On the eve of the Italia ’90 World Cup, the emotional weight of the tournament loomed large, characterized by Paul Gascoigne’s tears and England’s bittersweet journey. At this moment, the sports scientist responsible for acclimating Bobby Robson’s team to the Italian climate was utilizing innovative technology to evaluate each player’s fitness, including a BBC microcomputer, a dot-matrix printer, and some rudimentary Polar heart-rate monitors.
Initially, some members of the England squad viewed Prof John Brewer, the Football Association’s pioneering head of human performance, with skepticism. However, after conducting a bleep test at Lilleshall prior to their departure for Italy, again upon arrival, and a third time after two weeks of training during peak heat, Brewer successfully demonstrated that the players had adjusted to the warm conditions and were prepared to execute their familiar high-tempo game.
The advancements Brewer championed 36 years ago now seem archaic. By 2026, England’s players will utilize ultra-light wearables to monitor their blood oxygen levels, skin temperatures, and sleep patterns, along with hyperbaric chambers for recovery. Yet, conversing with Brewer evokes memories of not only a captivating World Cup but also the moment English football began to embrace scientific advancements.
Despite the progress, the journey wasn’t without its hurdles. Before Italia ’90, Brewer convinced Robson that his players required more carbohydrates before matches. He recalls being taken aback when the chef presented a trolley laden with swordfish steaks just hours before their opening match against Ireland.
“Bob and I looked at it and said: ‘What on earth is that?’” Brewer reminisces. “But the England doctor, John Crane, stood up and said: “I want to give the boys what they want.’ We told him that it was not the time or the place. But the attitude from the medical team was to ignore the evolving sports science. It had been accepted in other sports, particularly running, but football saw itself as different.”
This mindset also extended to alcohol consumption. Robson prohibited drinking two weeks prior to Italia ’90 but permitted players the occasional drink. Nevertheless, a few high-profile players—whom Brewer declines to name—broke curfew and exceeded the allowed limit.
Brewer noted that many England players with experience abroad, such as Chris Waddle and Trevor Steven, were more open to nutritional guidance. Surprisingly, Paul Gascoigne, who managed to reduce his body fat to around 10% for the tournament, also embraced this approach temporarily. “I think he probably was the fittest he was in his career,” Brewer observes. “Gazza was quite stocky in build and there’d been a bit of criticism about his weight. But when he came to Lilleshall, I measured his body fat, and the results spoke for themselves. He didn’t have a high body-fat percentage compared to the rest of the squad.”
Brewer recalls numerous one-on-one discussions with Gascoigne, who sought reassurance regarding his diet. “Yes, he was the life and soul of the party and the other lads used to play up to that, but he was fully professional – football was everything to him,” he adds.
Brewer’s experience working with elite athletes at Loughborough, including double Olympic champion Seb Coe, ensured that Robson and his coaching staff largely accepted his training recommendations, which were quite unconventional for the time. Today, they are standard practice. These included having players warm up without the ball initially to elevate body temperature and enhance muscle flexibility. “Because at the time it was a case of: ‘Let’s just knock the ball about a bit and then do a few little doggies’ – as they liked to call them – ‘or sprints and we’re ready to go,’” he explains.
He also advocated for substitutes to stretch and warm up at regular intervals instead of remaining seated throughout the game. Additionally, Brewer encouraged squad players to train more rigorously between matches to maintain their fitness, a strategy that benefited David Platt when he stepped in for the injured Bryan Robson. Some of Brewer’s suggestions were even more fundamental: upon his arrival, he noticed that England players typically did not drink anything on the bus after training. So, he began mixing electrolyte drinks and serving them in plastic cups.
However, Brewer’s most cherished memories are of Bobby Robson, whom he admired greatly both as a person and a manager, and who integrated him into the England setup. During this period, the FA’s director of coaching, Charles Hughes, was advocating for a more direct style of play based on statistics indicating that most goals resulted from fewer than five passes. Yet, Robson possessed the insight and experience to pursue a more progressive approach.
“It was a strange dynamic between them,” Brewer reflects. “Charles was very much into his statistical analysis about the need to play a long-ball game, which I think was quite flawed, but while Bobby listened and took on board the stuff around preparation, fitness, training and nutrition, he did his own thing when it came to football.
“Charles was very much into his statistical analysis about the need to play a long‑ball game, which I think was quite flawed, but while Bobby listened and took on board the stuff around preparation, fitness, training and nutrition, he did his own thing when it came to football. “In the end Charles left the FA as a frustrated, disillusioned character. I’m sure to his dying day, he believed that had his ideas been fully accepted England would have won a World Cup in 1994, 1998 or 2002.”
Now retired, Brewer continues to follow football and advancements in sports science closely. “Players are fitter nowadays. They have to pay even more attention to their training and diet because the frequency of high-intensity games is much higher than it ever has been.” he states.
Yet, as he points out, they also receive significantly more support. “When I set up the FA human performance centre, clubs used to send their players to us for their pre‑season sport science and fitness testing. From July onwards we would get three or four teams a week, including the likes of Liverpool. Obviously that would never happen today because they’ve got their own teams of people.”
“And when it came to testing, I had a BBC microcomputer, a dot-matrix printer, and a couple of very ancient Polar heart-rate monitors that I had to download individually in order to get the data. We thought it was cutting edge. But compared to today it was pretty basic stuff.”
