The BBC's coverage of England's calamitous defeat by Germany received an Audience Appreciation Index score of, wait for it, sixty six, from viewers. Oh, the irony.
Germany's two-goal hero Thomas Mueller believes the culture in the England team will hinder their chances of becoming successful. Mueller scored twice for Germany in their 4-1 win over England on Sunday. 'It is difficult to have so many "alpha males" and have them row in the same direction,' said the twenty year-old. 'You don't only need chiefs, you also need a few Indians. You need people who are willing to do the hard work.' He added: 'It may be a problem with England that players are simply not mentally prepared to go that extra mile for their team-mates.' Meanwhile, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said that England were 'killed by their own impatience' during their defeat to Germany. The Frenchman believes England should have used their experience to stop Germany's counter-attacking threat. England pulled the score back to 2-1 and had a goal disallowed but were hit on the break when chasing an equaliser. 'England had taken over the game and I think they were killed by their impatience,' Wenger told Arsenal's website. 'They came back in the second half to 2-1 and they controlled the game. What made me sad was that, with the experience they had, they were caught. It was free-kick for England, goal for Germany.
You do what they did with five minutes to go, okay, but not with twenty five minutes left.' Wenger believes the levels of expectation weighed heavily on the England camp. 'Many teams start slow in the group stage,' he said. 'I remember in 2006, France were horrible in the group stage but they found momentum in the quarter-final and semi-final because they had no pressure any more. England suffered under pressure. They did not look sharp. Also England did not seem to be at the level to use their main strength - the huge pace they put in the game. Was that physical fatigue or a mental reason? I do not know but you never found the sense of English football in there.'
And so, the inevitable fall out begins. English football is suffering because it has become too commercial, says former culture secretary Andy Burnham. Thanks. Now would you like to tell us something we don't already know, Andy? The national side's hugely disappointing World Cup campaign in South Africa was ended by a 4-1 second round defeat by Germany. Burnham, whose ministerial remit included sport until May, told BBC Radio 5Live: 'I think money has poisoned our national game. Our game has rampant commercialism. We have put money before the sport and we are reaping the dividends of that.' The Football Association is considering the future of England manager Fabio Capello after his team failed to reproduce the form that earned qualification for the finals in South Africa with nine wins and one defeat. The people who actually should be sweating on their futures, the players, completely failed to find their club form as England were held to a 1-1 draw by the United States in their group opener on 11 June ahead of a dour goalless stalemate with Algeria on 18 June. Capello's men secured their place in the second phase in a much improved performance against Slovenia thanks to Jermain Defoe's goal in Port Elizabeth. But, they had to make do with the runners-up spot after Landon Donovan's dramatic stoppage-time goal secured a narrow win over Algeria and with it top spot in Group C for the US. As a result, England were paired with Germany for a place in the quarter-finals but Capello's team were simply outclassed by a vastly superior, and much younger, fitter and more vibrant side. Burnham said that he believed the commercialisation of the game since the advent of the Premier League in 1992 is behind the England team's struggles this summer. '
The governing body is a hung parliament and it isn't able to take a view, as the interests of the Premier League, sadly, predominate at the FA,' he added. 'Since the Premier League was created we've had commercial forces running riot across our game. We have seen fans priced out of going to football, we have seen money going out of the top of the game and not benefiting the grass roots or the lower divisions and I think it's got to change.' With Premier League clubs recruiting from overseas - around sixty per cent of players in England's elite league are not qualified to play for the national team - young English players have been struggling to flourish with the top clubs. And Burnham says that the FA must choose between either a thriving Premier League or a strong national team. 'We are paying people from all around the world to come here and hone their skills, leaving their own domestic leagues around the world free to bring on the next generation of talent, while our own players here can't get into starting line-ups,' he commented. England's bid to stage the 2018 World Cup finals is being assessed by world governing body FIFA, which is due to announce its decision on 2 December. Burnham was with the FA delegation, including former FA chairman Lord Triesman, Capello and David Beckham, which handed over the England 2018 bid book to FIFA in Zurich and May. The former culture secretary said that during that trip it became clear to him that the English game would have to change if it was to win the right to host the tournament: 'They dislike the arrogance of English football and they think we have failed to tame commercialism in our own sport,' he stated. 'And it's not just that it has a damaging effect on English football, it affects football everywhere, particularly in Europe because it has an inflationary effect on wages across Europe but also our clubs are bringing in that talent from a very young age from countries all around the world. So they see the effect of the English game on the stability of football elsewhere and they don't like it and I don't blame the for not liking it.'
Meanwhile, one of the very worst examples of everything that is wrong with the English game, Ashley Cole, has reportedly launched 'a foul-mouthed rant' about England and its 'people' days before flying out to the World Cup to play football for his country. Mind you, this is according to the Daily Scum Mail so, you know, it might well be lies. The message - which they claim read 'I hate England and the fucking people' - was sent to 'friends' from the Chelsea defender's Blackberry shortly before he boarded a flight to England's pre-World Cup training camp in Austria.
I didn't think he had any friends after he split up with the nation's sweetheart? Anyway, the over-rated twenty nine-year-old footballer, well known for his cheating antics of feigning injury to get opponents sent off, and his cheating antics related to his woman, is said to have posted this as his status message - alongside a picture of him sunbathing topless - allowing all those designated as his 'friends' to see it. So, that'll be four of them, then? Quite how the Daily Scum Mail discovered this unless one of those alleged 'friends' grassed him up to them is, at this time, unknown. Although, we can probably guess. The newspaper claim that Cole said: 'I always try my hardest for England and Chelsea but the intrusion and pressure I feel is making my life hell.' Which is, of course, very sad. Disappointed fans, particularly those who paid thousands of pounds to fly to South Africa to watch England's matches, are unlikely to have much sympathy for the left-back.
Perhaps, he should trying signing for a Nigerian club instead, they sound much more like his cup of cocoa. Because the Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan (no, really) has suspended the national football team from international competition for two years following their poor performance in the World Cup. 'Mr President has directed that Nigeria will withdraw from all international football competition for the next two years to enable Nigeria to reorganise its football,' Ima Niboro, Jonathan's senior communications adviser, said.
'This directive became necessary following Nigeria's poor performance in the ongoing FIFA World Cup,' he said. Nigeria were knocked out in the first round. After meeting the country's World Cup organising committee, Jonathan also said the accounts of the committee should be audited. 'If any financial misappropriation is discovered, all officials responsible will be held accountable,' Niboro said. Jonathan's decision came a day after the executive committee of the Nigerian Football Federation met to review the team's first round exit, in which they picked up a single point and finished bottom of their group also containing South Korea, Greece and Argentina. Niboro said the sports minister would be writing to FIFA shortly to inform them of the decision. He said the minister for the federal capital territory, Abuja, had been instructed to build a 'Football House' where the team could be based. 'The problem of Nigerian football is structural. We need to reorganise the structures and there is need to withdraw from all international football competition so that we can put our house in order,' Niboro said. A statement said the federation apologised to the 'federal government and all football-loving Nigerians for the early ouster of the Super Eagles from the World Cup' and added Nigeria would seek to play more friendly matches to get more experience. 'It's the right decision. President Jonathan has made a bold step to clean up the rot. We need to move the country in football,' John Fashanu, the former Wimbledon and (briefly) England footballer partly of Nigerian descent, told local sports radio. 'We cannot be held to ransom by anybody.' Some Super Eagles, however, fans were shocked by the decision. 'Sounds to me like the president is trying to score cheap political points. 
The next major international competition is two years away anyway,' said one irate fan in Lagos, asking not to be named. The NFF said it wanted Swedish coach Lars Lagerback, appointed on the eve of the finals, to stay and put together a wide-ranging programme to harness young talent. The statement also said the federation disagreed with those claiming Nigerian soccer was in a dwindling state. 'No previous board has qualified Nigeria for all major tournaments internationally,' the statement said. The government instruction to withdraw could prompt sanctions from FIFA, who have taken a strong stand against political interference in the sport. A FIFA spokesman said: 'We have had no official information from the Nigerian FA about this case specifically but in general FIFA's policy towards political interference is well known. Our statutes do not allow for any political interference.' Nigerian sporting administrators have often been accused of corruption and incompetence and the federation was roundly criticised after sacking coach Shaibu Amodu in February, just four months before the World Cup finals. Amodu was dismissed because Nigeria only managed to finish third at the Nations Cup finals in Angola in January. Nigeria were banned by the Confederation of African Football in 1996 when then President Sani Abacha withdrew the team from the African Nations Cup finals in South Africa because he had been criticised by Nelson Mandela over the judicial execution of political opponents. They could not compete in African competition for two years but were able to qualify for the 1998 World Cup in France.
France's government says it has not meddled with its football federation. FIFA criticised the government after it summoned manager Raymond Domenech and the French federation's former president to a hearing on Wednesday. 'There was never any question of the French government interfering in the affairs of the French Football Federation,' said spokesman Luc Chatel.
France came bottom of their group after spectacular infighting within the squad led to the team refusing to train. Domenech and former French Football Federation president Jean-Pierre Escalettes, who resigned on Monday, appeared before a parliamentary commission to explain what went wrong in South Africa. Smug-faced striker Thierry Henry also held talks with French president Nicolas Sarkozy last week. France's problems began after their 2-0 defeat to Mexico, when striker Nicolas Anelka was sent home for verbally insulting Domenech. The following day the entire French squad refused to train in protest at the decision and Manchester United defender and France captain Patrice Evra had to be separated from fitness coach Robert Duverne after an argument. Domenech dropped a number of the squad's senior players - including Evra and Henry - who were seen as being behind the problems, for their final group match against South Africa which they lost 2-1. There were accusations that French sports minister Roselyne Bachelot had interfered with the FFF by calling on Escalettes to resign, a claim Chatel denies: 'She indeed indicated that she personally believed his resignation was unavoidable but she did not ask for his resignation,' he said. 'It is normal for members of parliament to try to find out exactly what happened because it is a topic that preoccupies French people.' FIFA, as noted, rules state that national governments must not interfere with the affairs of their football federations. Any country whose government does interfere with the running of their federation is liable to have its national and club sides banned from international competition.
By contrast the Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has issued a statement warmly thanking his national team for their efforts following their World Cup exit in a penalty shoot-out against Paraguay. 'The players and the bench were united and showed the world the potential of Japanese soccer. I sincerely congratulate their efforts,' he commented.
Netherlands striker Robin van Persie has defended his angry reaction to being substituted against Slovakia.
Van Persie remonstrated with coach Bert van Marwijk when he was replaced by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar ten minutes before the end of the 2-1 win and then took no part in the Dutch celebrations of Wesley Sneijder's late goal. Van Persie said: 'What I said to Van Marwijk was not over the top. I just want to be important to the team and score. I wanted to stay on as we would have had more space with Slovakia chasing an equaliser and I felt that I could profit from that.' Ah, I was wondering how long it was going to be before the Dutch imploded. It's a bit overdue this time around.
And finally, Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo says he feels like a 'broken man' following his side's 1-0 World Cup second-round defeat to Iberian neighbours Spain. Oh dear. How terribly, terribly sad.
Germany's two-goal hero Thomas Mueller believes the culture in the England team will hinder their chances of becoming successful. Mueller scored twice for Germany in their 4-1 win over England on Sunday. 'It is difficult to have so many "alpha males" and have them row in the same direction,' said the twenty year-old. 'You don't only need chiefs, you also need a few Indians. You need people who are willing to do the hard work.' He added: 'It may be a problem with England that players are simply not mentally prepared to go that extra mile for their team-mates.' Meanwhile, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said that England were 'killed by their own impatience' during their defeat to Germany. The Frenchman believes England should have used their experience to stop Germany's counter-attacking threat. England pulled the score back to 2-1 and had a goal disallowed but were hit on the break when chasing an equaliser. 'England had taken over the game and I think they were killed by their impatience,' Wenger told Arsenal's website. 'They came back in the second half to 2-1 and they controlled the game. What made me sad was that, with the experience they had, they were caught. It was free-kick for England, goal for Germany.
You do what they did with five minutes to go, okay, but not with twenty five minutes left.' Wenger believes the levels of expectation weighed heavily on the England camp. 'Many teams start slow in the group stage,' he said. 'I remember in 2006, France were horrible in the group stage but they found momentum in the quarter-final and semi-final because they had no pressure any more. England suffered under pressure. They did not look sharp. Also England did not seem to be at the level to use their main strength - the huge pace they put in the game. Was that physical fatigue or a mental reason? I do not know but you never found the sense of English football in there.'And so, the inevitable fall out begins. English football is suffering because it has become too commercial, says former culture secretary Andy Burnham. Thanks. Now would you like to tell us something we don't already know, Andy? The national side's hugely disappointing World Cup campaign in South Africa was ended by a 4-1 second round defeat by Germany. Burnham, whose ministerial remit included sport until May, told BBC Radio 5Live: 'I think money has poisoned our national game. Our game has rampant commercialism. We have put money before the sport and we are reaping the dividends of that.' The Football Association is considering the future of England manager Fabio Capello after his team failed to reproduce the form that earned qualification for the finals in South Africa with nine wins and one defeat. The people who actually should be sweating on their futures, the players, completely failed to find their club form as England were held to a 1-1 draw by the United States in their group opener on 11 June ahead of a dour goalless stalemate with Algeria on 18 June. Capello's men secured their place in the second phase in a much improved performance against Slovenia thanks to Jermain Defoe's goal in Port Elizabeth. But, they had to make do with the runners-up spot after Landon Donovan's dramatic stoppage-time goal secured a narrow win over Algeria and with it top spot in Group C for the US. As a result, England were paired with Germany for a place in the quarter-finals but Capello's team were simply outclassed by a vastly superior, and much younger, fitter and more vibrant side. Burnham said that he believed the commercialisation of the game since the advent of the Premier League in 1992 is behind the England team's struggles this summer. '
The governing body is a hung parliament and it isn't able to take a view, as the interests of the Premier League, sadly, predominate at the FA,' he added. 'Since the Premier League was created we've had commercial forces running riot across our game. We have seen fans priced out of going to football, we have seen money going out of the top of the game and not benefiting the grass roots or the lower divisions and I think it's got to change.' With Premier League clubs recruiting from overseas - around sixty per cent of players in England's elite league are not qualified to play for the national team - young English players have been struggling to flourish with the top clubs. And Burnham says that the FA must choose between either a thriving Premier League or a strong national team. 'We are paying people from all around the world to come here and hone their skills, leaving their own domestic leagues around the world free to bring on the next generation of talent, while our own players here can't get into starting line-ups,' he commented. England's bid to stage the 2018 World Cup finals is being assessed by world governing body FIFA, which is due to announce its decision on 2 December. Burnham was with the FA delegation, including former FA chairman Lord Triesman, Capello and David Beckham, which handed over the England 2018 bid book to FIFA in Zurich and May. The former culture secretary said that during that trip it became clear to him that the English game would have to change if it was to win the right to host the tournament: 'They dislike the arrogance of English football and they think we have failed to tame commercialism in our own sport,' he stated. 'And it's not just that it has a damaging effect on English football, it affects football everywhere, particularly in Europe because it has an inflationary effect on wages across Europe but also our clubs are bringing in that talent from a very young age from countries all around the world. So they see the effect of the English game on the stability of football elsewhere and they don't like it and I don't blame the for not liking it.'Meanwhile, one of the very worst examples of everything that is wrong with the English game, Ashley Cole, has reportedly launched 'a foul-mouthed rant' about England and its 'people' days before flying out to the World Cup to play football for his country. Mind you, this is according to the Daily Scum Mail so, you know, it might well be lies. The message - which they claim read 'I hate England and the fucking people' - was sent to 'friends' from the Chelsea defender's Blackberry shortly before he boarded a flight to England's pre-World Cup training camp in Austria.
I didn't think he had any friends after he split up with the nation's sweetheart? Anyway, the over-rated twenty nine-year-old footballer, well known for his cheating antics of feigning injury to get opponents sent off, and his cheating antics related to his woman, is said to have posted this as his status message - alongside a picture of him sunbathing topless - allowing all those designated as his 'friends' to see it. So, that'll be four of them, then? Quite how the Daily Scum Mail discovered this unless one of those alleged 'friends' grassed him up to them is, at this time, unknown. Although, we can probably guess. The newspaper claim that Cole said: 'I always try my hardest for England and Chelsea but the intrusion and pressure I feel is making my life hell.' Which is, of course, very sad. Disappointed fans, particularly those who paid thousands of pounds to fly to South Africa to watch England's matches, are unlikely to have much sympathy for the left-back.Perhaps, he should trying signing for a Nigerian club instead, they sound much more like his cup of cocoa. Because the Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan (no, really) has suspended the national football team from international competition for two years following their poor performance in the World Cup. 'Mr President has directed that Nigeria will withdraw from all international football competition for the next two years to enable Nigeria to reorganise its football,' Ima Niboro, Jonathan's senior communications adviser, said.
'This directive became necessary following Nigeria's poor performance in the ongoing FIFA World Cup,' he said. Nigeria were knocked out in the first round. After meeting the country's World Cup organising committee, Jonathan also said the accounts of the committee should be audited. 'If any financial misappropriation is discovered, all officials responsible will be held accountable,' Niboro said. Jonathan's decision came a day after the executive committee of the Nigerian Football Federation met to review the team's first round exit, in which they picked up a single point and finished bottom of their group also containing South Korea, Greece and Argentina. Niboro said the sports minister would be writing to FIFA shortly to inform them of the decision. He said the minister for the federal capital territory, Abuja, had been instructed to build a 'Football House' where the team could be based. 'The problem of Nigerian football is structural. We need to reorganise the structures and there is need to withdraw from all international football competition so that we can put our house in order,' Niboro said. A statement said the federation apologised to the 'federal government and all football-loving Nigerians for the early ouster of the Super Eagles from the World Cup' and added Nigeria would seek to play more friendly matches to get more experience. 'It's the right decision. President Jonathan has made a bold step to clean up the rot. We need to move the country in football,' John Fashanu, the former Wimbledon and (briefly) England footballer partly of Nigerian descent, told local sports radio. 'We cannot be held to ransom by anybody.' Some Super Eagles, however, fans were shocked by the decision. 'Sounds to me like the president is trying to score cheap political points. 
The next major international competition is two years away anyway,' said one irate fan in Lagos, asking not to be named. The NFF said it wanted Swedish coach Lars Lagerback, appointed on the eve of the finals, to stay and put together a wide-ranging programme to harness young talent. The statement also said the federation disagreed with those claiming Nigerian soccer was in a dwindling state. 'No previous board has qualified Nigeria for all major tournaments internationally,' the statement said. The government instruction to withdraw could prompt sanctions from FIFA, who have taken a strong stand against political interference in the sport. A FIFA spokesman said: 'We have had no official information from the Nigerian FA about this case specifically but in general FIFA's policy towards political interference is well known. Our statutes do not allow for any political interference.' Nigerian sporting administrators have often been accused of corruption and incompetence and the federation was roundly criticised after sacking coach Shaibu Amodu in February, just four months before the World Cup finals. Amodu was dismissed because Nigeria only managed to finish third at the Nations Cup finals in Angola in January. Nigeria were banned by the Confederation of African Football in 1996 when then President Sani Abacha withdrew the team from the African Nations Cup finals in South Africa because he had been criticised by Nelson Mandela over the judicial execution of political opponents. They could not compete in African competition for two years but were able to qualify for the 1998 World Cup in France.France's government says it has not meddled with its football federation. FIFA criticised the government after it summoned manager Raymond Domenech and the French federation's former president to a hearing on Wednesday. 'There was never any question of the French government interfering in the affairs of the French Football Federation,' said spokesman Luc Chatel.
France came bottom of their group after spectacular infighting within the squad led to the team refusing to train. Domenech and former French Football Federation president Jean-Pierre Escalettes, who resigned on Monday, appeared before a parliamentary commission to explain what went wrong in South Africa. Smug-faced striker Thierry Henry also held talks with French president Nicolas Sarkozy last week. France's problems began after their 2-0 defeat to Mexico, when striker Nicolas Anelka was sent home for verbally insulting Domenech. The following day the entire French squad refused to train in protest at the decision and Manchester United defender and France captain Patrice Evra had to be separated from fitness coach Robert Duverne after an argument. Domenech dropped a number of the squad's senior players - including Evra and Henry - who were seen as being behind the problems, for their final group match against South Africa which they lost 2-1. There were accusations that French sports minister Roselyne Bachelot had interfered with the FFF by calling on Escalettes to resign, a claim Chatel denies: 'She indeed indicated that she personally believed his resignation was unavoidable but she did not ask for his resignation,' he said. 'It is normal for members of parliament to try to find out exactly what happened because it is a topic that preoccupies French people.' FIFA, as noted, rules state that national governments must not interfere with the affairs of their football federations. Any country whose government does interfere with the running of their federation is liable to have its national and club sides banned from international competition.By contrast the Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has issued a statement warmly thanking his national team for their efforts following their World Cup exit in a penalty shoot-out against Paraguay. 'The players and the bench were united and showed the world the potential of Japanese soccer. I sincerely congratulate their efforts,' he commented.
Netherlands striker Robin van Persie has defended his angry reaction to being substituted against Slovakia.
Van Persie remonstrated with coach Bert van Marwijk when he was replaced by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar ten minutes before the end of the 2-1 win and then took no part in the Dutch celebrations of Wesley Sneijder's late goal. Van Persie said: 'What I said to Van Marwijk was not over the top. I just want to be important to the team and score. I wanted to stay on as we would have had more space with Slovakia chasing an equaliser and I felt that I could profit from that.' Ah, I was wondering how long it was going to be before the Dutch imploded. It's a bit overdue this time around.And finally, Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo says he feels like a 'broken man' following his side's 1-0 World Cup second-round defeat to Iberian neighbours Spain. Oh dear. How terribly, terribly sad.
