Appliances for McDonald’s were purchased from a salesman named Ray Kroc, who was intrigued by their need for eight malt and shake mixers. In 1954 he visited the restaurant to see how a small shop could sell so many milk shakes. Realizing there was great promise in their restaurant concept, Kroc became a franchise agent for the brothers. In April 1955 Kroc launched McDonald’s Systems, Inc., later known as McDonald’s Corporation, in Des Plaines, Illinois, and there he also opened the first McDonald’s franchise east of the Mississippi River. In 1961 Kroc bought out the McDonald brothers.

There are sometimes issues about which team players are eligible for (as all the players representing those teams have British passports), but a player is generally eligible for whichever nation he, his parents or grandparents were born in (in the case of these being different nations, then he can choose). This has been the case with some players such as Aiden McGeady and Jack Collison who have chosen to play for the country of their parental heritage rather than the country of their birth. Players from crown dependencies (i.e. the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands), which are technically not in the UK, are eligible for all four teams (e.g. Matt Le Tissier and Graeme Le Saux, both of whom opted for England), as were British citizens born outside the UK or its possessions – Eric Young (born in Singapore) and Pat van den Hauwe (born in Belgium) had previously opted for Wales under the same rule^[1][2] and Maik Taylor (born in Germany to a British father) used it to represent Northern Ireland – but residency criteria now also apply