World In Motion- How Italia 90 helped English Football Regain Its Cool

There was no reason to expect change as England prepared to travel to Italy for the 1990 finals. Their qualification had been solid rather than spectacular. After years of failure there were no great expectations as the pre tournament hype began. But that build up did include one surprise, a somewhat hitherto unheard of concept, a decent England World Cup song.

The FA, in a break from its fuddy duddy image had brought in perennially hip Manchester band, New Order to write the song. With the help of Keith Allen's lyrics, they fashioned a tune that had little to do with football but had all the right components. Danceable, a strong chorus, a bit everyone could sing at the close, oh, and a rap. Yes, a football rap recited by John Barnes. It grabbed the headlines and also the number one slot on the charts. A good omen as Italia 90 began.

Then there was the new kid in the block. Paul Gascoigne, a player of remarkable individual talent but also a personality you could describe as extrovert or bonkers depending on your viewpoint. But boy, could he play. Forcing his way in after an impossible to ignore clamour, there were cameo glimpses of his talent as England stumbled through the group stage in typical fashion.

A dour draw with Ireland forced manager Bobby Robson to change the formation. It became five at the back with Mark Wright as sweeper. But it wasn't a defensive move but one designed to harness the flair of Waddle, Barnes and Gascoigne.  A much improved performance secured another draw, with the Dutch, and a squeaky win over Egypt was enough.

Gazza was growing in confidence all the time, one turn against Holland, would have done Pele proud. A dramatic last gasp win against a decent Belgium side saw the nation dare to dream as sub, David Platt's late winner secured a quarter final with surprise package, Cameron. It was a rollercoaster of a game that took extra time and two Gary Lineker spot kicks to see us home.

Suddenly, England were in the semis. There was just one problem, the stumbling block to the final was old adversary's, the ever powerful West Germany.  It was a titanic struggle, that saw England pegged back by a outrageously deflected free kick. A booking that would rule Gazza out of a possible final appearance reduced him to tears. But it was not to be anyway as the start of England's long heartbreak affairs with penalty shoot outs began. Chris Waddle's skier took out a few satellites and the dream was over.

But the team everyone had written off returned home to a warm welcome. They'd had a go, took us close, doing us proud. Suddenly we looked at ourselves in a different light. We could be adaptable, and did produce talented players. Gascoigne and Des Walker went to play in Italy with our clubs being banned from Europe. Our players were in demand again. Of course with England every silver lining has a cloud, and the Graham Taylor era was more like a thunderstorm washout.

But returning from Italy, there was an optimism. It wasn't long before the Sky TV era brought unheard off riches to the sport.  Stadiums become state of the art all seaters. The game began to change beyond recognition. I'm not saying that was in anyway all to do with Italia 90 but it was a starting point, a time when out of fashion football created front page news for the right reasons.

"Express Yourself"  World In Motion's lyrics implored. Thanks to Gazza, a top English manager in Bobby Robson and players with a rediscovered belief, English football held its head high for the first time in years. It was like the beggining of an exorcism of a dark past. The clubs were to benefit more than the national side from our number one sport slowly buried two murky decades and a New Order in English football started to take place, where it was cool to be cool again.