Gareth Southgate has revealed his England players remained faithful to each other when playing the hit BBC game between matches
Is Southgate faithful or a traitor?(Image: PA)
Gareth Southgate has revealed his England players remained faithful to each other – by playing The Traitors. The former Three Lions boss said the secret to the strong bond in the squad was down to the team organising its own version of the hit telly show.
It was used as a team-building exercise inside the England camp at the Qatar World Cup in 2022. Sir Gareth, 55, admitted: “Thanks to Conor Coady, we also had ‘Traitors’ to play – our version of the popular TV game.
“All of the players were involved, taking the role of either ‘traitor’ or ‘faithful’, and all spending their downtime engaging in the deception, trying to eliminate their opponents or remain undetected. Even Robbie Williams joined in.
“Conor’s innovation was so popular, in fact, that in future tournaments, such as Euro 24, the wider staff started playing too.
“Some colleagues took the game incredibly seriously, with notes being slid under people’s doors at night and Marc Guéhi, the son of a minister, anguishing about having to lie if he was made a traitor!
“It was fantastic fun and more effective as a team-bonding exercise than anything we could have formally designed.”
The nation has been gripped by Celebrity Traitors which ended last night with Joe Marler, Alan Carr and Cat Burns in the final. In his new book Dear England: Lessons in Leadership, Sir Gareth shares the secrets of his success leading the national team.
He even unpacks at length the analysis that led to England changing the way they approached penalty shootouts.
After implementing a series of changes in his first year as manager England won their first shootout at a World Cup, beating Colombia in 2018.
They also won two of three further shootouts under Sir Gareth – but the painful loss was to Italy in the Euro 2020 final at Wembley.