England had entered the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 1950, having previously missed the tournament due to the FA (and other Home Nations football associations) boycott of FIFA.[2] The tournament had gone badly, with an under-prepared England team eliminated in the first round, including suffering from a 1–0 defeat to the United States, whose team was largely made up of amateurs.[3] The decision to send a team on a goodwill tour — a fairly common practice by the FA at the time[4] — to Canada at the same time as the World Cup is now seen as evidence of this poor preparation, with key players such as Stanley Matthews and Nat Lofthouse unavailable for all or part of the World Cup due to their selection for the tour.[5] This was the last time to date that the Charity Shield was held between two FA teams (in 1913, 1923–26 and 1929 it had been between an England Professional XI and the England amateur team), though an FA XI would later compete in the 1961 FA Charity Shield against the double-winning Tottenham Hotspur team.
The match itself finished 4–2 to the World Cup squad. Matthews, who had been part of both squads, played for the Touring XI. [6] Liverpool F.C. defender Laurie Hughes was badly injured in the match, and never played for England again. He remained at Liverpool for the rest of his career, but the injury is seen as having prevented him from fulfilling his potential.[7]
