the Kingdom is not united around the England team

Published on : 10/07/2021 – 14:31

Old injuries, political disagreements or the supposed arrogance of English fans: many Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish fans will support Italy rather than England in the Euro-2021 final on Sunday 11 July.

While the whole of England exploded with joy on Wednesday after their team’s first qualification to the final of a major tournament since 1966, football fans from neighboring nations have shown less enthusiasm, who often claim they can cheer “anyone except England”.

“Asking Wales fans to support England is like asking Everton fans to support Liverpool,” sports journalist Tom Williams said on Twitter.

Because England is “the great rival of Wales, in sporting terms”, he recalls. “Yes, it’s a nice team, with a nice manager, but you can’t actively ‘support’ your rivals,” he notes.

According to an online poll by Good Morning Britain, 63% of supporters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would support Italy.

“Arrogance” of the English

At the origin of this disenchantment, similar reasons from one nation to another.

“Wales has suffered centuries of oppression from England, and Boris Johnson’s government only thinks of us when it has time,” said journalist Laura Kemp in regional outlet Wales Online.

“Without forgetting these ‘Neanderthals’ who wreck bars and places wherever they go,” she adds, speaking of the English supporters, irritated by their “arrogance” and their way of “believing themselves to be allowed anything”.

The English retort that they are unfortunately judged by their most extreme supporters and that what is perceived as arrogance is in fact only a way to encourage their team.

At the heart of the criticism, “Football’s coming home”, a song recorded for Euro 1996, often sung by English fans. A very presumptuous formulation, given the repeated failures of the England since their coronation at home at the 1966 World Cup, critics point out.

“Is football coming home? So England would own the sport. I don’t think so,” former Scotland international Graeme Souness, Liverpool legend, wrote in The Times.

Has “football” ever been home? Have you already won? “, Mocked before the semi-final on Wednesday between England and Denmark, Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.

But the song by the band The Lightning Seeds is actually the opposite of the usual songs of fanatic supporters, rather mocking the blind optimism of English fans. It’s a song “about a dream that never comes true, about past glory and missed opportunities,” BBC host Dan Walker explains on Twitter, it’s a song about “a hope that, despite the pain, never goes away. “

Political divisions

While the four nations are happy to support their common team when they compete under one flag at the Olympics, their individual participation in football tournaments highlights political and identity divisions exacerbated by Brexit.

For the three smaller ones, England, with its 56 million inhabitants and seat of central power, embodies conservatism, colonial rule and centuries of oppression.

Seeing Prime Minister Boris Johnson or Home Secretary Priti Patel wear the England jersey “as they claim to represent the British government” makes Scottish TV presenter Stuart Cosgrove grit his teeth, convinced they “n ‘wouldn’t have done so much if Scotland had gone that far’ in the tournament.

Despite everything, some supporters say they are impressed by the team, which has taken a stand against racial or gender discrimination by kneeling before its matches. And especially by attacker Marcus Rashford, who forced the British government to extend free school meals for poor students during the Covid-19 pandemic.

‘English’ imperialism that ‘people love to hate has nothing to do with the England team,’ concedes Laura Kemp, hailing those players who ‘challenge the establishment as well as those in Wales who have it enough of the privileges of the elite “.

With AFP