22.07.2004 - Anfield to miss out on England World Cup games

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The current Anfield stadium may have hosted it's last England international after the FA chose not to use the ground as one of England's home venues for the upcoming World Cup qualifying campaign.

Anfield hosted a qualifier for the 2002 World Cup, a 2-1 win for England against Finland in March 2001, and a match which was the first competitive England home game since the closure of the old Wembley stadium five months earlier.

With the England team travelling around to various stadia around the country in the temporary absence of a national stadium, Newcastle, Man United, Sunderland, Southampton and Middlesbrough also played host to the national team, while other clubs were amongst those to host friendly games.

But for the World Cup 2006 qualifying campaign, the FA will use only the two largest grounds in the country, with four games being played at Man United's Old Trafford stadium, and the other, a midweek match against Azerbaijan next spring, being played at Newcastle's St James' Park.

And with England due to return to Wembley in early 2006, and Liverpool hoping to move into a new stadium on Stanley Park in the next two or three years, there appears little chance of seeing the likes of Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen represent their country at Anfield again.