When Phil Cope (Malcolm Terris), the manager of the England football team, suffers a heart attack during the qualifying rounds of the World Cup, the Football Association opts to replace him with Norwich FC manager Mike Bassett (Ricky Tomlinson). Followed everywhere he goes by a documentary crew, Bassett gets off to a rocky start when his boys lose to Poland, and he doesn't fare much better in games against Belgium and Slovenia. The press are against him, and the country as a whole seems to have little hope for the national team, but can Bassett do the impossible and turn the lads' game around?
