hit a barn door while Tony Adams is suffering the mother of all runarounds at the hands of hat trick hero Marco Van Basten. Then Glenda Hoddle bends a beauty of a free kick against the inside of a post. Jesus. Losing 3-1 to Russia in the final game puts the lid on a dismal showing but it does at least ensure that the Irish come home too. Holland continue their fine form to take the title with a 2-0 victory over Russia in the final. Dishonour Rating: 8 1992 We've just restored our faith in ourselves with a magnificent World Cup showing but, unfortunately, we now have Graham Taylor in charge to make sure that our abysmal European Championship record remains intact. We edge through to the finals in Sweden after negotiating a tough qualifying group including Eire, Poland and Turkey but, missing the injured Paul Gascoigne, immediately struggle in the finals. We are held to a goalless draw in our opening game by Denmark, only allowed into the finals after Yugoslavia descends into civil war, and then draw another blank against France. This is the famous game in which Basile Boli hurts his head tupping Stuart Pearce who returns bloodstained to slam a 35 yard free kick against the crossbar. Jesus. We need to win our last game against host nation Sweden to progress and take an early lead through David Platt. Tony Daley misses two great chances to increase the lead before the second half becomes an exercise in torture as Sweden rip us to pieces to win 2-1. Turnip head Taylor caps a miserable night by taking off his one striker Lineker and replacing him with a bemused Alan Smith with England 2-1 down. Denmark, having sneaked in through the back door, go on to win the damn thing with a 2-0 victory over Germany in the final. Dishonour Rating: 7 1996 No problems qualifying this time. We're hosting the thing for God's sake so they let us through regardless. A 1-1 draw with Switzerland in the opening game suggests that home advantage is not going to stop us being rubbish in this competition but then Seaman saves a penalty and Gazza scores his wonder goal against the Scots and everybodies all excited all of a sudden. Cue a remarkable 4-1 drubbing of Holland and now we're going to win the damn thing, surely. We get lucky to reach penalties against Spain in the quarter finals and another save by Spunky sees us through while Stuart Pearce claims the 1996 All England Gurning competition hands down. On to the semi finals and it's the dreaded Hun again but an early goal from Alan Shearer has us all believing. Unfortunately Germany respond quickly and after Gazza and Darren Anderton both miss extra time sitters it's on to penalties and the inevitable outcome, Gareth Southgate being the ultimate fall guy. Germany, needless to say, go on to win the trophy after a Golden Goal winner against the Czech Republic in the final. Dishonour Rating: 2 2000 The writing's on the wall early in this one. We need a play off to qualify and then end up beating Scotland by the skin of our teeth despite racing into a two goal lead in the first leg at Hampden Park. Once at the finals we race into a two goal lead against Portugal but then have to watch as we disintegrate and lose 3-2. We beat Germany 1-0 in one of the worst games ever thanks to a Shearer header but then manage the mother and father of all cock ups against Rumania in the final group game. Needing only a draw to progress we lead 2-1 at the interval and are hanging on at two apiece in the final minute when Phil Neville makes his one telling contribution to international football by conceding a penalty. An early plane home once again while France go on to lift the trophy by beating Italy 2-1 in the final. Dishonour Rating: 7 2004 Everybody was in agreement that this should have been our time and for a while things looked set fair. Wayne Rooney emerged on the scene as England got the better of Turkey in our qualifying group and then he positively burst into the limelight in the finals as Switzerland and Croatia were demolished. We had already made things difficult for ourselves, however, by losing the opening game to France. Beckham misses a penalty at 1-0 up and then Zidane scores one at the other end, after throwing up, so we end up having to play host nation Portugal in the quarter finals. Michael Owen slots us into an early lead but things start going pear shaped after Rooney departs with a crocked foot. An all out defensive strategy sees us eventually concede an equaliser while Sol Campbell again suffers heartache as his last minute header is ruled out for a foul by John Terry. Portugal take the lead in extra time, Fat Frank Lampard immediately equalises and it's onto penalties again. Beckham and Darius Vassell do the honours as England head for home. Greece go on to provide the granddaddy of all surprises by winning the tournament after beating Portugal 1-0 in the final. Unbelievable. Dishonour Rating: 5 Overall Disaster Ratings 1st = 1968 & 1988 with 25 points The moral of this sad and sorry story? If you're England and you don't want to make fools of yourself in the European Championships then either host the damn thing or don't bother entering at all. You are here: Football England > Football Articles > England & the Euro Championships (back to top) Do you want to have a say about this topic?
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