The British Connection

The British Isles provide only one team in this year’s World Cup finals – England – but the British clubs will be well represented in Germany. Of the 736 players representing the 32 finalists, no less than 116 are with British clubs, 105 of them from England and 11 from Scotland. Of the England based players, 88 are from clubs that played in the English Premier League last season, while 17 are with lower division clubs.

Chelsea provide the most players – 16. Arsenal (15), Manchester United (12) and Liverpool (10) are the other well represented English clubs. Here is the full list:

Chelsea – 16
Arsenal – 15
Manchester United – 12
Liverpool – 10
Tottenham Hotspur – 5
Aston Villa – 3
Bolton Wanderers – 3
Fulham – 3
Middlesbrough – 3
Newcastle United – 3
Birmingham City – 2
Blackburn Rovers – 2
Everton – 2
Manchester City – 2
West Bromwich Albion – 2
West Ham United – 2
Wigan Athletic – 2
Portsmouth – 1

Of the Premier League clubs, only Charlton Athletic and relegated Sunderland are not represented.
The list of lower division clubs represented are as follows:

Southampton – 3
Coventry City – 2
Gillingham – 2
Reading – 2
Bristol City – 1
Crystal Palace – 1
Hull City – 1
Leeds United – 1
Luton Town – 1
Port Vale – 1
Wolverhampton Wanderers – 1
Wrexham – 1

The six Scottish clubs represented are:

Glasgow Celtic – 3
Glasgow Rangers – 3
Falkirk – 2
Dundee – 1
Dundee United – 1
St. Johnstone – 1

Of course there are many more players from clubs in other countries who have played with British clubs before.

Country wise, England has the most number of British based players, naturally. 21 of their 23 players play in England. Trinidad & Tobago has 15 British based players, 9 from England and 6 from Scotland. Australia has 11 England based players. Here is the full list (E=England, S=Scotland):

England – 21 (E)
Trinidad & Tobago – 15 (E-9, S-6)
Australia – 11 (E)
France – 8 (E)
United States – 7 (E)
Portugal – 6 (E)
Spain – 6 (E)
Netherlands – 5 (E)
Poland – 5 (E-3, S-2)
Argentina – 3 (E)
Ivory Coast – 3 (E)
Japan – 3 (E-2, S-1)
South Korea – 3 (E)
Tunisia – 3 (E-2, S-1)
Czech Republic – 2 (E)
Germany – 2 (E)
Serbia & Montenegro – 2 (E)
Sweden – 2 (E)
Switzerland – 2 (E)
Angola – 1 (E)
Brazil – 1 (E)
Croatia – 1 (S)
Ecuador – 1 (E)
Ghana – 1 (E)
Mexico – 1 (E)
Togo – 1 (E)

Of the 32 teams, only 6, Costa Rica, Iran, Italy, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia & Ukraine, have no British based players.