I’m sure many of you witnessed England thrash San Marino 5-0
at Wembley last night. Another 3 points in our bid to qualify for Rio 2014.
England expectedly sit top of the group and look well on course to reach the
finals. But it isn't England that I want to focus on.
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| San Marino Goal Machine Andy Selva - all time leading scorer |
San Marino have been a competitive footballing nation since
1990, and to this day they are yet to win a single competitive match. Their only
win of any type came in a friendly against Liechtenstein in 2004. In 115 games,
San Marino have won 1, drawn 4 and lost 110, managing just 19 goals whilst
conceding 477. Andy Selva leads the all-time scoring charts with a whopping 8
goals. The team consists of part timers and amateurs with last night’s starting
11 only having 2 professionals. Even manager Giampaolo Mazza (who incidentally
is the longest-serving manager of
any European national team) is a PE teacher. They are obviously a nation
who doesn't take football seriously so why do they continually enter qualifying
tournaments for major competitions?
In their 22 years of footballing existence, San Marino have experienced heavy defeats such as 13-0 against Germany, and 10-0 against Poland. They have never qualified for a major tournament and it doesn’t look like they ever will. They are always the team that people can guarantee 3 points against, and any team that fails to beat them, or not beat them by enough goals is seen as a failure. In my opinion there is no sense of pride to be had in only losing 5-0, or not conceding until the 35th minute. The fans can’t possibly enjoy seeing this. I know the fact that they are a small team makes it hard for them to compete. But in my opinion it would be better to not compete than be humiliated. Why make the players, and the fans feel the shame of being the perpetual whipping boys of international football? What’s the point?
In their 22 years of footballing existence, San Marino have experienced heavy defeats such as 13-0 against Germany, and 10-0 against Poland. They have never qualified for a major tournament and it doesn’t look like they ever will. They are always the team that people can guarantee 3 points against, and any team that fails to beat them, or not beat them by enough goals is seen as a failure. In my opinion there is no sense of pride to be had in only losing 5-0, or not conceding until the 35th minute. The fans can’t possibly enjoy seeing this. I know the fact that they are a small team makes it hard for them to compete. But in my opinion it would be better to not compete than be humiliated. Why make the players, and the fans feel the shame of being the perpetual whipping boys of international football? What’s the point?
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