England absence from Euro 2008 will be disastrous
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Ever imagine England not qualifying for 2008? Yeah, I am sure the whole nation will be mourning if England doesn’t qualify. Oh wait, I am also pretty sure the bookies will not want this catastrophic scene to happen.
Why did I say so? England matches have always been the favorite for many punters. This is due to the exposure of English Premier League to people around the globe. When English Premier League is involved, they are second to none compared to other leagues in the world. This proofs how popular English Premier League and of course the England national team as well.
The bookies would not want to end England’s journey towards Euro 2008 as England has always been their gold mine. I am pretty sure the bookies will try their very best to move England to Euro 2008 next year.
Matches involving England last few matches will be crucial to England’s qualification to Euro 2008. What will the bookies plan?
1] Kill all the punters now by not letting England qualify for Euro 2008
2] Let England struggle to qualify for Euro 2008. Kill punters slowly where they raked in the money in the qualifying period and then the Euro 2008 as well
If I am a smart bookie I will surely choose option 2 as they will have more games to let you bet on England which most of us will eventually loose money.
Get the clear picture? England will always go into a tournament as the early favorites and loads of hype and talk will be on England winning a competition. In the end, it is a total disappointment.
Do not ever mention that England squad is not good to lift any major tournaments out there. Greece can even win Euro 2004, and why not England?
Yeah, Greece of all countries. South Korea can qualify for semi finals in World Cup 2002 and why not England?
Answer is simple. Too many people are betting on England to win a match. Take yourself as the bookie, and the whole World is picking England to beat X (any country) in a match, would you ever think of letting it happen if you are the one accepting all the bets from all over the world? A wise person should know the answer to that simple question. In no time, you will need to declare bankrupt if that happens when England wins or lift a trophy.
Bookies are smart, so to win their money, you have to think like how they think and not go against them. If they let the whole world win money, then better they don’t accept bets right?
In short, most soccer matches are controlled by none other then the bookies. England is always in their favorite list as they can make the most money from it. So, if you want England to do well in a tournaments, don’t bet on them, just watch and support them. Just my 2 cents, opinions and criticism are always welcome.
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This article is a submission for the Soccerlens Football Writing Competition; to participate, please read the details here.
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Discussion - 11 Responses
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Mate, this is pretty dubious. Because Brazil have never been a favourite for a World Cup trophy?? Because no-one ever bets on Manchester United or Arsenal or Chelsea to win the league?
Yeh, not the best explanation for England’s continuous failure. I would go for the lack of personality as a team regardless of the quality of individual players.
If you really watch Brazil vs France in World Cup 2006, you can see that, Roberto Carlos was way off position when Henry scores. What was Carlos doing when they kick the free kick? He was Pulling his SOCKS!
Squaretan, the biggest flaw of your article (and I regret to say there is more than one) is that you seem to believe punters’ bets actually affect the outcome of a game…
I like conspiracy theories as much as the next guy, but this one really takes the cake.
Marco - I think ST was being sarcastic - at least that’s what I thought…
Dont always think that soccer players go all out to make the fans or supporters happy always. Take a good example yesterday. If you ever want to bet a soccer match between Macedonia vs Croatia who will you take? Will you take Macedonia and put your money on them? Most would not. Most people will take Croatia. Outcome? 2-0 Macedonia!
Ahmed, evidently not.
yeha it is really a disastor for england not to qualify for euro 2008 but still life’s journey continues. i am afraid the english premier league will keep its grace but as i always said winners do not do different things but do things differently. see you guys i am from Ethiopia and now we are celebreating our new milleniun!
I think Englands performance against Croatia was their worst ever in any competition. The game was one single sided and the Croatian strikers Olic and Eduardo were always lively on the counter attack. Unlike England, who were too dependant on long ball tactics and set pieces, the Croatians played short effective passes and built some momentum up before each attack. Technically as a team they bonded much better than England team did. Even the penalty that England got in the second half is debatable.
Just like the game against Romania in World up 1998, against the portuguese and the romanians in euro 2000, we once again ignorantly failed to appreciate the technical brilliance of the opposition. Remember the Croatians are far from walk overs when it comes to playing in big competitions. They did’nt come third in the 1998 World Cup for nothing, where they managed to tear Germany apart 3-0 and almost knock France out in the semis (a match to which this day I think Croatia should have won). I completely agree with Roy Keanes comments when he said the England players Ego tends to get the better of them. In addition to this every single manager we have had since 1998 has made very little change to the actual squad and has insisted on playing 4-4-2. This has created a lack of flexibility to adapt our players in different positions. This is one of the reasons why the FA originally wanted Scholari or Hiddink as their manager. In addition to this our dependance on foreign players has resulted in a decline in home grown players. When Dennis Berkhamp first came to our country he saw our youth system and laughed because in other countries the youth is developed at an incredibly early age (7 - 10 year olds are already in the system in countries like Holland).
Further more our dependance on individual players has also created tensions and arguments in the England camp and affected performance. Why does every manager seem to depend on Micheal Owen or Steven Gerrard or David Beckham even when these players are performing poorly. For example can you honestly choose Micheal Owen, a player who has been plagued with injuries yet gets a place in the squad because he got a goal against some minnnows in a friendly, over Andy Johnson who has been a consistent peformer in the prenier league during his time with Wigan and Everton and is clearly the best striker that we have? In addition to this the England managers seem to think that all the players playing for teams below the premiership are rubbish. This is not true and I would go as far as to say that out championship divisions are good enough to rival teams in europeam leagues such as Seria A nd the Bundesliga. The only reason these players are ignored is down to the money factor.
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