England national amateur football team

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The England national amateur football team was the amateur representative team for England at football. It was formed in 1906, due to the growth of the professional game which meant that amateur players could no longer easily find places in the main England national team.

The team played many internationals against the full representative sides of Europe, which were usually a mixture of amateur and professional players. The strength of the English amateur team meant they were still able to beat many of these sides, and in fact they were unbeaten in 20 matches from 1906 to 1910. Under an agreement between the four United Kingdom football associations, the Football Association organised a team to represent the UK on a number of occasions at the Olympic Games (under the UK's normal Olympic title of Great Britain) from 1908 to 1960. The British (amateur) side won the 1908 Olympics and 1912 Olympics tournaments. The FA's website considers the gold a win for the England amateur side rather than British team. [1] which can be contested.

The team continued to play for many years, albeit against purely amateur teams in later years, and with less dominance. It was disbanded in the summer of 1974 when the Football Association abolished the distinction between amateurs and professionals, simply calling them "players". A semi-professional representative team, made up of players from the National League System, now plays in its place.

Some games not considered full internationals by The Football Association are so by their opponents. Thus, the England amateur side delivered Germany's biggest defeat, beating them 9-0 in 1909. It also delivered the Netherlands its biggest defeat ever (12-2).