Former England manager Sir Gareth Southgate has revealed that his Three Lions squads would engage in serious games of the Traitors during major tournaments.
Southgate was England manager between 2016 and 2024, in the most successful period for the Three Lions since winning the 1966 World Cup.
The 55-year-old steered England from embarrassment at the 2016 Euros, where they were dumped out of the competition by minnows Iceland at the round-of-16 stage, to coming agonisingly close to ending the almost 60 year wait for major honours.
Southgate guided England to consecutive Euros finals in 2020 and 2024, as well as a World Cup semifinal in 2018 and quarterfinal in 2022.
What the former Crystal Palace and England defender did most effectively, though, was create a close team bond and get the fans back onside.
The secret to team bonding? A squad-wide game of The Traitors.
As the Celebrity Traitors, which has gripped the nation comes to a dramatic conclusion on Thursday, Southgate revealed in his new book: “Dear England: Lessons in Leadership”, that it was also a constant in the England training camps.
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“Thanks to Conor Coady, we also had ‘Traitors’ to play — our version of the popular TV game,” Southgate wrote, as reported by The Guardian.
“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.”
As expected in an elite sporting environment, the game became extremely serious and during the 2024 Euros, non-playing staff and even celebrities were involved.
It was during this particular game that notes would be slid under doors at night, much like in the iconic BBC TV series — in which former England rugby star Joe Marler has reached the final of the current series.
“Conor’s innovation was so popular, in fact, that in future tournaments, such as Euro 24, the wider staff started playing too,” Southgate wrote.
“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 — even Robbie Williams joined in.”
