England’s win over Bulgaria was another reminder of football’s growing economic gap

The ultra-globalisation of the game has reached the point where most of football’s money is concentrated in a handful of its super economies

It was an entirely fair response in the aftermath of a match that was almost unfair in terms of the vast difference in quality.

Declan Rice was doing a pitchside interview at the end of England’s 4-0 win over Bulgaria and asked about the next match, against Kosovo on Tuesday. “Another tough match,” the midfielder said, with full sincerity.

Rice obviously isn’t going to admit it should be another near-walkover, but that’s really the only trend anyone should expect. England have already played the top three seeds in this group and won by a cumulative score of 14-1.

The drastic drop-off of proud football countries like the Czechs and Bulgaria as teams – and so many similar eastern European countries – should not just be dismissed as the inevitable other side of a cycle, or a mere coincidence.

It is a connected problem that instead represents the other side of England’s rise and how the western European countries have started to maximise their immense resources.

Because it is also about how those resources get there.

The ultra-globalisation of the game has reached the point where most of football’s money is concentrated in a handful of its super economies. This is an argument best articulated by David Goldblatt in his new book, ‘The Age of Football’, which posits that there has never been a cultural pursuit in the entire history of humanity like football. Nothing – not the music of Elvis or the Beatles, not classic western movies – has crossed as many international borders so successfully. One of the problems from that is there is a clear top end, which intensifies interest in it and thereby investment in it, creating a perpetually reinforcing cycle.

This has combined with sports science and technology to put such countries even further ahead. One of the reasons that there were more upsets in the past, that football felt more of a level playing field, was because it was more difficult for the big teams to maximise their resources. The relatively basic nature of the game – in terms of tactics, in terms of preparation – ensured there were just more rough edges, no matter how good the teams.

Now, sports science and tactics have reached the kind of level where those rough edges have been almost entirely smoothed. It’s not so much about marginal gains but the margin for error being reduced.

With England, you only have to walk around St George’s Park to realise that. The same is true of the set-ups in Germany, Spain and France.

Many smaller countries just can’t compete with this, but it has reached crisis point in many eastern European countries – and previous giants – due to problems specific to the areas.

Many are related to the final crumbling of the old Soviet structures and the failure to properly replace them, with the effects of that on the game exacerbated by demographic changes and basic corruption – especially in Bulgaria.

This is why manager Krasimir Balakov, one of the country’s genuine greats, has been forced to give a debut to a 31-year-old Brazilian who has never amounted to much beyond a few years in the Bulgarian national league. This is what it has come to.

This is specifically why England are enjoying so many games in this group that amount to first-rate hammerings when they barely have to get out of second gear.

It does of course feel something of a shame to just overlook the improvements that Southgate has clearly made with this side, but you can’t overlook the context. It sometimes feels like the games are so easy, and the group such a fait accompli, that barely any of the results or decisions really matter at this point.

This is how we get to a situation where Southgate came out with the following. “I think that Tuesday’s game will be completely different by the way. I think that they are a really good side, so we have not had the tight, tense matches that the Nations League provided as of yet, that really we learnt so much more from. So, therefore, we’ve got to do that in training and the challenge of training has got to be so high that we learn from those moments and we can see what the players are capable of. So, have we progressed? Well I think we have.”

Southgate of course didn’t mean it like this, but he’s pretty much saying some of England’s training sessions are more testing than their matches. That’s how far they, and a group of about six to seven other teams, are ahead. This is the problem with international football, and the sport as a whole.


 You can’t overlook the context behind England's win over Bulgaria 
 (Getty)

A further problem with the current European Championship structure is that at least one of these teams – who barely constituted any contest at all for England – are going to be in the tournament. As with Euro 2016, it is going to lead to a lot of low-quality matches at the competition itself.

And yet this really shouldn’t be a complaint, because it represents a potential solution and productive response.

One of the arguments put forward for expanding the Euros in the first place was because of the excitement that goes around countries that rarely qualify. It creates a buzz and a groundswell for investment.

It is giving something back in a football world where all the money is only going in certain directions.

England, however, are only going one way in this group: straight to the top, uncontested. And it is as much to do with the problems in the game as it is with their undeniable progress.