As Italia ’90 approached, the world awaited the emotional rollercoaster that would unfold: Gazza’s tears, England’s heartbreak, and an unforgettable World Cup experience. On the cusp of this iconic tournament, the sports scientist responsible for acclimating Bobby Robson’s squad to the sweltering Italian summer was armed with early technology: a BBC microcomputer, a dot-matrix printer, and rudimentary Polar heart-rate monitors.
Initially, some within the England camp viewed Prof John Brewer, the Football Association’s inaugural head of human performance, with skepticism. However, after conducting a series of bleep tests at Lilleshall before their departure to Italy, again upon arrival, and once more after two weeks of training during peak heat, Brewer successfully demonstrated to the players their adaptation to the conditions, enabling them to maintain their high-tempo style of play.
What Brewer championed 36 years ago now seems primitive by today’s standards. By 2026, England’s players will utilize lightweight wearables to monitor blood oxygen levels, skin temperatures, and sleep patterns, alongside hyperbaric chambers for recovery. Yet, conversing with Brewer brings back not just memories of a thrilling World Cup but also the dawn of a new era in English football.
Nonetheless, the journey was not without its challenges. Prior to Italia ’90, Brewer convinced Robson that players required increased carbohydrates before matches. However, he was taken aback when the chef presented a trolley laden with swordfish steaks just hours before their opening game against Ireland.
“Bob and I looked at it and said: ‘What on earth is that?’” Brewer recalls. “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.”
The approach to alcohol mirrored this resistance. Robson instituted a ban on alcohol two weeks before the tournament, though he permitted players the occasional drink. Still, a few stars—whom Brewer chooses not to name—broke curfew and consumed more than allowed.
Brewer noted that many England players who had experience playing abroad, including 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 World Cup, also became a temporary adherent to these recommendations. “I think he probably was the fittest he was in his career,” Brewer states. “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 engaging in numerous one-on-one discussions with Gascoigne, who sought reassurance regarding his dietary choices. “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,” Brewer adds.
His experience working with elite athletes at Loughborough, including double Olympic champion Seb Coe, helped Brewer gain the trust of Robson and his coaching staff, who largely accepted his innovative training suggestions. At the time, these ideas were groundbreaking, but have since become standard practice. They included instructing players to warm up without the ball initially to raise 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.
Brewer also proposed that substitutes should stretch and warm up regularly rather than remaining seated throughout the match. He encouraged squad players to train more vigorously between games to sustain their fitness, which notably benefited David Platt when he stepped in for the injured Bryan Robson. Some of Brewer’s suggestions were even more fundamental: when he first joined, England players typically refrained from drinking anything on the bus after training. He began mixing electrolyte drinks and serving them in plastic cups.
Yet, Brewer’s most cherished memories revolve around Bobby Robson, whom he greatly respected as both a person and manager. This was a pivotal period in which the FA’s director of coaching, Charles Hughes, advocated for a more direct style of play, based on research indicating that most goals were scored after fewer than five passes. In contrast, Robson had both the reputation and the insight to pursue a more progressive approach.
“It was a strange dynamic between them,” he observes. “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 closely follow football and advancements in sports science. “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 remarks.
However, he points out that players also have significantly more support now. “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.”
