England national football team

The England national football team was a team that represents England in international before being merged with the other home nations to form Great Britain It is controlled by the Football Association.

England was one of eight nations that has won the FIFA World Cup with their first title being in 1910 when they defeated Belgium 2-0 in the final.

Early years
The England national football team is the joint-oldest in the world with Scotland. A representative match between England and Scotland was played on 5 March 1870, having been organised by the Football Association. Then on 30 November 1872, the first official football match was played with England taking on Scotland at The Oval. The result being a 0-0. A resurgent Scotland then won against England in 1878 by a score of 7-2.

They mostly played against the other British nations (Scotland, Ireland and Wales) in the British Home Championship up until 1906 when they entered the first World Cup with the other 11 teams that were in FIFA at the time. After getting through the group stage unscathed, before coming up against Uruguay, they were expected to win, but a shock goal from knocked them out.

After four more years of playing in the British Isles, despite a trip over to Central Europe for two games, they were expected to be up there with a possible spot at taking the trophy. After defeating Hungary and Switzerland early, they took on Argentina in the semi-finals. Unlike the previous World Cup, England did win by a score of 2-0 which meant they got through to the finals with them taking on Belgium. would score the winning goal with England taking home the World Cup for the first time.

With England hosting the 1914 FIFA World Cup, all of the country were hoping that they would defend their title. After breezing through the group stage, they started to struggle after they only just defeated France in London before defeating the other finalist in Belgium before meeting Denmark. In what would later be classified as the greatest match of the early World Cups, the match went into extra time but for England, they couldn't seal the deal with Denmark scoring two goals in the thirty minutes of extra time to give Denmark their first trophy at the expensive of the hosts.

Absent from International Football
When international football restarted in 1919, the British nations declined to join FIFA which also involved England. The team did keep playing in the British Home Championship which also included it in a qualifying tournament for the 1926 FIFA World Cup. For the team, though, they were struggling with only three titles (one being shared) in the 17 years after the First World War was played. After not qualifying for the tournament and realising that Uruguay won the bid for the 1930 FIFA World Cup, the team withdrew as well as all of the Home Nations and Canada to create their own tournament during the time.

This was held at the British Empire Games with the first competition being held at Hamilton. For England, they were struggling as they were defeated by Scotland and only just scraping through against Canada before finishing in the bronze position after defeating Wales by a score of 2-0.

Competing in the 1933 WEFF Championship, they struggled to make an impression with the team being bundled out in the Group Stage before not even making it out of the qualifying stage in the second edition. Two more medals (1934, Bronze and 1938, Silver) in the British Empire Games couldn't stop the disappointment that the team was having which would lead all the way to the Second World War.

FIFA World Cup
Gold  Silver   Bronze

British Empire Games
Gold  Silver   Bronze