England are not gifted with talent, so we need to find it

   

 http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/21/roy-hodgson-build-better-stronger-england-costa-rica

 The standards of refereeing need looking at too.

I gave up playing football some years ago.(My brain knew where I should be, but my legs will not get me there quickly enough). I gave up watching football when it became abundantly clear that money had become infinitely more important than skill, talent and ability. At one time, admittedly many years past, players would have pulled on an England shirt, simply for the honour of paying for their country. Now, it seems, the first consideration often appears to be the question of settling the fee for "appearance". It is also, abundantly clear that the media and vast sections of the country, consider that England can/will/should win every competition trophy that they qualify for. When this does not happen, the media certainly, treat everyone to the "I told you so" stories.
The fact of the matter is that England are not a world class team and until the philosophy at club level and the dinosaur attitudes at the FA change significantly, England have little if any prospect of becoming a world beating football nation.
Having said that, I have seen lengthy parts of some matches in the current Brazil World cup competition, and there is one common factor which applies, certainly to those matches which have been on my television and I assume that the same applies to other games in the competition.

The standard of refereeing in all these games has been appalling. Notwithstanding the cans of magic shaving foam, liberally applied on the pitch surface to mark position of ball and distance to "wall", by the (often) hysterically animated match official, the continuity of games has frequently been disrupted by strange refereeing decisions which have clearly affected the play and perhaps even the result. There may be a case for challenging the decision and referring the matter "upstairs" for review in slow motion from all angles. The occasional bad referee decision has always been evident in football at both international and club level. However the standards of the match officials in Brazil 2014 have probably spoilt many games and will no doubt spoil many others during the rest of the competition.