Sixty years of hurt? England will be lucky if it's not longer than that after 2026
England's men's national team have been uniquely poor among 'big' (and small) football nations at winning major tournaments since their victory on home soil in 1966
Gareth Southgate has resigned as England’s manager and he can go with his head held high after transforming the fortunes of a nation’s football team. Or rather, taking them to two finals, a semi-final and a quarter-final at the last four big tournaments.
He leaves as the latest in a long line of England managers who have failed to deliver silverware since 1966.
How many nations have had a better record than England of winning major international tournaments in men’s football since that World Cup win?
The answer is shocking, verging on the cursed!
The answer: 40 (FORTY).
After England’s Euro 2024 final defeat to Spain on Sunday, I started to wonder quite how bad England have been at winning silverware since that one and only victory, on home soil, in 1966.
By bad, I mean not just bad because they haven’t actually won any tournaments, but relatively bad compared to other big football nations, or indeed many small football nations.
The answer: they have been spectacularly bad at getting across the line, even with multiple so-called ‘golden generations’, and home advantage on occasions.
This won’t be news to England fans. Failure has been normalised for close to six decades, and yet despite that failure it still always seems to be a surprise when England find new ways to lose. We’ve seen this film before. Again and again and again.
England began Euro 2024 as the bookmakers’ favourites, and then when they ‘got lucky’ with the way the draw ‘opened up’, their status as favourites only became more assured, even as their performances were poor.
(NB: the draw didn’t ‘open up’. They won their group as expected and ended up in the half of the draw they were always expected to be in; but France’s failure to win their group meant the draw became lopsided).
It goes without saying that it is hard to win a World Cup or indeed any continental international tournament, whether within Europe (the Euros, run by UEFA), or South America, Africa, Asia or North and Central America.
Teams that win these continental championships also tend to be teams that qualify for the World Cup, and in many cases progress to the knockout stages.
So how many nations have won a World Cup or continental international tournament since England last won a major tournament in 1966?
That answer again: 40.
Six of those have shared the 14 men’s World Cups since 1966: Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Italy, France and Spain. The four European nations in that list plus another five nations have shared the 15 Euros since 1966, the other five being Czechoslovakia, Netherlands, Denmark, Greece and Portugal.
Copa América has also been won since 1966 by five teams not already mentioned above. The Africa Cup of Nations has been won by 14 different winners since 1966, and it’s simply not possible to dismiss them all as second-rate.
Egypt, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia, South Africa and Morocco are all among AFCON winners to have appeared in one or more World Cups, and several have reached the knockouts. Morocco were World Cup semi-finalists at Qatar 2022.
Seven different nations have won the Asian Cup since 1966, and the most frequent champions, Japan, have been at the seven most recent World Cups, reaching the knockouts more often than not.
Iran and Saudi Arabia, both three-times winners of the Asia Cup, have each been to six World Cups. In Qatar in late 2022, Saudi Arabia came from behind in the group stage to win against Argentina, the eventual champions.
Even in arguably the world’s weakest football confederation, CONCACAF, the three teams who have won their continental trophy - the Gold Cup - since 1966 can’t be written off.
Mexico were World Cup quarter-finalists in 1970 and 1986, and progressed past the group stages at every World Cup between 1994 (for which England didn’t even qualify) and 2018.
The USA have played England at three World Cups, winning the one meeting before 1966, infamously, in 1950, and drawing the other two, at the 2010 World Cup (1-1) and the 2022 World Cup (0-0).
England and Canada have met just once, in an a friendly before the 1986 World Cup and England won 1-0.
The upshot: while England have won zero major tournaments since 1966, no fewer than 40 football nations have won between one and nine each.
Brazil have won three World Cups and six Copa Américas in that time. Argentina have won seven major tournaments in that time, and Germany have won six. Spain, Italy and France have won four each.
It goes without saying that Gareth Southgate has transformed the culture of England’s men’s team from top to bottom since 2017. He is already the second greatest England manager of all time, and is working with a group of players now widely regarded as the most talented England group in decades, perhaps ever.
Just don’t expect things to change. Why? Because this is England … and below is the story of England since 1966.
Finals of World Cups and Euros since 1966
(And how England failed)
1968 Euros final, 10 June, Rome. Winners: Italy 🇮🇹
England’s hurt: Lost to Yugoslavia in the semi-finals after Alan Mullery became the first England player ever to be sent off.
1970 World Cup final, 21 June, Mexico City. Winners: Brazil 🇧🇷
England’s hurt: Captain Bobby Moore got arrested pre-tournament in Colombia for allegedly stealing a bracelet. He was cleared but it was disruptive. In the quarter-finals England contrived to throw away a 2-0 lead over Germany by midway through the second half to lose 3-2 after extra time.
1972 Euros final, 18 June, Brussels. Winners: West Germany 🇩🇪
England’s hurt: Didn’t qualify for the final tournament of four teams, losing across two legs to the eventual winners in what was effectively the quarter-finals.
1974 World Cup final, 7 July, Munich. Winners: West Germany 🇩🇪
England’s hurt: Failed to qualify when favourites to win a qualifying group of three, also containing Poland and Wales. Jan Tomaszewski, the Polish goalkeeper who Brian Clough had called a “clown”, produced remarkable saves as Poland drew 1-1 at Wembley in a final game England needed to win.
1976 Euros final, 20 June, Belgrade. Winners: Czechoslovakia 🇨🇿
England’s hurt: Failed to qualify.
1978 World Cup final, 25 June, Buenos Aires. Winners: Argentina 🇦🇷
England’s hurt: Failed to qualify.
1980 Euros final, 22 June, Rome. Winners: West Germany 🇩🇪
England’s hurt: Failed to get out of the group stage.
1982 World Cup final, 11 July, Madrid. Winners: Italy 🇮🇹
England’s hurt: Reached the second group stage but knocked out after failing to score in either game at that point.
1984 Euros final, 27 June, Paris. Winners: France 🇫🇷
England’s hurt: Failed to qualify for the finals from a group containing Denmark, Greece, Hungary and Luxembourg.
1986 World Cup final, 29 June, Mexico City. Winners: Argentina 🇦🇷
England’s hurt: Came up against the genius of Maradona, and his Hand of God, in the quarter-finals.
1988 Euros final, 25 June, Munich. Winners: Netherlands 🇳🇱
England’s hurt: Lost all three group games, to the Republic of Ireland, Netherlands and the Soviet Union, with a squad including Peter Shilton, Bryan Robson, Glenn Hoddle, John Barnes, Chris Waddle and Gary Lineker among others.
1990 World Cup final, 8 July, Rome. Winners: West Germany 🇩🇪
England’s hurt: Defeat on penalties against West Germany in the semis. Pearce and Waddle.
1992 Euros final, 26 June, Gothenburg. Winners: Denmark 🇩🇰
England’s hurt: Finished bottom of a group including Sweden, Denmark and France, scoring one goal in three games. This happened in a tournament won by a country who didn’t even qualify to play in it.
1994 World Cup final, 17 July, Pasadena, CA. Winners: Brazil 🇧🇷
England’s hurt: Failed to qualify for the tournament from a qualifying group that included Norway. Did Graham Taylor not like that?
1996 Euros final, 30 June, London. Winners: Germany 🇩🇪
England’s hurt: Lost on penalties in their home tournament to Germany in the semis, with Gareth Southgate missing the fateful kick, which later earned him (and Pearce, and Waddle) a Pizza Hut advert.
1998 World Cup final, 12 July, Paris. Winners: France 🇫🇷
England’s hurt: Lost on penalties against Argentina in the round of 16 after a 2-2 draw that included David Beckham’s sending off. Paul Ince and David Batty joined the roll call of penalty infamy.
2000 Euros final, 2 July, Rotterdam. Winners: France 🇫🇷
England’s hurt: Group stage exit after defeats by Portugal and Romania, the latter featuring Phil Neville’s late gift of a penalty. Stand-in keeper Nigel Martyn went the wrong way after David Seaman was injured in the warm-up.
2002 World Cup final, 30 June, Yokohama. Winners: Brazil 🇧🇷
England’s hurt: Seaman lobbed by Ronaldinho. Out in the quarters.
2004 Euros final, 4 July, Lisbon. Winners: Greece 🇬🇷
England’s hurt: Wayne Rooney’s broken foot in the quarter-finals against Portugal, meaning he had to go off after 27 minutes, a genius teenage potential tournament winner lost to the cause. Then lost on penalties.
2006 World Cup final, 9 July, Berlin. Winners: Italy 🇮🇹
England’s hurt: Penalty exit, AGAIN, this time to Portugal in the quarters after David Beckham had gone off early, injured and Wayne Rooney had seen red.
2008 Euros final, 29 June, Vienna. Winners: Spain 🇪🇸
England’s hurt: Failed to qualify after a Wembley defeat to Croatia under the guidance of the “Wally with the brolly."
2010 World Cup final, 11 July, Jo’burg. Winners: Spain 🇪🇸
England’s hurt: The golden generation lost 4-1 to Germany in the round of 16 after Frank Lampard scored a valid goal the referee didn’t acknowledge. We’ve got VAR because of this.
2012 Euros final, 1 July, Kyiv. Winners: Spain 🇪🇸
England’s hurt: Penalties, AGAIN. This time against Italy in the quarters.
2014 World Cup final, 13 July, Rio de Janeiro. Winners: Germany 🇩🇪
England’s hurt: Finished bottom of a group containing Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica after the fag end of the golden generation won a single point, against Costa Rica.
2016 Euros final, 10 July, Paris. Winners: Portugal 🇵🇹
England’s hurt: Iceland.
2018 World Cup final, 15 July, Moscow. Winners: France 🇫🇷
England’s hurt: Took an early lead against Croatia in the semi-finals then shut up shop and lost in extra-time.
2020 Euros final, 11 July 2021, London. Winners: Italy 🇮🇹
England’s hurt: Took an early lead against Italy in the final then shut up shop and lost on penalties.
2022 World Cup final, 18 December, Doha. Winners: Argentina 🇦🇷
England’s hurt: Lost to France in the quarters after Harry Kane hoisted an 84th-minute penalty into the stands, which, if scored, would have made it 2-2 and probably taken the game to extra time.
2024 Euros final, 14 July, Berlin. Winners: Spain 🇪🇸
England’s hurt: England’s latest golden generation enjoyed moments but not consistency. Bellingham’s bicycle kick against Slovakia. Saka's equaliser versus Switzerland. The penalties versus Switzerland. Watkins’ goal against Netherlands. Palmer’s goal against Spain. But, largely, seven turgid performances.
Nations who have won the World Cup or major continental tournaments since 1966
World Cup winners since 1966 (6 different winners)
Brazil 3 times; (West) Germany 3; Argentina 3; Italy 2; France 2; Spain 1.
Euros winners since 1966 (9 different winners)
(West) Germany 3 times; Spain 3; Italy 2; France 2; Czechoslovakia 1; Netherlands 1; Denmark 1; Greece 1; Portugal 1.
Copa América winners since 1966 (7 different winners)
Brazil 6 times; Uruguay 4; Argentina 4; Chile 2; Peru 1; Paraguay 1; Colombia 1.
AFCON winners since 1966 (14 different winners)
Egypt 5 times; Cameroon 5; Nigeria 3; Ivory Coast 3; Ghana 2; Algeria 2; DR Congo 2; Zambia 1; Tunisia 1; Sudan 1; Senegal 1; South Africa 1; Morocco 1; Congo 1.
Asian Cup winners since 1966 (7 different winners)
Japan 4 times; Iran 3; Saudi Arabia 3; Qatar 2; Kuwait 1; Iraq 1; Australia 1.
Gold Cup winners since 1966 (3 different winners)
Mexico 9; USA 7; Canada 1.