Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Soccer embarrassment, political turmoil after double Brexit (The Associated Press)

England goalkeeper Joe Hart, left, and two others player lie on the pitch at the end of the Euro 2016 round of 16 soccer match between England and Iceland, at the Allianz Riviera stadium in Nice, France, Monday, June 27, 2016. Iceland won 2-1. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

In a city that was once the playground of the British aristocracy, England's millionaire soccer players departed Tuesday looking as far from soccer nobility than at any time in the team's 144-year history. The latest chastening blow to the nation's sporting prestige was magnified by the instigators of their downfall in Nice being Iceland, the smallest team to ever qualify for a major soccer tournament which had spent years admiring the supposedly superior English. As the North Atlantic island nation prepared for a quarterfinal against France at its first-ever European Championship, the England team flew home to the latest in a long line of post mortems into why the country which invented soccer and hosts its wealthiest competition has not won a title since the 1966 World Cup.


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