England's performance in Euro 2020 was not all about football


  • English
  • Arabic

July 12, 2021

The 1970s Liverpool football manager Bill Shankly once quipped that “some people think football is a matter of life and death.” Shankly then joked that “it is much more serious than that”. England’s performance in the Euro 2020 has been an insight into the importance of football well beyond what happens on the pitch, and also reveals the differences between patriotism and nationalism. In a previous international competition when Scotland had been knocked out and their old rivals England were still competing, I wrote in a newspaper that I was more than happy to support England.

I suggested to my Scottish compatriots the they should consider doing the same. The response from readers to this idea was – shall we say – “mixed.” By “mixed” I mean it ranged from hostile to extremely hostile. One polite, but firm rejection came from a gentleman who wrote: “I would rather support Satan and all his minions, gloriously arrayed, than any England football team. I am not particularly proud of this. It is just the way I am.”

But this current England team have been – for me at least – easy to support since Scotland (yet again) were knocked out of the European championship. These 2021 England players are talented, the matches exciting and the conduct of the young footballers and their inspirational manager Gareth Southgate impeccable. The team’s patriotism is positive. It is about “us,” in this case about England as a great country and a place to be proud of. The England team taking the knee as a gesture against racism was also about “us,” the diverse community that is England, reflected in the faces of the team, many of them from migrant backgrounds.

But nationalism, in its more toxic shades, is also strongly in evidence among a minority of England fans. Toxic nationalism is always about “them,” a negative view of foreigners or other people, and a need to find “enemies”. England supporters blaming black players for their defeat by Italy isn’t about football. It’s simply racism.

Some England fans expressed their toxic nationalism by booing the German and Danish national anthems. They even booed their own team for taking the knee. This symbolic anti-racist protest was criticised by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a mere “gesture”. Yet as soon as England began to win, Mr Johnson and his colleagues immediately reversed themselves. They embraced a new public pose as ardent football supporters, including the prime minister suddenly appearing for the cameras waving England shirts and flags.

Fans gather for England v Denmark at Piccadilly Circus, London, Britain on July 7. Reuters
Fans gather for England v Denmark at Piccadilly Circus, London, Britain on July 7. Reuters

Tens of millions of British people have watched England’s performances, and the differences between good patriotism and toxic nationalism should be obvious. On the pitch the England team have competed ferociously for their country but always ended by warmly commiserating or in the final congratulating their opponents. The team show love for their country by demonstrating the positive side of patriotism, while some boorish groups of England fans continue to be only embarrassingly negative and destructive.

Their toxic nationalism is a powerful acid which corrodes the human containers in which it exists. And while some politicians are and always have been genuine football fans the posturing of others shows some in the political class to be embarrassingly out of touch with football culture. Boris Johnson turned up for the England-Denmark game wearing a replica England shirt, but it was under his formal business suit, in a style unknown among genuine fans. His repeated photogenic stunts with England flags were somewhat undermined by other photographs of him yawning while actually watching England play, or perched sitting on the edge of a Downing Street table, a pose no fan would tolerate for 90 minutes.

Another government minister, Priti Patel, also posed for photographs cheering on the team, but unfortunately she is the co-author of a book lambasting British working people as lazy and work-shy because (in her view) they prefer watching football to actually working.

Another Conservative politician, Lee Anderson, was so incensed at the England team taking the knee that he insisted he would never watch any of their matches. This English politician therefore ruled himself out of seeing some of the greatest England sporting performances most of us can remember. The acid of nationalism, it seems, corrodes good judgement and common sense.

My hero of the tournament is a 24-year-old England fan, Sam Astley. Sam’s girlfriend Beth Hill won tickets to the semi final at Wembley, but Sam had offered to donate stem cells in a hospital operation in the hope of saving someone’s life. Sam therefore chose to miss the semi-final. The tournament sponsors stepped in and offered Sam and Beth tickets for the final between England and Italy. I salute Sam, the sponsors, the players and all those who see sport as something in which we can compete as passionately as possible, but which in the end should bring us together.

For Sam, football was not as important as life or death. And football which can give space to some of the worst behaviour among us, also allows the best to shine – on and off the pitch.


Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
  • Priority access to new homes from participating developers
  • Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
  • Flexible payment plans from developers
  • Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
  • DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
'Panga'

Directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari

Starring Kangana Ranaut, Richa Chadha, Jassie Gill, Yagya Bhasin, Neena Gupta

Rating: 3.5/5

About Karol Nawrocki

• Supports military aid for Ukraine, unlike other eurosceptic leaders, but he will oppose its membership in western alliances.

• A nationalist, his campaign slogan was Poland First. "Let's help others, but let's take care of our own citizens first," he said on social media in April.

• Cultivates tough-guy image, posting videos of himself at shooting ranges and in boxing rings.

• Met Donald Trump at the White House and received his backing.

Brief scoreline

Switzerland 0

England 0

Result: England win 6-5 on penalties

Man of the Match: Trent Alexander-Arnold (England)

TCL INFO

Teams:
Punjabi Legends 
Owners: Inzamam-ul-Haq and Intizar-ul-Haq; Key player: Misbah-ul-Haq
Pakhtoons Owners: Habib Khan and Tajuddin Khan; Key player: Shahid Afridi
Maratha Arabians Owners: Sohail Khan, Ali Tumbi, Parvez Khan; Key player: Virender Sehwag
Bangla Tigers Owners: Shirajuddin Alam, Yasin Choudhary, Neelesh Bhatnager, Anis and Rizwan Sajan; Key player: TBC
Colombo Lions Owners: Sri Lanka Cricket; Key player: TBC
Kerala Kings Owners: Hussain Adam Ali and Shafi Ul Mulk; Key player: Eoin Morgan

Venue Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Format 10 overs per side, matches last for 90 minutes
Timeline October 25: Around 120 players to be entered into a draft, to be held in Dubai; December 21: Matches start; December 24: Finals

Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
ESSENTIALS

The flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.

The hotels

Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.

The tours

A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages. 

All%20The%20Light%20We%20Cannot%20See%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECreator%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESteven%20Knight%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%C2%A0%3C%2Fstrong%3EMark%20Ruffalo%2C%20Hugh%20Laurie%2C%20Aria%20Mia%20Loberti%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E1%2F5%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Updated: July 12, 2021, 10:43 AM`