The England National Football team was one of the first international squads assembled, the other being Scotland. England infact played their very first international game against Scotland, which was by invitation from Scotland and was played at Hamilton Crescent, in November 1872.Throughout the following forty years, The England National football team competed solely against the other Home countries those being Scotland, Ireland and Wales. These matches were given competitive status by the British Home Championship in 1883, this continued until 1984.

Prior to Wembley being opened,The England National Football team did not have a permanent base . England joined FIFA during 1906 and played its first game away from British soil in 1908. Nevertheless, the affiliation between the two was tense, and caused the British home nations exit from FIFA during 1928, however they returned during 1946. As a consequence, the England National football team didn't play in the World Cup until 1950, when they were defeated 1-0 defeat by the U.S.A.,so failed to get through the 1st stages. A 6-3 defeat in 1953 by Hungary represented the England National football teams first loss to a foreign team at Wembley.

Even though Walter Winterbottom was named as the England National football teams first full time manager during 1946, the squad comprised of players chosen by a committee till Alf Ramsey took on the England National football team in 1963. Managed by Ramsey, England went through its most succesful period of all time, winning the World Cup Final in 1966 which was played against West Germany. The final score being 4-2 following extra time.It made Geoff Hurst famous for getting a hat-trick in this final. The 1966 World Cup took place in England. Although the England National football team was again defeated by Scotland just a year after with a 3-2 victory for the Scotish team at Wembley, they got through to the 1970 World Cup in Mexico due to being the cup holders. They made it to the Quarter-finals and were knocked out of the competition by West Germany a game in which England were 2 - 0 ahead but eventually were defeated following extra time.

The England National football team did not qualify for either the 1974 and 1978 World Cups.
In 1982, the England National football team managed by Ron Greenwood got to the World Cup finals in Spain following a 12 year absence but were eliminated in the 2nd round even though they didn't lose a game. The squad managed by Bobby Robson got along more successfully when the England National football team achieved the quarter finals in the 1986 World Cup then ended up 4th in the competition 4 years later, which represented the most respectable performance in any World Cup apart from that in 1966.

Graham Taylor's brief reign as Robson's replacement finished following his England team failing to make it to the 1994 World Cup, just after that in the 1996 European Championships (that were played in England) managed by coach Terry Venables the England National football team delivered its greatest performance at a European Championship, achieving the semi final. The England National football team squads of 1990/ 2000 have been constantly in soccers top 20 countries, yet they have not got past the quarter finals in any international competition apart from Italia 90 and Euro 96.
Sven-Gran Eriksson who took control of the squad from 2001 to 2006 became the first foreign coach of the England National football team.

Steve McClaren was then named as head coach after the 2006 World Cup. His reign was ended by failure to get through to the European Championships 2008 . McClaren ended up being dismissed during November 2007, after just sixteen months as coach, making him the briefest tenured regular England coach since the startup of the position in 1946. He was replaced with the former AC Milan and Real Madrid coach Fabio Capello. The Italian becomes the second non English manager to coach the England National football team and is due to take control of his first game in February 2008, where England meet Switzerland in a friendly match.