Former England captain Gary Lineker has called for a radical overhaul of the country's soccer culture in a bid for the national side to catch up with leading European countries.

Lineker believes that the problems leading to Euro 2000 defeats by Portugal and Romania and England's early exit from the tournament go right to the grass roots of the sport.

And the English goalscoring legend claims that neglect of natural ability and emphasis on the physical aspect of the game was the major cause of England's lack of success on the international stage.

"If we'd had a kid in England with the talent of Zinedine Zidane, half of that skill would have been knocked out of him," said Lineker, whose goals helped England reach the last eight of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and the semi-finals of Italia 90.

"The game has moved on in Europe in a far more positive manner.

"The top teams have creative players performing at high pace in a new modern game, with good defenders who are comfortable with the ball. All the players can really play.

Lineker told the Sun newspaper Tuesday: "That is not the case with England.

"Every time our defenders got the ball, it was humped towards Alan Shearer and Michael Owen.

"It was out-of-date football. It was 20 years-old.

"It was a step back to that predictable, long, rushed game of ours."

The former Leicester, Barcelona and Tottenham forward - who also had a spell in Japan with Grampus Eight - claims that if England is to bridge the massive gap with the likes of Portugal, Holland and France, then there must be a complete change in the football ethos where children are brought up to enjoy the game and not to fear the backlash of failure.

Lineker said: "Whenever I watch schoolkids play, it depresses me. What is happening out there is nothing less than gruesome.

"All I hear is 'Get stuck in - it's a physical game, we're hard, we are.' Every time a lad tries a little trick, attempts a bit of skill, you hear the adults ranting from the touchline. This is what we are up against."

Lineker believes it is about time that England started looking to its Continental neighbors for advice on how develop youth football.

He said: "They think differently, allow youngsters to develop differently. The skill factor, individual talent is nurtured and permitted to develop.

"It is high time we in England started to encourage the kids to play for sheer enjoyment.

"We whack the talent out of them and have been doing it for many years.

"They not only have a fear of losing, but just of trying something different. How can we expect them to develop?

"When I was at Barcelona, if a defender wellied the ball away, the crowd howled their disapproval. In England, the fans cheer that kind of thing."

But Lineker added that there was some hope with promising new youngsters to be tried as a matter of urgency, and the shock produced by England's Euro 2000 defeat pushing the game to look at itself and change.