England Fans Hope for an End to ‘60 Years of Hurt’
“I’ve been in relationships with girls, and it’s like, look, Coventry City is my number one love, right? You’re second. Get over it. I mean, it’s harsh. But Coventry City have been there when I’ve been at my low and my high. And it’s like girls will come and go.”
Yes, in the words of British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, it’s true that “women, they will come and they will go,” and at least in this instance, when they don’t support your club, you’ll know.
At least that’s the case for some of the absolute fanatics who have invaded the US from Albion in the lead-up to the 2026 World Cup.
England, the nation that gave football to the world, has a passion for the beautiful game that is both undying and wholly unique.
That’s not to say that English fans are, by some kind of ethereal objective standard, inherently more passionate than any other soccer-crazed nation’s supporters; although a good number of Brits would likely insist upon that very claim.
The closest comparison in North American sports terms that one could point to when attempting to describe the love the English have for football would probably be Canadians and ice hockey.
The major difference between these two nations, however, is that while Canada has claimed over 45 major international hockey championships, the England men’s football team has won just one such trophy: the 1966 World Cup. The women’s side has fared a little better with two UEFA Women’s Championships in 2022 and 2025.
That last moment of glory for the men took place on home soil, as England captain Bobby Moore received the Jules Rimet trophy from a youthful Queen Elizabeth II, a mere 13 years into her reign.
The ensuing, ongoing trophy drought, known now as the “60 years of hurt,” has made its mark upon the collective psyches of English supporters.
Often when speaking about their national team and their hopes and dreams regarding it, the English seem to inhabit the role of something like a disappointed parent. Unconditional love with a guarded sense of hope, yet a pervasive suspicion that something will inevitably go wrong.
This has developed over years and years of seeing so-called “golden generations” fail to meet lofty expectations and unsung squads going further than most expected, only to come up just short. The most recent iterations of this trend include a quarterfinal loss to France in the 2022 World Cup, sandwiched between losses in the final matches of both Euro 2020 and 2024 to Italy and Spain, respectively.
The release of the final 2026 World Cup team selected by German manager Thomas Tuchel sparked countless debates across traditional and social media. Rather than going with what many would consider England’s most talented potential side, leaving the likes of Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, and Trent Alexander-Arnold at home, Tuchel opted for a purportedly more balanced roster that he likely believes will be greater than the sum of its parts.
“He's gone very old,” one fan said. “I'm not a fan of that. Give the youngsters a chance. Jordan Henderson's had his time. I mean, Harry Kane's different. Harry Kane's old, but he's scoring goals for fun for Bayern Munich. So, you've got to have him.”
“I just don't think we've got many good options right now,” said another. “I can't believe Trent's not there. At least have him as a backup. I'm a bit worried about our defense.”
To use an even more specific comparison to ice hockey, one might call England the Toronto Maple Leafs of international football.
It’s not a perfect analogy by any stretch, as England have achieved substantially more in terms of progress in tournaments than the Maple Leafs have since their last Stanley Cup run in 1967. Where both teams are most alike, as Youtuber Zealandism puts it quite succinctly, is in “this self-sabotaging overinvestment from the fans, from the media, the players themselves.”
The fans can hardly be blamed for that overinvestment, however, as a whopping 92 clubs compete in the top four tiers of English Football League play. Over 7,000 clubs are officially registered in the country, and when factoring in amateur and grassroots organizations, the total number of clubs rooted in England stands at roughly 40,000!
For an island nation that measures in at around 50,300 square miles, just under the size of the state of Alabama, that essentially means that every county, neighborhood, township, or center of population likely has a football club that represents it.
That kind of hyper-localized fandom is precisely what leads to the level of passion on display in the opening quote of this blog post.
Coventry City may be considered one of the larger professional outfits, representing a cathedral city home to roughly 345,000 people, yet thanks to the ultra-competitive promotion/relegation system in European club football, the Sky Blues haven’t played in the top tier of English football since 2001.
The long and winding road Coventry City walked to achieve their triumphant return to the Premier League is best summed up by the ecstatic fan I met after Saturday’s England vs. New Zealand match at Miller’s Ale House:
“I've been all the way down there in League Two, on the brink of being liquidated, the club being wound up, and Coventry were playing in different people's stadiums. Our owners wouldn't pay rent to the council of Coventry. They wouldn't pay it because they didn't agree to the rate.
So the council said, ‘Look, you're paying X amount.’ And our owners were like, ‘We're not paying that. That's too much.’ So, then the council were like, ‘Well, you're not playing football, soccer, in your stadium then.’ So, we had to go out to different people's stadiums for three years not playing in Coventry.
We've been all the way down there. And now we're f****** up.”
Whether or not England’s own path traveled in this upcoming World Cup will carry as many twists and turns remains to be seen. But one thing that the Three Lions will be able to count on, as they always have, will be the raucous support of an army of passionate Brits that should make each and every match that England plays in a spectacle of epic proportions.