Superficially, all would appear well with the English game. In the late 1980s, English football was confronted with the depressing scenario of falling attendances, antiquated stadia populated by fighting fans off the pitch and declining playing standards on the pitch at both domestic and international levels, these latter trends accentuated by exile from European club competitions following the Heysel tragedy. Despite its declining fortunes, it was only the further trauma of Hillsborough and Lord Justice Taylor’s inquiry into the events of the 15 April 1989 (Taylor, Lord Justice 1990) which ensured that a long overdue restructuring of the English game would be undertaken. Less than a decade later, after more than £400 million of investment in ground development and the spectacle of a succession of clubs seeking stock market flotations, the popular image of English football is of modernised, all-seater stadia filled to capacity with well-behaved supporters watching an unprecedented influx of expensive foreign stars. A not entirely unsuccessful return to European club competition by English teams, followed by heroic international failure of the English national side at home in the festival atmosphere of Euro 96, and an unexpected victory in a warm-up tournament for the 1998 World Cup (Le Tournoi, in France), would appear to signify a genuine recovery in English football.
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