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When the British Government encouraged the immigration of African-Caribbean people following World War Two, the improvement of the England football team was not chief among their thinking.
Rather, it was the population of gaps in the labour market that they sought to address.
On Tuesday, exactly 73 years on from the arrival of 802 West Indian passengers aboard the Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks, England will line up against Czech Republic with a squad whose multicultural make-up is a legacy of that movement.
The multicultural make-up of England's squad is a legacy of the Windrush generation
Tyrone Mings is one of six players in the squad of 26 with Carribean heritage
Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford, Kyle Walker, Tyrone Mings, Jadon Sancho and Kalvin Phillips are all of Caribbean heritage, following in the stud marks of trailblazers such as Luther Blissett, Cyrille Regis and Viv Anderson.
Now, a new BT Sport film - Standing Firm: Football’s Windrush Story - explores the impact of the Windrush generation on our national game.
Mings, the defender whose grandparents arrived from Barbados just as England were winning the World Cup in 1966, tells