LONDON — Somehow, England is not among the countries having to go through the win-or-bust World Cup playoff matches over the coming week.

England’s team has already qualified, but why would that surprise anyone? England, after all, is the pioneer of organized soccer. Rather than having to go through a last-minute scramble to qualify for next summer’s tournament in Brazil, the English have showpiece prestige games at Wembley Stadium in London — against Chile on Friday and Germany on Tuesday — to commemorate 150 years since it founded the Football Association.

The Motherland, and proud of it.

However, England’s chances of winning the trophy in Brazil recede by the season. It is evident that while England has probably the most competitive and certainly the wealthiest league on earth, more and more of the players in the Premier League are foreigners.

That, in a sense, is the main attraction. The Premier League is a global league in which the players from nearly 70 countries have come to earn wages they would not get in their own lands.