It's the England team so we shouldn't be using the UK national anthem in any case. I am very happy with people celebrating the success of our team but i really don't like the booing of the Danish anthem. As @Spurf says...it's just a game and hatred and booing should have no part of it. And as for people with laser pens they should be banned for life.
The game I am referring to is 'The Game of Football' not England against Denmark. While that game produced the right result from England's perspective that particular game was one of the worst in the tournament for the reasons I suggested earlier. I do try to read my own comments to make sure I am actually saying what I intended. I can't account for your interpretation.
Perhaps you have never spent time talking to a public school boy like Boris and why should you, but if you had you might know what I am talking about.
IMHO more fitting music for the psyche of an Italian national anthem would be the opening music of I Clavdivs.
The second verse of our national anthem has a lot more potential for being offensive than claiming the 'Football's coming home'... O Lord our God arise, Scatter our enemies, And make them fall! Confound their politics, Frustrate their knavish tricks, On Thee our hopes we fix, God save us all! We're an island nation/race and have a long history of not playing nicely with others. Football has very little to do with it.
My 14 year old daughter is not supporting England because of the nationalist, racist and xenophobic connotations from the flag waving, singing and general behaviour of the fans. @humanbeingincroydon would get along with her - and like her Hello Kitty Karl Marx wallpaper too.
And this is why the England experience this tournament is so ****ing obnoxious: in the past England's participation has mainly been insufferable due to the jingoistic commentary with maybe one or two instances of the fans kicking off (i.e. Euro 2000), but this year their matches are simply impossible to watch because the crowds are just straight up nasty, starting with them booing anthems (as if Ukraine or Denmark deserved that ****), jeering opponents if they have the gall to string two passes together, and generally making the whole thing feel like a night down Wetherspoons with Nigel Farage and Dan Woottoonn Seriously, has anyone even asked if football wants to come home with ****e like this being the norm?
I can’t say I’ve been to a huge amount of England games, and I’ve never been away with England, but the last game I went to (November 2019, we trashed Montenegro) I can’t say was the most comfortable experience I’ve had. I can’t quite put my finger on why but the atmosphere at that game made me feel uncomfortable, and I’ve been at plenty of hostile games, both with Spurs and done Newcastle/Sunderland a couple of times when I was living there. But it did. Can’t say I’ve ever heard anthems booed in a big way at England games though, that feels like more of a thing that’s come to the fore this tournament. None of what you describe has ruined this tournament for me though, watching on TV from afar. I’d like England fans to not boo anthems, it doesn’t sit well with me, but I don’t have a problem with them creating a hostile atmosphere during the game. These are big home games in a major tournament and the crowd making home advantage count is how it should be. My main gripes are adding ‘no surrender’ during the England anthem and booing opposition anthems, both of which are problematic to me for different reasons.
It’s obvious that right wing nationalists will align themselves to the national sport. It’s a rare opportunity to allow nationalistic tendencies to overflow without any scrutiny or criticism. For a nation whose identity is so deep rooted in the past - in times when there was great pride in perceived power and superiority over other nations- it is hardly surprising that any success of the football team is going to rekindle those feelings that seem to be present in so many. Many other nations take pride in their underdog country having some time in the limelight. We’re not alone in being bad winners though - the USA and Germany are similar. Australia too, but that’s based on their perceived sporting superiority rather than for social or political reasons.
Sir Alf got us to a final and the Semis of the Euros in 1968 (although it was a very different competition)
To get a flavour of the lateral thinking in our house, if Vatican City played in the Euros, would Nick and Tom Pope be eligible to play?
The US and Australia are the expattiest of expat Little Englanders, while both the Angles and the Saxons had their roots in Germany And it has to be said, both the 2012 Olympics and this year's Euros are giving me some remarkably unpleasant flashbacks to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where the crowd booed any non-American who beat one of their good ol' boys and gals
They spoil them. Europe should pick only Irish players for RCs in the US. That would cause them some turmoil as they can’t seem to be so jingoistic against he Irish.
