England B national football team

England B is a secondary football team run occasionally as support for the England national football team. At times they have played other nations' full teams; they have also played matches against 'B' teams from other football associations. Since the team's first use in 1947, there have been 54 official The Football Association; 6 April 2006; Accessed 14 February 2007 B team matches (as of May 2007).

History

Walter Winterbottom first proposed B team matches as a way of bringing players through into the national side (the Under 21 team, the current stepping stone to the national team, did not exist until 1976. He organised the first recorded game held under the name of 'England B', which was played in Geneva on 21 February 1947 against Switzerland B team. The match finished 0-0. The games proved useful as an introduction to the national team and the first official England B team game came in 1949 in a 4-0 victory over Finland

The frequency of the games depends almost entirely upon the head coach of the England squad. For example, there were...
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