[Jordan_1]

(Original post by Drewski)
He was #2 at one point, was he not?

And for a "terrible" side we still manage to be 7th in the world. It's football, results are what matter and we don't actually lose that often.

Sorry, but there are more than 7 teams who could easily beat England. England may be good at winning friendlies and easy group games. But past that, they're useless.

[Drewski]

(Original post by dews1290)
Apart from Chemmy Alcott who is mediocre at best, do we really have top-class skiers? I guess there is that guy that landed a triple rodeo on a snowboard, apart from that can't think of anyone!!!

If within the world's top 10 is your idea of 'mediocre at best' then I think we can call you a bit harsh...! We've also got guys in and around the world cup level, watched them on Ski Sunday a few times this year, can't remember their names off hand though. It was more the point that not only do we have good athletes, we have them in every sporting arena, so far from being "rubbish at sport", we're actually richly blessed, despite what the pessimists and naysayers would have people believe. We just hate success, it seems....

[Drewski]

(Original post by Jordan_1)
Sorry, but there are more than 7 teams who could easily beat England. England may be good at winning friendlies and easy group games. But past that, they're useless.

Then take it up with FiFA, it's their ranking system. And quite frankly, they hate us, so why would they be kind on this front?

[U.Ahmed]

(Original post by Jordan_1)
Sorry but this really annoys me. How is someone who is what, fourth in the world? And was at some point third best in the world at something not top class? Ridiculous.

Football- England are terrible.

Neither won/has won a Grand Slam.

I think with Britain, IN THE MAIN SPORTS, (FOOTBALL, CRICKET, RUGBY ETC.) they are very good, but are not world class.

Football, they have won nothing since 1966.
Cricket, they have been the most consistent over the last few years, but you can't just be the best team in the world and not win every where in the world, like the great teams of the West Indies (1980's) and the Aussies did when they were at the top.
Rugby, probably Britain's best sport tbh. The only sport I can say that they have a genuine chance in when going into a major tournament.

[suicidaleffect]

(Original post by manchesterunited15)
We have the 22nd largest population in the world, so really we're quite good.

Football - consistently quarter final or at least last 16 at World cups

Cycling, rowing - best in the world

Olympics - we came fourth

Rugby - 2 world cup finals out of the last 3

Tennis - 4th best player in the world

Cricket - One of the top 5 sides in the world

Spain population is smaller but they have dominated in football, basketball, tennis, cycling, handball, motorcycling, Formula One, water sports, golf etc

With Rafael Nadal's Wimbledon championships in 2008 and 2010, the 2006 World Basketball Championship, the 2009 Basketball Eurocup, the 2008 Tennis Davis Cup, the football team bringing home the Euro 2008 trophy & the 2010 FIFA World Cup trophy and Carlos Sastre's Tour de France triumph more recently

Maybe it's a cycle? Spain are in the Golden Age.

[U.Ahmed]

(Original post by Drewski)
He was #2 at one point, was he not?

And for a "terrible" side we still manage to be 7th in the world. It's football, results are what matter and we don't actually lose that often.

Yeah, we only lose in knockout stages, when it actually matters.

[kopite493]

(Original post by suicidaleffect)
Why are England so crap at football?

Never mind being crap, why can't they keep the ball or at least play exciting attractive football,which even Algeria are better?

woy is in charge

[Jordan_1]

(Original post by Drewski)
Then take it up with FiFA, it's their ranking system. And quite frankly, they hate us, so why would they be kind on this front?

Because it's a points based system... nothing to do with opinions... but come on. Can you honestly say England is a better team than Argentina, France or Italy?

[Drewski]

(Original post by U.Ahmed)
Neither won/has won a Grand Slam.

I think with Britain, IN THE MAIN SPORTS, (FOOTBALL, CRICKET, RUGBY ETC.) they are very good, but are not world class.

Football, they have won nothing since 1966.
Cricket, they have been the most consistent over the last few years, but you can't just be the best team in the world and not win every where in the world, like the great teams of the West Indies (1980's) and the Aussies did when they were at the top.
Rugby, probably Britain's best sport tbh. The only sport I can say that they have a genuine chance in when going into a major tournament.

It is utter bull to suggest England's cricket team is not world class. There is no team they could play and not be expected to beat. And you can only beat who's put in front of you. It's largely forgotten that the WI's side of the 80s and the Aussie side of the 90s had sod all opposition... They are World number 1 in both Test and T20 and within the top 2 or 3 of the 50over game.

(Original post by suicidaleffect)
Spain population is smaller but they have dominated in football, basketball, tennis, cycling, handball, motorcycling, Formula One, water sports, golf etc

With Rafael Nadal's Wimbledon championships in 2008 and 2010, the 2006 World Basketball Championship, the 2009 Basketball Eurocup, the 2008 Tennis Davis Cup, the football team bringing home the Euro 2008 trophy & the 2010 FIFA World Cup trophy and Carlos Sastre's Tour de France triumph more recently

Maybe it's a cycle? Spain are in the Golden Age.

Dominated F1? Alonso is one man who won the championship twice - and did so with a team based in England. British drivers have won it an equal amount since then. The most successful team of the last 3/4yrs is an English one, albeit with Austrian money.

[Steevee]

(Original post by Drewski)
Playing unattractive football is not the same as being bad at football. We're consistantly in the top 10 of teams in the World, as decided by an organisation which pretty much hates us. We very rarely lose games. Not the actions of a team bad at a game, just the actions of one unconfident with the game.

To be honest, I'm not a football fan so I'm not really qualified to talk about it.

I only know in the other fields I mention we are consitently in the World Top 5 or Top 3, which I don't think is true with football?

[Drewski]

(Original post by Steevee)
To be honest, I'm not a football fan so I'm not really qualified to talk about it.

I only know in the other fields I mention we are consitently in the World Top 5 or Top 3, which I don't think is true with football?

No, its not, but in the case of rugby and cricket you have to remember the world list is maybe 20 and 14 deep... In football you've got 200 competitive nations.

[dews1290]

(Original post by Drewski)
If within the world's top 10 is your idea of 'mediocre at best' then I think we can call you a bit harsh...! We've also got guys in and around the world cup level, watched them on Ski Sunday a few times this year, can't remember their names off hand though. It was more the point that not only do we have good athletes, we have them in every sporting arena, so far from being "rubbish at sport", we're actually richly blessed, despite what the pessimists and naysayers would have people believe. We just hate success, it seems....

Dude, I agree with what you're saying about British sport but Chemmy isn't as good as your saying. Even when she was at the top of her game she was good but she wasn't anywhere near top 10 in the world. If Scotland received better winters and got a bit less windy then we'd have a chance of producing some good skiers but it's just not going to happen.

[KimKallstrom]

(Original post by suicidaleffect)
Even though we've invented most of these modern sports such as football, tennis, cricket, rugby etc.

Serious answers please.

Remember when at school you'd get all these kids trying to get out of PE? Making up all the most pathetic excuses possible, often backed up by their parents? And when your PE teachers would accept it?

Remember when the ones who did not succeed at ducking out just stood around chatting and the teachers tolerated it?

Unfortunately we now have a culture that accepts being disgustingly out of shape and physically useless.

It's very different in South Africa where I started my school life.

[Aaron_xyz]

We're awful at basketball, half of the rosters for all of the teams here are American , and the only British player in the NBA at the moment is Luol Deng who's originally from South Sudan.

Edit: Forgot about Ben Gordon.

[Aaron_xyz]

(Original post by Drewski)
You forget that the nations you mention pretty much solely concentrate on those sports. What else do they do in NZ? They have the 2 codes of rugby and..... sheep chasing. We spread our talent around, we're diverse. We are the world leaders in a number of sports.
Golf.
Sailing [all forms].
Snooker.
Track Cycling.
Darts.
Triathlon.

We've got world class athletes in every arena imaginable from Taekwondo to diving to skeleton bobsleigh to skiing to driving to riding...

To be fair how many other countries have as regular snooker events as the UK? China is possibly the only other country where snooker is noticeably popular although still not to the extent here. You could say Canada.. although after Thorburn and Werbeniuk retired it really hasn't been the same since over there.

[Drewski]

(Original post by Aaron_xyz)
To be fair how many other countries have as regular snooker events as the UK? China is possibly the only other country where snooker is noticeably popular although still not to the extent here. You could say Canada.. although after Thorburn and Werbeniuk retired it really hasn't been the same since over there.

Neil Robertson would be a little miffed that you're cavalierly ignoring him and his country...

But so what if it's more local than anything else? Football, golf, rugby et al were only here at one point too...

[Cll_ws]

we're better in most sports than at least 3/4 of the world's countries

[Steevee]

(Original post by Drewski)
No, its not, but in the case of rugby and cricket you have to remember the world list is maybe 20 and 14 deep... In football you've got 200 competitive nations.

Good point

[1tartanarmy]

To the OP

Overall as a nation is UK is pretty good. You have to look at the whole spectrum. You can't just say "USA are best at basketball" and then fail to acknowledge they are dismal at rugby, football (for their population) etc. You cant say Austrailia are the best because of rugby and cricket.. what about basket ball?

You need to stop being so narrow minded and only focussing on your own country. We do pretty well for a population of 22nd in the world. No country has near any sort of dominance in sports.

For our population..... considering we split it even further into the home nations in a lot of sport.

Sitting with the 4th best olympic team , 4th best tennis player and 7th best football team.... the list could go on and on and on. Going by population we over achieve in many areas.

[manchesterunited15]

(Original post by suicidaleffect)
Spain population is smaller but they have dominated in football, basketball, tennis, cycling, handball, motorcycling, Formula One, water sports, golf etc

With Rafael Nadal's Wimbledon championships in 2008 and 2010, the 2006 World Basketball Championship, the 2009 Basketball Eurocup, the 2008 Tennis Davis Cup, the football team bringing home the Euro 2008 trophy & the 2010 FIFA World Cup trophy and Carlos Sastre's Tour de France triumph more recently

Maybe it's a cycle? Spain are in the Golden Age.

Yeah but that's not us being "rubbish", that's spain being amazing