More England matches have been played in May than any other month, 201 of the 1066
played by the start of the 2024-25 international season. June
ranked second with 191 matches. England have played only six matches in January.
However, up until the close of football following
the outbreak of The Great War, after 119 matches, England had only played 59
times in March, and 25 times each in February and April.
The popularity of an early summer game was beginning to show before
the outbreak of WWII. After 226 games, although March was still the most
popular with 68, April, with 43, and May's 38 games were quickly closing the
gap. Generally thanks to the routine of an end-of-season tour.
It was in the European tour of May 1951, that the 49 games in May
finally overtook the 48 games in April, although still a way behind those 68
games held in March.
In fact, it was in the lead-up to the 1958 World Cup Finals that
games held in the month of May became more popular than those in March.
It was in the European Nations Quarter Finals in 1968 that the
one-hundred
mark was reached for matches played in the month of May. The month of
June followed when it hit the hundred mark during Euro 1996. March
followed in 2008 and October
in 2009.
More matches
have been staged on the 15th of the month than any other dates, 57. The fewest have been held on the
31st, with thirteen, and the 30th, with eighteen.
More
matches, sixteen, have been played on 24 May than on any other date. The
second most popular date, with fourteen matches, is 15 November, followed by
2
June and 26 March with thirteen, then 6 June and 11
& 12 October with twelve, 17 & 22 May, 17 October and 17 November with eleven, and 18 & 21 May,
3, 7, 11, 12 &
15 June, 8 September, 14, 16, 17 & 18 November all with ten.
March, May
and June are the only months
which have had a match played on every day.
It was not until the 1981-82 season that England
finally played on every day of the week in one single season. Playing
their usual season games on a Wednesday, unusually reverting to a Tuesday
for the rest of the qualification matches. The Home International Championship brought
the usual Saturday match. But the tour of Scandinavia and the World Cup
Finals in 1982 in Spain meant England played a match on each of the other
four days of the week.
March
was the first month to have a match played on every one of its dates when it
completed so in 1981, followed by May, who achieved the totality in 1985.
After 780 matches, August hosted its first
match in 2001.
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