England 's Minor Tournaments and Cups
U.S.A. Bicentennial Cup Tournament, U.S.A., 1976

The U.S.A. Bicentennial Cup Tournament profited from the failure of England and Italy to qualify for the European Championship 1976 final tournament.  These two teams joined Brazil and Team America in a hugely entertaining tournament.  Team America, composed of stars playing in the North American  Soccer League,  had a multinational makeup, and the Football Association has not regarded England's match against that side as an official international.

John F. Kennedy Stadium, Philadelphia, U.S.A., 31st of May, 1976.  Having worn ghastly pale yellow stockings with their home white shirts and white away shorts in Los Angeles eight days earlier to avoid conflict with Brazil's white stockings, England now complete the switch in colours.  Team America captain Bobby Moore, once England's leader, stares in apparent concern at rival captain Gerry Francis.  The stadium had a capacity of 102,000, and more than 80 percent of them were empty.

Notes

 

This tournament celebrated the 200th anniversary of the U.S.A.’s Declaration of Independence. The U.S.A. team of the time was not strong enough to compete against sides as powerful as Brazil, Italy and England, and hence Team America, consisting of players of various nationalities drawn from North American Soccer League clubs, carried the U.S.A. banner in the tournament.   Team America included players who had performed for other national teams, among them Pelé, Ramon Mifflin, Mike England, Giorgio Chinaglia and Bobby Moore.  

The day after England played Team America, the Football Association, asked about the match's status, said it was regarded as "a training game" and that caps would not be awarded to the participating players.  Accordingly, the F.A. did not include the match in its list of full internationals.  The associations of both Brazil and Italy, on the other hand, listed their national sides' matches against Team America as full internationals.  Matches against Team America would not meet the new standard FIFA set down in January, 2001 for official full internationals because they were not played between the selections of two FIFA country members.  FIFA has retroactively removed the official status of matches involving other multinational all-star selections, including England's matches against the Rest of Europe and the Rest of the World (although the F.A. continues to recognise these as official internationals).  

Ron Hockings & Keir Radnedge, Nations of Europe, vol. 2, p. 24 (1993), has the Team America vs. Italy match played at Yankee Stadium in New York City, but the official Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio website, the Rete! website and Libreria dello Sport, Maglie Azzurre: Nomi, cifre e date delle nazionali italiane, p. 99 (1996), all have it played at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington, D.C.

Maglie Azzurre, p. 99, has the attendance at the England vs. Italy match as 47,000, while Nations of Europe, p. 194, has it as 40,650, and Mike Payne, England: The Complete Post-War Record, pp. 197-98 (1993), as 40,750.

Sources

Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio [Italian football federation official website]

Hockings, Ron & Keir Radnedge, Nations of Europe, vol. 1, p. 194, vol. 2, p. 24 (Articulate, Ernsworth, Hampshire, U.K., 1993)

Libreria dello Sport, Maglie Azzurre: Nomi, cifre e date delle nazionali italiane, pp. 99-100 (Datasport, Milan, 1996)

Litterer, Dave The US Soccer History Archives

Payne, Mike, England: The Complete Post-War Record, pp. 197-98 (Breedon Books Publishing Company, Derby, U.K., 1993)

RSSSF [Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation], Arquivo da Seleção Brasileira [(Brazilian National Team Archive] 

Rete! website [defunct]

Warsop, Keith, ed., British and Irish Special and Intermediate Internationals (SoccerData, Nottingham, U.K., 2002)

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