World Cup Diary June 29: It's England's off-field failings that sadden me

World Cup Diary / Dave Farrar / 29 June 2010 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet

"Not my fault, blame the ref" is what one of the most successful club managers ever had to say after his team lost 4-1

Dave Farrar has seen England fail at tournaments before and will see them fail again. But there was something more depressing about it all this time round and it had nothing to do with poor defending or their inability to keep posession...

"What’s bothered me here is the lack of grace, absence of class. It was summed up by Fabio Capello’s reaction to that humiliation by Germany. It was the referee’s fault, we weren’t to blame. Letting a decision paper over the cracks, taking supporters for idiots."

I tried desperately not to make this latest entry about England going out, I really did. Sunday afternoon was so sad, so funny, so pathetic in so many ways that it felt like the sort of day which should have a line drawn underneath it.

But it's like an itch that won't go away. I don't care if England win the World Cup or not, I've always been in way too deep with world football for that to be an issue. But I don't cheer against them for the sake of it. If England had come here and been the best team, then I would have happily watched Steven Gerrard (I couldn't have said the same for John Terry) lifting the trophy in Soccer City a week on Sunday. But England were so far away from being the best team here that it's frightening. And embarrassing. The media overreaction to any poor performance by the national side isn't something I'm particularly fond of, but the disturbing thing this time is that it wasn't an overreaction. The fans who spent a fortune coming out here and travelling around a very difficult country had every right to show their derision at all four performances, and the sound-bite-a-sentence columnists were justified too.

I'm working in a multinational office, and when the English people crowded round a television to watch Fabio Capello's news conference on Monday, the non English people in our office were taking photos of us and laughing. Why did we still care so much now that England were out? Well, now they all have a snapshot of what it's like to be a daily observer of English football.

This has been a tournament of joy. Slightly forced joy on occasion I admit, but the overwhelming hum of the place has been of smiling African people welcoming the world and doing it pretty well. Of South African people who are proud that their country isn't the lawless nightmare that the rest of the world's press had turned it into. Of projects popping up all over this continent, using World Cup money, that look like having a genuinely long term impact.

And most of the teams here have bought into it brilliantly. A township near Rustenberg invited players from all of the different competing countries to go visit, and find out about life in South Africa, and the entire USA squad turned up, and spent a morning which they admitted moved many of them to tears. For England, the invitation was the same and the kids flocked in their thousands to meet.......Matthew Upson and Michael Dawson. I don't know if they were the only two players who were bothered or whether the trip coincided with a training session, but I do know that I forgive both of Upson's jittery displays at centre half in a heartbeat because of his presence, and behaviour, that day.

He and Dawson came across as decent, ordinary men who were genuinely moved by their surroundings. They'll fly back better people, and should be commended for that.

Having watched more international youth tournaments than I'd care to remember over the past few years, I could write endlessly about the problems at the grass roots of English football, of the coaching culture which is slowly changing but nowhere near quickly enough. But that's been covered elsewhere, and will be ad infinitum.

What's bothered me here is the lack of grace, absence of class. It was summed up by Fabio Capello's reaction to that humiliation by Germany. It was the referee's fault, we weren't to blame. Letting a decision paper over the cracks, taking supporters for idiots. The England fans with whom I watched the game all accepted that, if Frank Lampard's goal had stood, then the score would probably have been 5-2. If they have the decency to admit that, then why doesn't Capello? He should be sacked, of course he should, as the latest experiment clearly hasn't worked, and the tactical nous he is supposed to bring to the party was so clearly absent against Germany. Capello is an exceptional club manager, but has proved a poor international one. He's the opposite of Luis Felipe Scolari, and his failure emphasises the importance of getting the right man for the right job.

It's traditionally the fans who let England down abroad, but they have been fantastic over here. Cycling round the townships, taking smiling photos, travelling sensibly, and joining in with the fun. It's the players who have been locked away and have treated this tournament as just another set of games, just another country.

I'm sure that I remember pictures from over the years of the likes of Moore, Hoddle, Butcher and of course Gascoigne, mixing with the locals, having a cocktail by the pool, smiling in the sunshine in Mexico or Seville or Cagliari. Never quite winning a World Cup overseas, but enjoying the effort. More often than not disappointing, but also coming close, and maybe more importantly, spreading the gospel that the English aren't as insular as all that.

This time, though, England have left no happy memories, no lasting imprint in South Africa. Nothing on the field, nothing off the field, and it's the latter that I find so sad. This tournament should have been a joy for 23 millionaires, but it's seemed like a chore. The fun needs to come back into Team England, and coaches appointed on tournament by tournament contracts. I'd give the job to Ian Holloway. 4-3-3, a laugh a minute, and probable elimination in the semi finals by an 1950s scoreline. The end result would be the same, but the journey there would be a lot more fun for everyone.

Tags: England football failures, England football team, Fabio Capello, Matthew Upson, world Cup diary