England masses cannot mask apathy and unloved international football | Owen Gibson

Most of the fans cramming the stadium for international friendlies and qualifiers are after a fairly cheap night out. The result matters rather less than it used to

They are among the hardest working men and women in football. Even before Spain arrive at Wembley on Tuesday night to provide the latest obstacle to the tottering baby steps of Gareth Southgate’s tenure as England manager, those whose job it is to continue to fill Wembley began trumpeting their wares for March’s home qualifier against Lithuania.

No matter how big the humiliation or how small the pool of English talent, the masses keep trudging up Olympic Way for the friendlies and qualifying ties that keep the FA’s tills ringing and have helped contribute to a changed financial picture which, the FA chief executive Martin Glenn told an industry event last week, will boost its revenues by £100m a year. “The Wembley Stadium proposition is profitable, it is not a stone in our shoe any more,” he said.

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Remarkably, more than 80,000 fans are expected at Wembley for the Spain match. A similar number turned up to watch the workmanlike 2-0 victory over Malta, Southgate’s first in charge following Sam Allardyce’s shambolic exit, and on Friday night the official attendance was 87,258 – bolstered by a big contingent of well refreshed but ultimately despondent Scots.

Question the value of some of those at the FA all you like, but there can be little doubt that those who fill Wembley through a combination of ticket offers, family deals and canny stretch pricing are earning their corn. And all this at a time when England’s stock has arguably never been lower.

Given the apathy and general feeling of tumbleweed blowing through the Sky Sports News studios when international week rolls around – particularly the breaks in October and November that interrupt the league season just as it is getting going – that is a remarkable achievement.

Likewise, the fact that an average of 7 million viewers watched England beat Scotland on ITV and this summer’s humiliating capitulation to Iceland in Nice remained the most watched TV event of the year until the final of the Great British Bake Off proves that the half life of the national side’s once pre-eminent position in the national psyche remains long.

And yet. For all that, international football has never felt less loved or lower down the agenda. Most of those traversing the Jubilee line or the Metropolitan line to Wembley Park are after a fairly cheap, decent night out at a modern stadium with their family or friends. The result, it seems, matters rather less than it used to.

The atmosphere for a football match at Wembley increasingly feels interchangeable with that at any of the other mega-events it hosts, from pop concerts to NFL matches. The reasons are many and varied. The expanded size of the European Championship and the World Cup arguably makes these early qualification skirmishes even less exciting.

Some of it is generational and recent underperformance must be a factor. If you are 60, you can just about recall 1966. If you are 40, Italia 90 and Euro 96 still loom large. If you are 15, then the best you can probably manage is a dim recollection of meek surrender in Bloemfontein.

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Paradoxically, given the number of kids at Wembley on good value family tickets, many younger fans feel more engaged with their chosen club side – be it Arsenal or Barcelona – or even individual players, than their country.

But there is something wider at work too. An overload of televised football, the feeling that international football no longer represents the pinnacle of the sport and the sheer lack of quality on show must all contribute.

Friendlies were the first to suffer from this creeping sense of ennui and it has now extended to the bloated qualifying process for major finals too. If Fifa follows through on plans to expand the World Cup to 48 nations, expect it to accelerate still further.

Still, at a time when there is a similarly complex and knotty debate raging about whether the public appetite for football generally is falling amid a feeling of oversaturation, perhaps the international break is doing the Premier League and its broadcasting paymasters the ultimate favour by prompting a yearning for its return.