“Rule, Britannia, Britannia! rule the waves,” is one of the best loved chants of English football fans. But the supporters only once had a real cause to sing the song: 1966 in England at the eighth World Cup. When captain Bobby Moore received the World Cup trophy, the Coupe Jules Rimet, from Queen Elisabeth II in London’s Wembley Stadium on 30 July 1966, the jubilation in the mother country of football knew no bounds.

At the time, the English Football Association (the FA), had already been in existence for 103 years. Founded in London in 1863, the FA first became affiliated to FIFA, the world football association, in 1905. And since then English football has displayed three qualities in international matches: firstly enormous self-confidence, secondly overestimation of themselves to an equal degree and, third and finally the ability to beat any team on a good day.

Good days were however rare in England’s World Cup history. Seventy eight years after their first official international, England only entered the World Cup fray in 1950. The Britons had previously gone about matters very much in their own way. At times they went to and fro from being a FIFA affiliate to not being one and then being affiliated again. At their first World Cup participation in Brazil, the Three Lions were knocked out at the group phase as they were in Sweden in 1958. England lost in the quarter-final against Uruguay in 1954 and then in 1962, they were also defeated in the quarters by eventual champions Brazil. 

That the decisive goal – the legendary “Wembley Goal” – in extra time against Germany to make the score 3-2 wasn’t, in all probability, a goal at all left the euphoric supporters cold. Especially Hurst – he was knighted by the Queen in 1998. The Russian linesman Tofik Bachramow was probably the only person in the stadium to have seen the shot from Hurst rebound off the underside of the bar and behind the line. Referee Gottfried Dienst from Switzerland relied on his man on the touch-line and gave the goal.

It was a triumph for a team that functioned extremely well. The side that supported by hot-blooded fans, would have presumably been unstoppable anyway even without the dubious goal. A very young Franz Beckenbauer gave a good performance in the final when marking the great midfield general Bobby Charlton out of the game. But others then stepped into the breach: the midfield terrier Nobby Stiles, who looked terrifying with his toothless smile, the weaselly Alan Ball and the cool strategist Martin Peters.

But England had now shot their last bolt. Four years later, the German team gained revenge in Mexico when winning 3-2 in the quarter-finals. Then in 1974 and 1978, the Three Lions failed to qualify for the finals. The team lost out to Germany in the second group stage in 1982. Germany also knocked England out of the 1990 World Cup in the semi-finals after a penalty shoot-out. 1986 and 1998 saw England lose out to Argentina in the quarters and the last 16 respectively. Four years ago, a terrible blunder by the goalkeeper David Seaman sealed the 2-1 defeat against Brazil, once again in the quarter-finals.

For 2006, the mother country of football is again displaying unshakeable optimism. The shrewd Swedish coach Sven-Göran Eriksson has without doubt such a conglomeration of talented players at his disposal as seldom before in English football: Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen, David Beckham and young star Wayne Rooney are already giving the fans reason to dream about the day when Britannia’s football rules the waves again.