The Under-21s:
Began officially as an
'intermediate' team in 1954, but nicknamed, "the colts", an age limit of 23
years was set in the first match, against Italy in Bologna, and England's team
were all uncapped at full international level. In their next meeting, twelve
months later, due to a misunderstanding, Italy fielded three players who were
older than what had been agreed, and so began a long period of friendly fixtures
where occasional compromises had to be made to accommodate over-age players.
Scotland fielded a 24-year-old in their first meeting with England, in 1955.
In 1957, the FA sent a B squad
on tour to face Bulgaria, Romania and Czechoslovakia. England's squad were all
eligible for the under-23s, though their opponents all fielded players aged 24
and older, but because of the ages of the England players, these matches were
historically recorded as under-23 internationals. This was also true of the
return fixtures with Bulgaria and Romania in London at the beginning of the
following season (1957-58). 'Intermediate' seemed to be a better label for these
games, and that is what appeared on England's shirts (in a scroll below the
emblem), but even the FA began to call them 'under-23 internationals' which was
what they mostly were. In the 1970s, England found themselves up against
over-age players in games in the Netherlands and Yugoslavia, though these were
special requests, agreed between the teams before the games.
UEFA introduced an
under-23 championship in 1970 and formalised the age criteria, though each
competition took two seasons to complete. England entered for the first time in
1974 and were allowed to field two over-age players in each match.
Two years later, UEFA changed it to an under-21
competition, but still allowed the two over-age players.
The Under-18s
The FA were prime movers
in the introduction of international youth football, forming the
youth equivalent of the British Championship in 1947, though strictly for
amateur players, usually before they were old enough to become professionals,
and then organising the first international youth tournament, later that season,
in 1948. FIFA were quick to take over the running of the tournament in
subsequent years (and Argentina competed in it in 1953 and 1954), until 1957
(not 1955, as UEFA's own website tries to inform us) when UEFA took on
responsibility for it.
It was originally formed, like
the British Youth Championship, as an amateur competition, but like the Olympic
Games, it became more and more obvious that eastern European teams were fielding
disguised professionals. England had even begun playing professional youth
international friendlies from 1954, but it was not until they hosted the UEFA
Youth Tournament in 1963 (in their centenary year) that they entered a
professional youth team (and won it). A long period of success followed and they
won the competition five times between 1970 and 1980, after which UEFA subtly
renamed it as the Under-18 Championship, 'preparing the water' for the new age
levels to follow.
In 1984, it switched to a
two-season competition, and faced the same dilemmas that the under-21
championship had in that most of the best players in the first season were too
old to play in the rest of the competition. The FA, therefore, effectively
fielded a different squad in each season and failed to qualify for the finals.
They did not enter the next competition (1986-88), but got round the problem
by fielding an under-17 team in the first season of the 1988-90
competition, so that they were all still eligible for the remainder of the
qualifying campaign, plus the finals. However, this meant that the under-18s of
the first season became redundant, as they had no major competition to play in,
a situation that would re-occur for one more edition of the under-18
championship, before it reverted to an annual competition, with England hosting
and winning it again, in 1993.
The Under-16s (plus World Championship)
and Under-17s
UEFA instigated its first
under-16 championship in 1980, the same year that the Youth Tournament became
the Under-18 Championship. The FA did not have an under-16 team at this point,
but entered the next competition (1982-84) with a novel solution. Under-17 teams
had been used to enter an under-18 tournament in Cannes in 1982 and 1983, and
again in a pre-season tournament in Hungary in 1983, before England played its
first qualifying matches in the UEFA Under-16 Championship, and as their group
only played in the second season of qualification, it was the under-17s that
played in them. Unlike in the older UEFA championships (for under-18s and
under-21s), players could compete in both seasons of the under-16 competition,
they just had to be under 16 at the beginning of the first season of the
qualifying competition. It could be argued that it was, in fact, an under-17
championship (which is what it eventually became), or, strictly speaking, an
under-18 championship, as every player had to be under 18 years of age at the
end of it, such are the confusing misnomers of these competitions.
Another novel approach by the
FA was the creation of a dedicated National School in 1984 for, initially, 25
selected students. They formed the new under-16 squad, a year later, but even
though this was the point when the UEFA Under-16 Championship became an annual
competition, England did not compete in it again until 1992. Instead, they
competed in minor tournaments, including the annual pre-season Nordic Cup
against Scandinavian teams which, confusingly, was an under-15 tournament,
though it should be borne in mind that Finland, Norway and Sweden operated
summer leagues, so their under-15 categorisation covered players reaching that
age in the calendar year, and not over the August-to-July period of the season
that was about to begin in most of the rest of Europe. This was not too much of
a stretch for an England under-16 team to be selected, however, as they just had
to restrict their squad to those who did not turn 16 until the new year. UEFA
would eventually fall in line with the Scandinavian definitions of age
categories, but not without further confusion, beforehand!
Meanwhile, the under-17s,
having stepped in for the under-16s in 1983, like the under-18s in 1986, became
redundant. They were even replaced by the under-18s for the annual Cannes
tournament after four successive entries, and aside from a minor tournament in
Switzerland in 1988, they played only the occasional friendly match, missing out
on the 1985-86 season completely, until 1990, when they were required to play in
the first season of the UEFA Under-18 Championship.
FIFA introduced a World
Under-16 Championship in 1985, a competition that England never appeared in
until it became the Under-17 World Cup. Unlike the World Youth Championship, and
its successor (the Under-20 World Cup), the label of the under-16 championship
was not aligned to the age group of the players competing in it. To begin with,
it had to be held after the completion of each confederation's under-16
championship, or its equivalent. This meant that it invariably had to be played
in the following season, rendering it, effectively, an under-17 competition.
Plus, some of the entrants had qualified, two years earlier, so they had to
field a completely different, under-16 squad, rather than the players that had
won them the place in the finals.
The Under-19s and World Youth Championship
FIFA's original World Youth
Championship began in 1977 and, like the under-16 championship that followed,
eight years later, had the issue of aligning the qualifiers' age groups from
each confederation. Like the under-16s, it was destined to be played in the
season after the under-18s had qualified, but should still have been an under-19
tournament. Inexplicably, Iraq had a 23-year-old in their squad (according to
Wikipedia), and Mexico were serial offenders in using over-age players, until
they were finally banned in 1988.
The first two World Youth
Championships were held in the summer in the northern hemisphere (in Tunisia and
Japan), so could loosely be considered to be at the end of the under-19s'
season, but in 1981, it was held in Australia in October of the next season.
This was the first finals that England had qualified for, so they had to field
an under-20 team for the first time in their history, whilst Mexico stretched
the boundaries again, to include a pair of 21-year-olds.
In 1985, when England next
qualified, it was again in the following season (1985-86), in August and
September (in the USSR), and England again fielded an under-20 side (with the
obligatory three 21-year-olds in the Mexican squad). Apart from a trip to Brazil
in 1988, England did not need another under-20 side again until 1997, when it
became the de-facto standard for the World Youth Championship.
From 1989, the scheduling of
the tournament brought it back to earlier in the year, rendering it an under-19
competition again. England had introduced its first under-19 team for the Toulon
tournament in 1985, but this became a one-off, with the under-21s entering, two
years later, whilst the under-19s were left with occasional friendly matches,
until the 1991 World Youth Championship.
England
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