Cheshire League manager – and assistant headteacher – Andy McCann discusses preparing to become England manager for a week and leading his side into the UEFA Regions Cup intermediate round, where they will face Finland, Portugal and Sweden for a place at next summer's finals…
By day, he works as an assistant headteacher at Great Sankey High School in Warrington. The summer holidays have come to a conclusion and the school year is back in full swing.
But he is about to take eight days off in order to become England manager… sort of.
That's because McCann is also the manager of the Cheshire League, a representative team made up of the best players from the Cheshire League Premier Division.
His side won the FA Inter-League Cup by beating the Herts Senior County League at Leicester's King Power Stadium on May 9 – and, in doing so, earned the chance to represent England in the UEFA Regions Cup.
It is an amateur tournament founded in 1996 and held every two years since 1999 – barring 2021 due to Covid.
Teams from the nations taking part either qualify or are nominated, before entering the intermediate round, where they are split into eight groups. The winners of those groups then progress to the finals.
Spain have won it four times, Italy three, Poland two, and the Republic of Ireland, Portugal, Croatia and the Czech Republic once each.
On Sunday September 6, McCann and Co fly out to Sweden for three games and the chance to become the first England team ever to progress to the finals.
"During the Inter-League Cup, the chairman Rob Goodwin-Davey – who is Mr Cheshire League – kept saying to me there was a chance we could go and represent England, but I wasn't really thinking about that. I was purely focused on trying to win the cup," he tells Sky Sports.
"As a management team, we met up a few times to go through final details, tactics, set-pieces and it was then we started to realise it was quite big.
"But once we won it, people in the pub were saying to me: 'Once the World Cup's out the way, you're England manager!'
"Without wanting to compare it too much to 'real life', this job is a bit like being an international manager, albeit a much lower level.
"I'm sure it will dawn on me when we board the flight, but it's a real privilege and an honour to be England manager for a week, at whatever level. We've worked out we're the England D team, so we'll take that!"
"When we get to the airport, we get the full England kit. So whatever you've seen England wearing at the World Cup, it's exactly the same. The boys get a full tracksuit, three t-shirts, three training shirts, three pairs of shorts, three pairs of socks – and we will play in the full England kit.
