Next, Barcelona and Spain won across the board during a very obvious four-year period of dominance, before tiki-taka’s decline meant Bayern and Germany took control. But then France started winning everything at international level and its national academy became the template for others, before suddenly, almost out of nowhere, Europe’s most revered player and manager both hailed from Portugal. The baton passed to Italy, which clearly boasted Europe’s strongest league. In the early 1990s the Dutch footballing philosophy was worshipped across the continent, but its influence declined after the Bosman ruling. From that point, each country could be covered in turn, by focusing on a four-year period of success. It was also about how Europe’s dominant football country, and dominant style, had changed so regularly.ġ992 was the obvious start date, heralding the back-pass law, the rebranding of the European Cup to Champions League and the formation of the Premier League. That’s what this book was always going to be about.īut then came the issue of structure – in which order should the countries be covered? Geographically? Thematically? By drawing balls out of bowls at UEFA’s headquarters? It immediately became clear that the story wasn’t simply about the different style of each country. It’s about how referees officiate and what the supporters cheer.

It’s about the experiences of a country’s players when moving abroad, and about the success of its imports. It’s not simply about the national side’s characteristics, but about the approach of its dominant clubs, the nature of its star players and the philosophy of its coaches. The primary intention was to analyse the various playing styles that dominate Europe’s seven most influential footballing countries – the Netherlands, Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Germany and England – a fairly unarguable septet, based on a combination of recent international performance and the current strength of their domestic leagues.Ī nation’s footballing style is reflected in various ways. Despite this book’s chronological nature, it was not originally intended to be a history of modern European football.

Zonal Marking by Michael Cox