The economy in the 1970s - whose fault?

This posting cannot go by without some mention of the pathetic shower that is the England football team, and their futile attempts to overcome some neo-third world countries in an effort to reach Euro 2008. There, I think I've made myself clear on that. However, what I did find interesting is that they reckon the economy will lose £2 billion pounds this year because England failed to qualify. This is the cost of all those pints of beer, replica shirts, new widescreen LCD and plasma tvs etc etc. Quite staggering isn't it? Which got me thinking (always a dangerous think to be happening) - when I was in my teens/early 20s we actually failed to qualify for any European Championships of World cups tournaments between 1970 and 1980. Yes, 10 years without the 3 lions in a major football tournament, staggering, but it actually happened (and there we about 3 foreign players in the football league at the time, so let's put that one to bed). Now, add the cost of not qualifying for 4 tournaments at £2 billion every other year for a decade and that's a staggering £8 billion lost to the economy in less than 10 years. So don't ever believe the history books when they tell you that the economic problems of the 70s were caused by oil prices after the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, or the greedy miners, or the powerful unions, or punk, or the long hot summer of 1976, or glam rock, or Maggie Thatcher, or flares, it was caused by England's failure to be at the big football parties! Which is why we need Jose Mourinho as the next England football manager otherwise we could be doomed once again to galloping inflation, soaring oil prices, mass unemployment, and yes, possibly even flares and teardrop collar shirts. Pray for Mourinho, I can't wear platform shoes again, not with these feet.