RSSeNEWS to be determined...

Sports economist Stefan Szymanski hit a raw nerve when he suggested "England performed in line with what you'd expect", following the team's inglorious exit from the 2010 World Cup contest.

Prof Symanski, who directs the Sports Business Network Research Centre at Cass Business School, said he didn't think that England was "massively underperforming … We're a medium sized country, you wouldn't expect us to do much better than average".

Although he had not seen the match in which Germany beat England 4-1 because he was travelling, Szymanski said that the team's problem did not lie with "the manager or players". But his view that the Football Association's management, which he described as "really disorganised for a long time", was responsible met with the consternation of the two other experts – commentator Ed Smith and Matthew Syed, author of 'Bounce: How Champions are Made' on the BBC Today programme's World Cup panel.

After a comment that "we didn't do that badly", presenter James Naughtie felt obliged to remind listeners that Szymanski hadn't seen the game. When Symanksi insisted it was a "freak result … an exception", Syed told him that was "absurd" and that it was "time to talk about the real causes".

• listen to the World Cup panel's discussion in full on BBC iplayer (starts at 2hr 52min)
• what do you think; what is the explanation for England's continuing failure in international football?