Report: Poland 1-2 England FA explains players' silence

They are said to be particularly upset by the Sun newspaper's lobbying for David James to be replaced by a donkey and Terry Butcher's view, expressed on this website, that David Beckham did not deserve his place in the side.

BBC Sport rounds up the reaction to the players' stance.

"They feel they have been treated very unfairly in a number of areas of the media since the Austria game. They regularly receive criticism but they felt it was so intense on this occasion that it was time to make a stand.

"Some of it has been very unfair on the players and more so on their families. People sometimes don't take them into account."
Adrian Bevington, Football Association head of media

"I can understand it because there should be a limit to how much you should criticise individual players. I think they were within their rights.

"The group has been badly criticised over the last few days. They try to defend every single player in the group. It is their way of protecting each other and they are fully right to do it."
Sven-Goran Eriksson, England manager

"What did they expect (after the Austria game)? Purple prose, bouquets and kisses all round? Grow up lads."
Steven Howard, The Sun

"Their collective reluctance to talk will be regarded as petty and needlessly militant and there is no doubt that it lets down supporters."
Matt Dickinson, The Times

"They've just put in a fantastic performance, and showed a lot of guts and determination. All they have done now is behave like children and ensured also that some of the headlines on Thursday will be negative ones."
Oliver Holt, Daily Mirror

"It spoke volumes for their deluded, self-important belief that they are celebrities beyond criticism."
Jeff Powell, Daily Mail

"If they want to go on the counter-attack with the media, I think that's a good thing. There should be more of a dialogue between journalists and players and I would welcome the opportunity to have a debate with them about what they feel has been in the newspapers this week."
Paul Hayward, Daily Telegraph

"It is petulant and childish. I can understand why they're upset but the press are a link between the fans and the players. That's an issue they haven't seen or haven't had the wisdom to perceive."
Paul McCarthy, The People

Terry Butcher's controversial column

"The players have had criticism but it's to do with football and it's merited and in the end it got a reaction from the players.

"If I was a player, I would have come out and said thank you very much for inspiring us to this win."
Terry Butcher

"I think it's short-sighted because you can never beat the press and by not speaking, they've actually drawn more attention to themselves. All they've done is encourage people who missed it to look for a copy of yesterday's Sun.

"I think if they'd have spoken and said 'look, we didn't find what happened to Davd James very funny and we think it's out of order', then I think they might have gained a bit of sympathy."
Mark Lawrenson

"I think the England players made a mistake in not explaining why they were doing what they did. It took away from Jermain Defoe's tremendous performance.

"In a way I can understand why they did it as certain media weren't interested in being fair-minded. Unfortunately, for the 75% of good responsible journalists who make rational constructive criticism, there are 25% of bad ones."
Neil Warnock

"It's down to the captain to come out and express the feelings of the rest of the players - he is a spokesman for the rest of the players.

"I would have liked to have seen David come out and explain why the lads have got the hump. You need the media on your side when you're playing for the national side."
Ray Wilkins

"Players expect criticism but it was the sort of personal criticism that upset them. In 1990 we did a similar thing when Bobby Robson was coming under fire and in one way, it shows team spirit.